Abstract
There have been multiple calls made in the sport science literature for the promotion of interdisciplinarity to progress some of sports’ most prevailing challenges. Designing practice environments that support learning represents one such challenge, particularly given contemporary perspectives of skill acquisition and motor learning calls for coaches to realign their role—progressing toward the designers of practice tasks that promote athlete-environment interactions. In doing so, performers learn through exploration, deepening a relationship with their performance environment as they solve problems based on changing and interacting constraints. This paper illustrates an interdisciplinary approach to the area of learning through sport practice by adapting established principles embedded in video game designs. Specifically, 13 principles common to good video game designs are described, with practical examples of each provided across different sports. Fundamentally, this paper aims to offer sports practitioners with an overview and application of key principles that could support learning by design. Beyond this, the ideas presented here should further illustrate the value of interdisciplinarity in sports research and practice.
Highlights
Over the past three decades, multiple calls have been made in the sports literature for the promotion of Despite this, traditional perspectives on learning in sport have tended to advocate a rather coach-centred approach, whereby a coach relies on giving direct instruction and constant, prescriptive feedback with the intent of shaping behaviour around a technical behavioural model [10, 11]
This paper shows how principles embedded in good video game designs can be applied to sport to support athlete learning and performance
Contemporary perspectives on learning and performance in sport have sought to embrace interdisciplinarity, integrating ideas from other disciplines to search for new ways to progress beyond the traditional ‘ways of doing’
Summary
This paper shows how principles embedded in good video game designs can be applied to sport to support athlete learning and performance. Each principle is accompanied with a unique sporting example—exemplifying what they may ‘look’ like for sports coaches seeking to bring them to life in practice. This paper should be seen to promote interdisciplinarity within sport science—drawing on other disciplines to help progress disciplinary challenges
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