ALEXANDRIA OLTON

“GOLF OR cricket?” “Roti or doubles?” “Do groceries today or not?” Every day, we as individuals are faced with a multitude of choices from the very simple to the more complex. We make choices in every realm of life from work and school to family, relationships, and social activities.

Some studies even suggest that the average person makes an astounding 35,000 choices per day. Assuming that most people spend six to eight hours sleeping that’s approximately 2,000 decisions per hour or one decision every two seconds (Krockow, 2018).

Similarly, athletes are constantly faced with choices in both training and competition environments – “left or right?” “Fast pace or medium pace?” “Shot on or not?” “Sprint or jog?” “Short pass or long pass?” and the list goes on…Many of these choices are made quickly and instinctively and some require further contemplation and reflection: this mental process is known as decision-making.

So, are there internal and external factors that influence the decisions we make? The short answer is absolutely! The choices we make, particularly those that are made quickly and instinctively are as a result of the heuristics we would have developed over time. While the brain is a fascinating processor it is also one that works most efficiently, that is it always chooses the shortest route from A to B. Heuristics are one of the many ways the brain works efficiently to speed up the decision-making process.

So, what exactly are heuristics? A heuristic is a mental shortcut that allows individuals to solve problems and make judgments quickly and efficiently. They are designed to reduce mental effort needed to make decisions, simplify complex and difficult questions and are fast and accurate ways of arriving at conclusions. But like many other habits/practices in psychology there are drawbacks if we are not aware of the information, we are using to form our heuristics.

For example, if a junior athlete consistently trains with a coach that provides instruction every time, they are in a 1v1 situation rather than letting the athlete make the choice, eventually the heuristic they will develop will be to listen for an instruction rather than make the decision themselves.

As this athlete progresses from junior to senior level, inefficiencies would be noted in their decision-making and this might simply be due to the practicing of a poor heuristic. The beauty of mental skills is that they are malleable, and self-awareness is critical to identifying what some of our heuristic biases and blind spots might be.

So, what information do we use to form heuristics and what types of heuristics are there? There are four main types:

1) The availability heuristic: this involves making decisions based upon how easy it is to bring something to mind. For example, if you are thinking of trying football and suddenly recall of a number of recent football-related accidents you came across, you might feel like football is too dangerous and decide to play tennis instead. Because those examples of foo