Self-Awareness in Soccer

I was recently listening to a sports psychologist speak about the state of mind of athletes and coaches, and how this impacted their performance. He stated that there were four levels of consciousness that players operate in.

The first was the unconscious incompetent, which is the worst of them all. This indicates that the player has no idea that they do not know, or that they are doing something wrong in training and games.  This can also describe a coach who has no idea that his methodology and philosophy do not work for his team.

The second level was the conscious incompetent. This means that the individual is aware of his faults/weakness. This enables him/her to willingly take steps to correct his behavior. It also means that a coach knows that changes need to be made, as he/she is aware that his/her methods are not yielding the desired results.

The third level was the unconscious competent. This player is unable to identify what they did to yield the desirable outcome, so they are incapable of repeating it. The same applies to a coach in this phase. He/she is unaware of what they did in preparation, so it cannot be replicated.

The fourth level is where we all want to work from. You probably have figured out by now, that it is the conscious competent level.

The player/coach knows exactly what behavior predicated the desired result, so they are able to replicate it on a consistent basis. This, according to the lecturer, was the only acceptable place to coach from. Food for thought.