title: Key properties of expert movement systems in sport : an ecological dynamics perspective.
abstract: This paper identifies key properties of expertise in sport predicated on the performer-environment relationship. Weaknesses of traditional approaches to expert performance, which uniquely focus on the performer and the environment separately, are highlighted by an ecological dynamics perspective. Key properties of expert movement systems include 'multi- and meta-stability', 'adaptive variability', 'redundancy', 'degeneracy' and the 'attunement to affordances'. Empirical research on these expert system properties indicates that skill acquisition does not emerge from the internal representation of declarative and procedural knowledge, or the imitation of expert behaviours to linearly reduce a perceived 'gap' separating movements of beginners and a putative expert model. Rather, expert performance corresponds with the ongoing co-adaptation of an individual's behaviours to dynamically changing, interacting constraints, individually perceived and encountered. The functional role of adaptive movement variability is essential to expert performance in many different sports (involving individuals and teams; ball games and outdoor activities; land and aquatic environments). These key properties signify that, in sport performance, although basic movement patterns need to be acquired by developing athletes, there exists no ideal movement template towards which all learners should aspire, since relatively unique functional movement solutions emerge from the interaction of key constraints.
authors: Centre d'Etude des Transformations des Activités Physiques et Sportives (CETAPS)-EA 3832, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Rouen, Bld Siegfried, 76821 Mount Saint Aignan Cedex, Mont Saint Aignan, France. ludovic.seifert@univ-rouen.fr
authors: Ludovic
authors: L
authors: Seifert
authors: Chris
authors: C
authors: Button
authors: Keith
authors: K
authors: Davids
mesh_terms: D054874:Athletic Performance; D006801:Humans; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology