Decision-making and cognitive factors in sport

The aim of this article is to analyze the process of decision making in the sport of football, related to my experience in this sport my current situation, because I've gone from playing at a national level to playing in the regional second division in a short time, noticing a reduction in my level due to lack of confidence, my own and from others towards me. When playing in a sport where the level is lower, I settled down and realized that making decisions in front of a driving problem is not as effective. This is why I decided to study in depth the process of decision making, its relation with psychological and cognitive factors, showing that this is not only a matter of individual technique and tactics.

According to Ruiz (2005) one of the challenges of research on psychological processes in sport is to approach the understanding of what the athlete detects, interprets and decides in front of the situations that his sport comes up with.

If we refer to  sport, Gilovich (1984) suggests that this is the most appropriate way to investigate this issue, because knowing what athletes  think, how they analyze a situation, how  they judge the many circumstances that arise in sporting events, what concerns them or how the see themselves in decision-making situations, is of vital importance.

Moreover, we think that decision-making  is not strictly a cognitive act, but is significantly influenced by the mood of the athlete, his fears, confidence in his possibilities and in  those of his teammates or coach,  environment pressure or the perception of risk which his decision can lead to its decision, among other possibilities, advanced planning of actions, declarative knowledge (what to do) and procedural knowledge (how to it) through  experience and tactical knowledge (good analysis of the situation) as well as throught technical knowledge which comes  from practice (more technique gives more resources and more resources will give more possibilities of successful decision-making). To take into account is also how fast he makes a decision, the ability to obtain environmental information, analyze it, select the best possible answer possible and fulfil it (process perception-analysis-solution-execution), highlighting the importance of memory and prior experience.

Research shows that: anticipation, prediction and the decision-making capacity define the difference between good players and the best.

 Therefore, we conclude this article stating that  decision-making in sport depends on the tactics, strategy or technique,  but that both psychological and cognitive issues (memory, perception, prediction or anticipation ) are also important to achieve the desired objective in the most competent way.

Bibliography

Gilovich, T. (1984) Judgmental biases in the world of sport. En W.Straub y J. Williams (Eds.) Cognitive sport psychology. (pp. 31-41). New York, Sport Science Associates

Ruiz L.M., Graupera J.L: (2007) Dimensión subjetiva de la toma de decisiones en el deporte. Universidad de Castilla La Mancha- Toledo. Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y el Deporte, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares. Madrid

Autor: Miquel A. Rosselló