Reference

Chow, J. Y., Komar, J., & Seifert, L. (2021). The role of nonlinear pedagogy in supporting the design of modified games in junior sports. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 744814.

🚀 Article in 3 Sentences

1. The paper introduces some of the key ideas of Ecological Dynamics with an emphasis on the learner-environment mutuality and learning to learn
2. Explains the principles of Non-Linear Pedagogy and discusses some of the evidence behind how they support the design of learning environments

🤝Impressions

This paper is my favorite read from the past year. It covers important coaching aspects and offers valuable insights that can enhance coaching practices and understanding. I highly recommend adding it to your reading list as it explores important topics in coaching and sports research in a comprehensive way.

👨‍🏫Who should read this?

Every coach-Task Simplification is a really important concept that all coaches need to be aware of.

🎾How Article will influence my coaching

• Understanding the dynamic nature of developing movement skills is crucial for academics and practitioners. It involves comprehending the mutual interaction and interdependence between learners and their environment.-The concept of learner-environment mutuality refers to the idea that the individual and the environment are interdependent and cannot be considered separately. "Interdependent" means that two or more things rely on each other and work together. In the context of the individual-environment mutuality, it means that a person's abilities and skills are not just determined by their own characteristics, but also by the environment they are in.
• Wayfinding is the act of purposefully and intentionally exploring and moving from one area to another in a landscape. It involves a self-regulated journey of exploration.
• "Learning to learn" involves individuals developing decision-making, exploration, and adaptation skills over an extended period.
• To encourage exploratory behaviors, practitioners can promote practice variability by cleverly manipulating task constraints. However, the challenge lies in determining the appropriate extent of variability that should be incorporated into the practices.
• Constraints manipulation is the cornerstone of all design principles, as it supports the implementation of other principles. By manipulating constraints, practitioners can create practices that are more representative, simplify tasks, adjust informational constraints, and introduce varying levels of practice variability.

📃Takeaways for coaches

• To promote physical literacy in children, it is important for practitioners to create effective practices that offer various opportunities for exploration and development.-As coaches we can support the development of physical literacy by designing tasks that give the player’s a chance to explore and develop various different movement solutions
• Nonlinear Pedagogy, based on the principles of Ecological Dynamics, offers design principles to assist practitioners by accounting for the nonlinearity observed in learning and providing ideas for supporting them.-The principles of NLP can support coaches to design sessions that will capture the non-linearity of learning.