Preparation of Learning by Gil Sousa (Patreon)

Habits, let's talk about habits, actions that we aim to happen more regularly and with a common pattern in training: the idea!

Normally, we come across the word "automatism" instead of "habit"; however, it is essential to understand the concept we have about things and the one we want to convey. Human actions have much less to do with being "automatic/mechanical" and much more with "habituation" - a concept that leads us to the need for time and the experience of different situations.

The objective of training should be to promote restrictions of varying difficulty levels that foster the learning of players, both as individuals and as a team.

The game consists of ideas expressed through the players' talent, with and without the ball at their feet. The information we want to transmit to the team is not stored in the same way in all players. Primarily, because each player's "database" has different records, leading to various interpretations, even if they are very similar. Hence the need to understand how our brain functions, that is, our body as a whole during the learning process, so that strategies facilitating this process can be implemented.

We often focus too much on the team's performance, leading to an excess of objectivity in designing exercises or worrying about the opponent's playing style, neglecting the mastery of the learning process for our players.

In recent decades, neuroscience has significantly contributed to understanding emotions, memories, thoughts, and consciousness. However, its focus of study remains naturally oriented towards the field of health. Nonetheless, there are already many insights that can be "stolen" to optimize performance in sports.

MASTERING THE LEARNING PROCESS

Some of the most important points applicable in the training area are:

Epigenetics: The concept of epigenetics serves to explain that talent is not predetermined at birth but that the context in which a person develops also has a significant influence on their success. Intelligence manifests in various forms and involves the entire body, not just the brain.

Conscious and Unconscious: Understanding how we store and remember our learning has been one of the most studied topics. It involves recognizing the moments when we are conscious of our actions, such as deciding whether to set the alarm clock earlier or later, and many other actions controlled by the unconscious, like walking, running, or jumping. These actions constitute most of the time in a football match. The term "unconscious" would be equivalent to what is commonly known as the "subconscious," although its meaning has been limited due to its association with states of unconsciousness such as fainting or death.

Somatization: Somatization refers to the idea that learning becomes integrated into the body, avoiding the use of terms like automation. Somatization even encompasses strategies like "somatic markers," which take emotions, positive or negative, into account to help "record" moments that one wants to remember later.

"Over time, some memories will be copied in the form of patterns, and those that have excited you the most, for better or worse, will form stronger synapses" (Pere Estupinyá, biochemist, and scientific disseminator).

Memories: Portuguese neuroscientist António Damásio points out that memories are evoked as images. These images are like the building blocks of the mind. Therefore, if memories are constructed through these images, creating and using them should be the way to form the ideas we want to transmit to the players.

Guided Discovery: The process of guided discovery involves questioning the individual facing a learning scenario so that they find the best path to discover their solutions, which initially may differ and even be better than those sought to be "taught" or transmitted by someone else. However, this way of being and learning has disappeared from teaching-learning contexts in a society that is increasingly fast-paced and seeks intense experiences, abolishing the necessary time to make mistakes, think, and discover.

A football team presupposes the participation of individuals (coaching staff and players) who have preconceived ideas and memories, and it is necessary to convey an idea that connects them all towards a common objective. Understanding that our brain cannot retain all the information it deals with daily, it is essential to find strategies that facilitate this individual and collective moment.

If we view football as an art rather than a science (though science serves it as an object of study, just like painting or music), it allows us to better care for the player as a person who needs to bring together the best personal and professional faculties to express their talent. Talent is closer to the sphere of intuition, creativity, and unique actions rather than mechanical or predictable actions. Thus, it emphasizes the expressive side of the player's unconscious rather than their rational conscious side.

Within the game, there are moments for everything. Whether we think about playing with or without the ball, while defending or attacking, it is during the moments when the player does not have the ball at their feet that they can be more conscious of the coach's ideas or, in more detail, the images the coach carefully transmitted during training. The coach's influence is more preponderant when players are further away from the ball than when the player is close to interacting with the ball. In those moments, it's the repressed memories of the unconscious that stand out, the ones residing in the back of our brain, which are more successfully somatized and provide the courage and audacity needed for dribbling, shooting, passing, moments of creativity, art.

"NUDGE" THEORY

Richard Thaler, the 2017 Nobel Prize winner in Economics, became famous for creating the concept of "Nudge," which involves organizing options for others, influencing their decisions, and giving a "push" towards a specific choice. This idea becomes crucial in synthesizing many strategies and considerations in the high-performance training process. As the number of matches increases exponentially throughout the competitive calendar, the training time for preparation decreases. Knowing that the player's conscious side cannot be continuously overwhelmed by ideas and details that limit their talent and the nature of a collective game, it is crucial to manage the information to be transmitted carefully. It is essential to differentiate fundamental collective ideas from individual concerns and to consider the timing of each learning moment and training.

Strategies like using videos, whether of the team or the opponent, have numerous advantages for raising awareness of errors and solutions. However, an increase in the amount of information the player needs to retain and the resulting noise between expressing talent and the demands of rational thinking can be disruptive. The solution lies in careful information management and sensitivity to perceive the context and the right moment to offer learning contexts naturally.

