---
title: "Tony Nicalo on why measuring perception accelerates learning"
date: 2026-11-10T06:00:00-05:00
categories: ["opinion"]
url: https://tacticsjournal.com/2026/11/10/tony-nicalo-on-why-measuring-perception-accelerates-learning/
---

# Tony Nicalo on why measuring perception accelerates learning

[Author of The Weasel Way and presenter of United Soccer Coaches' Reading the Game series Tony Nicalo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEiHXJbBgds&t=15s):

> In perceptual training, measurement does more than become something that is managed. It accelerates learning.
>
> When a player knows you'll count their scanning, they scan more. Measurement creates attention, and what players attend to is what gets stored.
>
> The instrument becomes part of the training.

I wish coaches taught me how to scan when I was a kid.

[Nicalo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEiHXJbBgds&t=53s):

> It's exactly how we implemented it with a World Cup-winning coach and his team.
>
> For them, we also built a library of pause-and-quiz videos. We measure the speed and accuracy of the players' responses to rate their reading ability.
>
> But this is what they measure on the pitch, in training and matches.

This would be a great app idea local to a club, if it doesn’t exist already.

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