Training programme designs in professional team sport: An ecological dynamics exemplar

Carl T Woods; Ian McKeown; Richard J Shuttleworth; Keith Davids; Sam Robertson

doi:10.1016/j.humov.2019.05.015

Training programme designs in professional team sport: An ecological dynamics exemplar

Hum Mov Sci. 2019 Aug:66:318-326. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2019.05.015. Epub 2019 May 25.

Authors

Carl T Woods¹, Ian McKeown², Richard J Shuttleworth³, Keith Davids³, Sam Robertson⁴

Affiliations

¹ Port Adelaide Football Club, Football Department, South Australia, Australia. Electronic address: cwoods@pafc.com.au.
² Port Adelaide Football Club, Football Department, South Australia, Australia.
³ Centre for Sports Engineering Research (CSER), Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK.
⁴ Institute for Health and Sport (IHES), Victoria University, Victoria, Australia.

PMID: 31136905
DOI: 10.1016/j.humov.2019.05.015

Abstract

Ecological dynamics is a contemporary theory of skill acquisition, advocating the mutuality of the performer-environment system, with clear implications for the design of innovative training environments in elite sport. It contends that performance behaviours emerge, and are adapted, by athletes satisfying a confluence of constraints impacting on their structural and functional capacities, the physics of a performance environment and the intended task goals. This framework implicates contemporary models of coaching, training design and sport science support, to stimulate continuous interactions between an individual and performance environment, predicated on representative learning designs (RLD). While theoretical principles of RLD in ecological dynamics are tangible, their practical application in elite and high level (team) sports need verification. Here, we exemplify how data sampled from a high-performance team sport setting could underpin innovative methodologies to support practitioners in designing representative training activities. We highlight how the use of principles grounded within ecological dynamics, along with data from performance analytics, could suggest contemporary models of coaching and preparation for performance in elite sport.

Keywords: Constraints-led approach; Ecological dynamics; Interdisciplinarity; Localised interactions; Performance analysis; Representative learning design; Skill acquisition.