This study aimed to examine the influence of families and football academies on the pathway to fo... more This study aimed to examine the influence of families and football academies on the pathway to football expertise of Brazilian players. Built on the ‘contextualised skill acquisition research’ framework, data were generated through the triangulation of three methods: contextual analysis; participant-observation, and; interviews, with the latter providing substantial information for the present study. Data were organised according to the mesosystemic context of Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model of human development, thematically analysed, and explained through the perspective of the framework of the ecological dynamics. The findings highlight how players navigate through their environment in relation to the social, emotional, psychological, and educational support they receive, as well as in relation to the clubs' supply of quality football training programmes. The findings provide the basis for practical recommendations to help clubs and their coaches in the task of developin...
The effects of focus of attention instructions on novices learning soccer chip. Brazilian Journal... more The effects of focus of attention instructions on novices learning soccer chip. Brazilian Journal of Biomotricity, v. 2, n. 1, p. 63-77, 2008. Research has suggested that instructions that direct the learner to focus on the movements of their body parts are typically less effective than instructions that focus on the environmental effects of the movement during motor skill acquisition. However, it has been argued that effects of instructional focus depend on the skill level of participants and influential constraints such as whether the learners are predominantly goal oriented. The present study compared the effects of internal and external focus of attention instructions on two groups of novices during acquisition of a soccer chip skill. Twelve adult participants practiced chipping a ball with their non-dominant foot over a barrier towards a circular target. An internal focus instruction group (IFIG) received instructions throughout practice directing them to attend to the coordina...
UEHARA, L. A.; BUTTON, C.; DAVIDS, K. The effects of focus of attention instructions on novices l... more UEHARA, L. A.; BUTTON, C.; DAVIDS, K. The effects of focus of attention instructions on novices learning soccer chip. Brazilian Journal of Biomotricity, v. 2, n. 1, p. 63-77, 2008. Research has suggested that instructions that direct the learner to focus on the movements of their body parts are typically less effective than instructions that focus on the environmental effects of the movement during motor skill acquisition. However, it has been argued that effects of instructional focus depend on the skill level of participants and influential constraints such as whether the learners are predominantly goal oriented. The present study compared the effects of internal and external focus of attention instructions on two groups of novices during acquisition of a soccer chip skill. Twelve adult participants practiced chipping a ball with their non-dominant foot over a barrier towards a circular target. An internal focus instruction group (IFIG) received instructions throughout practice di...
ii This thesis investigates the role of socio-cultural-historical environmental constraints influ... more ii This thesis investigates the role of socio-cultural-historical environmental constraints influencing the development of association football expertise and skill in Brazilian players. Only a small number of studies in the field of motor learning have attempted to address this issue due to the qualitative, interpretive research approach required to analyse socio-cultural themes. However, considering that expertise in sports emerges from the complex interaction of multiple constraints, socio-cultural factors have to be further explored in a contextualised manner so that knowledge in the field of motor learning can be advanced. This thesis presents an interpretive, multi-methods approach to holistically investigate the interacting constraints on the development pathway of Brazilian football players. In contrast to traditional positivist approaches, this thesis is based on the philosophical assumptions of the interpretive research paradigm and the epistemological and methodological te...
UEHARA, L. A.; BUTTON, C.; DAVIDS, K. The effects of focus of attention instructions on novices l... more UEHARA, L. A.; BUTTON, C.; DAVIDS, K. The effects of focus of attention instructions on novices learning soccer chip. Brazilian Journal of Biomotricity, v. 2, n. 1, p. 63-77, 2008. Research has suggested that instructions that direct the learner to focus on the movements of their body parts are typically less effective than instructions that focus on the environmental effects of the movement during motor skill acquisition. However, it has been argued that effects of instructional focus depend on the skill level of participants and influential constraints such as whether the learners are predominantly goal oriented. The present study compared the effects of internal and external focus of attention instructions on two groups of novices during acquisition of a soccer chip skill. Twelve adult participants practiced chipping a ball with their non-dominant foot over a barrier towards a circular target. An internal focus instruction group (IFIG) received instructions throughout practice di...
