Dan McKinney12-14-11

Professional ScenarioTitle: Athletic Director- Montana State Billings University Yellowjackets

I have recently been hired as the new athletic director at NCAA Division II Montana

State University Billings. My first priority as the athletic director is to evaluate each team’s

programs and coaching staffs. Today I had the opportunity to meet with five head coaches to

discuss their respective seasons. During those meetings, each of the coaches discussed concerns

or dilemmas with me regarding their past seasons. After carefully analyzing those concerns, I

feel I can offer some help and breadth by providing advice and insight to possible changes or

alterations that the coaches and players might be able to make. The coaches have come to me as

a valuable resource and have asked me to provide a professional insight into their respective

dilemmas.

The overwhelming concerns included; lack of productive practices (work ethic, extra

work), lack of self-control, and self-perceptions. Ultimately, my goal in intervening into these

programs is to help our respective sports improve their overall production and performance on

the field and in the classroom.

The coaches feel that their programs can and need to improve in the aforementioned

areas. The first issue is due to what the coaches’ feel is a lack of productivity at practice. They

feel that their players often come to practice and just go through the motions, are satisfied with

being mediocre, and do not take the necessary steps in improving their performance. They lack

focus, attention to detail, and often do not participate in extra opportunities to practice the

necessary skills to perform at the highest level in a specific domain. My first impression of this

type of problem is that the coaches might not be creating drills or practices that are designed to

increase performance. In order to accomplish an increase in performance, the coaches must

design practice drills, situations that focus on deliberate practice, and learn to understand what

motivates each and every athlete.

Deliberate Practice- If any of our athletic programs plan on improving their skills and

performances daily, they must begin by participating in daily practice activities (deliberate

practice). This involves a variety of components and emerging properties in order to be

successful in a specific domain. It doesn’t necessarily involve the amount of hours you practice

something, but in the manner in which you practice the specific skills in your domain. Deliberate

practice is a focused practice in which the overall objective is to improve performance and that is

not inherently enjoyable. Engaging in deliberate practice has been shown to be a distinct

difference between experts and novices. “In the deliberate practice framework, future experts

perform training that develops required skills under continuously evolving conditions where

training stress and recovery are optimally balanced so that maximal training adaptations occur

and training plateaus are minimized” (Baker, 2003). Furthermore, “it is mediated by

physiological adaptations and cognitive skills acquired as a result of cumulative effects of special

practice activities and most notably attained after approximately 10 years of intense preparation”

(Ericsson, 2007). In order to maximize daily activity practice (deliberate practice); the performer

must be able to obtain immediate feedback, either through a drill (kinesthetic awareness-

individual observation or feeling of proprioceptive movements. Basically, “what is my body

doing and can I feel it?”, video analysis, or a coach watching the skill and critiquing the

performance.

My suggestion to our coaches it to set up daily practice plans that emphasize focused

deliberate practices, that are not inherently enjoyable and that push current physiological and

cognitive limitations. Also, in which some type of feedback and evaluation of performance can

be assessed on a daily basis. I would encourage our coaches to allow the student- athletes to

assess their own individual performances through a self-evaluation, in which the student- athletes

may by inclined to create deliberate practices through a self-directed practice plan that occurs

outside of normal practice hours. The idea of deliberate practice is just one suggestion that I have

made to the coaches in order to increase productivity in practice and competition.

Furthermore, deliberate practice must be incorporated with focus and attention to the

task. As humans, we are limited by the amount of incoming information that we can pay

attention to. It is important to understand that outside noise (distractions and things that are

perceptually available to us) is limitless. What we can comprehend, create meaning from, and

becomes salient, is limited by our cognitive and perceptual abilities. It is essential that when we

practice, we try our best to limit our attention into a bottleneck of relevant information of cues to

distinguish between what is important for us to pay attention to. With the idea of deliberate

practice; cues and immediate feedback must be made a priority. In order to improve

performance, the performer must pay attention in full to the task in which they are trying to

improve on. For example, if a tennis player is struggling with their back hand, they must devote

