The Playmaker's Advantage

1. Athlete Development Requires a Player-First Philosophy

We need to get away from praising talent and start to praise effort.

Shifting Focus. Youth sports organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of a "player-first" approach, prioritizing age-appropriate physical and cognitive development over early specialization and excessive competition. This model emphasizes participation, enjoyment, and skill development before focusing solely on winning.

American Development Model (ADM). USA Hockey's ADM, for example, promotes a seven-stage long-term player development plan that focuses on "Play, Love, and Excel," delaying competitive games and specialization until later ages. This approach aims to keep more kids engaged in the sport, increasing the pool of potential elite players.

Benefits of the Player-First Approach. By tailoring sports experiences to a child's developmental stage, organizations can foster a love of the game, improve skill acquisition, and increase long-term participation. This approach also recognizes that children are not miniature adults and require different training methods and expectations.

2. Elite Playmakers Possess Functional Intelligence and Adaptability

Players at the elite level think the game fast, in a timely fashion, faster than their peers.

Defining Functional Intelligence. Beyond physical attributes, elite players possess "functional intelligence," the ability to quickly recognize situations, process information, and make timely decisions. This includes both physical and mental speed, as well as awareness away from the puck or ball.

Adaptability is Key. Elite playmakers can adapt their game to complement their teammates, making those around them better. They possess a high hockey IQ and can anticipate plays before they happen, creating opportunities for themselves and others.

Sidney Crosby Example. Sidney Crosby exemplifies these qualities, making his teammates and coaches better through his observations, insights, and ability to think the game on a different level. He demonstrates the importance of intellect and competitiveness in overcoming physical deficiencies.

3. Physical Training Alone Is Insufficient for Playmaker Development

A finely tuned world-class physique cannot weave a puck through four defenders or place a ball in the top corner of the goal without the intricate set of commands needed from the brain.

Beyond Physical Readiness. While physical training is necessary, it is not always sufficient for developing elite playmakers. Strength, endurance, speed, and agility provide a foundation, but cognitive instructions and decision-making quickness are equally important.

The Brain's Role. The science of the brain is still at a fundamental level, particularly in understanding how we learn skills, perceive our environment, and make fast decisions. Focusing on cognitive training can yield greater payoffs than solely emphasizing physical development.

Mental Self-Preservation. Research suggests that our mental self-preservation may be the limiting factor in physical achievement. The brain acts as a circuit breaker, protecting us from pushing our bodies beyond their limits. However, this thermostat can be adjusted upward through training.

4. Athlete Cognition Involves Perception, Decision-Making, and Execution

Every action we take on the playing field, court, or rink originates with an instruction handed down through the central nervous system to the individual muscles.

Bridging the Gap. Athlete cognition bridges the gap between declarative sports knowledge (what to do) and procedural knowledge (how to do it). It provides self-awareness, or metacognition, of an athlete's relative sports knowledge and expertise.

Deconstructing Athlete Cognition. Athlete cognition can be deconstructed into three actions: search, decide, and execute. These actions describe perception, decision-making, and skill acquisition, respectively.

The Goal. The goal is to consistently find the "right" pass by "reading" the action and staying a few steps ahead of the opponent. This vision relies on instant access to memories of thousands of similar situations.

5. Perception Relies on Trained Eyes and Proprioceptive Awareness

Collectively known as perception, being able to constantly monitor the locations and motions of both teammates and opponents requires trained eyes, including peripheral vision, multiple object tracking, near-far focus, and depth perception.

Vision is Key. Perception involves constantly monitoring the locations and motions of teammates and opponents, requiring trained eyes with peripheral vision, multiple object tracking, near-far focus, and depth perception. Vision provides about 70 percent of the data we use for analysis.

Hearing and Touch. The brain also uses hearing and touch to fill in the blanks that our eyes can't provide. Listening for an approaching defender or sensing pressure from behind requires proprioceptive awareness gained over many seasons.

Proprioceptive Awareness. Proprioception, or kinesthesia, is the sense of the position and movement of one's body. It involves the ability to sense the location, orientation, and movement of body parts without relying on visual cues.

6. Decision-Making Requires Anticipation and Pattern Recognition

Leading up to each of the thousands of decisions during a game, an athlete needs to cycle through a repeating analysis of hundreds of past situations.

Anticipation and Pattern Recognition. Pulling off the perfect pass or tackle is preceded by the split-second decision to act. This involves anticipation and pattern recognition to be one step ahead of the play by correctly guessing opponent intentions and movements.