The aim of this paper is to provide explanation and discussion on how unconventional socio-cultur... more The aim of this paper is to provide explanation and discussion on how unconventional socio-cultural constraints influence the development of skill and expertise of Brazilian football players. On this basis, the central question of this research is this: What are the influential environmental constraints on the development of perceptual-motor skills and expertise of Brazilian football players? The epistemological and methodological assumptions of the “contextualised skill acquisition research” (CSAR) (see Uehara et al., 2014) are used as an underpinning framework for data collection and organization of material. Drawing upon the notion of ethnographic strategies of inquiry for generating and analyzing data, we used qualitative methods such as contextual analysis, participant-observation, and open-ended interviews. At the micro-level of Brazilian society “pelada” emerges as one of the socio-cultural constraints that shapes the talent of Brazilian football players by influencing the de...
This thesis investigates the role of socio-cultural-historical environmental constraints influenc... more This thesis investigates the role of socio-cultural-historical environmental constraints influencing the development of association football expertise and skill in Brazilian players. Only a small number of studies in the field of motor learning have attempted to address this issue due to the qualitative, interpretive research approach required to analyse socio-cultural themes. However, considering that expertise in sports emerges from the complex interaction of multiple constraints, socio-cultural factors have to be further explored in a contextualised manner so that knowledge in the field of motor learning can be advanced. This thesis presents an interpretive, multi-methods approach to holistically investigate the interacting constraints on the development pathway of Brazilian football players. In contrast to traditional positivist approaches, this thesis is based on the philosophical assumptions of the interpretive research paradigm and the epistemological and methodological tenet...
Worldwide, 1.3 billion people live in Poverty, a socio-economic status that has been identified a... more Worldwide, 1.3 billion people live in Poverty, a socio-economic status that has been identified as a key determinant of a lack of sports participation. Still, numerous athletes around the world have grown up in underprivileged socio-economic conditions. This is the case in Brazil, a country with around 13.5 million impoverished citizens, yet, over decades, many of its best professional footballers have emerged from its favelas. In this article, we explore the role of the socio-cultural-economic constraints in shaping the development of skill and expertise of Brazilian professional football players. The methodological and epistemological assumptions of the “Contextualized Skill Acquisition Research” (CSAR) approach are used as an underpinning framework for organizing and analyzing data. Results suggested that, at the exosystemic level of Brazilian society, Poverty emerges as an influential constraint that can potentially enrich football development experiences of Brazilian players. P...
Learning aquatic skills is an important component of developing physical literacy in children. Aq... more Learning aquatic skills is an important component of developing physical literacy in children. Aquatic skills such as floating, swimming and safe entry/exit promote engagement in different water environments and may help preserve lives in an emergency. This scoping review was conducted to evaluate the influence of task constraints (i.e., equipment) and environmental constraints (i.e., physical and social) on how children learn foundational aquatic skills. In developed countries, children are typically taught in swimming pools under direct supervision. It is also not uncommon to see children and infants learning to swim with assistive equipment (e.g., buoyancy aids). However, perhaps surprisingly, the evidence on how and where children learn aquatic skills does not uniformly promote such practices. For example, the use of flotation devices has not been proven to aid skill learning. Some researchers have advocated that children should learn aquatic skills whilst wearing outdoor clothi...
International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching
In an ecological dynamics rationale, the development of expertise in sports is shaped by interact... more In an ecological dynamics rationale, the development of expertise in sports is shaped by interactions of personal, task and environmental constraints. A notable outcome of this process is the distinctive performance styles of athletes shaped by socio-cultural-historical constraints. To understand this process, we examined the role of socio-cultural constraints shaping the development of skill in Brazilian football players at the macrosystem level. A range of data sources were inductively generated and analysed through the qualitative interpretative paradigm, including historical contextual analysis, participant observation, and unstructured interviews. Malandragem (i.e., cunning) emerged as a major focus and our findings suggested that behavioural characteristics, such as mischief and deception, are common attributes valued by many elite Brazilian footballers. Our analysis suggests how the value system of Malandragem is a product of the socio-cultural constraints primarily influence...
International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching, 2011
The purpose of the current article is to review findings from the visual anticipation literature ... more The purpose of the current article is to review findings from the visual anticipation literature with a particular focus on penalty kick goalkeeping in Association football. We give a brief introduction to the area of research before providing reviews of two recent studies. First, we focus on the applied implications of a study that examined the effect of deception and non-deception penalty kick strategies on goalkeeping performance. Second, we consider further limiting factors on the accuracy of goalkeeper visual anticipation through examination of ...