The concept of "Nudge" emphasizes the importance of preparing the learning moment, taking into account factors that, when neglected, can interfere with the desired experience and, consequently, the future. Examples like noise or distractions are just some general obstacles that particularly occur in the "football world," such as the simple example of a gardener mowing the field at the exact time of training. Imagining what will be experienced helps in the preparation of training and matches, where, according to these "architects of choice," the attention given to defining the learning moment is more crucial than the feedback often sought to be given at the same moment.

This way of being and existing in training allows minimizing the disorder that arises consciously in the player. Training should be understood not only in the logic of the information transmitted through feedback, instruction, but also in all the events that the exercise provides, even those that are not foreseen.

In training, whether through structured plays - with a greater appeal to the unconscious - or standardized exercises - with a greater appeal to the conscious - the important thing is to idealize the learning contexts, taking into account training as a whole, not neglecting the physical dimension, what was experienced in the previous game, or even the weather conditions. Recognizing the moment of "learning preparation" as another variable that can interfere with training and the game can be enough not to neglect what is fundamental: transmitting a game idea.

On one hand, we increasingly appeal to the player's unconscious, making the conscious goal to focus on key ideas that are concerns shared by all, images that allow the team to function with a collective idea in different moments of the game. On the other hand, the game demands a coach who is increasingly conscious of what is being prepared and the articulation given to different training sessions so that the end result is not confusing but rather simple and remarkably encouraging to naturally assume things during the game.

CULTURE GIVES US MEANING

What concerns does the coach have in constructing the training scenario that invites experiences? Is it the same style of play that encourages practice? - This, if we think on a more superficial, macro level. Decisions can be made beforehand and should be part of their concerns when thinking about what others will possibly feel, that is, experience.

Fortunately, coaching staffs are becoming increasingly extensive, allowing for better preparation and care in training and games. However, the preparation of each element's intervention deserves even greater attention, as at the end of the day, each player will retain only one learning experience. The message that remains is the sum of the different stimuli expected within the same wavelength.

The state of homeostasis, mentioned by António Damásio in his recent book "The Strange Order of Things," points to a state of things in our daily lives where nothing is static and lacks a constant balance, which in football is crucial to achieve by the day of the match, breaking it only during training to reinforce ideas and values. This homeostasis is composed of images that give us confidence and the ideas that have been learned, which will serve as a starting point in different situations and as a source of security during moments of greater stress on the day of the match.

Our" ideas form the foundation of the game; these must constitute a fundamental space in the prefrontal cortex, which is involved in more conscious actions. This space in our mind has to be considered "sacred" and should only be used for what truly matters, without unnecessary noise that could potentially ignite what is truly important, thereby distorting the value system built over time: the culture.

An example of this is the current concern about the opponent, stemming from the recent growth of "match-analysis" within coaching staff. An excessive preoccupation with the opponent's behaviors, at the expense of focusing on one's own team, runs the risk of distorting the collective ideas that are built over time, compared to those of an opponent that can only influence a moment, especially if the team's habitual characteristics were not emphasized.

Once again, mastering training situations that allow shaping experiences in an imperceptible, unconscious manner can prepare for specific concerns regarding the opponent, without constantly relying on players' rational side, such as providing constant information through videos or feedback in training based on the opponent. Instead, it appeals to the creativity of the coach to find solutions that guide learning, such as designing exercises - envisioning a longer or more vertical field, or even calling upon a player from the lower ranks to, occasionally, adopt behaviors typical of an opponent during that week. Alternatively, consider an opponent defender who may frequently seek long balls during the game.

We live in a time where it is more challenging to choose and reduce stimuli than to provoke them. Juan Manuel Lillo often says that nowadays there are many interesting things, but what is essential is what truly matters. The art of being a coach increasingly assumes a greater preponderance in creating a balance of things, in the search for what is natural, simple, and objective. One must avoid noise that could interfere with the creation of memories, especially those we desire in the short term, which will occupy the "small" space of consciousness. Liberating the player's rational side makes them capable of drawing on their other memories, those that are ingrained, already a part of their body, and give life to their talent, their nature.

The variables of training and the game will always be infinite because they involve people, and their possibilities of interaction are endless. Knowing that it is impossible to control everything, the coach must perceive what is genuinely important and what is accessory, moving towards the operationalization of learning contexts. This means considering the training concerns that can be better stimulated through the unconscious or the need for more immediate, conscious action.

Learning is a continuous act that takes time and varies with difficulty and complexity. Some things require constant attention, while others can be addressed on a more occasional basis. Reason, sensitivity, and experience guide decisions based on a set of indicators. The person making those decisions may not always have time to consciously reason and often acts based on their intuition and knowledge.

In football, there is no individual memory without collective memory. It is culture, both in football and in life, that gives us meaning.

Reference: The Tactical Room (Club Perarnau)