Informing Game Sense pedagogy with constraints led theory for coaching in Australian football

Abstract

All invasion games are complex and dynamic. This paper focuses on one invasion game, Australian football. It discusses the potential contribution of dynamic systems theory to performance analysis in Australian football, in order to better understand how the complex interplay of collective decision-making evolves within play. The discussion of conceptual issues leading to a theoretically informed practice proposes that the application of dynamic systems thinking enables Australian football researchers and coaches to efficiently analyse patterns of play and identify the information-movement couplings associated with how players produce the functional behaviours that answer the requirements of momentary configurations of play. This paper builds on recent theoretical debate in the areas of skill acquisition, complex learning theory and coaching pedagogy, to connect a constraints-led skill acquisition perspective and Game Sense pedagogy to produce theoretically informed coaching practice.

Keywords::

• Australian football
• dynamic system
• configurations of play
• Game Sense