Objective: Research on expertise in sport has rarely attempted to examine socio-cultural constrai... more Objective: Research on expertise in sport has rarely attempted to examine socio-cultural constraints on athletes. Here, we outline a new contextualised approach to studying sociocultural constraints on individuals, proposing an interpretive, multi-method approach to holistically investigate the interacting constraints on an athlete's development pathway. Aims: We explain a rationale for adopting an interpretive research paradigm (in contrast to traditional positivist approaches) for exploring socio-cultural constraints. The epistemological and methodological assumptions of Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model of Human Development are proposed as an underpinning framework for data collection and organisation of material. We advocate for ethnographic strategies of inquiry, followed by a discussion of potential methods for generating and analysing data: contextual analysis, participant-observation, and open-ended interviews. Finally, we discuss evaluation criteria for this contextualised approach viewed from a coherence theory of truth. Purpose: This position statement seeks to: 1) promote methodological possibilities to investigate the effect of socio cultural constraints on expertise acquisition in sport; and 2), offer significant new theoretical and epistemological insights from the constraints-led approach to expertise and to integrate some of the interdisciplinary differences that exist in the body of sciences.
... learners. In the following sections, we exemplify more specifically how conceptualisation in ... more ... learners. In the following sections, we exemplify more specifically how conceptualisation in 13 ... 3 An established tenet of ecological psychology, associated with a Nonlinear Pedagogy, 4 ... of practice environments with dynamic performance environments (Davids et al., 2007). ...
Objective: This review article delineates some important theoretical concepts that inform sport e... more Objective: This review article delineates some important theoretical concepts that inform sport expertise acquisition studies. In particular, the principles of ecological psychology and dynamical systems theory have united together to form the ecological dynamics, a framework that provides the perfect platform through which to study the role of socio-cultural constraints upon sport expertise. Methodology: The body of information collected for this article was primarily extracted from peer- reviewed articles and academic books. This review article used Brazilian soccer as the case study. Results and discussion: Whilst the sports expertise literature has been guilty of somewhat polarising the influence of either practice or inherited attributes upon motor learning there are nonetheless many useful lessons to be learnt from this review article. For example, sport expertise development takes place over many years and includes numerous formal and informal pathways that athletes can take ...
This review article delineates some important theoretical concepts that inform sport expertise ac... more This review article delineates some important theoretical concepts that inform sport expertise acquisition studies. In particular, the principles of ecological psychology and dynamical systems theory have united together to form the ecological dynamics, a framework that provides the perfect platform through which to study the role of socio-cultural constraints upon sport expertise. Whilst the sports expertise literature has been guilty of somewhat polarising the influence of either practice or inherited attributes upon motor learning there are nonetheless many useful lessons to be learnt from this review article. For example, sport expertise development takes place over many years and includes numerous formal and informal pathways that athletes can take to excel. On this note, the constraints-led approach has been promoted as a framework for understanding how people acquire perceptual-motor skills for sport and physical activities. On a practical level, this approach suggests that the major role of the coach or teacher is to manipulate key constraints in order to facilitate discovery of functional movement behavior. To further clarifying these issues, this review article used Brazilian soccer as the case study. .
The aim of this paper is to provide explanation and discussion on how unconventional socio-cultur... more The aim of this paper is to provide explanation and discussion on how unconventional socio-cultural constraints influence the development of skill and expertise of Brazilian football players. On this basis, the central question of this research is this: What are the influential environmental constraints on the development of perceptual-motor skills and expertise of Brazilian football players? The epistemological and methodological assumptions of the "contextualised skill acquisition research" (CSAR) (see Uehara et al., 2014) are used as an underpinning framework for data collection and organization of material. Drawing upon the notion of ethnographic strategies of inquiry for generating and analyzing data, we used qualitative methods such as contextual analysis, participant-observation, and open-ended interviews. At the micro-level of Brazilian society "pelada" emerges as one of the socio-cultural constraints that shapes the talent of Brazilian football players by influencing the development of their perceptual-motor expertise.
