Sport And Exercise Psychology: A Critical Introduction

Critical thinking questions
Do you agree with the definitions of success that were used above? How could you
analyse scientifically whether or not great players become great managers? Is it enough
merely to stack up examples on both sides of the question—or is there another way to
proceed? One possibility is to elicit the views of a large sample of expert coaches on this
question. An alternative method is to devise a checklist of managerial skills and to survey
the views of players and managers on the relative importance of each of these factors.
Why do you think that expertise in playing may not transfer to expertise in coaching or
management? Remember that coaching largely involves teaching—and it is often quite
difficult to teach a skill that one learned intuitively.

Experts hove more insight into, and control over, their own mental

processes

The term “metacognition” refers to people’s insight into, and control over, their own
mental processes (Matlin, 2002). It has long been assumed that experts are superior to
novices in this area. If this principle holds true in sport, then expert athletes and coaches
should have greater insight into, and more control over, their minds than do novices.
Although few studies have tested this hypothesis, there is some evidence to support it
with regard to planning behaviour. For example, McPherson (2000) found that expert
collegiate tennis players generated three times as many planning concepts as novices
during “between point” periods in tennis matches. Similarly, Cleary and Zimmerman
(2001) discovered significant differences between expert, non-expert and novice
basketball players in self-regulatory processes exhibited during practice sessions.
Specifically, the expert players planned their practice sessions better than did other
groups by choosing specific, technique-oriented processes (e.g., “to bend my knees”).
In summary, research shows that expert adult athletes differ consistently from relative
novices with regard to a variety of perceptual, cognitive and strategic aspects of
behaviour. This conclusion appears to apply equally to young athletes. Thus Ward and
Williams (2003) discovered that perceptual and cognitive skills discriminated between
elite and sub-elite soccer players between the ages of 9 and 17 years. These general
findings are consistent with those derived from more formal domains like chess and
physics where experts have been shown to display both quantitative and qualitative
knowledge advantages over novices. Thus experts’ knowledge is better organised and
largely domain-specific and is probably represented differently from that of novices. But
how do people become athletic experts in the first place? In order to answer this question,
we need to consider the role of practice in the acquisition of expertise.

Becoming an expert athlete: Ericsson’s theory of “deliberate

practice” deliberate practice’

Earlier in this chapter, we mentioned the joy of watching expert athletes such as Tiger
Woods or Venus Williams. Why do we find it impossible to emulate the skills of these

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