Game Intelligence / Decision Training

[Eric Fink]

Anticipation:

I guess my thought would be that if you were talking then they wouldn't be anticipating but rather following your directions.

[RookieCoach]

Dean,
Teaching anticipation is part of a feeling that one person has. The 5 senses (taste , touch, sight ,smell, hearing.) If a person uses his senses to listen watch or study movements of other players it would help. Structured drills at a young age can teach a player bad habits , with no free thinking. But I these same young players were to play pond hockey everyday and the free thinking or anticipation would be a natural learning process. They would use their senses on their own and determine what action to take.
You could help teach this with games . If a coach was to sit back and let platers figure out in a game situation (practice), they would teach themselves sometimes. If you were to take away senses players would adapt using , using their vision or hearing or what ever sense wasn't taken away.

This has to be a new daily feature – Question of the Day !

RK

[hockeygod]

The good stuff keeps coming… impressive!

I like the idea of "Question of the Day." I think it should be "Quandry of the Week" (or bi-montly)

Are there more senses then the five you mentioned…??? What are they?

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[RK]

Dean,

Some people say we have a sixth sense ( intuition ) and some say they're many more senses (non physical) . But we only use our 5 physical senses for most things. I can use two wires and dowse for water and I can't explain it . I get a very Strong pull when I get near water, so strong the wires turn in my hands even when I grasp them as tightly as I can.
Are you going to make me look up the other senses ?

RK

[Kai K]

Balance, kinesthetic sense…. is there more??

Kai

[DaveM]

Backtracking a bit here……..my guess is that silence is the best way to teach anticipation because it can't really be taught. I would call anticipation an instinct rather than a sense or a skill, and they (students, players etc.) already have it. The job of the teacher / coach is to set up the environment that hones it and activates it, rewards it when it's used properly, provides feedback when it's not.

On the flip side, I enjoy asking players "why" and "what if" questions about the game, and then giving them lots of time to respond without giving them the answer (off the ice, of course). I learn a lot about what they know and don't know, or how they view the game, and I don't think they get asked to do this enough. Comprehending the "why" adds meaning to why we practice what we do. The silence and the situations set up by the coach / teacher are the art of coaching / teaching. Just my two cents….

[Eric Fink]

To add to the additional senses……..Spatial Awareness

[RK]

Visualization helps prepare for anticipation. Going over movements in your head (visualizing ) the movements or actions of other players and how you can counter correctly.
Visualizing set patterns of plays , go over how things are done correctly and visualize being successful while doing this.

RK

[hockeygod]

RK, I have seen people 'witch wells' using willow sticks. It is crazy! I don't know how, but we have had several wells 'witched' and they all turned out to be excellent wells! I put my hands on the guys hands as he held the sticks and couldn't believe how much force I could feel through them as he got closer to water. Kind of freaky…!

Yes Kai, there are more senses (including balance, kinesthetic sense). You and Eric (spatial awareness) are closing in on more of them. See the rest below…

DaveM – great answer! I also like your questioning approach, when used by a skillful coach, can go from general to more specific when trying to draw out the proper focus to the intended questions; without giving the players the answer… let them think about it first (kind of like this damned exercise we are doing now, eh?!) Adding the 'why' (or better yet, eliciting it from the players) adds to a much greater depth of understanding about the game on behalf of the players.

All of your answers have made me think more and added to my depth of knowledge. Thanks guys! We all learn from each other on here…

So here are the additional senses (thanks to Wikipedia).

http ://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense

I will try to provide my 'answer' about silence later tonight…

—–

Humans have a multitude of senses.

(I believe Daniel Coyle covered these in The Talent Code…)

In addition to the traditionally recognized five senses of sight (ophthalmoception), hearing (audioception), taste (gustaoception), smell (olfacoception or olfacception), and touch (tactioception), humans are considered to have at least five additional senses that include: nociception (pain); equilibrioception (balance); proprioception and kinaesthesia (joint motion and acceleration); thermoception (temperature differences); sense of time; and possibly an additional weak magnetoception (direction), and six more if interoceptive senses (see other internal senses below) are also considered.

(Equilibrium (balance), proprioception and kinaesthesia (joint motion and acceleration) are the three that interest us coaches most; after the first five senses.)

