MOTOR CONTROL AND SKILL ACQUISITION
Constraints-based Practice in the Motor Learning Literature
Currently, constraints based practice has been advocated for as a useful tool for understanding how both adults and children attain motor skills in sports and physical education. The goal of the constraints-based exercise is to determine the nature of accumulative constraints which affect motor learning in sports learners (Schmidt & Wrisberg, 2008). In this essay, the significant theoretical knowledge underlying the restrictions based approach is described to assist sports coaches in non-linear pedagogy. The article evaluates the consequences of some significant challenges experienced by coaches and sports pedagogics in the development of learning schedules.
Recent statistics indicate that physical education tutors and coaches need more knowledge of performance in sports to manipulate constraints to maintain data movement couplings in a motor learning environment that represents the actual performance case (Davids, Araújo, Correia & Vilar, 2013). Coaches should also be made aware that variability in movement does not have to deter learning but rather can be vital for the attainment of a functional and stable motor pattern.
A constraints-based practice can therefore be used to offer coaches with a solid background for comprehending how environmental; role and performance constraints model every participant’s physical fitness. Moreover, it is crucial for a coach to understand the neurobiological systems involved in constraints-based practice in the acquisition of skills and sports play to create awareness that coaching is the dynamical literature which interrelates with the scientific knowledge of motor learning theories (Renshaw, Chow, Davids & Hammond, 2010).
The Weakness of Constraints-based Practice in the Motor Learning Literature
The Problem of Degrees of Freedom
Formulating just one strategy for movement presents a significant weakness to the nervous system. According to Nikolai Bernstein, a neurophysiologist in the 19th century, a change is created by multiple systems that work in conjunction. He argued that the weakness of degrees of freedom could be overcome by performing a series of voluntary movements smoothly and effectively. According to Guadagnoli & Lee (2004), when multiple systems interconnect, movement options which can play the same role became many.
To reduce the degrees of freedom, alternatively the amount of independent motor skills, the Central Nervous System ought to maintain redundancy. However, the solution to the degrees of freedom varies in accordance with learner characteristics as well as the environment and the size of tasks.
There are three types of constraints in motor learning which include individual, task and environmental constraints. Personal limitations refer to an individual’s uniqueness regarding physical and mental abilities and how they impact movement (Wulf, Shea & Lewthwaite, 2010). Individual constraints are classified into functional and structural limitations. Practical constraints refer to one’s behaviour or attitudes that impacts movement such as fear, anxiety and low concentration span (Araújo et al., 2004). Structural constraints refer to the biological aspect and one’s development patterns that influence movement such as weight and composition of body fat (Williams & Hodges, 2004). Task constraints are the facilities, goals and rules implemented to accomplish motor tasks, for example, using smaller soccer balls for coaching young players. Environmental restrictions are the physical or social factors of the surroundings that impair motor skills, for instance, unfavourable weather conditions or uncooperativeness from the fans.
The negative constraints that soccer players may experience include:
Individual:
High body fat or weight above average.
Inadequate strength to efficiently pass or shoot the ball.
Task:
Female players are not considered as fast or strong as male players.
During the teenage stage, gender differences become distinct among the athletes in role acts and body development.
Environment:
Pressure from the coach or supporters to increase playing time.
Unruly fans.
The real constraints that can overcome negative limitations include the following:
Individual:
Therapeutic ball training to enhance the efficiency of shooting and passing.
Increase the time for training, practicing and playing to reduce excess body weight and fat.
Task:
Create separate teams for girls and boys and preventing them from intermixing.
Using a smaller ball for female players to increase efficiency.
Environmental:
Giving the players an equal amount of play time.
Coaches offering training sessions on how to cope with uncouth behaviour from fans.
The Problem of Coordination
Coordination takes place at several levels of the motor control system such as between muscles, joints and limbs. Movements are necessary to attain goals while effectors work in coordination to regulate task-related body states and the surrounding (Williams & Hodges, 2005). For instance, when moving to press the button on an elevator, the position of the index-finger defines the task-related state, and the goal of the movement is to bring the tip of the finger to the button. Jenkins (2008) argues that the main problem related to coordination is the amount of effectors involved are too much than the dimensionality of the task requirements. Hence, there are several methods of achieving the goal of the movement. According to case studies, there are few solutions to address motor system coordination despite its vast redundancy. The main issue to address in coordination research is why and how the brain only selects specific movements despite a large number of options.
Numerous theories indicate that there are many constraints in the nervous system which regulate the number of options thus making the coordination weakness challenging to resolve. The method of motor synergies indicates that muscles operations are fixated therefore presumably controlled as functional sectors (Guadagnoli & Lee, 2004). Coordination research aims to evaluate which combination of muscles remains stable despite performing different types of movement and task goals. According to the dynamical system theory, coordinative motion comes from the dynamic movement of coupled oscillators which accounts for why the nervous system is biased towards some patterns, for example, expressing favour for the development of moves that are mirror-oriented (Renshaw, Davids, Savelsbergh, 2010). Furthermore, according to cognitively oriented theories, the movement system attains coordination by aligning similar parameters for different effectors during the procedure of motor description. The arguments of optimal feedback and control contradict the dynamic system and cognitively oriented theories by stating that the motor control system, rather than emphasising on internal constraints, coordination can be considered as a solution to the optimisation procedure problem for the task goals that the body goes through (Schmidt et al., 2018). Therefore, coordination is calculated by the structural component of both the body and the task without the influence of the nervous system’s internal constraints.
