Understanding constraints on sport performance from the complexity sciences paradigm: An ecological dynamics framework

Abstract

Glazier’s suggestion for the constraints-led approach as a GUT for sport performance is a worthy proposal. What is missing from these preliminary insights is a principled basis, in the form of pillars, for understanding the cornerstones of the sports medicine profession, and this lack of an overarching theoretical framework is also somewhat of a limitation in Glazier's initial ideas, as we argue later. Here we suggest that his preliminary proposal would benefit from considering a more comprehensive ontological positioning within the complexity sciences paradigm to benefit from conceptualising athletes and sports teams as complex adaptive systems. We argue that ecological dynamics provides a more encompassing rationale than the constraint-led approach because it is a multi-dimensional theoretical framework shaped by many relevant disciplines.