Pain

Nociception (physiological pain) signals nerve-damage or damage to tissue. The three types of pain receptors are cutaneous (skin), somatic (joints and bones), and visceral (body organs). It was previously believed that pain was simply the overloading of pressure receptors, but research in the first half of the 20th century indicated that pain is a distinct phenomenon that intertwines with all of the other senses, including touch. Pain was once considered an entirely subjective experience, but recent studies show that pain is registered in the anterior cingulate gyrus of the brain. The main function of pain is to warn us about dangers. For example, humans avoid touching a sharp needle or hot object or extending an arm beyond a safe limit because it hurts, and thus is dangerous. Without pain, people could do many dangerous things without realizing it.

Balance and acceleration

Balance, equilibrioception, or vestibular sense is the sense that allows an organism to sense body movement, direction, and acceleration, and to attain and maintain postural equilibrium and balance. The organ of equilibrioception is the vestibular labyrinthine system found in both of the inner ears. In technical terms, this organ is responsible for two senses of angular momentum acceleration and linear acceleration (which also senses gravity), but they are known together as equilibrioception.

The vestibular nerve conducts information from sensory receptors in three ampulla that sense motion of fluid in three semicircular canals caused by three-dimensional rotation of the head. The vestibular nerve also conducts information from the utricle and the saccule, which contain hair-like sensory receptors that bend under the weight of otoliths (which are small crystals of calcium carbonate) that provide the inertia needed to detect head rotation, linear acceleration, and the direction of gravitational force.

Kinesthetic sense

Proprioception, the kinesthetic sense, provides the parietal cortex of the brain with information on the relative positions of the parts of the body. Neurologists test this sense by telling patients to close their eyes and touch their own nose with the tip of a finger. Assuming proper proprioceptive function, at no time will the person lose awareness of where the hand actually is, even though it is not being detected by any of the other senses. Proprioception and touch are related in subtle ways, and their impairment results in surprising and deep deficits in perception and action.

Temperature

Thermoception is the sense of heat and the absence of heat (cold) by the skin and including internal skin passages, or, rather, the heat flux (the rate of heat flow) in these areas. There are specialized receptors for cold (declining temperature) and to heat. The cold receptors play an important part in the dog's sense of smell, telling wind direction. The heat receptors are sensitive to infrared radiation and can occur in specialized organs for instance in pit vipers. The thermoceptors in the skin are quite different from the homeostatic thermoceptors in the brain (hypothalamus), which provide feedback on internal body temperature.

Other internal senses

An internal sense or interoception is "any sense that is normally stimulated from within the body". These involve numerous sensory receptors in internal organs, such as stretch receptors that are neurologically linked to the brain.

Pulmonary stretch receptors are found in the lungs and control the respiratory rate.

Peripheral chemoreceptors in the brain monitor the carbon dioxide and oxygen levels in the brain to give a feeling of suffocation if carbon dioxide levels get too high.

The chemoreceptor trigger zone is an area of the medulla in the brain that receives inputs from blood-borne drugs or hormones, and communicates with the vomiting center.

Chemoreceptors in the circulatory system also measure salt levels and prompt thirst if they get too high (they can also respond to high sugar levels in diabetics).

Cutaneous receptors in the skin not only respond to touch, pressure, and temperature, but also respond to vasodilation in the skin such as blushing.

Stretch receptors in the gastrointestinal tract sense gas distension that may result in colic pain.

Stimulation of sensory receptors in the esophagus result in sensations felt in the throat when swallowing, vomiting, or during acid reflux.

Sensory receptors in pharynx mucosa, similar to touch receptors in the skin, sense foreign objects such as food that may result in a gag reflex and corresponding gagging sensation.

Stimulation of sensory receptors in the urinary bladder and rectum may result in sensations of fullness.

Stimulation of stretch sensors that sense dilation of various blood vessels may result in pain, for example headache caused by vasodilation of brain arteries.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[hockeygod]

hockeygod wrote:
One of the best ways to teach anticipation is to teach using SILENCE!

Why?

OK, here it is: my rationale for using SILENCE in sports. I have been training in silence, starting in 2003, with unreal results. I don't do it all the time, but I probably should…

When you eliminate auditory cues, what happens? Your other senses take over. In this case, you rely more heavily on the other senses – in this case, one in particular.

