"Skinnierian Psychology" to improve players
Feb 9, 2017 20:59:42 GMT -6
cwaltsmith, The Lunch Pail, and 1 more like this
Post by somecoach on Feb 9, 2017 20:59:42 GMT -6
I was watching a youtube video on modern military training and it's effect on PTSD...
Basically the speaker explained that throughout history a big issue in war is the psychology of killing another human being.
He claimed that throughout history only 1/4 of troops have fired their weapon at an enemy when it came time to engage.
He points out a common issue during the Civil War was the "paralysis of the trigger finger hand"
Basically, soldiers would choke up at the point of attack and "miss their assignment"
He theorizes that the few that do kill, do it for a few reasons:
1 They are simply a psychopath and are psychologically inclined to kill
2 They do it out of fear for their own lives
3 They do it out of love for their fellow soldiers (or family in the case of home invasion/crime)
4 or simply due to modern training that makes killing into second nature
i.e. I see the target, I hit the target
rather than I see the target, I over think the situation, I miss the target
His point was that to create more efficient soldiers the U.S. military has used "Skinnierian Psychology"
Skinner came up with: operant conditioning -- the idea that behavior is determined by its consequences, be they reinforcements or punishments, which make it more or less likely that the behavior will occur again
The military did this with soldiers in order to teach them to kill as natural reaction to seeing the target
Even though you really aren't suppose to compare football to war, I see a lot of similarities
Think about it in terms of game day.
On both sides of the field (you and the opponent_
What percentage of the players on the field know the entire gameplan and are able to execute it majority of the time?
What percentage of the players know majority of the scheme but still choke 50% of the time?
How many kids are just surviving? Whether they are on the field due to injury or by default numbers
They just show up on game day, have the "deer in the headlights look" and are just going through the motions hoping the clock runs out?
We all have our "dudes"
These guys are our "psychopaths" who just have the "it" factor when it comes to football or have been playing since they are 7 and have learned it over time.
As lower level football is, we don't have 33+ "dudes" for Offense, Defense, and Special teams to go around
This brings me to "everyone else"
"Everyone else" is the type to get "choked up" due to their psychology
They know the scheme, but will simply over think things or the game day jitters will get to them
Or they simply are afraid to play and "playing out of fear"
"Everyone else" makes up the rest of the team and we need to fix them to the best of our ability
We combat this through two things
1 Team/ Culture building aka "killing out of 'love' ", they bond with each other and WANT to get better, for the team.
2 (and more important) Through repetition that will make the game of football into a second nature.
This way when game day comes there is no thinking involved, they may be nervous before kick off, but once they step onto the field its just time to do what they do.
These are things we need to take into consideration throughout the season.
Before the season we need to create and effectively plan to teach a scheme that the "lowest common denominator" can do
During the season we need to drill the Techniques and Reads to the point where the worst player on the field can get by through the reactions conditioned in practice
This way come game day:
The "dudes" have their skills and reads refined in order to "make the big plays" i.e. score TD's, make the most tackles, etc.
The average players can play their role and limit mistakes
and when the "bottom of the barrel" players find themselves on the field they are at least going executing the scheme through muscle memory even though they are still only "surviving"
Here is the video in case you were interested in watching:
Basically the speaker explained that throughout history a big issue in war is the psychology of killing another human being.
He claimed that throughout history only 1/4 of troops have fired their weapon at an enemy when it came time to engage.
He points out a common issue during the Civil War was the "paralysis of the trigger finger hand"
Basically, soldiers would choke up at the point of attack and "miss their assignment"
He theorizes that the few that do kill, do it for a few reasons:
1 They are simply a psychopath and are psychologically inclined to kill
2 They do it out of fear for their own lives
3 They do it out of love for their fellow soldiers (or family in the case of home invasion/crime)
4 or simply due to modern training that makes killing into second nature
i.e. I see the target, I hit the target
rather than I see the target, I over think the situation, I miss the target
His point was that to create more efficient soldiers the U.S. military has used "Skinnierian Psychology"
Skinner came up with: operant conditioning -- the idea that behavior is determined by its consequences, be they reinforcements or punishments, which make it more or less likely that the behavior will occur again
The military did this with soldiers in order to teach them to kill as natural reaction to seeing the target
Even though you really aren't suppose to compare football to war, I see a lot of similarities
Think about it in terms of game day.
On both sides of the field (you and the opponent_
What percentage of the players on the field know the entire gameplan and are able to execute it majority of the time?
What percentage of the players know majority of the scheme but still choke 50% of the time?
How many kids are just surviving? Whether they are on the field due to injury or by default numbers
They just show up on game day, have the "deer in the headlights look" and are just going through the motions hoping the clock runs out?
We all have our "dudes"
These guys are our "psychopaths" who just have the "it" factor when it comes to football or have been playing since they are 7 and have learned it over time.
As lower level football is, we don't have 33+ "dudes" for Offense, Defense, and Special teams to go around
This brings me to "everyone else"
"Everyone else" is the type to get "choked up" due to their psychology
They know the scheme, but will simply over think things or the game day jitters will get to them
Or they simply are afraid to play and "playing out of fear"
"Everyone else" makes up the rest of the team and we need to fix them to the best of our ability
We combat this through two things
1 Team/ Culture building aka "killing out of 'love' ", they bond with each other and WANT to get better, for the team.
2 (and more important) Through repetition that will make the game of football into a second nature.
This way when game day comes there is no thinking involved, they may be nervous before kick off, but once they step onto the field its just time to do what they do.
These are things we need to take into consideration throughout the season.
Before the season we need to create and effectively plan to teach a scheme that the "lowest common denominator" can do
During the season we need to drill the Techniques and Reads to the point where the worst player on the field can get by through the reactions conditioned in practice
This way come game day:
The "dudes" have their skills and reads refined in order to "make the big plays" i.e. score TD's, make the most tackles, etc.
The average players can play their role and limit mistakes
and when the "bottom of the barrel" players find themselves on the field they are at least going executing the scheme through muscle memory even though they are still only "surviving"
Here is the video in case you were interested in watching:
