The information processing model
Physical Education · GCSE · The School
Four stages
INPUT: information arrives through the senses, mainly sight and hearing, such as seeing an opponent move. DECISION-MAKING: the brain selects a response from the options available. OUTPUT: the chosen response is carried out as movement. FEEDBACK: information about how it went feeds back in, ready for the next cycle. A skilled performer runs this loop continuously, not once per action.
Three kinds of time
REACTION TIME: from the stimulus appearing to the response beginning. MOVEMENT TIME: from the response beginning to its completion. RESPONSE TIME: reaction time plus movement time together, the whole thing, start to finish. A sprinter's reaction time off the gun and their movement time down the track are different things, and a question asking for one is not answered by the other.
Why more choices are slower
HICK'S LAW: decision-making time increases as the number of possible responses increases. A goalkeeper facing a penalty with three plausible directions decides more slowly than one facing an opponent who only ever shoots one way. This is why scouting an opponent's habits genuinely speeds up decisions. It narrows the real number of choices, even though every option is still technically available.
A goalkeeper faces a penalty. INPUT: the kicker's hip angle and run-up shift slightly to one side, picked up in the split second before contact. DECISION-MAKING: the goalkeeper selects "dive right" from the options of left, right or stay central, faster than usual because scouting has already narrowed the real options to two. OUTPUT: the dive is executed, a physical movement with its own movement time, separate from the decision that triggered it. FEEDBACK: the ball is saved or not, and that outcome feeds into the next penalty faced. Slow down any one stage, a hesitant read of the hips, a slower push-off, and the save is missed even if the other three stages were perfect.
Which stage to train
Raw reaction time barely improves with practice. It is close to a physical limit. What DOES improve with practice is decision-making, through experience that narrows real choices, and output, through a more efficient learned movement. Coaching that only drills "react faster" is training the one stage least able to change. Scouting, pattern recognition and technique work the other two.
Reading which stage failed
When a skill breaks down under pressure, naming which stage failed is worth more than saying the player "panicked". A player who looks in the wrong place has an input failure. One who freezes or picks the wrong option has a decision-making failure. One who reads the play correctly but still mistimes the movement has an output failure. Each has a different fix, which is why the stage matters more than the label.