The Constraints-Led Approach: Principles for Sports Coaching and Practice Design
Figures
2.1 The human body is composed of a multitude of interacting components (molecules or neurons, muscles, joints, limbs, bones), which form patterns or synergies to achieve task goals, here identified as a rower training on a Concept 2 rowing machine
2.2 How experiential and empirical knowledge can be harnessed by experienced coaches to inform their work with athletes and teams
2.3 Nature abounds with complex systems and many biological models to study in understanding how synergies can be continually formed by system components (rich patterns of behaviour) under constraints
2.4 The rabbit and the duck illusion
2.5 Interaction of limb segments, muscles, joints and perceptual systems (visual, haptic, proprioceptive) with important equipment during locomotion on road surfaces and pathways in wheelchair racing
2.6 With practice, gymnasts become highly attuned to visual, proprioceptive, haptic and acoustic information in their interactions with equipment (pommel horse), objects (balls and ribbons) and surfaces (floor) in their performance routines
2.7 How well does practice on an indoor climbing wall simulate the performance environment mountain climbing? How specific is transfer?
2.8 What effects on skill could we expect from undertaking an indoor climbing programme? Coordination of actions with respect to the environment
2.9 Perception–action coupling in springboard diving
2.10 Beginner badminton players often freeze up the degrees of freedom to simply ‘tap’ the shuttlecock back over the net, irrespective of the coach’s goal of developing a ‘clear shot’, where the overhead hitting action enables the player to hit the shuttlecock to the back of the court
2.11 Perceiving a gap between defenders and coordinating action accordingly in team games
2.12 Turvey (1990) emphasised the importance of the perception–action relationship in coordinating parts of the body with respect to movements of other people and objects in a dynamic environment
2.13 Humans can show wonderful adaptability and flexibility by exploiting inherent motor system degeneracy
2.14 Practising in the dry-land area of a diving programme
2.15 Volleyball serve on the ‘readying’ phase unopposed
3.1 Examples of interacting constraints
3.2 Verbal instructions have value in guiding the search of athletes for functional task solutions during practice
3.3 Drills in practice are over-used, emphasising repetition and rehearsal of specific movement patterns in static performance conditions, rather than the search for functional action solutions
3.4 The work of GB athletics coach Matthew Wood in manipulating informational constraints to guide the exploration of the run-up in hurdling exemplifies how verbal instructions can be kept to a minimum as the learner adapts to obstacles and signs in the environment to regulate the approach to the hurdle
4.1 An ice climber uses an ice hook and crampons to traverse the surface of a frozen waterfall
4.2 A continuum of practice task designs
4.3 The role of the coach in repetition and rehearsal
4.4 Infrequent use of verbal instructions can help athletes search, discover and exploit affordances in a performance landscape
5.1 1 vs 1 shooting/dribbling practices in field hockey are ‘fed’ by the coach with players rotating their receiving positions to create repetition of practice, without repetition
6.1 Adapted GROW model for constraints-led session planning
6.2 An example of an environment selector for golf
6.3 An example of a constraints builder for golf
6.4 An overview of the key aspects of a CLA session
6.5 The CLA session planner
6.6 The CLA session de-briefer
7.1 The constraint builder for field hockey
7.2 Performance analysis data from five international field hockey fixtures
7.3 GROW analysis in preparation for counter-attack development session
7.4 The environment selector – field hockey example
7.5 CLA session plan – field hockey (counter-attack)
7.6 Counter-attack practice
8.1 Hitting off a towel can be used to simulate hitting out of the rough or if used on the driving range to accentuate the importance of making contact with the back of the ball
8.2 Bend it like Beckham. Asking the golfer to hit the ball through the gate in order to hit the target led to the emergence of a golf swing that created ‘draw’ (right to left swerve) on ball flight
8.3 The use of foot powder on the club face can give a golfer instant feedback on the contact point made with the ball
8.4 Using the GROW model to plan a pitching lesson
8.5 The figure shows the set-up for one ball
8.6 The environment selector for golf
8.7 The constraints builder for golf
8.8 The session plan for golf chipping
9.1 Constraining the penultimate step in hurdles to encourage finding ‘fixed principles’ in the movement regarding efficiency over the hurdles
9.2 Without an informational constraint to provide opportunities for external focus of attention, here we see the hurdler perform a ‘jump’ over the hurdle rather than running over it
9.3 With the introduction of markers on the floor, the athlete searches for this informational constraint and this can promote self-organisation to develop the stride pattern to ‘run over’ the hurdles
9.4 The introduction of a tennis ball cut in half, and placed in the landing pattern of this athlete provides an external focus for the athlete to search for
9.5 Using the GROW model to plan a hurdles session
9.6 Ideal times for the sprint starts
9.7 The environment selector for hurdles
9.8 Using a bar as a constraint to afford staying low to concentrate on the first three explosive steps
9.9 The constraints builder for hurdles
9.10 The session plan for sprint starts in hurdles
9.11 Athlete getting ready to start
9.12 Going under the bar and accelerating through the first phase
R.1 Environment selector
R.2 Constraint builder