Level 10 Coaching Flashcards
Self-organization vs. Prescriptive Coaching (Information Processing)
Self Organization: The athlete is allowed to find their own functional solution
Prescriptive Coaching: The coach gives the exact technique that the athlete needs to do in order to be successful
If an athlete is doing something you don’t like and you want them to do something different, what question can you ask yourself?
What can I add to practice that is going to make that current solution not effective?
*This is the whole idea of the Constraints Led Approach
Constraints Definition by Rob Gray
A feature of an individual, task, or environment which acts as an INFORMATIVE boundary in the solution space. (It constraints the possible coordination solutions that can be used while at the same time providing information and feedback that can guide the search for a more effective one.)
Whats is Bernstein’s Degrees of Freedom Problem? This is the single most important problem in motor control.
How can a system (the human body) with so many independent components (bones, joints, muscles, etc), which have countless combination possibilities, be controlled?
How do we convert the body into a controllable system?
How do we find a coordination solution?
Choice creates confusion.
When trying to solve the Degrees of Freedom Problem, what is the “Solution Space”?
The set of possible values (degrees of freedom) which the individual-task-environment could take for a particular movement problem.
When comparing an NBA player and 10 year old shooting jump shots (show picture), why do these two athletes have such different coordination solutions even though they have the same the goal of making a basket?
Constraints. Specifically a Task Constraint. The hoop is 10 feet high and the typical ball is a full size 29.5. This requires different movement solutions for each. The 10 year old must shoot with two hands and from their hip. The NBA player can shoot with hand without twisting body.
What are the 3 types of constraints (Newell’s model)
Task, Environment, and Individual
Coordination emerges from the interaction of what?
Constraints (task, individual, and environment)
We solve Bernstein’s Degrees of Freedom problem by reacting to….
Constraints. The constraints guide us to a particular area in the solution space.
Solving the Degrees of Freedom problem would be nearly impossible without what?
Constraints
As an analogy, if the Solution Space is a big open field, constraints could be seen as what?
A fence saying you can’t go over here.
How is Newell’s Constraint Model, the triangle of the 3 constraints (task, individual, environment), different from the Constraints Led Approach (CLA)?
Newell’s Constraint Model is a theory that can be applied to multiple types of coaching methods.
The CLA is a specific coaching method that manipulates constraints with a specific goal in mind.
Describe an Information Processing (IP) approach to skill acquisition (coaching) and how that relates to solution space.
This is when you give very specific instruction/technique for how to do something. It is prescriptive instruction.
In the wide open area of solution space, it would be like using fences (constraints) to make a very small box that would have a very limited degrees of freedom.
Describe an Environmental Constraint.
Features of the performance environment (not the individual) which constrain the coordination solution largely independently of the task being performed. It applies to any skill you try to do. If multiple sports were being played at a park, an environmental constraint would effect all of them.
Examples: temperature, wind, Light level, surface friction
Describe a Task Constraint.
Features of the performance environment (not the individual) which constrain the coordination solution dependent on the specific task being performed. If multiple sports were being played at a park and I brought a mini basketball to play basketball with, this would only effect the basketball players.
Examples: Rules, Equipment, size of the ball, # of players, size of the court, height of the basket, time allowed.
Describe an Individual Constraint
Features of the individual which constrain the coordination solution.
Two types of individual constraints:
1. Structural: characteristics of the body structure like height, flexibility, strength, weight
- Functional: behavioral characteristics that influence coordination like motivation, fatigue, attention.
The three types of constraints are interactive. Give an example.
If you play with a heavier basketball (task), the weaker player (individual) will have a harder time shooting from outside.
Definition of the Constraints Led Approach to Coaching and the 4 objectives you want to achieve with it. You may not have all of them perfectly, but the most effective CLA does all 4 of these.
Deliberately manipulating one or more constraints in practice in order to achieve one of these 4 things:
- De-stabilize an existing, non-optimal movement solution
- Encourage exploration and self-organization of a new movement solution. (This is the most important one. Constrain to afford.)
