Modes of Cognitive Control in Official Game Handball Coaching

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify the dynamic adjustment of the cognitive control modes used by three professional head coaches during the defensive part of a handball match and, in particular, to highlight the contextual factors that have an effect on these modes. Two main aspects characterize cognitive control modes: the level of abstraction (symbolic/subsymbolic) and the origin (internal-anticipative/external-reactive) of the data used for control. Verbal communications between three coaches and their teams were recorded during 15 matches. The verbal meaningful units were encoded using a general cognitive method introduced by Amalberti and Hoc and coded using a predicate–argument format with MacSHAPA software. Analysis shows relationships between the mode of cognitive control used by coaches and the level of difficulty characterizing the situation. When the level of difficulty is low, coaches favor a reactive mode of control guided by external and subsymbolic data, whereas they favor a more abstract level of control and more internal data when facing a difficult situation. In the latter case, different coaching styles are in evidence.