“You see what you want to see, hear what you want to hear.”

Observations, the subsystem for data collection and selection.

 

In the large scheme of things observation is concerned with two antagonistic processes, sensitization and habituation. The former is a process of selection and answers the question what’s important while the later is one of elimination and answers the question what isn’t. Both skills are important in reaching a decision.

Just what is being selected is the ‘first best idea’ out of the overwhelming amount of raw energy, i.e. potential ideas, that cascades through our senses. What is being ignored is everything else. In soccer the three big energy sources are visual, auditory and tactile. Without the ability to limit the amount of raw sensory energy, i.e. data or potential ideas, decision-making would bog down with the overwhelming number of choices. For that we use habituation. We learn to ignore what’s not important. On the other hand without the ability to make a selection we won’t be able to approach our goal. Keeping your options open is not an option when you have a specific task. To get ‘there’ you have to take specific actions.

To help with sensitization and habituation there are three sets of filters in Orientation, the Implicit Guidance and Control. Genetic heritage, cultural traditions and previous experience together create a set of expectations that guide a filtering process. They determine what data gets through, what’s important and what gets ignored.

Observation also has to deal with the feedback from our own decisions and actions. We experience feedback from decisions when we have second thoughts. Players experience this moment when they ‘think’ they see something, hesitate and reorient to an evolved situation. Feedback from actions is more explicit, “Having acted, we have changed the situation, and so the cycle begins again.”

Observations stream through “the observing window” into Orientation driven by the Arrow of Time. Data deemed unnecessary has been discarded or ignored. Data that’s interesting is retained and fed forward. This is front-end decision-making. It’s also where the computer adage GIGO, garbage in, garbage out crops up. Poor selections here feed bad information into Orientation virtually killing the process going forward. 

Sensory energy is being continually fed to everyone on the field. Whoever finds ‘the difference that makes a difference’ and acts on it first can gain a time advantage they can build on. When it’s done between teammates it’s a powerful tool and is the hallmark of players who anticipate each others actions.