their time, energy, effort and complete focus on improving their back hand volley. “Deliberate

practice requires that one identify certain sharply defined elements of performance that need to

be improved, and then work intently on them. The great performers isolate remarkably specific

aspects of what they do and focus on just those things until they’re improved; then it’s on to the

next aspect”(Thomas, 2011). In order to “design” practice, coaches and players must collaborate

in an effort to establish what improvements need to be made. It is critical that they focus on what

is relevant to the skill and what cues are most important in improving the performance of the

individual. A recently titled book, “Why Talent is Overrated” by author Geoff Colvin, is a great

resource into the elements of deliberate practice- where self-reflection, work ethic and ambition

meet. Colvin describes eight essential characteristics of deliberate practice in the book. For more

information on deliberate practice by Colvin and Ericcson, clink on the links below.

1. http://www.openeducation.net/2008/11/02/deliberate-practice-%E2%80%93-where-self-reflection-work-ethic-and-ambition-meet/

2. http://www.psy.fsu.edu/faculty/ericsson/ericsson.exp.perf.html

Although, the so called “10-Year Rule” has been well documented and researched, it is

not necessarily a sufficient answer to how one improves their skills. It really has more to do with

the fact of how you practice. “Simon and Chase suggested that performance can be explained by

quantity and quality of training and was attributable to the ability to organize information in

more meaningful “chunks” of information rather than the possession of a superior memory

capacity”(Baker, 2003). With regard to quality and quantity, practices must be designed to

maximize quality repetitions that are to be performed correctly for about 10,000 hours. Practice

makes permanent, not necessarily perfect. If someone is practicing a skill incorrectly, it does not

matter how long one practices it for, one will not improve in that skill set. It is suggested that

practices be short, crisp, and individuals are engaged in deliberate focused practice that

accentuate quality repetitions rather than poor quantity repetitions that result in incorrect muscle

memory. Engaging in this type of practice an individual will start to improve their “chunks” and

develop muscle memory and essentially automaticity. After several hours of correctly practicing

a skill, the skill will become more automatic and less attention will be needed. More attention

can be focused on relevant information and what is essentially required of the performer to

execute the movement more accurately. This will allow the performer to expand their skill set

and shift attention and detail to other sport specific skills in their respective domain, therefore

increasing those “chunks”.

In addition, deliberate practice is not always constrained to physically performing the

skill. 10,000 hours of deliberate practice might include mental training in which an individual

practices visualizing the task at hand and focuses on what is relevant and what is not. Also, film

analysis, in which the performer watches, evaluates, and can obtain immediate feedback, can be

used as a deliberate practice training aide.

Work Ethic- A lack of deliberate practice is possibly just one of many explanations and

reasons as to why the coaches feel that practices are not productive and could be a reason why

the player’s work ethic, efficiency in practice and frustrations often become overwhelming

during games. Speculation might detail that motivational factors could play a crucial role as well.

Why are the players playing? Is it intrinsic in which they play for themselves and for a sense of

accomplishment or belonging? Is it extrinsic in which they may strive to become a professional

athlete or that they have endured pressure from their parents for a majority of their lives?

Motivational factors along with goals, history and experiences are critical emergent properties to

discuss in achieving maximal performance and can play a role in work ethic and the training of

deliberate practice.

Essentially, it is my suggestion that the coaches of Montana State University Billings,

design practices that focus on deliberate practice that is not necessarily geared to results, but to

an increase in performance. Practices need to be designed to concentrate on attention to detail,

focus on the task at hand, intensity and that stress improvement during the course of the practice.

They need to be geared toward quality and not quantity repetitions that are not necessarily

enjoyable. The overall goal and emphasis of each practice should be to improve performance

through deliberate practice.

The second overall issue and dilemma that the coaches are facing is that in recent seasons

there have been several instances in which a player was suspended due to poor academics, being

ejected from a game, or participating in unproductive and illegal extra-curricular activities off the

field. The overarching theme to these issues may be due to a lack of self-control. Self-control is

the ability to control or override one’s thoughts, emotions, urges, and behavior. Sustaining self-

control is vital to an athlete’s success and a tremendous predictor of their performance. Having

self-control can lead to making better judgments and decisions in all facets of life, not just sports.

