Reference

Chow, J. Y., Button, C., Lee, M. C. Y., Morris, C., & Shuttleworth, R. (2023). Advice from “pracademics” of how to apply ecological dynamics theory to practice design. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 5.

🚀 Article in 3 Sentences

1. The aim of the article was to get honest insights from different pracademics to help with issues related to pedagogical approaches based on ecological dynamics.
2. Instead, our aim was to encourage you to shift your mindset (away from concepts like prescription and standardization) towards practices that emphasise and support adaptability

🤝Impressions

👨‍🏫Who should read this?

🎾How Article will influence my coaching

• Even though what eventually emerges may be different to what you predict, planning is still crucial to successfully apply Ecological Dynamics. One way you can do this is have a scaffold rather than a set plan
• Assessment shapes both the performers behaviour and the teachers behaviour. This is why it’s important to try design assessment tasks that are based on the design principles of NLP
• Designing tasks that allow athletes to explore new opportunities without over-constraining and losing representativeness can be a big challenge. Reduce without impoverishing

📃Takeaways for coaches

• Some of the features of non-linear learning can be intuitive for practitioners

-Non-proportional changes in behaviour during practice

-Multiple ways of moving to achieve the task goal

-Changing constraints requiring adaptive behaviour

-Using variability to support exploration during learning

• It’s very important to understand that goal-directed behaviours emerge due to the interactions among constraints
• The CLA approach involves analysing how task, performer, and environmental constraints interact with one another to shape the degrees of freedom afforded to learners or groups of learners. This helps shape movement behaviours that aim to achieve the task goal.
• The focus is on allowing learners to explore and exploit affordances, or opportunities for action, that arise from the interaction of task, performer, and environmental constraints.