Chapter 12 - Providing Instruction With A Decision Training Focus
Where are we going? Chapter 12 shows how the athlete's decision making skills can be improved using the three step DT Model (see below) and specifically DT Tools 6 and 7, Hard First Instruction & Modeling, and an External Focus of Attention.

The goal of all decision training drills is to give the athlete the opportunity to make effective decisions during daily practices.

Decision training drills are cognitively stimulating and physically challenging.

A good decision training drill tells both the athlete and the coach if the correct decision has been made.

In this exercise, the three steps of the DT model (see below) are used to coach an external focus during freestyle skiing.

Step 1: The decision trained in the video is to respond under time pressure to the coaches request to enter the turn straight or to the left or right and make an effective jump.

Step 2: The drill is a simulated jump, where the cognitive trigger is the coach calling the entry under different amounts of reaction time pressure.

Step 3: Three decision training tools are being used - an external focus, variable practice and random practice. The athletes learn different variations of the jump under differing amounts of temporal and spatial pressure.

Media:  1)  Freestyle (2mins 45sec)


Step 1: Define a decision that athletes have to make in competition. The decision should name at least one key perceptual or cognitive skill the athlete needs to master while performing a specific skill or tactic. The seven cognitive skills are anticipation, attention, focus and concentration, memory, pattern recognition, problem solving, and decision making.
The decision trained in the video is to respond under time pressure to the coaches request to enter the turn straight or to the left or right and make an effective jump.

Step 2: Design a drill or progression of drills to train the decision in a game-like situation. As a part of designing the drill, it is also necessary to identify a cognitive trigger that lets both the athlete and coach know if the athlete has made the right decision. Some cognitive triggers include object cues, location cues, memory cues, reaction times, and self-coaching cues.
The drill is a simulated jump, where the cognitive trigger is the coach calling the entry under different amounts of reaction time pressure.


Step 3: Select one or more of the seven decision tools to train the decision in a variety of simulated competitive contexts. The seven DT tools are variable practice, random practice, bandwidth feedback, questioning, video feedback, hard-first instruction and modeling, and external focus of instruction.
Three decision training tools are being used - an external focus, variable practice and random practice. The athletes learn different variations of the jump under differing amounts of temporal and spatial pressure.