Which ONE of the five (now four since we have removed audition) primary senses will you rely upon most in the absence of audition?

What will the athlete be forced to do? (This forces one to develop game sense / anticipation skills, through experience…)

Thoughts?

More later…

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[Kai K]

🙄 Beating my self with a book: "Transforming Play: Teaching Tactics and Game Sense" 😳

Kai

[hockeygod]

Kai K wrote:
🙄 Beating my self with a book: "Transforming Play: Teaching Tactics and Game Sense" 😳

I have that one… I read the first chapter (introduction) and it doesn't say much about silence. Then it goes into specific sports (netball, soccer, etc.).

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

[DaveM]

Boy, when it comes to hockey it would have to be sight, wouldn't it? Given the fact that most communication is non-verbal we humans are pretty much hard wired for interpreting visual cues. Now you have me wondering what, how and when you practice in silence Dean. I'd love to hear more.

[Kai K]

hockeygod wrote:

Kai K wrote:
🙄 Beating my self with a book: "Transforming Play: Teaching Tactics and Game Sense" 😳

I have that one… I read the first chapter (introduction) and it doesn't say much about silence. Then it goes into specific sports (netball, soccer, etc.).

Sorry for lazy posting….

I think you mean by silence the Game Sense approach. Where you don't shout nonstop to player what they should do. Players are allowed to make their own choises and mistakes.
Netball, basketball and soccer are invasion games just like ice hockey. So they share same "laws of nature".
The book reference for off ice games and modified games to on ice.

I'm really working hard to shut up……

Kai

[hockeygod]

DaveM wins first prize! Sight is the correct answer! Thanks to all for 'playing!'

Hear you go, DaveM!

The Silence Methodology is one of several cornerstones of my coaching philosophy – "THE MATRIX OF CREATIVITY". (I thank John the Colombian for sharing it with me.) I will post more of this one day when I have time; it will be in the book I am writing.

My personal coaching mantra is: "Execute skills… with HEAD UP… at speed… under pressure… consistently."

The absence of auditory cues forces one to get their head up; so they can see and read the play.

This goes against what we have all been taught in hockey… CALL FOR THE PUCK / TALK, etc.! I thought it was BS myself… until I tried it as a participant; then as a coach. WOW! What a difference! (This is why I insist on doing coaching clinics with the coaches as participants… so it enables them to 'feel' what it is like as a player.)

When I train dryland, I usually insist on playing the games "in silence" to encourage heads up play. With your head up, you see more of the game and this helps develop your read and react / anticipation abilities. I don't use "open games" (allowing talking) near as much as in the 'old' days, but I still use them…

I challenge each one of you to do the same (start with dryland first) and see what you think. if you have the ability, video the session as an 'open' game; then using 'silence'. When you are done, go back and look for differences. (You will also see it even if you don't record it. Ask the players their impressions afterwards.)

As a coach, if / when you hear 'something' other than silence, "STOP! 10/10 for everyone. I asked for SILENCE!" Keep upping the ante. You will get silence!

Silence means no talking, banging, grunting, whistling, etc. NOTHING! All you should hear is sneakers on the gym floor, and the players puffing. (You can do this in the rink too. No calling out, no banging the stick, etc.)

Silence FORCES one to get their head up and keep it up – it improves their cognitive processes. It allows for creative discovery; space awareness; reading of the game and other player's body language; enhances self control and composure to increase creative play / develop one's personal style; stimulation of problem-solving skills UNDER GAME SITUATIONS; over time, it promotes self-esteem and self-confidence because the players are now used to getting and keeping their heads up!

Now imagine when it is a 'real' game and it is so noisy, you can't even hear yourself think. No problem… now everybody is used to having their head up… less dependency on audition (doesn't mean I am 100% against yelling if someone is going to get hurt!)…head on a swivel… see the entire play!

When we coaches use constant feedback, we tend to strangulate (more than stimulate) the player's capacity of CREATIVITY and INNOVATION! We need to SHUT UP more often than not and let the game be the best teacher (learn from experience / implicit learning). Next best thing is to use DaveM's method of asking the players certain questions – starting with general questions, then moving to more specific (guiding the process).

"Without the gift of silence, they cannot hear the guidance of their inner spirit; which speaks softly but with great wisdom."

Try it – you will be amazed at the difference!

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."

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