I was made aware of this book from a mention on one of Vern
Gambetta’s Facebook postings. It piqued my interest as I am a coach for a youth
sports team and I had been thinking about how to use the neuro scientific
results that has been seemingly flying out academia. I bought the book at the
beginning of August and decided to give it a crack, an unusual thing for me as
I usually have a tall To Be Read stack balancing precariously on my end table.
I had just finished reading Grit, the book by Angela Duckworth and I was
excited but also puzzled by the unfulfilled promise of that book. I was disturbed
by the lack of any discussion as to How to train Grit. I was definitely looking
for something more all-encompassing of the neuropsychology area. As it turned
out, this book explained many of my puzzles.
The book is split into three clear sections; the reason for
the split is well explained in the introduction. The three sections are: Playmaker’s Foundation, Playmaker’s Cognition,
and finally Playmaker’s Commitment. The first section describes the research
that has been done on defining what the authors mean by the Playmaker’s
qualities and how they researched the playmaker qualities. Unlike most of the
summaries of the literature on the subjects, the account of the research is
fascinating and the synopsis of the results and conclusions were concise and
explicit without shortchanging the nuances of this research.
Playmaker’s Cognition is the revelatory section of the book,
in my opinion, as this is where the authors deconstructs the mythology around
the decision making process that Playmakers go through as well as the cognitive
processes that explains some of the why’s and how’s. This was particularly
interesting because the authors were able to delineate the specific steps for
decision making and the motivation for the steps, which implicitly gives us an
idea as to how to train the athlete to work towards attaining the state of
being of a playmaker. There are three chapters in this section: Search, Decide,
and Execute, each chapter addressing the progressive steps of good decision
making. This was a revelation to me, even though in hindsight the steps and
sequence made perfect sense. It was one of those: why didn’t I think of that
moment.
Finally, the last section on Playmaker Commitment section is
the section where the authors address a number of topics appearing in the
popular press that seemed dodgy. Topics like Grit, Growth Mindset, and the ten
thousand hour rule; topics that had captured the imagination of many who are
seeking a formula or a recipe for success in whatever endeavor they have an
interest in. Since this book follows the others by a few years, the authors
were able to address the ambiguities inadvertently left exposed in the other
books, ambiguities that pulled the mass audience zealously into popular, yet
misguided and false conclusions. I had read the tomes regarding all of these
ideas, and they left me puzzled since the books did not address how to attain
these qualities, but this book boldly states that no one really knows how to
train grit, or inculcate a growth mindset, or truly believe that ten thousand
hours is sufficient for mastery. In fact, ten thousand hours idea is not even applicable
to the sporting world that this book is addressing. The authors did a real
service for the other authors and debunked the populist myth that had taken
over the popular press.
In fact, there will be many who will find dissatisfaction with
the lack of a formula with this book, because in the end the authors are
scientists and careful practitioners, it is their professional responsibility
to be accurate and precise, even if doing so means not giving sound bitesques
conclusions. They do however give us enough information for us to experiment
ourselves and try to apply the concepts that they were able to uncover and
summarize.
I am planning the season for a youth team that I coach, and
I am now rethinking my usual coaching plans and integrating the ideas from this
book as a part of the major revamp of my philosophy and the way the various
parts of my coaching fit together. This will be an adventure of a grand scale.
I am happy to have this guide which does not give me a recipe but will guide me
through my thinking and philosophizing.
