"Coaches see everything." I don't. And our vision filters through a personal lens distorting reality.
See more. Expand our sight with a panoply of tools - experienced assistants, young 'relatable' assistants, film, reading, analytics, after action review (AAR), mentors, and the Personal Board of Directors.
And perception is non-linear. We rely on inputs from emotional libraries, mental models, and real-time working memory (focus). But distractions (thoughts, earbuds, cellphones) overtake us. That's literally how pedestrians walk into traffic. Diversions abound and with limited working memory (focus), catastrophes happen. Just using a cellphone when driving creates a hazard approximating drunk driving. "Texting and driving at 55 miles per hour is the equivalent of driving the length of a football field with eyes closed." We will all know someone who died from distracted driving.
And you know of inattention effects, where focus on one action causes us to miss another...the gorilla walking through basketball practice.
We suffer the Rashomon Effect, flawed interpretation of inputs with perception-dependent reality. We don't always see our teams or ourselves accurately. Finding the truth takes openness, real work, and the will to do so.
We can't always trust what we see. We mistake people and events. Eyewitness testimony fails. 3 of 4 DNA exonerations involve mistaken identification. And recall the scene from My Cousin Vinnie where the eyewitness who saw the boys had her already poor vision obscured?
Film study helps us see who lost containment, who didn't see open players, turnovers and root causes, help and rotation issues.
Further complicating our vision is "resulting" or interpreting play strictly by outcomes. Don't neglect how the game was played or the influence of luck. We may do a lot right but run into an opponent who makes key plays or we get a few bad breaks. But blaming poor outcomes consistently on outside factors shows overdependent attribution bias.
Multiple sets of eyes improve scouting and tryouts. Other coaches have called my attention to contributors I might have overlooked.
We see with our eyes and our hearts.
Lagniappe: Legal guarding position...or not?
