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3Expert decision-making can be directly assessed, if sport action is understood as 4 an expression of embedded and embodied cognition. Here, we discuss evidence for this 5 claim, starting with a critical review of research literature on the perceptual-cognitive 6 basis for expertise. In reviewing how performance and underlying processes are 7 conceived and captured in extant sport psychology, we evaluate arguments in favour of 8 a key role for actions in decision-making, situated in a performance environment. Key 9 assumptions of an ecological dynamics perspective are also presented, highlighting how 10 behaviours emerge from the continuous interactions in the performer-environment 11 system. Perception is of affordances; and action, as an expression of cognition, is the 12 realization of an affordance and emerges under constraints. We also discuss the role of 13 knowledge and consciousness in decision-making behaviour. Finally, we elaborate on 14 the specificities of investigating and understanding decision-making in sport from this 15 perspective. Specifically, decision-making concerns the choice of action modes when 16 perceiving an affordance during a course of action, as well as the selection of a 17 particular affordance, amongst many that exist in a landscape in a sport performance 18 environment. We conclude by pointing to some applications for the practice of sport 19 psychology and coaching and identifying avenues for future research. How expert athletes decide to do what they do is a topic that has interested 27 scientists for several decades (e.g., Beise & Peasley, 1937), and particularly sport 28 psychologists(e.g., Straub & Williams, 1984). It has been argued that sport is a most 29 appropriate context for studying expert decision-making (Gilovitch, 1984, Gilovitch et al, 30 1985. According to Gobet (2016), sport is a domain of expertise, where expertise relies 31 on perception: "experts literally 'see' things differently compared to novices" and "these 32 differences in perception and knowledge affect problem solving and decision making" 33 (Gobet, 2016, p.7). 34 Predicated on these ideas, studies of decision-making in sport have intensively 35 tested athletes'perception and anticipation, attention, memory, and decision-making. 36An important gap emerges immediately: decision-making in sport, by following trends 37 in cognitive psychology, has neglected the important role of action and its constitutive 38 role in cognition (Araújo, Ripoll & Raab, 2009;Prinz, Beisert & Herwig, 2013; Wolpert & 39 Landy, 2012). In this article, we critically overview research on the perceptual-cognitive 40 basis of decision-making, before we present an action-based alternative, from the 41 ecological dynamics framework, clarifying repercussions for theory and research in 42 sport psychology. 43 44The perceptual-cognitive framework for the study of decision-making in sport 45Currently, the perceptual-cognitive view of decision-making tends to focus on 46 use of perception, memory and decision-making tas...

Researchers studying adaptive behavior in human movement systems have traditionally employed simplified, laboratory-based movement models in an effort to conserve experimental rigor. Brunswikian psychology raises questions over the representativeness of many of these popular experimental models for studying how movements are coordinated with events, objects, and surfaces of dynamic environments. In this article we argue that sports provide rich ecological constraints for representative task design in modeling the complex interactions of human performers with their environments. Adopting a functionalist perspective enriched by ideas from ecological psychology and nonlinear dynamics, we consider data from exemplar movement models in basketball and boxing to support this contention. We show that this preference for movement models from sports, although not completely novel, has accelerated over recent years, mainly due to the theoretical re-emphasis on studying the interaction of individual and task constraints. The implications of using such applied models of movement behavior in studying the design of natural and artificial systems are also discussed. Keywords movement coordination and control • constraints • representative design • perception and action • degrees of freedom

The aim of this study was to identify the dynamics of tactical behaviour emerging on different timescales in football small-sided games and to quantify short- and long-term exploratory behaviour according to the number of opponents. Two teams of four professional male footballers played small-sided games against two different teams with a variable number of opponents (3, 5 and 7). Data were collected using a combination of systematic observation and a non-differential global positioning system (15 Hz). The temporal diversity and structural flexibility of the players were determined by calculating the dynamic overlap order parameter q, entropy and trapping strength. Analysis of the exploratory dynamics revealed two different timescales, forming a different metastable landscape of action for each constraint. Fast dynamics lasted on average a few seconds and consisted of changes in tactical patterns. The long timescale corresponded to the shared tasks of offence and defence lasting tens of seconds. The players' tactical diversity decreased with an increasing number of opponents, especially in defence. Manipulating numerical imbalance is likely to promote changes in the diversity, unpredictability and flexibility of tactical solutions. The fact that the temporally nested structure of constraints shaped the emergence of tactical behaviour provides a new rationale for practice task design. The manipulation of numerical imbalance on the timescale of a few tens of seconds, on which the exploratory behaviour of players saturates, may help coaches to optimise the exploratory efficiency of the small-sided games.

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The basic theoretical assumptions of Exercise Physiology and its research directions, strongly influenced by reductionism, may hamper the full potential of basic science investigations, and various practical applications to sports performance and exercise as medicine. The aim of this perspective and programmatic article is to: (i) revise the current paradigm of Exercise Physiology and related research on the basis of principles and empirical findings in the new emerging field of Network Physiology and Complex Systems Science; (ii) initiate a new area in Exercise and Sport Science, Network Physiology of Exercise (NPE), with focus on basic laws of interactions and principles of coordination and integration among diverse physiological systems across spatio-temporal scales (from the sub-cellular level to the entire organism), to understand how physiological states and functions emerge, and to improve the efficacy of exercise in health and sport performance; and (iii) to create a forum for developing new research methodologies applicable to the new NPE field, to infer and quantify nonlinear dynamic forms of coupling among diverse systems and establish basic principles of coordination and network organization of physiological systems. Here, we present a programmatic approach for future research directions and potential practical applications. By focusing on research efforts to improve the knowledge about nested dynamics of vertical network interactions, and particularly, the horizontal integration of key organ systems during exercise, NPE may enrich Basic Physiology and diverse fields like Exercise and Sports Physiology, Sports Medicine, Sports Rehabilitation, Sport Science or Training Science and improve the understanding of diverse exercise-related phenomena such as sports performance, fatigue, overtraining, or sport injuries.

Our purpose was to study the effects of different training modalities and detraining on cardiorespiratory coordination (CRC). Thirty-two young males were randomly assigned to four training groups: aerobic (AT), resistance (RT), aerobic plus resistance (AT + RT), and control (C). They were assessed before training, after training (6 weeks) and after detraining (3 weeks) by means of a graded maximal test. A principal component (PC) analysis of selected cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory variables was performed to evaluate CRC. The first PC (PC1) coefficient of congruence in the three conditions (before training, after training and after detraining) was compared between groups. Two PCs were identified in 81% of participants before the training period. After this period the number of PCs and the projection of the selected variables onto them changed only in the groups subject to a training programme. The PC1 coefficient of congruence was significantly lower in the training groups compared with the C group [H(3, N=32) = 11.28; p = 0.01]. In conclusion, training produced changes in CRC, reflected by the change in the number of PCs and the congruence values of PC1. These changes may be more sensitive than the usually explored cardiorespiratory reserve, and they probably precede it.