Team Sports Training: The Complexity Model

The Complexity Model is a new approach to team sports training that examines football, rugby union, field hockey, basketball, handball, and futsal through the paradigm of complexity. It challenges the traditional deterministic perspective and proposes that the body works as a perfect machine, and the global team performance is expected to be enhanced. However, team sports contain variable, heterogeneous, and non-linear constraints that require the development of a different logic to organize their training. Ecological psychology, dynamical systems theory, and the constraints-led approach have opened interesting fields of research from which conceptual foundations can be applied to team sports. The current book presents the study of players and teams as complex systems, using coordination dynamics to explain the emergence of self-organisation episodes. It challenges the reader to re-think their training strategy and develop an original theory and practice of training specific to team sports.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 216 pages
Publication date: 13 June 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

The Complexity Model offers a fresh perspective on team sports training, delving into the realms of football (soccer), rugby union, field hockey, basketball, handball, and futsal through the lens of complexity. In the past, these sports have been analyzed using a deterministic approach, where individual components of athletes were examined and treated separately. The assumption was that the body functioned as a flawless machine, and by maximizing these components, athletes could enhance their performance. It was believed that applying the same closed recipe to all squad members would improve the overall team performance. However, the reality of team sports deviates significantly from the idealized closed conditions in which these models were formulated. Team sports are characterized by diverse, heterogeneous, and non-linear constraints that necessitate a distinct logic for organizing their training.

Over the past few years, ecological psychology, dynamical systems theory, and the constraints-led approach have emerged as fertile fields of research, offering valuable conceptual foundations that can be applied to team sports. Building upon this contemporary framework, the present book explores the study of players and teams as complex systems, employing coordination dynamics to explain the emergence of self-organizing episodes that define them. Furthermore, this thinking line empowers readers to apply these innovative concepts to their practical training scenarios, fostering a re-examination of training strategies and the development of an original theory and practice in the field.

Weight: 400g
Dimension: 246 x 174 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032336879