“You win battles by knowing the enemy's timing”

Now I’ll reintroduce the element of timescales. As Smith & Thelen pointed out, “we must be concerned with how different timescales interact.” The difference in timescales has two components, duration and relationship. A difference in duration is simple to grasp. A thinks, grows, acts faster, i.e. has a shorter timescale in a specific domain than B. It’s safe to assume that you will find a difference between even so-called identical systems, i.e. players on the same team.

The relationship between systems is something else. Venkatesh Rao, echoing Marianne Paget’s “acts of deciding” explains;

“popular decision-making models rely on what you might call point logic: the idea that a decision is a point, a fork in a temporal road… Fortunately, a better scheme, which organizes understanding of time around intervals rather than points, was worked out by planning researcher James Allen in the early 1980’s. This scheme, called interval logic, is a way of thinking about time… The idea of interval logic is simple… given two intervals of time… how many qualitatively distinct relations can there be between them? The answer is thirteen (six pairs of symmetrical relationships, and one special case).” The relationships are pictured above.

In a real world setting two systems will operate in one of the twelve symmetrical relationships. (Number 7, being equal is highly unlikely in soccer so we’ll discount it.) A starts before B: A starts after B; A starts B: A is started by B and so on. As long as you view the relationship retroactively, or, proactively with only two systems in a static environment you can use this model. (This is how the ‘freeze method’ of coaching works. It either recreates a situation for linear explanation or creates a scripted situation where the coach walks players through a series of relationships. It’s pure either/or – cause/effect reasoning in a static environment. Consider the language in Rao’s chart as a coaches instructive ‘ideas’ and you’ll get the picture.)

Retroactively life’s a done deal, a closed system and these relationships simply explain what happened. The principles of Taylor’s scientific management work very well. Two systems in a static environment also work for the same reason. So here’s the rub, it’s scientific managements inability to predict, let alone control the future where the trouble starts. Two cases illustrate this point, the three or more and uncooperative systems problems.

Looking back at the chart, imagine a relationship, 1-6 and then insert another system, “C” into it. You can’t tack it onto the beginning or end, it’s included in the moment of interaction between A&B. C reintroduces the six ‘W’ questions for A&B. In soccer systems are a relationship between individuals, groups or an individual and a group. Example, you can have a relationship to the left back or the two central defenders as an individual or as a part of another group, i.e. twin strikers. Now, insert another player or group into your relationship. This will be an anomaly that enters your attention. Once that happens the original relationship will altered in time if not meaning. You will be too early, too late in the original plan or in a whole new environment altogether. (In soccer the number of possible groups is staggering. The transitory nature of complex systems keeps the every player in a state of flux as to which system they are in and which one to attend.)

The later problem addresses the models weakness in a competitive situation. It assumes cooperation between the systems. (A necessary condition for the freeze coaching method.) In the case of an active and alert opponent this isn’t likely. It’s the old “they know that I know that they know that I know” game and one they don’t want to play, at least on your terms. You may want to ‘meet’ a system, say the ball so you aim to start ahead of them. They are determined not to let that happen so they start ahead of you instead. This situation is captured by Miyamoto Musashi’s line, “You win battles by knowing the enemy's timing, and using a timing which the enemy does not expect” and timing is all about timescales.