Sullivan, M. O., Woods, C. T., Vaughan, J., & Davids, K. (2021). Towards a contemporary player learning in development framework for sports practitioners. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 16(5), 1214-1222.

Link 👇

Towards a contemporary player learning in development framework for sports practitioners - Mark O Sullivan, Carl T Woods, James Vaughan, Keith Davids, 2021

🚀 Article in 3 Sentences

1. This paper aims to overcome the challenges of interpreting the ideas of Ecological Dynamics and make it easier for coaches to implement. They use Adolph’s notion of ‘Learning in Development’ to frame to CLA in a user friendly way
2. The paper looks at how to develop knowledge ‘in’ the game rather than knowledge ‘of’ the game. Learning can be understood as ‘Wayfinding’
3. In Phase 1 the coach’s role is to encourage player-environment interactions through co-designing tasks. They take the role of a facilitator. Phase 2 of the framework is based around developing skilled players from an ecological dynamics perspective. The 3rd phases focuses on the effects that the training is having on the players over different timescales.

🤝Impressions

This paper looks to try implement key ideas from Ecological Dynamics in a user friendly way and I think that they do it in a very nice way. Definitely a must read paper

🎾How Article will influence my coaching

• Have an idea of what the affordances are that you want to really highlight and use constraints to shape their intentions.
• Make sure that it’s the knowledge in the game your are focusing on developing with the players
• Guide the players to discover their own unique solutions.
• What is the meaning and value of the opportunity for that person? We can design our sessions to make certain opportunities more valuable
• The foundation for task design image is really nice. What would this look like for tennis?
• It’s important to use constraints to shape the players intentions. This will help guide their perception and actions
• Incentivise behaviours but don’t rule behaviours out
• Think about how you can manipulate the practice design to shape the behaviours of the athletes before giving instructions.

🥇Top Quotes

<aside> 💡 The key point here for practitioners is that in this framework, learning is based on an active engagement and interaction of an individual with a performance environment, as they learn to attune to environmental information matched to their action capabilities. (View Highlight)

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