UEHARA, L. A.; BUTTON, C.; DAVIDS, K. The effects of focus of attention instructions on novices l... more UEHARA, L. A.; BUTTON, C.; DAVIDS, K. The effects of focus of attention instructions on novices learning soccer chip. Brazilian Journal of Biomotricity, v. 2, n. 1, p. 63-77, 2008. Research has suggested that instructions that direct the learner to focus on the movements of their body parts are typically less effective than instructions that focus on the environmental effects of the movement during motor skill acquisition. However, it has been argued that effects of instructional focus depend on the skill level of participants and influential constraints such as whether the learners are predominantly goal oriented. The present study compared the effects of internal and external focus of attention instructions on two groups of novices during acquisition of a soccer chip skill. Twelve adult participants practiced chipping a ball with their non-dominant foot over a barrier towards a circular target. An internal focus instruction group (IFIG) received instructions throughout practice directing them to attend to the coordination of their body parts. An external focus instruction group (EFIG) received instructions referring to the effect of their movements on the environment. Results from both outcome (ball landing position accuracy and consistency) and qualitative movement form data were consistent, showing that participants of both groups improved their performance and were able to retain the skill after a two day break (p < 0.05). However, there were no significant differences between the groups for either outcome score or for the qualitative analysis, suggesting that internal focus instructions and external focus instructions were equally beneficial. These findings suggest that novices with no previous experience of a skill switch interchangeably from one type of attentional focus to another regardless of 64 prior instructions. Future investigation needs to determine sensitive skill related criteria that can be used to identify the stage of learning of participants.
Background: Under the view of dynamical system theory, expertise in sports emerges from the inter... more Background: Under the view of dynamical system theory, expertise in sports emerges from the interaction of multiple constraints. At an individual level, important interactions amongst constraints could include the relationships that evolve between one's family, playmates/coaches, and specific training activities. Or more broadly, other environmental constraints can be the strong socio-cultural-historical contexts that influence expertise development in sports around the world, such as rugby (e.g. New Zealand) and football (e.g. Brazil). An increasing number of studies have demonstrated the influence of environmental constraints on the development of sport expertise. Whilst making important contributions to knowledge, such studies have been limited in scope and fail to consider in depth how informal and even aversive learning environment constraints affect skills development.
This study aimed to examine the influence of families and football academies on the pathway to fo... more This study aimed to examine the influence of families and football academies on the pathway to football expertise of Brazilian players. Built on the ‘contextualised skill acquisition research’ framework, data were generated through the triangulation of three methods: contextual analysis; participant-observation, and; interviews, with the latter providing substantial information for the present study. Data were organised according to the mesosystemic context of Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model of human development, thematically analysed, and explained through the perspective of the framework of the ecological dynamics. The findings highlight how players navigate through their environment in relation to the social, emotional, psychological, and educational support they receive, as well as in relation to the clubs' supply of quality football training programmes. The findings provide the basis for practical recommendations to help clubs and their coaches in the task of developin...
The effects of focus of attention instructions on novices learning soccer chip. Brazilian Journal... more The effects of focus of attention instructions on novices learning soccer chip. Brazilian Journal of Biomotricity, v. 2, n. 1, p. 63-77, 2008. Research has suggested that instructions that direct the learner to focus on the movements of their body parts are typically less effective than instructions that focus on the environmental effects of the movement during motor skill acquisition. However, it has been argued that effects of instructional focus depend on the skill level of participants and influential constraints such as whether the learners are predominantly goal oriented. The present study compared the effects of internal and external focus of attention instructions on two groups of novices during acquisition of a soccer chip skill. Twelve adult participants practiced chipping a ball with their non-dominant foot over a barrier towards a circular target. An internal focus instruction group (IFIG) received instructions throughout practice directing them to attend to the coordina...
