Parkour as a Donor Sport for Athletic Development in Youth Team Sports: Insights Through an Ecological Dynamics Lens

Abstract The study was designed to examine how active and former athletes across a different sports level perceived coaching behavior. Eighty competitive athletes (44 males and 36 females; 21.89 ±1.48 years of age; 8.35 ± 3.65 years of competitive experience) from the University School of Physical Education in Cracow, Poland, participated in the study. They represented both individual (n = 50) and team sports (n = 30). Seventeen participants were internationally renowned and 63 were recognized for competitive excellence at a national level. The participants responded to a demographic survey and the Coaches’ Behaviors Survey. The qualitative analysis procedures were employed to extract themes from open-ended questions. It was confirmed that coaches who perceived their athletes as more skilled, also treated them differently. Female athletes as compared with male athletes, more frequently pointed at the leniency in coach’s behavior towards highly skilled athletes, and perceived it as a factor inhibiting athletic development. Additionally, women often found individualization of the training process as a behavior reinforcing development. Less accomplished athletes more often pointed out to “a post-training session interest in the athlete” as directed only towards more accomplished counterparts; however, they indicated “leniency and favoring” less often than the athletes with international achievements. They also listed “excessive criticism” as a type of behavior hindering development, but they indicated coaches’ “authoritarianism and distance” less frequently than the more accomplished counterparts. The study added data to the discussion of the Pygmalion effect and the phenomenon of the self-fulfilling prophecy both in general (Rosenthal and Jacobson, 1968; Harris and Rosenthal, 1985; Jussim, 1989) and sport psychology (Harris and Rosenthal, 1985; Horn et al., 1998; Solomon and Kosmitzki, 1996; Solomon et al., 1998; Solomon, 2001).

Download Full-text

An ecological dynamics rationale to explain home advantage in professional football

International Journal of Modern Physics C ◽

10.1142/s0129183116501023 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 27 (09) ◽

pp. 1650102 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

José Gama ◽

Gonçalo Dias ◽

Micael Couceiro ◽

Pedro Passos ◽

Keith Davids ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Complex Adaptive System ◽

Team Sports ◽

Professional Football ◽

Ecological Dynamics ◽

Theoretical Rationale ◽

Home Advantage ◽

Complex Adaptive ◽

Team Activity ◽

Text Version ◽

Number Of Passes

Despite clear findings, research on home advantage in team sports lacks a comprehensive theoretical rationale for understanding why this phenomenon is so compelling. The aim of this study was to provide an explanatory theoretical rationale in ecological dynamics for the influence of home advantage observed in research on professional football. We recorded 30 competitive matches and analyzed 13958 passes, from one highly successful team in the Portuguese Premier League, during season 2010/2011. Performance data were analyzed using the Match Analysis Software—Amisco[Formula: see text] (version 3.3.7.25), allowing us to characterize team activity profiles. Results were interpreted from an ecological dynamics perspective, explaining how task and environmental constraints of a competitive football setting required performers to continuously co-adapt to teammate behaviors. Despite slight differences in percentage of ball possession when playing home or away, the number of passes achieved by the team, while in possession of the ball, was quite different between home or away venues. When playing at home, the number of passes performed by the team was considerably higher than when playing away. The explanation proposed in this study for a home advantage effect can be understood from studying interpersonal coordination tendencies of team sports players as agents in a complex adaptive system.

Download Full-text

The Role of Ecological Dynamics in Analysing Performance in Team Sports

Sports Medicine ◽

10.2165/11596520-000000000-00000 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

pp. 1-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 116

Author(s):

Luís Vilar ◽

Duarte Araújo ◽

Keith Davids ◽

Chris Button

Keyword(s):

Team Sports ◽

Ecological Dynamics

Download Full-text

Ecological Dynamics Approach to Decision Making in Sport. Training Issues

Baltic Journal of Sport and Health Sciences ◽

10.33607/bjshs.v4i71.464 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (71) ◽

Author(s):

Natàlia Balagué ◽

Robert Hristovski ◽

Pablo Vazquez

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Systems Theory ◽

Dynamic Systems ◽

Current Model ◽

Team Sports ◽

Mental Process ◽

Dynamic Systems Theory ◽

Training Process ◽

Ecological Dynamics ◽

Sport Training

The content of an athlete’s perception during sports practice and the way it determines his / her decisions are some of the key questions in sport and have important consequences on the training process. The decision making in sport (DMS), influenced by cognitivist theories, has been considered until recently as a mere mental process more or less elaborated depending on the practitioner’s level. The current model, conceiving the perception of the environment and the action as separated processes, presents some limitations to explain the creativity, flexibility and adaptability that characterises the athlete behaviour. The juxtaposition of ecological psychology and dynamic systems theory (DST) under the name of ecological dynamics offer an original and alternative perspective to understand DMS. In this way, it appears that a specific mental process to produce the decisions is no longer necessary. The decisions seem to emerge spontaneously out of the nonlinear interaction of the components of the system. The personal, task, and environmental constraints in each specific context organize those components in specific configurations that present decisions of the system. From the new perspective, the decision is fruit of the athlete’s interaction with his / her context. Therefore, the athlete’s function is no longer act effectively. The paper offers a brief historical outline of the evolution of the concept of DMS, explains the basis and limitations of the cognitivistic model of DMS, develops the DMS from the ecological dynamics perspective — focusing on some main concepts (self-organisation, order and control parameters and phase transitions) and some recent research results in individual and team sports — and finally presents the practical consequences of the new model in the training process at three different levels: personal, task and environmental constraints.Keywords: decision-making in sport, ecological dynamics, dynamic systems theory, sports training.

Download Full-text

Conceptualising Rugby League Performance Within an Ecological Dynamics Framework: Providing Direction for Player Preparation and Development

Sports Medicine - Open ◽

10.1186/s40798-021-00375-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Tannath J. Scott ◽

Colin E. Sanctuary ◽

Matthew S. Tredrea ◽

Adrian J. Gray

Keyword(s):

Traditional Approach ◽

Team Sports ◽

Holistic Approach ◽

Rugby League ◽

Performance Model ◽

Linear Processes ◽

Match Play ◽

Ecological Dynamics ◽

Performance Preparation ◽

And Performance

AbstractAcross team sports, it is critically important to appropriately define, evaluate and then aptly describe individual and team performance. This is of particular significance when we consider that performance models govern the direction of player preparation (short term) and development (long term) frameworks. Within the context of rugby league, this has traditionally been undertaken through hierarchical and linear processes. Such approaches have resulted in research and performance analysis techniques which aim to support these operational outcomes. Yet, these methods may deliver limited application on how or why match-play unfolds and therefore might be sub-optimal in providing insights to truly support coaches. In this paper, we propose the conceptualisation of rugby league performance through the lens of ecological dynamics, which may offer a different view to this traditional approach. We propose that this approach eliminates the silos of disciplinary information (e.g. technical, physical and medical) that may currently exist, allowing for a holistic approach to performance, preparation and development. Specifically, we consider that through the implementation of this ecological approach, all performance coaches (technical, physical and medical) may (co-)design learning environments that more collaboratively develop players for rugby league match-play. As a result, we put forward a new rugby league performance model from which preparation and development programs can be anchored toward. We conclude the paper by offering practical examples where these concepts are contextualised within the landscape familiar to practitioners working within rugby league.

Download Full-text