- Amplify information and invite affordances
- Provide transition feedback about progress toward a new, more optimal solution
When you de-stabilize a movement using the CLA, you want to move the system away from what?
The attractor location.
Define Attractor
locations/states the system (person) tends to gravitate towards.
Define Transition Feedback which is one of the 4 objectives of the CLA
Information that relates directly to the change in the coordination solution that needs to occur at some future time in the learning process.
Not so much just telling you how you did but rather what you need to do next.
Not telling you what the solution is but rather whether you are looking in the right area.
Example: Playing hide and seek and giving clues of “hot” or “cold”. You are not saying exactly where the person is hiding.
*Giving people information about the effectiveness of the exploration.
When comparing the CLA vs. Prescriptive Instruction, explain the analogy of using 1 fence instead of 4 fences
In the big solution space, the CLA would put up one fence saying you can’t go over here, but you can explore this large are over there.
With Prescriptive Instruction, it would be like putting up 4 fences to form a cage and saying you must stay in this small space and you can’t go anywhere else to explore.
Constraints have been used for years by coaches, but what is different with the CLA is how you use the constraints and your intention. Explain the difference
Typically constraints are used based on the information processing approach to skill acquisition and using prescriptive instruction.
The CLA uses constraints to allow for self organization using the Ecological Dynamics approach to skill acquisition.
What are the two different ways we can view what skill is? Or, What are two ways we can see our transactions with the world?
Transactions because we can effect the environment and the environment can effect us.
Describe them.
Information Processing and Ecological Dynamics
- Information Processing: Treat the mind like a computer. You train to store up all these movement techniques so that they become automatic and you can use them at the right time. See-Take time to go thru your files of what to do-Then Act
- Ecological Dynamics: Movement is learned from the interaction of the individual, environment, and task. Perception-Action Loop
Define Differential Learning
A method to promote adaptability by introducing diverse practice conditions
Define Degenercy
The ability of an athlete to perform a movement in a variety of ways to achieve the same goal.
Describe the traditional approach to skill acquisition (information processing).
A coach teaches the “one” ideal technique through rote repetition of movement. There is lots of feedback and error correction from the coach. There are internal, bodily focused cues.
Assumption is that low outcome variability (making the shot) is produced by low movement variability (same technique) which is developed by low practice variability (repetition with repetition despite variation).
Movement variability is NOISE. The goal of this approach is to reduce the noise.
Repeat the exact same shot technique over and over again.
Describe Adjustability (Information Processing) vs. Adaptability Ecological Dynamics) when it comes to objectives
Adjustability (information processing approach): The goal is for the performer to be able to perform the “ideal” one technique in a variety of situations that occur in the game. You are getting repetition with repetition despite variation. Fundamentals must come first (specific technique, dribbling around cones, etc.), then variability comes later.
With the fundamentals there is Task Decomposition. There is no defense and then you have to perform that skill in a game without having practiced against defense. Perception-Action is uncoupled. It is only action without the perception
The objective is very boring.
Assumption: I can teach you a static jump shot and then you can apply it into a game.
Adaptability (Ecological Dynamics Approach): There is no one “ideal” technique. Each individual athlete needs to find their own optimal movement solution through the process of self-organization. There is less feedback/correction and more exploration. Repetition without repetition. Believes that low variability is impossible. Skill is problem solving. We want to repeat the outcome, but not repeating the movement. Movement variability is good.
Examples: Defended shooting drills, different distances, shooting on the move, getting fatigued between shooting drills.
The purpose of variability for an Ecological Dynamics approach is to encourage exploration of the perceptual-motor landscape (often outside of any condition you will face in competition) so that the performer will educate their attention to the specifying information and the system will be able to self-assemble coordination solutions. Repetition without repetition because of variation.
Variability in practice should come as early as possible to encourage exploration and limit the development of inefficient attractors or solutions with poor transfer. This variability can include conditions that are necessarily representative of the game (different height baskets, different size basketballs, jumping off tires for shots, different body postures, etc.). We want adaptability.
Perception-Action is coupled. There is Task Simplicity. The task still keeps perception-action coupled like partner tag. An opponents movement determines your movement.
Task Decomposition (Information Processing) vs. Task Simplicity (Ecological Dynamics)
Task Decomposition: Isolate a movement or skill like shooting or dribbling and uncouple perception-action. Just have the action. Dribbling around cones or stationary pound dribbles.
Task Simplicity: We keep the perception-action coupled and simplify the task for the skill level of the athlete. Partner Tag
How can you get a kid to quit video games?
Sit down next to them and give them explicit instruction (you should have done this…, hit that button…, etc.). Then, critique their performance when they are done playing.
True or False. You want to practice to decrease variability.
False. You want to practice to INCREASE variability.
In science, what does “Theory” mean?
A well-tested and widely accepted explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment. It’s not just a guess or hunch as the word is used in everyday language. It’s not a definitive truth. It’s the best explanation based on available evidence.
Define Action Capabilites
Attributes which shape the potential movement solutions a player is able to produce. They are not skills, but rather attributes such as quickness, vertical jump, power, height, wingspan, etc.
What is a good question to ask yourself to see if you are meeting the athletes psychological needs during an activity?
If I wasn’t here, would they carry on with this activity?
Define Affordances
Invitations for action within the environment. People can accept or reject them. Your goal is to make invitations more appealing
The affordances you decide to accept depends on what?
Your Action Capabilities (and your needs, you may need a 3-pointer)
Explain this sentence: Behavior affords behavior
The behavior of the coach affords certain behaviors for the player. A strict coach limits the affordances for the player.
Define Educere
To lead out or guide
Give some characteristics to the dominant style of coaching.
- Skills are simply taught techniques that players can learn and then apply within a game at the right time (like a robot).
- Players must be taught a skill before they can play a game.
- Players are dependent on the coach for instruction on how to do something.
- Coaches view their role as being to impart their knowledge directly onto the players.
- The success of each drill is based on the ability of the players to replicate a desired movement pattern that the coach sets.
- On air training is common
- Lots of pre-determined drills with one pre-determined outcome
Understanding Ecological Psychology is understanding what?
Perception-Action Coupling. P-A coupling is a loop where we first perceive affordances in the environment and this leads to us taking action. After we take the action, changes occur in our perception of the environment. So, we must perceive again and then take action. The environment is connected to the perception-action coupling.
Nikolai Bernstein coined what phrase?
Repetition without Repetition
What did Nikolai Bernstein theorize about acquiring skill?
In order to become more skilled, training does not consist in repeating a solution to a motor problem time after time, but in the process of solving a motor problem time after time. This represents a game.
Two questions to ask to see if your activity is following repetition without repetition?
- Does this activity repeat the same problem in the same environment?
- Does this activity allow for players to continually search for movement solutions?
Describe the Dynamical Systems Theory of motor learning what is the “System”?
the “system” is comprised of the complex interactions between three key components: the individual (organism), the task being performed, and the environmental conditions; essentially, it’s the interplay between these factors that determines how movement emerges and adapts, with no single component considered solely responsible for motor control.
Dexterity vs. Degeneracy
Dexterity: The ability to discover a motor solution for any external situation. Dexterity is not a property of the movement themselves, rather in the process of the solutions.
Example: You have a tool box filled with many different tools to complete any project you need to.
Degeneracy: The ability of the athlete to effectively perform a movement in a variety of different ways through varying levels of complexity.
Example: I have one screwdriver, but I can fix many different projects with that one screwdriver.
Focus on Adaptability over …..
Repeatability
Define Basketball IQ
The ability to solve many different problems
Coach Decisions not ….
Outcomes
Define Learning
Moving from the known to the unknown. It is an unsettling experience. You are constantly challenging yourself. If you are not, you are not learning.
What are the 5 principles of Nonlinear Pedagogy?
- Representative Learning Design
- Purposeful manipulation of constraints
- Attentional Focus
- Perception-Action Coupling
- Functional Variability
Information Processing and Ecological Dynamics are 2 ways an organism can transact with their reality. A good question to ask to determine which of these options you want to use is?