Experiment to Address Task Constraints
The main question to address is how task constraints impair motor learning and how they can be sent to enhance the acquisition of motor skills. I plan to implement both qualitative and quantitative methods of acquiring information through random sampling to evaluate my hypothesis. The main quantitative methods I will use are collecting relevant data from female and male players and conducting surveys with open-ended interrogations such as face-to-face interviews. In-depth interviews will assist in acquiring detailed information.
My target population is two soccer teams of different sexes. Each side has 11 players, therefore, making a total population of 22 players; however, I will conduct a simple random sampling method to work with a small group of only ten players from both teams particularly for the interview method of data collection. The simple random sampling method is the most effective because it offers every member an equal chance of selection, therefore, leaving little room for biases. I will utilize sampling without replacement to ensure every player has only one chance of participation. The main variables associated with the soccer players are age and gender.
The qualitative data collection methods I will implement are observation and in-depth face-to-face interviews. Under observation technique, I will observe the soccer teams practice in their normal routines and how the coach conducts his motor learning technique. I will also work with the sample selected to do one-on-one interviews with open-ended questions regarding their everyday practice routine. Because the constraint under study is the task, the issues will be targeting how the rules and goals set by the coach affect players’ motor tasks as well as the facilities that affect their efficiency. The interview aims to reinforce the questionnaire method and offer clarification when detail is required. Moreover, questionnaires are useful when addressing sensitive issues those participants may feel embarrassed to answer in person.
The observations made from my experiment is that when players practice early enough, their performance is enhanced, and however, late practice creates a lot of pressure which causes the players to break down (Davids et al., 2013). I noted that most players responded positively to motivational feedback particularly the female players. Many female players preferred motivation through positive criticism while male players responded better to yells from the coach who pushed them to increase their performance. The central assumption about female players is that their emotions may influence their training performance. Male players are also presumed to have more motor skills than their female counterparts. Hence, the coach has different ways of handling the two teams; for instance, male players are given more vigorous exercises such as pushups while female players perform sit-ups and leg-ups.
The challenge, however, involves recreating emotions such as anxiety and pressure during training to represent performance in the real game and assessing female and male adaptations to those situations (Janelle, Champenoy, Coombes & Mousseau, 2003). One’s personality and character continually influence skill acquisition and decision-making thus it is quite difficult to categorise adaptation under the two major gender groups broadly. However, in many cases, it was noted that extreme pressure and anxiety causes many players to perform poorly, but the coach strives to recreate such emotions to enhance the players’ adaptation thus performing better during the actual the games.
Motor learning is improved when the players are given the opportunity to exercise decision making during skills practice. However, the technical method does not enhance performance (Davids et al., 2013). Factors that increase performance during training include playing small-centred games, performing match games, conditioned play and conducting skills practice in a non-enclosed area involving active roles in decision making (Williams & Hodges, 2005).
When conducting interview sessions with the ten selected participants, some female players stated that it was unfair for their coach to treat them differently from the male players because of the assumption they are less active or fast for example giving them a smaller ball to play with. The aspect of all female players being emotional is a false generalisation because emotion is influenced by one’s personality hence some female players openly express their feelings than others, which means some may respond negatively to the coach’s yells or screams while others do not. In addition, at a certain age especially among teenage players, the gender differences between male and female become distinct such as height and muscular differences which makes it necessary to create separate teams according to sexes to promote training fairness. When questioned, some male players said it was appropriate that they have a different team from the female players because more male players tend to be rough hence their female counterparts could not handle extreme training conditions.
Concerning the task constraint, gender has a significant impact on how facilities, rules and goals need to be utilised to achieve motor tasks. When gender differences between soccer players are ignored they could lead to task constraints, therefore, impairing motor learning (Wulf et al., 2010). In conclusion, to increase the efficiency of motor skills, male and female players above the age of 12 years should be separated into two gender teams. Furthermore, female players should undergo less rigorous physical exercises in comparison to male players, for instance, using a smaller soccer ball to maintain performance efficiency levels.
How Constraints Practice Enhances Skill Acquisition and Decision-making in association football
When constraints practice is appropriately implemented, it can enhance skill acquisition and decision-making. For instance, in association football, conditioned and small-centred games can assist soccer learners to gain more exposure and experience in picking and passing the ball to each other in straight lines or how to take turns in shooting a stationary ball (Renshaw et al., 2010). Through manipulation of task constraints, adaptive motor behaviours are facilitated through the constant interpersonal mixing of learner players with the other teammates the opposing team and land field markings. In accordance with Janelle et al., (2003), constraints practice overcomes the random actions of learners by restricting their exploratory activities and exploration balance to variable and stable patterns of movement to attain limited task goals.
Nonlinear pedagogy in constraints practice is vital for the enhancement of decision-making aspects and important movement motions through facilitating competitive goal task interactions between the players and environmental constraints such as extreme weather conditions and rowdy fans (Araújo et al., 2004). For increased competitive performance, some vital variables should be manipulated to attain task goals such as keeping the soccer ball in possession and making a score.
Decision-making during soccer games is the dynamic and cyclic process that involves searching for data to implement and acting to reveal more applicable information (Schmidt et al., 2018). Not all critical information is relevant for every goal task. Thus players need to be trained in independent decision-making to acquire appropriate information according to the situation at hand. Coaches, therefore, need to offer training sessions that represent an actual game to attain better results in perception and game actions.
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