Improving Mental Skills in Sports: You’re a Robot
The Idea
Yes, our greatest fear has become reality. The robots we fear will take over the world are not ones that we will accidentally invent. We are the robots. But there is actually good news because of this.
Improving mental skills in sports is comparable to a computer downloading a program. Think about your iPhone, which is basically a small robot. The iPhone goes through major upgrades with new models coming out every year. But then you have the small upgrades that are simply there to “fix small bugs”. Through these upgrades, your iPhone learns new ways to work smarter and faster. The incredible part is that once it learns, it learns for good. For example, remember when you were sent a security code and you had go to messages, copy it, go back to the website, and then paste it? So inconvenient. But now you don’t have to do anything — it finds the code in your messages and copies and pastes it for you. It’s genius because it saves us 5 seconds (which apparently is a lot of time these days).
These types of amenities are called automatic processes; they are automatic because it requires no thought process, and it’s a process because it happens routinely and when it is supposed to. That, my friends, is the whole appeal of a robot. It works smarter and faster.
The Connection
Do you remember when you learned how to walk? Probably not, but there are videos and people who watched you do it. You first observed someone else doing it (probably your parents). You saw that they could move around faster and could reach things higher up. You thought it was a good idea so you tried it and immediately fell. So then you tried again, and again, and again. You eventually went through a long process of pulling up, balancing, taking a step, balancing, taking another step, balancing again, and so on. Along the way, you made “big upgrades” like learning you can use your arms to balance. But you also made small upgrades, like using tiny muscles in your feet to grip the floor.
You don’t remember this process because you no longer need to. Your brain has downloaded it as an automatic process. It’s in the same folder as breathing and blinking. It’s so ingrained that your brain has decided it no longer needs to use energy remembering how to do it. You can just do it (no, I am not sponsored by Nike). This is crucial because your brain needs that energy to do things like problem-solve, navigate difficult conversations, or write an essay. If your brain used up all of it’s energy to do simple things like walk, then we wouldn’t have the capacity to learn new things or adjust on the fly.
So there you have it: we are robots. Well, at least part of your brain is, and that part of the brain functions like your iPhone. It automates processes that can be automated to improve efficiency. Another example is learning how to drive; everything is so intentional until eventually, you get in the car and don’t even notice the drive to work. It’s like you transported, but really your brain took over and did it for you. The difference between us and iPhones is that we can, for lack of a better term, “snap out of it.” Driving is automatic for most people, but when someone swerves in front of you, you switch back on and start solving the problem. It’s a neat trick, right?
The Application - Coaches
Research has shown time and time again that the difference between expert athletes (years of experience and/or high ability) have significantly more automated processes than novice athletes (new to the sport and/or low ability). These expert athletes — the Lionel Messis and Michael Jordans — stand out because a majority of their ability is automated. They don’t think about handling the ball, or the speed and weight of a pass. They don’t even need to evaluate every pattern they see. Their experience and practice has done the work for them, which frees up space for them to handle new problems as they arise. My favorite example is a soccer player named Thiago Silva who joined Chelsea FC at the age of 35, well above the prime of soccer players. He was slower and weaker than he used to be, but his defending was effortless. He had years of experience that made up for it. People simply said, “He’s just smarter, he knows where to be.” He’s not just smarter, he’s robotic. Defending was automatic for him, unlike his competitors who had to use energy (and time) to beat him.
I hear coaches debate this topic quite a bit — should we be coaching players to be robotic? Yes and no. When it comes to the technical and tactical parts of the game, we do want them to be robotic to an extent. If they spend energy consciously executing everything they do, they will burn out. Athletes need that energy to problem-solve in parts of training and games that aren’t predictable. For example, I don’t need a soccer player to think about their ball control; in that time, they could instead be looking at the space where they want to pass the ball.
Applying this doesn’t mean changing your training philosophy; some coaches train technique within the game, while others train it in isolation. Have at it. My point is: do you notice when you need to train the automatic skills? A player who keeps giving the ball away might understand why it’s happening tactically, but the real problem is how much time they take to control the ball before they make a decision, which takes even more time that they probably don’t have on the field. This realization changes how we provide feedback and ultimately help the athlete develop.
The Application - Athletes
What you’ve learned about improving skills in sports is correct: it’s about repetition. Consider that repetition the “download time” it takes to automate a new skill. The more you perform an action, the more time your brain spends adjusting and mastering the skill. You’re feeding your inner robot. Coaches don’t tell athletes to practice because it sounds good. Practice is a real process that solidifies understanding to a point where you don’t even think about it, like riding a bike or driving a car.
Don’t get caught up in those traditional sayings like “practice makes perfect” or “it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill”. These sayings make practice so daunting. We should be motivated by the idea of practice because it’s the only way to improve. Practice doesn’t make perfect — practice makes excellence. How excellent you want to be is up to you. And it doesn’t take 10,000 hours to master a skill — for some, it takes 10 minutes and for others it takes 10,000,000 hours. But it takes one second to practice a skill. How many seconds of practice can you incorporate in a day? Sounds more achievable than 10,000 hours if you ask me.
Will Martel | St. Louis Certified Mental Performance Consultant | CMPC
Want to work with a CMPC (Certified Mental Performance Consultant) in St. Louis or beyond? I’d love to talk about ways that I can help you, a teammate, your team, or your club. Visit wmcoaching10.com to view my services and contact info. Or, just shoot me a message on Instagram.