UEHARA, L. A.; BUTTON, C.; DAVIDS, K. The effects of focus of attention instructions on novices l... more UEHARA, L. A.; BUTTON, C.; DAVIDS, K. The effects of focus of attention instructions on novices learning soccer chip. Brazilian Journal of Biomotricity, v. 2, n. 1, p. 63-77, 2008. Research has suggested that instructions that direct the learner to focus on the movements of their body parts are typically less effective than instructions that focus on the environmental effects of the movement during motor skill acquisition. However, it has been argued that effects of instructional focus depend on the skill level of participants and influential constraints such as whether the learners are predominantly goal oriented. The present study compared the effects of internal and external focus of attention instructions on two groups of novices during acquisition of a soccer chip skill. Twelve adult participants practiced chipping a ball with their non-dominant foot over a barrier towards a circular target. An internal focus instruction group (IFIG) received instructions throughout practice di...
ii This thesis investigates the role of socio-cultural-historical environmental constraints influ... more ii This thesis investigates the role of socio-cultural-historical environmental constraints influencing the development of association football expertise and skill in Brazilian players. Only a small number of studies in the field of motor learning have attempted to address this issue due to the qualitative, interpretive research approach required to analyse socio-cultural themes. However, considering that expertise in sports emerges from the complex interaction of multiple constraints, socio-cultural factors have to be further explored in a contextualised manner so that knowledge in the field of motor learning can be advanced. This thesis presents an interpretive, multi-methods approach to holistically investigate the interacting constraints on the development pathway of Brazilian football players. In contrast to traditional positivist approaches, this thesis is based on the philosophical assumptions of the interpretive research paradigm and the epistemological and methodological te...
UEHARA, L. A.; BUTTON, C.; DAVIDS, K. The effects of focus of attention instructions on novices l... more UEHARA, L. A.; BUTTON, C.; DAVIDS, K. The effects of focus of attention instructions on novices learning soccer chip. Brazilian Journal of Biomotricity, v. 2, n. 1, p. 63-77, 2008. Research has suggested that instructions that direct the learner to focus on the movements of their body parts are typically less effective than instructions that focus on the environmental effects of the movement during motor skill acquisition. However, it has been argued that effects of instructional focus depend on the skill level of participants and influential constraints such as whether the learners are predominantly goal oriented. The present study compared the effects of internal and external focus of attention instructions on two groups of novices during acquisition of a soccer chip skill. Twelve adult participants practiced chipping a ball with their non-dominant foot over a barrier towards a circular target. An internal focus instruction group (IFIG) received instructions throughout practice di...
The aim of this paper is to provide explanation and discussion on how unconventional socio-cultur... more The aim of this paper is to provide explanation and discussion on how unconventional socio-cultural constraints influence the development of skill and expertise of Brazilian football players. On this basis, the central question of this research is this: What are the influential environmental constraints on the development of perceptual-motor skills and expertise of Brazilian football players? The epistemological and methodological assumptions of the “contextualised skill acquisition research” (CSAR) (see Uehara et al., 2014) are used as an underpinning framework for data collection and organization of material. Drawing upon the notion of ethnographic strategies of inquiry for generating and analyzing data, we used qualitative methods such as contextual analysis, participant-observation, and open-ended interviews. At the micro-level of Brazilian society “pelada” emerges as one of the socio-cultural constraints that shapes the talent of Brazilian football players by influencing the de...
This thesis investigates the role of socio-cultural-historical environmental constraints influenc... more This thesis investigates the role of socio-cultural-historical environmental constraints influencing the development of association football expertise and skill in Brazilian players. Only a small number of studies in the field of motor learning have attempted to address this issue due to the qualitative, interpretive research approach required to analyse socio-cultural themes. However, considering that expertise in sports emerges from the complex interaction of multiple constraints, socio-cultural factors have to be further explored in a contextualised manner so that knowledge in the field of motor learning can be advanced. This thesis presents an interpretive, multi-methods approach to holistically investigate the interacting constraints on the development pathway of Brazilian football players. In contrast to traditional positivist approaches, this thesis is based on the philosophical assumptions of the interpretive research paradigm and the epistemological and methodological tenet...
Worldwide, 1.3 billion people live in Poverty, a socio-economic status that has been identified a... more Worldwide, 1.3 billion people live in Poverty, a socio-economic status that has been identified as a key determinant of a lack of sports participation. Still, numerous athletes around the world have grown up in underprivileged socio-economic conditions. This is the case in Brazil, a country with around 13.5 million impoverished citizens, yet, over decades, many of its best professional footballers have emerged from its favelas. In this article, we explore the role of the socio-cultural-economic constraints in shaping the development of skill and expertise of Brazilian professional football players. The methodological and epistemological assumptions of the “Contextualized Skill Acquisition Research” (CSAR) approach are used as an underpinning framework for organizing and analyzing data. Results suggested that, at the exosystemic level of Brazilian society, Poverty emerges as an influential constraint that can potentially enrich football development experiences of Brazilian players. P...
