Football and the Dim, Dark Nooks and Crannies of the Mind

It was the existentialist philosopher Albert Camus who famously said, “All that I know surely about morality and the obligations of man, I owe to football.” Now, I haven’t the faintest idea what he meant by that, however the quote does show how it has been noticed that football has inherent, meaningful qualities from which we can learn about ourselves. In short then, it is been noticed football is about more than just efficacy. It is about acts of beauty, glory, skill and brilliance. Football therefore can point to something inherently brilliant about being an evolved, blinking, breathing, conscious creature. I think one of the ways in which football may do this perhaps, is in terms of psychology. Football, and I believe this to be beyond debate has produced some breathtaking moments of wonderful, inexplicable spontaneity. Now, where do those outrageous moments, those split second decisions come from? From what dim, dark nooks and crannies of the mind do these sparks of excellence spring forth?

Sports psychologists talk about the concept of being in the ‘zone' and having 'flow.' Flow is a pleasing experiential state that occurs during full capacity engagement in which an individual is performing at a level that is matched with the demands of the task. I think we can all experience flow even doing the most mundane and profane things, such as making ourselves a cup of tea or making the bed for example. It is commonplace in itself however it is when flow heightens to a state of being in "the zone" that I think things get interesting. The zone as Ed Smith, a retired professional cricketer perfectly put in his exceptional piece The Mystery of Sporting Form, is;

“an isolated experience of complete absorption, a period of time when there are no extraneous, irrelevant thoughts...What does it feel like, being in the zone? You do no more or no less than what you have to. There are few inessential movements, little psychological or physiological waste. Every movement has a purpose, a reason behind it.”

When a player is in the zone, perhaps then this is where the jaw dropping stuff starts happening. When the mind is clear of extraneous thoughts, it is fully focused, concentrated, the brilliant stuff has room to spring forth, the magic happens. The x wing lifts out of the swamp and Rooney scores an over head kick against Manchester City. Being in the zone is about 'just doing it' like the Nike slogan.To hammer home this point,  about 'just doing it' letting the mind do it's thing, the Guardian Secret Footballer wrote;

“You see, if you are a top footballer, your subconscious mind knows more about football then you ever will. It is only when our critical mind – the one we use for “thinking”, not just “doing” – gets involved that we get compromised. If we can just fall back on knowing that we know how to do something, and not having to consciously calculate how to do it, we stand more chance of performance. This is perfectly illustrated by the fact a player can make a pinpoint pass while running at speed, off balance, over 50 yards but when it comes to the penalty spot, the bit about turning amateur is in the fact that we start to “over think”. We become technical and mindful of the process.”

It seems then that the subconscious mind has more to do with what we do than what we think.  

In his piece, The Question: Do Footballers Know What they're Doing? Jonathan Wilson quotes from a Wayne Rooney interview;

"When a cross comes into a box," Rooney said, "there's so many things that go through your mind in a split second, like five or six different things you can do with the ball. You're asking yourself six questions in a split second. Maybe you've got time to bring it down on the chest and shoot, or you have to head it first-time. If the defender is there, you've obviously got to try and hit it first-time.”

We (Wilson) will come back to Rooney.

Now I know absolutely nothing of psychology, and I do not know enough to go into this in any detail whatsoever however from my layman's reading it seems evidence suggests that our subconscious mind does most of the work and that our minds may actually work to present to our conscious minds the illusion of free will, to trick us into being convinced of our agency. To use my poor handle of language, it seems brain activity occurs before action and the self conscious awareness of doing the action. The brain seems to act before we get the sensation of deciding to act. Sam Harris someone who would regard themselves both a philosopher and neuro-scientist blogged that;

"A persons conscious thoughts, intentions, and efforts at every moment are preceded by causes of which he is unaware." 

And to continue with the Wayne Rooney point here Wilson then goes on to write;

"If that is the case, then those six questions in a split-second" Rooney experiences have been answered before he has even asked them...and, if that is true, then it turns out...that (Alan) Shearer was right; that moments of sporting excellence are inexplicable."

It is the mystery of our minds in all this that really interests me. Not too long ago I watched BBC Horizon episode entitled Out of Control? In it scientists were told to represent on a piece of paper how much the conscious mind has to do with what we do. The small scribbles drawn to represent the amount our conscious mind had to do with what we do suggest our subconscious minds have a much larger role to play than previously thought. I think it may be the way that being in the zone shushes our conscious mind and clears its clunky processes from us that leads to moments of inexplicable brilliance (though this is of course not to discount individual genius) where our big mind, our subconscious mind, has more opportunity to shine through. Some goals are just so marvelous and awe provoking, I guess it is the inexplicable nature of them that makes them so magical to us.