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.