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The Dangers of Over-Strategizing in Hockey

October 4, 2012, 5:48 PM ET [1 Comments]
Alan Bass
Blogger •"The Psychology of Hockey" • RSSArchiveCONTACT
When you see a player on a rush, with a man wide open, itching for a breakaway pass, and the first man neglects to do so, instead turning the puck over, what is the first thing most of us yell? “How did you not see him, he was wide open!” Or something like that, right?

It’s about time we answer that question – why did he not see the man? What is it that caused him to make the erroneous decision that led to a turnover, as opposed to a scoring chance? Most players in the NHL have the hockey sense and the ability to do whatever they want at any given time. So what is it?

Psychological research has a term called “inattentional blindness,” which is when someone is unable to see a stimulus (in this case, an open player, an out of position defender, etc.) because their attention is being drawn somewhere else.

Having the ability to make smart decisions in hockey is based on two types of psychological focus: broad attentional focus and external attentional focus. Broad focus is when a person is able to simultaneously perceive numerous scenarios – for example, when a player is able to take one look up the ice and know what will result for each of five different options he has. External focus is the focus that needs to be put on an external object, in this scenario, the puck. A player with high levels of external and broad attentional focus will be able to effectively control the puck, in addition to making the correct decision, all within a split second.

But what is the typical cause when this fails, and a player is unable to focus on both objects, if not just one of them? Research in 2007 by Daniel Memmert and Philip Furley found that excessive coaching instruction is actually one of the key reasons for this mental collapse and blindness that occur.

When a coach gives strategic instructions, for example telling the players to look for the opposing defenseman to pinch at the red line, and the trailing winger to cut toward the middle, a player is focusing solely on this. Therefore, when the exact scenario they were coached on fails to occur, they are unable to look at additional options. They are focusing solely on their instruction, and cannot shift focus fast enough to make a good decision on the ice.

This also brings up the effect of an opposing team’s crowd. When attention is so focused on these few pieces (the puck, the other players, etc.), the slightest change in focus will cause a mistake. With 20,000 people yelling at you, chanting at you, and occasionally doing other crude actions that would embarrass Cam Janssen (who are we kidding, nothing can do that), a player might, for a split second, take his eyes off the play, giving the opposing defenseman a chance to make a move.

Inattentional blindness is something that occurs every day in our lives, and is even more apparent in the context of a fast-moving sport like hockey, one in which the scenario changes multiple times per second. Understanding how it works is the first step to learning how to avoid it.

Don’t believe it? Take a look at this famous study for yourself, and see if you also fall to the curse of blindness. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQmdoK_ZfY)

Alan Bass, a former writer for The Hockey News and THN.com, is the author of "The Great Expansion: The Ultimate Risk That Changed The NHL Forever." You can contact him at [email protected], or on Twitter at @NHL_AlanBass.
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