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How Memories Can Fail You (And Thus Why You Should Use Performance Analysis)
How Memories Can Fail You
I have written previously about how memory can fail you and thus why you should use performance analysis as part of the coaching process (see link for more information). This has happened to me countless times and will continue to happen. My thoughts on how a match went immediately after its conclusion will invariably be much different after watching the match video and reviewing the stats. Your emotion and bias from the match will affect your observation and thinking. Additionally, you simply can’t remember everything that happened in a match. This is why I don’t talk too much about the match in the team debrief straight after the match because I know what I say will invariably be incorrect or unimportant.
Another way how memory can fail you is by creating false memories. You can remember something that has happened when it did not. There is a study showing experienced gymnastic coaches, compared to inexperienced coaches, were more likely to report differences when there were none and did not identify actual differences in performances any more successfully than the inexperienced coaches. This has probably happened to me too. However, there is one very recent and very blatant example of how I created a false memory that I later disproved to myself.
Personal Account of Creating a False Memory
I coached USA at this year’s All Nations London Tournament (blog reflection to be written very soon). I had one outside hitter called Maggie Steward. I remember a libero with a similar name who played for Cambridge & Anglia Ruskin University in the 2019-20 season. Although they had similar names, in my mind they were two separate players who just coincidentally had similar names. The main reason for this was that I actually came across Maggie a few weeks prior when I had my division-deciding match with Flaming Six Coyotes and she was playing on the next court. That Maggie was a lot taller in person and I thought the Cambridge libero was a lot smaller so they could not have been the same player. Plus, there was the fact that USA Maggie was an outside hitter and the Cambridge Maggie was a libero.
At some point, I had it in my mind that the Cambridge player was called Maggie Stewart (with a “t”) and the USA player I had was called Maggie Steward (with a “d”). They were two completely different players with just coincidentally two similar sounding names. I even told this coincidence to one of the other Team USA players as if it was a fact.
That was the end of the story for me really. It was until I was on DataVolley statting a USA match and I thought I should just check the Cambridge libero’s name since I was there. To my absolute horror, the libero’s name was Maggie Steward (with a “d”) and not Maggie Stewart (with a “t”). I then remembered that the Cambridge libero did play outside hitter towards the end of the season because I remembered she had a heavy hand. The USA player also had a heavy hand. Maybe they were the same person. To confirm this, I looked up a video of a match she played in (a match against Polonia SideOut London no less). To my surprise, I found that they looked very much the same player. Maggie later confirmed it for me.
I have been trying to rack my brains as to how I thought the Cambridge player’s surname was Stewart (with a “t”)? How did I get there? This was something I completely fabricated myself. The best explanation I have is I have both “Maggie Stewart volleyball” and “Maggie Steward volleyball” in my Google search history. I assumed I search “Maggie Stewart volleyball” first by mistake before searching “Maggie Steward volleyball”. I must have subconsciously made that jump that the Cambridge ARU player was called Maggie Stewart (with a “t”). That’s my best guess anyway.
Thus Why You Should Use Performance Analysis
This personal account is just another example of why you should use performance analysis (see link for other examples of how performance analysis helped me). You can’t remember everything and what you do remember may be false. So how can you provide analysis and feedback to your players based on your memory of your observations, which will be incomplete and even false?
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