CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.4 Task-constraints manipulation and transfer of learning
2.4.2 Task-constraints manipulation and behaviour
The properties of sport equipment, for example ball mass and racquet length can be modified, and modifications have been suggested to facilitate the emergence of functional movements (Araújo et al., 2004; Farrow et al., 2016). Table 2.1 presents the results of studies that evaluated the acute impact of modified equipment on individuals’ behaviour. These experiments mainly assessed skill performance in relatively novice children and, in general, showed that modified equipment promoted higher skill accuracy and more opportunities for action when it was scaled to the children’s characteristics, namely when it was lighter and/or smaller than adult size (Buszard et al., 2016b). Results were consistent when different sports and skills were examined; for example, basketball shooting (Arias, 2012; Arias, Argudo, & Alonso, 2012b; Chase, Ewing, Lirgg, & George, 1994; Satern, Messier, & Keller-McNulty, 1989; Szyman, Ito,
Garner, Munoz, & Reed, 2014) and tennis striking (Buszard, Farrow, Reid, & Masters, 2014a; Kachel, Buszard, & Reid, 2015; Larson & Guggenheimer, 2013; Timmerman et al., 2015). Similarly, ball speed was higher when adult woman footballers performed shots using a smaller and lighter ball relative to the standard one (Andersen et al., 2016). Together, this research highlighted that modified equipment influenced individuals’ behaviour and, when scaled to an athlete’s characteristics, facilitated the performance of a sport skill, which is likely to promote skill learning.
Table 2.1 Results of studies that examined the acute effects of equipment modification on athletes’ behaviour.
(Reference) Equipment
modification
Participants Effect on behaviour compared to standard equipment
(Szyman et al., 2014) Basketball size and
mass
Children Higher shooting accuracy in a free-throw test when basketballs
were smaller and lighter.
(Arias, 2012) Basketball mass Children Higher shooting accuracy during games when basketball was
lighter.
(Arias, Argudo, &
Alonso, 2012a)
Basketball mass Children Higher number of passes, pass receptions and dribbles during
games with lighter basketball
(Arias et al., 2012b) Basketball mass Children Higher shooting accuracy and higher number of shots during
games with lighter ball
(Arias, Argudo, &
Alonso, 2012c)
Basketball mass Children Higher number of one-to-one situations during games with lighter
ball
(Chase et al., 1994) Basketball size and
basket height
Children Higher shooting accuracy in a free-throw test with lower basket
height; no effect of basketball size on shooting
(Satern et al., 1989) Basketball size and
basket height
Children Shooting trajectory was affected by basket height but movement
kinematics was not affected
(Timmerman et al.,
2015)
Tennis court
dimension and net
height
Children Lowering the net resulted in higher number of skills and shot
(Kachel et al., 2015) Tennis ball
compression
Children Increase in technique fluency and shot speed with lower
compression ball during matches
(Larson &
Guggenheimer, 2013)
Tennis ball
compression and
court dimension
Children Performance of a skill test was higher with lower ball
compression and shorter court
(Buszard et al.,
2014a)
Tennis ball
compression and
racquet length
Children Lower compression ball and smaller tennis racquet led to higher
shot accuracy and technique fluency in a lab-based test
(Andersen et al.,
2016)
Soccer ball size Female adults Ball peak velocity was higher with a smaller and lighter ball in a
lab-based test; no difference between balls in game
Modified games, in particular small-sided games (SSG), are widely used in sport as training stimuli to foster the development of a player’s skills (Hill-Haas, Dawson, Impellizzeri, & Coutts, 2011). The dimensions of the court, number of players involved in the game, and rules can be modified to manipulate how task-relevant affordances emerge and, in turn, encourage the development of skills that transfer to competition (Davids, Araújo, Correia, & Vilar, 2013). Table 2.2 presents results of previous research that has evaluated how acute changes of task constraints in SSGs have influenced an athlete’s skill accuracy and opportunities for action. A reduction in court dimension and number of players promoted more opportunities for action in soccer (Almeida, Ferreira, & Volossovitch, 2013; Kelly & Drust, 2009; Owen, Wong, McKenna, & Dellal, 2011) and basketball (Conte, Favero, Niederhausen, Capranica, & Tessitore, 2016) SSGs. Furthermore, soccer passing accuracy decreased as rules became restrictive, from free touches to a 1-touch rule (Dellal, Lago-Penas, Wong, & Chamari, 2011) and when the surface was unfamiliar, sand vs turf (Rago, Rebelo, Pizzuto, & Barreira, 2016).