Learning aquatic skills is an important component of developing physical literacy in children. Aq... more Learning aquatic skills is an important component of developing physical literacy in children. Aquatic skills such as floating, swimming and safe entry/exit promote engagement in different water environments and may help preserve lives in an emergency. This scoping review was conducted to evaluate the influence of task constraints (i.e., equipment) and environmental constraints (i.e., physical and social) on how children learn foundational aquatic skills. In developed countries, children are typically taught in swimming pools under direct supervision. It is also not uncommon to see children and infants learning to swim with assistive equipment (e.g., buoyancy aids). However, perhaps surprisingly, the evidence on how and where children learn aquatic skills does not uniformly promote such practices. For example, the use of flotation devices has not been proven to aid skill learning. Some researchers have advocated that children should learn aquatic skills whilst wearing outdoor clothi...
International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching
In an ecological dynamics rationale, the development of expertise in sports is shaped by interact... more In an ecological dynamics rationale, the development of expertise in sports is shaped by interactions of personal, task and environmental constraints. A notable outcome of this process is the distinctive performance styles of athletes shaped by socio-cultural-historical constraints. To understand this process, we examined the role of socio-cultural constraints shaping the development of skill in Brazilian football players at the macrosystem level. A range of data sources were inductively generated and analysed through the qualitative interpretative paradigm, including historical contextual analysis, participant observation, and unstructured interviews. Malandragem (i.e., cunning) emerged as a major focus and our findings suggested that behavioural characteristics, such as mischief and deception, are common attributes valued by many elite Brazilian footballers. Our analysis suggests how the value system of Malandragem is a product of the socio-cultural constraints primarily influence...
International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching, 2011
The purpose of the current article is to review findings from the visual anticipation literature ... more The purpose of the current article is to review findings from the visual anticipation literature with a particular focus on penalty kick goalkeeping in Association football. We give a brief introduction to the area of research before providing reviews of two recent studies. First, we focus on the applied implications of a study that examined the effect of deception and non-deception penalty kick strategies on goalkeeping performance. Second, we consider further limiting factors on the accuracy of goalkeeper visual anticipation through examination of ...
Objective: Research on expertise in sport has rarely attempted to examine socio-cultural constrai... more Objective: Research on expertise in sport has rarely attempted to examine socio-cultural constraints on athletes. Here, we outline a new contextualised approach to studying sociocultural constraints on individuals, proposing an interpretive, multi-method approach to holistically investigate the interacting constraints on an athlete's development pathway. Aims: We explain a rationale for adopting an interpretive research paradigm (in contrast to traditional positivist approaches) for exploring socio-cultural constraints. The epistemological and methodological assumptions of Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model of Human Development are proposed as an underpinning framework for data collection and organisation of material. We advocate for ethnographic strategies of inquiry, followed by a discussion of potential methods for generating and analysing data: contextual analysis, participant-observation, and open-ended interviews. Finally, we discuss evaluation criteria for this contextualised approach viewed from a coherence theory of truth. Purpose: This position statement seeks to: 1) promote methodological possibilities to investigate the effect of socio cultural constraints on expertise acquisition in sport; and 2), offer significant new theoretical and epistemological insights from the constraints-led approach to expertise and to integrate some of the interdisciplinary differences that exist in the body of sciences.
... learners. In the following sections, we exemplify more specifically how conceptualisation in ... more ... learners. In the following sections, we exemplify more specifically how conceptualisation in 13 ... 3 An established tenet of ecological psychology, associated with a Nonlinear Pedagogy, 4 ... of practice environments with dynamic performance environments (Davids et al., 2007). ...
Objective: This review article delineates some important theoretical concepts that inform sport e... more Objective: This review article delineates some important theoretical concepts that inform sport expertise acquisition studies. In particular, the principles of ecological psychology and dynamical systems theory have united together to form the ecological dynamics, a framework that provides the perfect platform through which to study the role of socio-cultural constraints upon sport expertise. Methodology: The body of information collected for this article was primarily extracted from peer- reviewed articles and academic books. This review article used Brazilian soccer as the case study. Results and discussion: Whilst the sports expertise literature has been guilty of somewhat polarising the influence of either practice or inherited attributes upon motor learning there are nonetheless many useful lessons to be learnt from this review article. For example, sport expertise development takes place over many years and includes numerous formal and informal pathways that athletes can take ...