The Perception-Action Loop. The senses feed visual, auditory, and tactile data to the brain, confirming or adjusting these guesses. This repeated perception-action loop always ends with a decision, good or bad.

Decision-Making Statistics. Improving decision-making requires decision-making statistics to measure progress. This involves analyzing past situations and choosing the "right" decision in intricate sequences of passes or volleys.

7. Motor Skill Acquisition Benefits from Generalized Skills and Cross-Training

When athletes have weaknesses in any of these skills, we can blame the motor commands from the brain.

Motor Commands. Motor skill acquisition often requires years of practice to perfect. When athletes have weaknesses in any of these skills, we can blame the motor commands from the brain.

Generalized Skills. Passing a football, kicking a soccer ball, pitching a baseball, shooting a basketball, and hitting a tennis ball all involve aiming and propelling an object at a target. Eluding a defender and chasing a ball carrier are two sides of the same coin.

Multiple Sports. Playing multiple sports provides opportunities for the brain to merge and generalize these motor skills to adapt to varied environments. This serves as an argument against early single-sport specialization.

8. Emotions, Ego, and Commitment Influence Playmaker Actions

Athletes, particularly young ones, are not soulless robots.

Beyond Physical Skills. Athletes have feelings, egos, pride, and emotions that constantly influence their actions. The best performers have a different attitude that pushes them through the long, frustrating years of practice.

External Pressures. Parents, coaches, teammates, and opponents put enormous pressure and influence on an athlete's identity and will to succeed. Well-intentioned "encouragement" from the sidelines disrupts a player's automated sport cognition flow.

Psychological Traits. Psychological research on adolescents is pointing to behavioral traits as keys to success. Coaches should watch for and train these personality features just as intently as physical performance metrics.

9. Commitment Requires Eustress, Not Distress

Parents are being bombarded with new neuropsychological concepts such as mindset, grit, flow, and choking that define the underlying commitment to prevail in tough times and the fortitude to thrive in the big moments of competition.

The Playmaker's Profile. The playmaker is made on the training ground. Parents and coaches need to understand the best format and quantity of practice hours. Research in flow and automaticity can tell us how to manage players in the heat of battle.

Beyond Practice. Even an adequate amount of practice can't always explain greatness. Elite status can be reached by some athletes years before the population average, while a lifetime of effort does not guarantee reaching the top of the performance pyramid.

Eustress vs. Distress. Parents and coaches must understand whether they are providing "eustress" (good, healthy, challenging pressure) or "distress" (negative stress, unhappiness, and lack of motivation).

10. Traditional Coaching Styles Can Limit Individual Progression

Traditional coaching styles can also limit individual progression.

Hand-Me-Down Coaching. The curse of "hand-me-down" coaching (repeating what has always been done) may gain acceptable team results but rarely wins championships. The brain of a twelve-year-old differs from that of a seventeen-year-old, which differs from an adult's.

Cognitive Development. Understanding the cognitive development of emerging athletes helps coaches better organize age-appropriate practices to realize the biggest return at each training. The learning needs of a U10 soccer team are drastically different from those of a high school varsity team.

Unique Methods. Teaching kids the many details of a sport requires unique methods to match their learning styles. Just lining them up for redundant drills and yelling at their mistakes may not get the results we're looking for.

11. Evidence-Based Coaching Improves Athlete Learning

If there is a better way to teach skills or embed tactics into a player’s brain, why don’t coaches use these techniques?

Coach Education. A lack of coach education may limit individual progression. Evidence-based coaching provides new and more efficient ways to educate athletes using brain-based learning methods.

Overcoming Inertia. Inertia and the underlying aversion to embarrassment are the most likely dampers on a coach's use of creative ideas and technology. Ignorance or a simple lack of awareness of a better way may also play a role.

Copying Success. Being able to copy successful pioneering coaches is often enough to arrive at the tipping point of a paradigm shift. We need to look at some of the coaching mavericks out there who bravely experiment with new methods that get results.

12. Athlete Cognition Transcends Sports

The cognitive skills learned by young athletes can cross over to their daily academic and social lives as well.

Transferable Skills. The cognitive skills learned by young athletes can cross over to their daily academic and social lives as well. Faster perception and information processing in the brain translates across any learning domain.

Academic and Social Benefits. The cognitive skills that allow your child to win on the field can help him ace his test, make friends more easily, and make decisions more clearly. The power of athlete cognition will help on the field as well as at home and school.

B-Level Weekend Warriors. Athlete cognition even transcends sports altogether. The cognitive skills learned by young athletes can cross over to their daily academic and social lives as well.

Last updated: February 25, 2025