OODA Loop–Tool for Teaching Decision Making in Sport

For years I have been a big fan and practitioner of the OODA Loop. The OODA Loop was developed in the late 1960s by US Air Force Colonel John Boyd to help train fighter pilots during the Vietnam War. But know I want to talk about it in the context of sport and how it can be used to teach decision-making on the field to your athletes.

The simple thing about the Loop is that is provides a decision maker–whether you are deciding what kind of ice cream to order or what play to put into action on the court–a simple way of cutting through the noise and distraction to focus on decision-making. You can read more about the OODA Loop here.

What spurred me to write this blog is a soccer coach’s (bettersoccermorefun on YouTube) short videos using the OODA Loop to teach decision making on the soccer field. Check them out here, here and here.

See if you can incorporate the Loop into your coaching. Good luck!