This review article delineates some important theoretical concepts that inform sport expertise ac... more This review article delineates some important theoretical concepts that inform sport expertise acquisition studies. In particular, the principles of ecological psychology and dynamical systems theory have united together to form the ecological dynamics, a framework that provides the perfect platform through which to study the role of socio-cultural constraints upon sport expertise. Whilst the sports expertise literature has been guilty of somewhat polarising the influence of either practice or inherited attributes upon motor learning there are nonetheless many useful lessons to be learnt from this review article. For example, sport expertise development takes place over many years and includes numerous formal and informal pathways that athletes can take to excel. On this note, the constraints-led approach has been promoted as a framework for understanding how people acquire perceptual-motor skills for sport and physical activities. On a practical level, this approach suggests that the major role of the coach or teacher is to manipulate key constraints in order to facilitate discovery of functional movement behavior. To further clarifying these issues, this review article used Brazilian soccer as the case study. .
The aim of this paper is to provide explanation and discussion on how unconventional socio-cultur... more The aim of this paper is to provide explanation and discussion on how unconventional socio-cultural constraints influence the development of skill and expertise of Brazilian football players. On this basis, the central question of this research is this: What are the influential environmental constraints on the development of perceptual-motor skills and expertise of Brazilian football players? The epistemological and methodological assumptions of the "contextualised skill acquisition research" (CSAR) (see Uehara et al., 2014) are used as an underpinning framework for data collection and organization of material. Drawing upon the notion of ethnographic strategies of inquiry for generating and analyzing data, we used qualitative methods such as contextual analysis, participant-observation, and open-ended interviews. At the micro-level of Brazilian society "pelada" emerges as one of the socio-cultural constraints that shapes the talent of Brazilian football players by influencing the development of their perceptual-motor expertise.
UEHARA, L. A.; BUTTON, C.; DAVIDS, K. The effects of focus of attention instructions on novices l... more UEHARA, L. A.; BUTTON, C.; DAVIDS, K. The effects of focus of attention instructions on novices learning soccer chip. Brazilian Journal of Biomotricity, v. 2, n. 1, p. 63-77, 2008. Research has suggested that instructions that direct the learner to focus on the movements of their body parts are typically less effective than instructions that focus on the environmental effects of the movement during motor skill acquisition. However, it has been argued that effects of instructional focus depend on the skill level of participants and influential constraints such as whether the learners are predominantly goal oriented. The present study compared the effects of internal and external focus of attention instructions on two groups of novices during acquisition of a soccer chip skill. Twelve adult participants practiced chipping a ball with their non-dominant foot over a barrier towards a circular target. An internal focus instruction group (IFIG) received instructions throughout practice directing them to attend to the coordination of their body parts. An external focus instruction group (EFIG) received instructions referring to the effect of their movements on the environment. Results from both outcome (ball landing position accuracy and consistency) and qualitative movement form data were consistent, showing that participants of both groups improved their performance and were able to retain the skill after a two day break (p < 0.05). However, there were no significant differences between the groups for either outcome score or for the qualitative analysis, suggesting that internal focus instructions and external focus instructions were equally beneficial. These findings suggest that novices with no previous experience of a skill switch interchangeably from one type of attentional focus to another regardless of 64 prior instructions. Future investigation needs to determine sensitive skill related criteria that can be used to identify the stage of learning of participants.
Background: Under the view of dynamical system theory, expertise in sports emerges from the inter... more Background: Under the view of dynamical system theory, expertise in sports emerges from the interaction of multiple constraints. At an individual level, important interactions amongst constraints could include the relationships that evolve between one's family, playmates/coaches, and specific training activities. Or more broadly, other environmental constraints can be the strong socio-cultural-historical contexts that influence expertise development in sports around the world, such as rugby (e.g. New Zealand) and football (e.g. Brazil). An increasing number of studies have demonstrated the influence of environmental constraints on the development of sport expertise. Whilst making important contributions to knowledge, such studies have been limited in scope and fail to consider in depth how informal and even aversive learning environment constraints affect skills development.
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Papers by Luiz Uehara