Question: would you say that the more successful one is at a particular sport ,the more aware they are of there actions, for example would someone such as messi be more aware than someone , who plays the same position as him,who has scored much less goals?

Stuart Mourton answered on 13 Jun 2011:

Wow, that’s a great question! As it’s so impressive and well written I’ll give you the full-on degree level answer, so stick with me on this!
There are quite a few theories on what we call ‘Skill Acquisition’ or how you learn and perform skills, and one that has been around for a good few years and is pretty well accepted as being pretty much bang-on focuses on what are called the Stages of Learning. This theory says that as you learn a skill (be it something small and contained like a golf putt, or a large general skill like being a good all round midfield player in football) you pass through 3 different stages of skill level. These are called Cognitive, Associative and Autonomous. I won’t go into the full details of each stage but people in the cognitive stage are still learning a skill and aren’t very good at it. They will make lots of mistakes, have to think really hard about what they are doing, and will need lots of help from a coach. However someone like Messi will be right at the top end of the Autonomous stage and you can see that all the things that describe a person in this stage fit for him and his abilities. Here the individual makes very few errors in their movements (tick!) can repeat skills over and over without making wrong moves (tick!) and most importantly in this case, do not have to think about their movements at all, the whole process is completely automatic (hence the stage’s name!) This means that Messi doesn’t have to think about how to control or pass the ball, he just ‘does’ it. This means that he will have loads of additional time and what we call attentional capacity to worry about things like the position of his team mates and the opposition. So in this sense Messi could actually be described as being almost LESS aware of their actions than someone who is not such a good player. If you asked someone who had just learnt how to volley a ball properly to explain it to you they could probably reel of the coaching tips they had just been given. (Head over the ball, follow through in the direction you want the ball to go, etc) but Messi would probably have to think a bit about it before he could tell you. He is so used to just doing the skill he actually probably isn’t aware of what he is doing. This is the reason that not all great players make great coaches! He is of course VERY aware of how his actions will influence any particular play and what it will make the opposition do which is what makes him so good (as well as his touch, passing ability, strength on the ball, fitness levels, mental strength……….I could go on!)
Sorry that was such a long answer but as I said, it was a really good question so wanted to give you a full answer!!