Abstract
A fundamental challenge for practitioners in high-level sporting environments concerns how to support athletes in adapting behaviours to solve emergent problems during competitive performance. Guided by an ecological dynamics framework, the design and integration of competitive performance preparation models that place athlete-environment interactions at the heart of the learning process may address this challenge. This ecological conceptualisation of performance preparation signifies a shift in a coach’s role; evolving from a consistent solution provider to a learning environment designer who fosters local athlete-environment interactions. However, despite the past decades of research within the ecological dynamics framework developing an evidence-based, theoretical conceptualisation of skill acquisition, expertise and talent development, an ongoing challenge resides within its practical integration into sporting environments. This article provides two case examples in which high-level sports organisations have utilised an ecological dynamics framework for performance preparation in Australian football and Association Football. A unique perspective is offered on experiences of professional sport organisations attempting to challenge traditional ideologies for athlete performance preparation by progressing the theoretical application of ecological dynamics. These case examples intend to promote the sharing of methodological ideas to improve athlete development, affording opportunities for practitioners and applied scientists to accept, reject or adapt the approaches presented here to suit their specific ecosystems.
Highlights
A fundamental challenge for practitioners in high-level sporting environments concerns how to support athletes in adapting behaviours to solve emergent problems during competitive performance
Given the re-positioning of skill acquisition as ‘skill adaptation’ within ecological dynamics, it is the progressive attunement to relevant continuously emerging and decaying affordances that a coach should consider within their practice designs, not the rehearsal of the same solution to the task goal
An important current and future challenge for the theory of ecological dynamics resides within its practical integration
Summary
Ecological dynamics offers a theoretical framework to guide performance preparation in sport from high-performance to developmental environments. The implications of this ecological conceptualisation of ‘skill’ are important to consider for sporting practitioners, as it suggests that practice tasks should promote an environment in which athletes are faced with continual problems, which they are required to solve To enable this design approach, and aid ensuing exploration, a team of practitioners could consider the manipulation of a range of key constraints to educate an athlete’s attention towards features of their environment critical to the solving of emergent problems specific to his/her action capabilities. Given the re-positioning of skill acquisition as ‘skill adaptation’ within ecological dynamics, it is the progressive attunement to relevant continuously emerging and decaying affordances that a coach should consider within their practice designs, not the rehearsal of the same (static) solution to the task goal It is through this attunement process that an athlete can learn to functionally adapt movements to exploit key constraints to achieve the same task goal [41]. Afford opportunities for players to lead their
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