Table 2.2 Results of studies that examined the acute effects of task-constraints modification on skill performance and opportunities for action during small-sided games.
(Reference) Constraint
modification
Effect on behaviour
(Kelly & Drust, 2009) Pitch dimension:
Soccer 4v4 on small (30x20m),
medium (40x30m) and large
(50x40m) pitches
Number of skill executions (e.g., shots and tackles) increased as
dimension of the pitches decreased
(Elliott, Plunkett, &
Alderson, 2005)
Pitch length:
Cricket bowling on standard
(20.12m), medium (18m) and
short (16m) pitches
Bowling accuracy increased as length of the pitches decreased
(Owen et al., 2011) Number of players:
Soccer 3v3 and 9v9
Higher individual involvements with the ball (e.g., pass and
dribbles) in 3v3 relative to 9v9
(Conte et al., 2016) Number of players:
Basketball 2v2 and 4v4
Players executed a higher number of skills in 2v2 than 4v4
(Almeida et al., 2013) Number of players:
Soccer 3v3 and 6v6
Higher number of skill executions in 3v3 compared to 6v6
(Harrison, Gill, Kinugasa,
& Kilding, 2013)
Number of players:
Soccer 3v3, 4v4 and 6v6
Players’ involvement with the ball increased as number of players decreased
(Dellal et al., 2011) Rules:
Soccer 4v4 with 1 touch, 2
touches and free-touches rules
Pass accuracy decreased from free-touches to 1 touch rule.
(Rago et al., 2016) Surface:
Soccer 5v5 in sand and turf
surface
Passing accuracy was higher when games were played on a turf
pitch than a sand pitch.
The ecological dynamics framework advocates the analysis of an individual’s behaviour on a performer-environment scale (Davids et al., 2012). In this context, the behaviour of players during SSGs is conceptualised as a dynamical system where a team’s
behaviour emerges from the self-organisation of players’ interactions under task and environmental constraints (Araújo et al., 2006; Vilar et al., 2012). Following this approach, the spatiotemporal relationship between players is analysed considering variables such as i) the area occupied by a team (effective playing space, EPS), ii) the shape of the area occupied by a team (playing length per width ratio, PLpW) (Silva, Duarte, et al., 2014), iii) the distance between a team and another team or a goal (Silva, Garganta, Vilar, Araújo, & Davids, 2016), iv) the regularity of players’ behaviour (i.e., the degree of regularity in a team’s behaviour variable over different phases of a game, such as attacking or defending phases) (Torrents et al., 2016), and v) the exploration of different movement solutions (exploratory behaviour) (Ric et al., 2016).
Results of studies that have adopted this approach in evaluating the acute effect of manipulating task constraints in SSGs are presented in Table 2.3. In summary, a reduction in pitch dimensions and number of players resulted in a decrease of playing area, regularity of players’ behaviour and opportunities to maintain ball possession (Aguiar, Gonçalves, Botelho, Lemmink, & Sampaio, 2015; Silva, Garganta, Santos, & Teoldo, 2014; Silva, Duarte, et al., 2014; Vilar, Duarte, Silva, Chow, & Davids, 2014). Increasing the number of opponents, from 4v3 to 4v7 and from 5v3 to 5v5, resulted in teams decreasing inter-player distance and shifting towards their own goal (Silva, Travassos, et al., 2014), with the defending players performing more visual exploratory behaviours to perceive the higher number of opponents (Ric et al., 2016; Torrents et al., 2016). Similarly, an increase in the number of targets, from 2 goals to 6 small goals, encouraged a more efficient use of the space with a higher exploration of the pitch areas to score goals in the additional targets (Travassos et al., 2014).
