What does a good decision maker actually look like?

Across the game coaches talk about 'decision makers' - but what does a good decision maker actually look like? Peter Glynn, FA education content editor, investigates.
“They assess the environment quickly, see things before other players, think ahead and can make early decisions” was the response of a professional manager when asked about the ingredients of a good decision maker. Another response, from a different coach, highlighted the importance of self-awareness: “they have the ability to weigh up a situation and make a decision which is the best decision in the situation, but also a decision that they’re actually capable of carrying out.”

The desire to develop young players’ decision-making skills has long been an aim of the FA and is one that provides much interest to those in coaching and academic circles.

For many, the focus on developing cognitive skills came as a response to the over emphasis - in some cases - on training technical and physical skills in isolation.

Although it shouldn’t be ignored that a sound base of fundamental skills are required to play the game, the premise is: without ‘know-how’, techniques alone are almost useless in the game with its multitude of problems to solve and wealth of information to process.

Research on elite performance suggests top performers demonstrate superior levels of multi-tasking, anticipation, recognition of patterns of play and the ability to recall critical information related to the task or situation. Basically, they ‘make the best decisions, most often’.

But what does decision making look like for all those who haven’t quite yet reached that level of instinct and autonomy?

In his article Evaluation of Football Performance, Craig Simmons, former FA player development advisor at The FA, highlighted the importance of recognising the signs of young players’ growing conceptual (team strategies and attacking and defending principles) and perceptual understanding (space, time, distances) when considering decision making abilities.

Simmons, who wrote widely on the subject, also went on to highlight the challenges associated with such a pursuit in a later article – Football Intelligence and Talent Identification, published in Insight magazine (2001) – writing:

“The problem facing football may lie in the lack of tools for objective measurement of football intelligence and conceptual issues. Therefore, the subjective evaluation by the coach of a player's understanding and ability to effectively execute actions becomes a vital issue.”

It’s an interesting point. Are we more prone to recognising and celebrating the player who impresses through their easily identifiable dribbling or shooting skills, rather than appreciating the silent work of a player who covers, marks and tracks runners or one who routinely creates and exploits space, for example? After all, a functioning team is made up of many types.

Simmons also highlighted how a young player’s ability to make good decisions was closely linked to the footballing experiences they had accumulated on their journey so far.

Do we always consider the amount of exposure a player has actually had to games and game related practice or the types of coaching they have had previously?

Not forgetting: gaining an appreciation of how much experience an individual has of playing a certain position, the quality of the opposition at hand and how comfortable they are with their teammates and the environment. Perhaps the number four isn’t actually any better at making decisions than the number six - they’ve just practised it more.

Leaving us to ask: when it comes to decision making do we really know what we are looking for? And, maybe even more importantly: do we really know enough about the players trying to make the decisions in the first place?