In recent years, it has been introduced that self-control is actually a depleted resource that

stems from low glucose levels in the body. Low glucose levels have been associated and linked

to poor self-control on subsequent tasks after an initial self-control task has been performed.

Glucose is an essential energy source for the body and brain and therefore you need glucose in

your system in order to maintain and exert self-control. Maintaining sufficient glucose levels in

your body is due to caloric intake from food that provides the necessary energy to exert self-

control on and off the field.

Moreover, self-control provides many benefits and therefore is a psychological process

that is immensely valuable despite being so expensive in terms of caloric energy (glucose). It is

important that the athletes in our programs are fueled with essential and healthy circulating

sugars that we use for energy.

It takes energy to conduct controlled, effortful processes. Without energy we are not able

to concentrate as well and this can lead to poor decisions and judgments. Our attention is also

hampered and could possibly lead to poor performance on and off the field. In essence, low-

glucose levels impair controlled or effortful processes, and therefore require more glucose and

more energy. This is a key to expert performance and striving to increase performance on a skill

in a particular domain. For example, if a technical or tactical skill is introduced it is not already

automatic to our “chunks” or muscle memory. It must be learned and if one has insufficient

energy levels, they may lose their ability to control those effortful processes necessary to learn

the new skill. As deliberate practice is done, those cognitive and physiological processes become

more automatic and less energy and attention is needed, which is a fundamental attribute to

becoming more proficient in a skill. This can lead an individual to have the ability to pay

attention to relevant information, cues and ultimately disregard the environmental noise that

often becomes distracting while trying to perform in a given domain.

Replenishing the body with energy can lead to making better decisions, develop more

automatic physical and cognitive responses, and essentially lead to better performances on and

off the field. For more information, please see the following links and attachments:

1. https://msubonline.net/d2l/common/viewFile.d2lfile/Database/MjAxNDE3OQ/Self%20Control%20Glucose.pdf?ou=6605

2. https://msubonline.net/d2l/common/viewFile.d2lfile/Database/MjAxNDE4MA/Self%20Control%20Strength%20Model.pdf?ou=6605

Subsequently, many of the athletes in our programs are likely dealing with an array of

emotions that drive and influence their thoughts, decision making, and ultimately their actions.

“Emotions are psychological and physiological states that evoke predisposed feelings, thoughts,

and behavior associated in various ways pertaining to each individual emotion. Emotions are

subjective experiences, or experienced from an individual point of view. Emotion is often

associated with mood, temperament, personality, and disposition” (Psychology Wiki, 2011).

Additionally, emotions play a vital role in decision making for our athletes. “A basic emotion

may be viewed as a set of neural, bodily/expressive, and feeling/motivational components

generated rapidly, automatically, and nonconsciously when ongoing affective–cognitive

processes interact with the sensing or perception of an ecologically valid stimulus to activate

evolutionarily adapted neurobiological and mental processes. The resulting basic emotion

preempts consciousness and tends to drive a rather narrowly focused stereotypical response

strategy to achieve an adaptive advantage” (Izard, 2008). Every thought that we have or behavior

we put into action is carried by an emotional component. It is impossible to make a decision

without some type of basic and natural kind of emotion and emotion perception, emotional

expression, which affects one’s feelings and actions.

Unequivocally, our athletes are driven by emotions that in turn affect their actions.

Controlling and dealing with those emotions appropriately is what we need to focus on as

coaches and administrators. Because emotions are always present and not always made available

consciously, athletes must first learn to recognize them and then act upon them as they perceive

fit. We all have different experiences and history that help form our basic emotional reactions

and perceptions to certain situations. Emotion and self-control have several links when it comes

to decision making and ultimately expert performance.