Table 2.3 Results of studies that examined the acute influence of task-constraints modification on inter-personal coordination during small-sided games.
(Reference) Constraint
modification
Effect on inter-personal coordination
(Silva, Duarte, et al., 2014) Pitch dimension:
Soccer 5v5 on small
(36.8x23.8m), medium
(47.3x30.6m) and large
(57.8x37.4m) pitches
Effective playing space and team separateness increased when
field dimension increased. The playing shape was more
elongated in medium and large pitches than the small pitch.
Regularity of players’ behaviour increased with increase of pitch dimension
(Vilar, Duarte, et al., 2014) Pitch dimension:
Soccer 5v5 on small (28x14m),
medium (40x20m) and large
(52x26m) pitches
More opportunities to maintain ball possession as pitch
dimension increased
(Silva et al., 2016) Individual playing area:
Soccer SSG with 168 m2 (3v3),
126m2 (4v4) and 101 m2 (5v5)
EPS of both teams increased as individual playing area decreased
but other behaviour parameters remained similar, indicating that
players' dispersion increased to keep similar tactical behaviours
(Aguiar et al., 2015) Number of players:
Soccer 2v2, 3v3, 4v4 and 5v5
Inter-player distance and regularity of behaviour increased as
number of players increased
(Silva, Garganta, et al.,
2014)
Number of players:
Soccer 3v3 and 6v6
3v3 promoted actions that tended to rupture the defensive line
leading to 1v1 duels, while 6v6 encouraged collective team
actions to beat opponents. 3v3 encouraged more aggressive
behaviour, while 6v6 encouraged safer behaviour.
(Silva, Travassos, et al.,
2014)
Numerical relation:
Soccer 5v5, 5v4 and 5v3
Exploratory behaviours and playing space increased as one of the
teams ‘lost’ players (5v5 to 5v3). (Torrents et al., 2016) Numerical relation:
Soccer 4v3, 4v5 and 4v7
An increase in the number of teammates (from 3 to 7) promoted
more offensive patterns and regularity of behaviour, while an
increase in the number of opponents led to a decrease in offensive
actions and exploration of defensive and offensive behaviour.
(Ric et al., 2016) Numerical relation:
Soccer 4v3, 4v5 and 4v7
An increase in number of opponents increased players’ breadth
(Travassos et al., 2014) Number of targets:
Soccer 5v5 with 2 goals and 6
targets
An increase from 2 to 6 targets promoted higher between-team
distance, higher playing space, higher exploration of pitch zones,
and higher breadth of attention to perceived additional targets.
(Bredt et al., 2018) Rules:
Basketball 3v3 in full pitch and
half pitch, and reduced-clock
rule
The reduced-clock rule resulted in players seeking and creating
more opportunities for ball dribbling than the other two
conditions.
This large number of studies have provided evidence on how different information- movement couplings emerge when equipment, rules, player number and pitch dimensions are modified. Furthermore, inter-player coordination and individuals’ exploratory behaviour emerged as a function of the manipulated constraints, indicating that individuals modified their behaviour in response to the different situations. While these studies provided relevant information on how the modification to certain task constraints influences an individual’s behaviour, they did not examine how these behavioural changes would promote the learning or transfer process. Furthermore, these studies primarily assessed the outcome of a movement or inter-player dynamics, and did not directly assess how the perceptual behaviour supported changes in movement outcome.
While none of the studies discussed in this section evaluated transfer, some studies showed how manipulating the number of players and pitch dimensions encouraged exploration of different movement solutions (Ric et al., 2016; Torrents et al., 2016; Travassos et al., 2014), which has been suggested to promote skill transfer (Pacheco & Newell, 2015). The next section discusses how perceptual-motor exploration could promote transfer of skills.