Think before Deciding
Behind every coaching decision today lies a hidden cognitive battle. Modern hockey — and its invasion‑sport cousins in football, rugby sevens, and lacrosse — now demands that coaches act as integrators of biology, tactics, psychology, social dynamics, and long‑term development. Athlete data has exploded. Support teams have multiplied. Athletes bring more psychological and social complexity. And everyone expects evidence‑based decisions. The environment has evolved faster than the brain. As Lyle (2002) notes, coaching is now a “complex decision‑making environment,” and cognitive load theory (Sweller, 1988) explains why even elite coaches feel stretched thin. To make sense of this complexity, we begin with the five decision streams that shape modern coaching and the neuroscience behind them.
PUT BIAS aside
Selection in sport is supposed to be evidence‑based. But too often, it’s shaped by memory, comfort, and confirmation bias. Coaches don’t just pick players — they pick narratives. And when these are anchored in familiarity rather than performance, selection becomes a reflection of the coach, not the athlete. Here we try to unpack some basic psychology behind favouritism, and offers tools to make selection fairer, sharper, and more defensible.
Beer League eating
The science is clear: nutrition is the single most controllable variable in tournament recovery (Louis et al., 2020; Desbrow et al., 2019). Yet most players still treat it as an afterthought — grabbing whatever is available at the hotel buffet or tournament café or nearest greasy spoon. for masters athletes, the demands are even sharper:
slower glycogen restoration
increased inflammation
reduced anabolic sensitivity
higher dehydration risk
impaired sleep architecture
reduced gut tolerance under stress