title: A scale-based approach to interdisciplinary research and expertise in sports.
abstract: After more than 20 years since the introduction of ecological and dynamical approaches in sports research, their promising opportunity for interdisciplinary research has not been fulfilled yet. The complexity of the research process and the theoretical and empirical difficulties associated with an integrated ecological-dynamical approach have been the major factors hindering the generalisation of interdisciplinary projects in sports sciences. To facilitate this generalisation, we integrate the major concepts from the ecological and dynamical approaches to study behaviour as a multi-scale process. Our integration gravitates around the distinction between functional (ecological) and execution (organic) scales, and their reciprocal intra- and inter-scale constraints. We propose an (epistemological) scale-based definition of constraints that accounts for the concept of synergies as emergent coordinative structures. To illustrate how we can operationalise the notion of multi-scale synergies we use an interdisciplinary model of locomotor pointing. To conclude, we show the value of this approach for interdisciplinary research in sport sciences, as we discuss two examples of task-specific dimensionality reduction techniques in the context of an ongoing project that aims to unveil the determinants of expertise in basketball free throw shooting. These techniques provide relevant empirical evidence to help bootstrap the challenging modelling efforts required in sport sciences.
authors.affiliation: a Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Institut des Sciences du Mouvement UMR 7287 , Marseille , France.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ibáñez-Gijón
authors.affiliation: a Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Institut des Sciences du Mouvement UMR 7287 , Marseille , France.|b Department of Kinesiology , KU Leuven , Tervuursevest 101, Leuven , Belgium.
authors.forename: Martinus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Buekers
authors.affiliation: a Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Institut des Sciences du Mouvement UMR 7287 , Marseille , France.
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Morice
authors.affiliation: a Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Institut des Sciences du Mouvement UMR 7287 , Marseille , France.
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.affiliation: a Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Institut des Sciences du Mouvement UMR 7287 , Marseille , France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mascret
authors.affiliation: a Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Institut des Sciences du Mouvement UMR 7287 , Marseille , France.
authors.forename: Jérome
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Laurin
authors.affiliation: a Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Institut des Sciences du Mouvement UMR 7287 , Marseille , France.
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Montagne
mesh_terms: D001490:Basketball; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D009048:Motor Skills; D009068:Movement; D012107:Research Design; D012586:Science; D013177:Sports
keywords: Expertise; basketball free throw; dynamical systems; ecological approach; interdisciplinary research