How do I want my athlete working in the moment?
- Working through processing models that might work (IP) OR
- Interacting with what is actually happening.
Define Self-Organization
The movements that are observed during every moment of a possession as the players reorganize system components under the presence of interacting constraints. Movements occur without the brain controlling the entire movement. Your body moves independently from conscious thought.
Examples: Hiking and maintaining balance over uneven surfaces.
A successful performance is predicated on what?
The ability of players to satisfy the interaction of these constraints within the game. Let’s design practice this way.
Define Differential Learning
A motor learning method that involves changing the content, learning process, environment, and product of a sport to improve a player’s adaptability, and decision-making skills. Differential Learning wants to INCREASE variability and noise in training.
Discuss the recent study on children learning swimming and swimming related deaths
More people are learning swimming, but they are more drownings. This is because when you learn swimming, you are in a controlled environment (indoor, no waves, no wind, controlled temperature, lighting is different). Most drowning are good, young adult male swimmers.
Learning is on a continuum. Describe the two extremes of this continuum.
Information Processing
Robotic, stable, specific technique, view mistakes as wrong way of doing it, no decisions
Ecological Dynamics
Unstable, No mistakes, a mistake is feedback to try something else that is functional, many decisions, basketball and life are unstable
They way to move along this continuum is by using the CLA.
My job is a coach is to be a learning designer. True or False
True
How should we view mistakes?
Adaptations
True or False: As a coach, you want to create a rich landscape of affordances that allows kids to bring their individuality into it so they can interact and be afforded the things they want to do. Like, lower baskets, closer 3-point line, smaller court, less players on the court.
True
Describe Nikoli Bernstein’s Blacksmith Study
He was commissioned by the Russian government in 1922 to study novice vs. expert blacksmiths. They wanted novice blacksmiths to become more efficient. His HYPOTHESIS: Experts are more proficient because they used the same or highly similar techniques, leading to optimal production.
He studied striking actions. What he found greatly contradicts the assumption of dominant approach to learning. He found that while novices demonstrated variable movement outcomes, the expert blacksmiths expressed even more variability. The key difference was how the experts commonly used the same part of their hammer to make contact with the iron which required MANY different movement solutions to achieve similar outcomes, compared to the novices who commonly struck the iron in different parts. If this much variability happens in a simple, closed task such as striking a hammer, consider the variability that presents itself within an open environment such as basketball.
In basketball terms, skilled players like Steph Curry use an even greater range of movement solutions to achieve similar outcomes.
“Repetition without Repetition”
Yes or No.
If a layup attempt is successful, then the movement solution is functional and effective for that particular task, in that environment, and at that moment in time. Is a finish WRONG because it does not match the coach’s view as to how a finish should supposedly be performed?
No
If you want to do something prescriptive, like have athletes use their left hand for layups, a good saying to think of is:
“Let practice create the ……
need for that.
Instead of telling athletes to use their left hand, you could award more points for that or place an extra defender on the right side of the hoop.
Representative learning design (RLD) has two important characteristics:
1) Functionality, which means that the information and constraints used in training are similar to those in competition.
2)Action fidelity, which refers to the correlation between performance actions during training and in competition. -When putting RLD into practice it’s really important to keep these characteristics in mind
You can mix theories, IP and EcoD, but if someone ask you if you coach based on evidence based ideas, then what would be the answer?
You cannot mix theories. If you don’t coach based on scientific evidence, then you can mix theories. If you say, you coach based on scientific evidence, then you must choose one.
If you ever focus on a solution that is all about the individual and doesn’t consider the environment that’s a what?
philosophical error
Questions to ask a coach about an activity they design:
What players in your group does this activity serve?
What was the purpose of the drill?
Is this drill satisfying the needs of top, middle, or bottom group? Or, everyone?
Explain Differential Learning and Differentiated Instruction
Differential Learning is the concept that every player in front of you is different and learns in different ways.
Differentiated Instruction is a way to create activities based on this understanding. Everyone does a different activity based on their skill level or how they learn best.