The third and final area in which the coaches have a concern is that of self-

perceptions amongst their respective freshmen athletes. Input from certain situations is the same

for everyone. However, people will perceive and react differently to each situation based on

different experiences, history, emotional status, needs (social, biological, and physiological),

time, space, biases, goals, and motivations just to name a few. Our coaches believe that many of

their players think and feel that they are the best players on the team and that this is due to a

naturally innate gift that they inherited from genes and their parents. Before the freshmen

became college athletes, most of them were the best players on their respective high school

teams. They were probably told by numerous coaches and their parents that they were just

“naturally gifted” athletes and that they could and be anything they wanted to be in the athletic

domain. This idea and notion has been linked to a lack of work ethic in practices and is of great

concern to our coaches. Research and science tells us that expert performance is due to training

rather than genes, and that the only mechanism definite about genes, is that they account solely

for body size and height. “Differences are the result of training rather than innate abilities. While

certain gross, general traits have been linked to genetic endowment (e.g. intelligence: Bouchard,

1997), the refinement of these traits into domain specific abilities (e.g. pattern recognition,

strategic thinking) is likely due to training. The idea that there is a gene that predisposes an

athlete to superior information processing that is only manifested in a single domain (e.g. a gene

for processing soccer-specific information) is not supported empirically”(Baker, 2003). Many

freshman athletes that show up to the first day of practice experience a ton of emotions, thoughts

and probably cognitive dissonance. They are no longer the best player on their new team and

experience what is termed cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is at the heart of

motivation and is ultimately what drives the athletes to change their self-perceptions or

perceptions of others.

Cognitive dissonance, proposed by psychologist Leon Festinger in 1956, “ is a discomfort

caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes

that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their

attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Dissonance is also reduced by justifying, blaming, and denying”

(Wikipedia, 2011). As humans, we do our best to try and feel good through our dopamine system

and it is very common for us to make false attributions as to why certain events or behaviors

occur because it is easy. When cognitive dissonance is present, we automatically become

motivated to reduce the dissonance because it is uncomfortable and does not feel good.

Likewise, many of the freshmen who enter the first day of practice experience cognitive

dissonance. A possible reason for this might be related to the cognitive dissonance theory. The

self-evaluation maintenance theory states that “skills or interests that define us can cause

dissonance when they appear superior in others close to us” (Wikipedia, 2011). Self-evaluation

in conjunction to comparing ourselves with others is constantly occurring. We are born with the

ability and do not have to learn or be told to compare ourselves with others. It is a naturally born

innate trait of ours and the social comparison theory in which individuals evaluate their own

opinions and desires by comparing themselves to others, can explain this phenomena.

There is a strong possibility that the freshmen who experience cognitive dissonance will

be motivated to work harder to be the best player they can be and in turn, increase work ethic and

productivity at practice. Their self-perceptions will be altered and hopefully this will be the

product of an increase in performance and deliberate practice.

It is my expert opinion that the concerns made apparent in my meetings with the coaches

are real and legitimate causes of concern. However, I also feel that they are all fixable through

making a few changes. Deliberate practice must be made a priority in which the student athletes

engage in focused, intense practice that is not inherently enjoyable and for which that the overall

objective is to increase performance. This will take a group effort by the coaches and players to

do so. An emphasis on mental imagery training and film break down and analysis should be

accentuated. I will do my best as an athletic administrator to ensure that the athletic programs are

equipped and funded to have every advantage fiscally possible in order to get this done. I think it

is important and will lead to an increase in performance if we can tap into every resource

available to help increase deliberate practice and ultimately improve performance on the field of

play. As administrators and coaching staff members we need to stress the need for body

nourishment through food, sleep and water in order to increase self-control and the controlling of

the emotions of our athletes. I believe that the biggest obstacle that we face in dealing with these

dilemmas is that of self-perceptions. Self-perceptions are difficult to deal with because we are

hard-wired and often bring a rich history of perceptions, attributions and biases with us into

situations. The aforementioned ideas are extremely difficult to alter, nearly impossible. One

would hope that cognitive dissonance would be at the heart of motivation and change for an

athlete and how they go about their business. Although these changes will not occur overnight,

an emphasis on these types of concepts in becoming an expert in your specific sport or domain

will start to develop and be implemented into our programs at Montana State University Billings.