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The Mind / Part I: The Conscious Mind

  • Peter McGahey & Peter Pierro
  • Apr 29, 2022
  • 2 min read

We want our players to learn the tactics and strategies of the game so well that they’ll know what to do and when to do it. That’s the job of the Conscious Mind. We also want our players to learn their skills so well that they won’t have to think about them as they’re playing - they’ll know how to do them and then just do them. That’s the job of the Subconscious Mind. This means that we’ll work with them in the Conscious Mind (during the practice) so that these skills will be carried out in the Subconscious Mind (during the performance) - to become ‘automatic’ so that they will be done without having to think about it. We will also work with them so that they know the game so well they will be able to “think on the run” and be able to make the correct moves. We will also be aware of and make use of the different functions of the two parts of the brain so that our players will develop organization and decision-making skills.

The conscious mind deals with new things, new thoughts, new ideas, new decisions. As you are reading this your conscious mind is absorbing the information and deciding what to do with it. It may choose to reinterpret it in terms of your knowledge and/or beliefs about this topic; it may reject it totally and refuse to add it to your database; or it may find it interesting and add it to your present knowledge and re-access and revise that knowledge.


When you’re teaching your kids new strategies and skills, you’re working with them in the conscious mode. You know they need to have new information added to the information that they now have. You have to expect them to have some difficulties because this is new stuff. Mistakes will be a part of the process. You should look for the simplest ways to help your players get better. The players have to understand that any new skill they learn will feel “unnatural”, even “strange” for a while. When you have Allie bring the ball up from hip level to eye level to shoot her free throws, she’s going to say, “That feels funny.” It does feel funny because you are taking her out of her comfort zone. A few weeks later if you told her to try a free shot from hip level, she would say, “That feels funny.” That change has gone from the conscious to the subconscious level and we can call it habitual behavior.

Practicing in the conscious mode must be very focused. For example, you have just told Allie to take 10 shots with her new position. Keep her focused on each one of those shots.


Be sure to come back next week as we share The Mind / Part II: The Unsubconscious Mind


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