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Jul 04, 2025
5 min read

The Neuroscience of the Knowing-Doing Gap: Why Knowing How Isn’t the Same as Doing It

Why even the best coaches, athletes, or founders sometimes struggle to perform what they know. A neuroscience deep dive into the gap between knowing and doing – and how to bridge it.

🎧 Listen on Spotify

👉 Podcast Episode: The Knowing-Doing Gap


Introduction

Everyone has experienced a frustrating gap between knowing how to do something and actually doing it.

A tennis coach might teach perfect serving technique, yet double-fault under pressure. A startup founder can recite best practices, but stumble when pitching to investors. This phenomenon – the knowing-doing gap – is rooted deeply in neuroscience and how our brains encode, recall, and apply different types of knowledge.

This blog post is a deep-dive into:

  • Why having declarative knowledge (“know what”) doesn’t guarantee procedural execution (“know how”)
  • What neural circuits control learning vs. performance
  • What blocks us – including overthinking, fear, and memory overload
  • What science-backed strategies can help you bridge the gap

Applicable to athletes, coaches, and founders alike – this is for anyone who’s tired of knowing a lot, but doing too little.


🧠 Knowing What vs. Knowing How

The brain stores declarative knowledge (facts, concepts) in the hippocampus and frontal lobes. But procedural knowledge (how to serve, how to pitch, how to swing) is stored in the basal ganglia and cerebellum.

“You can understand how to serve perfectly. But unless you’ve built the motor memory, your body can’t execute under pressure.”

Even expert coaches can underperform if they haven’t repeatedly trained the physical skill. This explains why some great coaches weren’t great players – and vice versa.


🧩 How the Brain Transitions from Learning to Doing

At first, learning a skill uses prefrontal cortex and working memory: it’s deliberate, conscious.

But with repetition, the skill moves to the basal ganglia and becomes automatic.

  • Think: riding a bike, typing a password, serving a tennis ball.
  • When done well, it feels like flow – no active thinking required.

However, under stress, the brain often reverts to conscious control, disrupting fluid performance – a phenomenon known as “paralysis by analysis.”

fMRI scans show increased prefrontal activation in skilled athletes who choke under pressure. They literally “think themselves out” of their skill.


🧱 What Blocks the Bridge from Knowing to Doing?

1. Overthinking & Working Memory Overload

Too many cues (“elbow here”, “snap wrist”, “rotate core”) slows down action.

🧪 Studies:

  • Basketball players lost 15% accuracy when told to focus on technique
  • Tennis players dropped 19% shot accuracy when overloaded with cues

2. Lack of Procedural (Somatic) Practice

You can read all the theory – but unless you do the motion, your motor circuits don’t build the pathways.

“Neurons that fire together, wire together.”
Practice builds myelinated neural highways in the brain.


3. Psychological Friction: Fear & Habit

  • Fear of failure or judgment triggers the amygdala, flooding the body with stress hormones.
  • We default to habits when under pressure, especially if prefrontal cortex is tired.

You don’t rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your training.


🔧 How to Bridge the Knowing-Doing Gap

1. Simulate Context & Pressure

Train like you perform. Add constraints, consequences, or stressors to mimic real play or pitch settings.

🎾 Athletes: scorekeeping, fake crowd noise
🎤 Founders: pitch to strangers or skeptics


2. Interleaved Practice

Mix different drills together instead of blocking them.

🏀 Mix: dribbling → passing → shooting
👩‍💻 Mix: frontend bug → backend logic → live debugging

It feels harder but builds stronger long-term adaptability.


3. Prime Your Brain

Trigger neuroplasticity through:

  • Novelty (new drills/tools)
  • Exercise (especially before learning)
  • Focus (eliminate distractions)
  • Sleep (especially after evening practice)

🧠 Exercise boosts BDNF (a brain growth factor).
🛌 Sleep consolidates motor memory and improves next-day performance.


4. Tighten Feedback Loops

Use:

  • Video replay
  • Real-time metrics
  • Coach feedback
  • Self-assessment

The brain’s cerebellum is always adjusting based on feedback. You should too.

Feedback isn’t optional – it’s how procedural memory tunes itself.


🏁 Closing Thoughts

Whether you’re an athlete, coach, or founder, bridging the knowing-doing gap is a lifelong challenge. But neuroscience shows it’s a trainable skill, not a fixed trait.

  • Practice under conditions you’ll perform in
  • Let go of overanalysis
  • Focus on procedural reps, not just learning theory
  • Rest and recover
  • Build habits through context and feedback

The goal is to unify your knowledge and execution, so your best ideas show up when they matter most.


📚 References & Further Reading


Published by Hannah Zhao