Better learning environments, nudging exploration & more
Here's some Skill Acquisition content for you to explore over the weekend. I hope you enjoy it!
This week at a sconce
Research Insight: Acquiring skill in sport: A constraints-led perspective
Podcast Snip: Manipulating Constraints for a better learning environment
Putting it into practice: Guiding exploration
I’m going to go a slightly different direction with the newsletter over the next few weeks as a trial. I was finding it tough recently to find resources, quotes and tweets to share every two weeks. I also thought it might be more beneficial and of more interest for coaches to see how to practically apply some of the insights from the research papers in practice. The format for the next few weeks will be
Research Insights
Related podcast snip
Putting it into practice
Research Insight
Acquiring skill in sport: A constraints-led perspective (Davids et al.,2003)
5 key Insights
1)One of the main goals of exploratory practice is to encourage learners to find their own unique solutions. We want them to explore a range of solutions, even if they don’t all work. This variety will help them become more adaptable players as they develop.
Quote
"Importantly, learners are encouraged to find and assemble their own unique solutions to motor problems during exploratory practice. Discovering various solutions to the task, whether successful or not, is essential in learning to experience varieties of task solutions (Davids, et al., 2004)."
2)Exploratory practice serves different purposes at different stages of learning. In the early stages we want to encourage them to explore a range of solutions as discussed above. In the later stages of learning we want to give them opportunities to refine and adapt the solutions they are using under varying conditions.
Quote
"Initially, exploratory practice is useful for athletes to assemble functional and unique coordination structures to achieve a specific task goal such as intercepting a ball, whereas later in learning exploratory practice allows players to refine and adapt existing basic coordinative structures to enhance flexibility (e.g., control a ball in different ways and under different conditions)."
3)Sometimes I find it fascinating (and frustrating) how some of the issues we are still facing in coaching are being discussed in paper that are over 20 years old. Children aren’t just smaller versions of adults. They’re constantly developing, with their own coordination patterns and movement solutions emerging over time. It’s really important that we take this into account when we are working with younger players
Quote
"Current theoretical models of motor development across the lifespan recognise that children should not be viewed as ‘mini-adults’, but as coherent, developing complex systems."
4)From a CLA perspective verbal instructions and visual demonstrations are instructional ‘constraints’ that guide the learners search. The role of instruction isn’t to prescribe movement, but to guide attention toward the information that matters and support the player’s own exploration.
Quote
"From a constraints-led perspective, the transmission of verbal instructions and visual demonstrations during practice are seen as instructional constraints to channel the learner’s continually evolving search for functional movement solutions (Newell, 1986)."
5)When feedback is less prescriptive and learner-regulated, it creates space for exploration and supports discovery learning. Rather than telling players exactly what to do, good feedback helps them learn to attend to the important information in the environment and find their own way through the task.
Quote
"Less prescriptive, learner-regulated feedback, which complements discovery learning and encourages the player to explore the task environment, seems to be a more appropriate instructional technique."
Reference
Davids, K., Araújo, D., Shuttleworth, R., & Button, C. (2003). Acquiring skill in sport: A constraints-led perspective. Sport Wyczynowy, 41(11/12), 5-16.
Link to Notion Notes on paper
Podcast Snip
Manipulating Constraints for a better learning environment
This is a fantastic insight into how we use constraints manipulation in practice.
“We want to manipulate the practice environment so it’s a better teacher. It amplifies things, amplifies information and certain affordances, right? It gives better feedback”-Rob Gray
Our job as a coach is going to be to deliberately manipulate constraints to create a better learning environment and guide exploration. Rob mentions here creating slices of the game in our practices which is where we take a piece/slice of the game (e.g. finishing in soccer) and create a representative task around it. If you read the newsletter 2 editions ago you might remember the distinction between Representative Learning Design and Representative Task Design
Putting it into practice
In this section of the newsletter, I’m going to take some ideas from the key insights section and talk about how we can put this into practice. The topic I’m going to focus on here is encouraging exploration by manipulating constraints with beginner players. As discussed above, we want to encourage them to explore a range of solutions, even if they don’t all work out.
Constraint manipulation is about subtly (or sometimes not so subtly) shaping the learning environment so that players are naturally drawn toward exploring new solutions, rather than being forced into them. The best constraints highlight possibilities while still leaving the decision to act up to the players.
As coaches using a CLA, we take on the role of learning designers. Exploration isn’t random, it’s something we can shape through the thoughtful/intentional manipulation of constraints. Our job is to design tasks that nudge players toward useful solutions by spotlighting relevant information or making certain options more appealing. Sometimes the guidance is subtle, other times it’s more obvious, but either way, we’re helping learners discover, not dictating exactly what they should do.
💡Key Concept
A key concept behind successful constraint manipulation is "Constrain to Afford." The idea is that the performer makes the decision to act, rather than being forced into a specific action. We might make an option more appealing, but players still have alternative choices.
Practical Example
In soccer, the players are always finishing with their strong foot (for the purpose of example we’ll say right foot) and refusing to shoot with their left foot, even when it’s the ‘better’ option. The first thing we are going to do is to create a ‘slice’ of the game. A 1-1 finishing game with a goalkeeper. Rather than saying ‘you must finish with your left’ we could use to key concept of constraining to afford.
Example of Constrain to Afford: Awarding 3 points for finishing with the left foot, while other finishes are worth 1. This encourages players to explore using their left, without removing other options.
However, if players still weren’t exploring finishing on their left foot, we could adjust the task constraints to less subtly encourage it. One way to do this would be to modify the defender’s starting position, creating a situation where the left-footed finish becomes a more appealing option
Here I’d start the defender on the right side of the attacker. How far on the right is going to depend on the skill level of the player(s)
This temporarily creates more space on the attacker’s left, subtly encouraging them to explore that option.
The player still has the option to cut back. If they’re skillful enough to beat the defender and get a shot away on their right, that’s fine. But now, it’s the less appealing option.
Really helpful stuff, thanks