sports coach UK Research Summary 8
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Intuition and Coaching
We’ve all witnessed it – the last minute of the match, and the coach makes a decision that turns the game – an
inspired moment that confirms the coach has some special talent to make the right decision at the right time.
Whatever you call it (inspiration, instinct or intuition), the fact is that it is not a special talent. As researchers
recently stated in the journal Strategies, intuition is not a magical ability but an important decision-making tool that
can be learnt by anyone. This summary explains the route map to intuitive thinking and expertise in coaching.
sports coach UK Research Summary 8 – Intuition and Coaching
When the ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky was asked
for the secret of his success, he replied: ‘I don’t know; I just
go to where the puck is going to be.’ Now, you can
believe that one of the world’s greatest ice hockey players
had some sort of clairvoyant talents, or you can look for
other answers. Researchers in a recent journal article
preferred the latter and pointed to years of experience,
thousands of hours of deliberate practice and the
appropriate use of mental processes – one of which is
intuition. They argued that Gretzky was subconsciously
making very fast decisions based on knowledge, stored
memories and a holistic view of his surroundings.
Intuition is a secret of success, and far from
being some magical ability, it is a decisionmaking tool that researchers believe can
be learnt by anyone. Indeed, research in
other fields has shown that individuals who
work to develop and trust their intuition
rise to the highest ranks in their
profession. For a coach, being able to
develop your intuition can save time and
energy in stressful situations – time that
may be at a premium in the closing stages
of competition.
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Introduction
sports coach UK Research Summary 8 – Intuition and Coaching
The science of the gut feeling
The idea of acting on a gut feeling is not as crazy as it
sounds and, in fact, helps explain how intuition works. The
process begins in the subconscious part of the brain that is
quietly working away in the background. It combines a
person’s knowledge, experience and recognition of patterns
drawn from memory to create an ‘informed judgement’.
When this judgement is transferred from the subconscious
to the conscious mind, you perceive it through some
physical or emotional indicator. This is where the gut
feeling comes from (it’s a physical indicator), or for
others, it may seem like divine inspiration (the
emotional indicator). Whatever it feels like, the truth is
it did not just appear but is the product of thinking,
based on experience and training.
sports coach UK Research Summary 8 – Intuition and Coaching
Intuition and expertise
in coaching
Intuition cannot be discussed without mentioning
expertise – the two are inextricably linked. Indeed, as
John Lyle’s research with coaches pointed out back in
1999: ‘One of the characteristics of expert coaches is
that they make decisions in an apparently effortless,
intuitive manner.’ Linking intuition and expertise allowed
the researchers to provide a route map to help anyone
develop intuition in coaching. The route map follows a
coach from novice to expert to explain where intuition
comes from.
Novice coaches – prisoners of their lack
of experience
At the start of the journey are novice coaches, who
rely on learning the rules on coaching courses and
following these rules as coaches. Although they also
have their own experiences as players to fall back on,
their lack of coaching experience means they have to
remain relatively inflexible in their actions.
Advanced beginners – the start of the
rule breakers
As coaches gain more experience, they start to
recognise similarities across contexts (the first steps
towards that subconscious holistic view of events).
Although still very much following the rules, they are
developing strategic knowledge. In other words,
experience of applying what they were originally taught
is teaching them what to ignore and what to follow.
However, advanced beginners still have a long way to
go. As with novice coaches, their decisions and actions
are still very much governed by previously learnt
concepts, rules and procedures. With experience, they
will start to modify their patterns of thought and
develop a sense of personal responsibility. Described by
the researchers as a ‘wilful choice’ of what to do, this is
the start of trusting themselves and their own thought
processes.
Competent coaches – taking
responsibility for the situation
The move to competent coaching comes with this
change to wilful choice. The coach realises that
everything happens in context and decisions need to
reflect this context rather than simply following or
adjusting rules learnt as a novice – coaching becomes
proactive rather than reactive.
Competent coaches have a sense of what is important and
what is not, and can deviate from planned activities depending
on the situation. Many coaches who reach this level are
satisfied and choose to remain at the competent level.
However, as a result, they will never develop the intuitive skills
of expert coaches.
Proficient coaches – starting to see the whole
Proficient coaches no longer rely purely on conscious or
deliberative actions. They are starting to trust their intuition
and can now be seen as fast, fluid thinkers who are less
conscious of their actions. One of the keys to this
development is the ability to recognise patterns in events
rather than just see individual events. As the researchers
suggested, ‘the proficient-level coach no longer looks out and
sees individual athletes, but instead sees them as part of the
whole athletic environment.’ This pattern recognition is one of
the subconscious processes that leads to the gut feeling
associated with intuitive decision making.
However, what happens next is what separates the proficient
coach from the expert (and intuitive coach). After recognising
patterns or perceiving that something is wrong, the proficient
coach is still analytic and deliberative in deciding what to do.
Therefore, they are not making those decisions ‘in the blink of
an eye’ that you associate with intuition.
The expert – the arational thinker
The expert is arational, their thinking is effortless and involves
little analytic or deliberative behaviour. It almost feels like they
are making things up on the spot. But the fact that they are
consistently successful shows this isn’t just down to luck.
Ultimately, we have to conclude that their behaviour is both
effective and rational! So what is happening here? The
researchers explained that it is the combination of an
enormous amount of knowledge in the speciality and
thousands of hours of deliberate practice (eg practice actively
motivated by the goal of improving performance). Add all this
knowledge and experience to the holistic pattern recognition
of the proficient coach, and the subconscious mind of an
expert is packed full of everything it needs to make informed
judgements that seem to everyone else (and the coach
him/herself) to come out of nowhere as a moment of
inspiration.
Ultimately, the research suggested that no matter what you
call it – intuition, instinct, gut feeling – it is all the product of
hard work and dedication over a long period of time.
Learning from the research
Research has shown that arational thinking is
especially valuable in unstable, complex and
unpredictable environments. Sport is the perfect
example of such an environment, and this partly
explains why those who are successful in sport seem
to place so much emphasis on intuition as part of
their competitive advantage. However, this is not a
special gift only available to lucky individuals. With
expert coaches, you can look beyond this almost
effortless level of decision making and find a history
of hard work, experience and knowledge.
Therefore, everyone has the potential to become an
intuitive thinker; it just takes a large investment of
time and energy. The researchers provided some
ideas of how to get there:
•
•
Get the basics on coach education courses.
Learn everything you can about your sport.
•
Learn from a good mentor.
•
Strive for a level beyond competency.
•
Observe and converse with expert coaches.
References
If you are interested in finding out more about this
area, this summary is based on the article below:
St Pierre, P. and Smith, M. (2014) ‘Intuition in
coaching: It’s not magic’, Strategies: A Journal for
Physical and Sport Educators, 27 (2): 37–42.
Other more general reading on expertise and
coaching includes:
Ericsson, K.A. and Charness, N. (1994) ‘Expert
performance: Its structure and acquisition’, American
Psychologist, 49: 725–747.
Lyle, J. (1999) ‘Coaches’ decision making’, in Cross,
N. and Lyle, J. (eds) The Coaching Process: Principles
and Practice for Sport. Boston, MA: Butterworth
Heinemann. ISBN: 978-0-750641-31-9. pp. 210–232.
© sports coach UK, 2014 Designed and produced by Coachwise Ltd 90971b All photos © Alan Edwards unless otherwise stated
sports coach UK Research Summary 8 – Intuition and Coaching