Commentary: Long-term Practice with Domain-Specific Task Constraints Influences Perceptual Skills

Practical application of ecological dynamics for talent development in cricket

“…27 Representative learning design refers to how well the training environment represents the behavioural demands of the performance environment, where the behaviour is intended to be performed. 75,76 It is important to consider the origin of these sources of information as training does not need to perfectly replicate a game but should sample the information that players use to inform their actions. 77 In cricket, expert batters utilise visual anticipation by identifying cues in a bowler’s approach, arm position, ball seam and previous situational experiences to prepare their movement response.…”

Response: Commentary: Long-term Practice with Domain-Specific Task Constraints Influences Perceptual Skills

“…We are glad that our original article “Long-term practice with domain-specific task constraints influences perceptual skills” (Oppici et al, 2017) has sparked an interesting debate in the skill acquisition field. Yiannaki et al (2018) recently published a commentary on our article discussing the results in relation to skill transfer from futsal to football, raising questions about the experimental task adopted, and providing recommendations for future research on this topic. In this reply to their commentary, we clarify some aspects that the authors may have misinterpreted and provide our comments in relation to the examination of skill transfer.…”

“…Therefore, our study should be considered from this perspective, and interpretations on how our study provided preliminary evidence on skill transfer are rather speculative and should be considered with caution. On this, Yiannaki et al stated “additional research is needed before these findings can be used to inform the potential use of futsal as a skill development tool for 11-aside soccer” (Yiannaki et al, 2018). We could not agree more with this statement, considering that we did not assess and present any results concerning skill transfer (for studies examining skill transfer from futsal to soccer see Oppici et al, 2018a,b).…”