Developing Creativity to Enhance Human Potential in Sport: A Wicked Transdisciplinary Challenge

Abstract

The challenge of developing creativity to enhance human potential is conceptualized as a multifaceted wicked problem due to the countless interactions between people and environments that constitute human development, athletic skill, and creative moments. To better comprehend the inter-relatedness of ecologies and human behaviors, there have been increasing calls for transdisciplinary approaches and holistic ecological models. In this paper we explore an ecological dynamics rationale for creativity, highlighting the conceptual adjacency of key concepts from transdisciplinarity, dynamic systems theory, ecological psychology and social-cognitive psychology. Our aim is to extend the scope of ecological dynamics and contextualize the application of non-linear pedagogy in sport. Foregrounding the role of sociocultural constraints on creative behaviors, we characterize the athlete-environment system as an ecological niche that arises from, and simultaneously co-creates, a form of life. We elaborate the notion that creative moments, skill and more generally talent in sport, are not traits possessed by individuals alone, but rather can be conceived as properties of the athlete-environment system shaped by changing constraints. This re-conceptualization supports a pedagogical approach predicated on notions of athletes and sports teams as complex adaptive systems. In such systems, continuous non-linear interactions between system components support the exploration of fluent and flexibly creative performance solutions by athletes and sports teams. The implications for practice suggest that cultivating a constellation of constraints can facilitate adaptive exploration of novel affordances (opportunities/invitation for action), fostering creative moments and supporting creative development in athletes. Future models or frameworks for practice contend that pedagogies should emerge from, and evolve in, interaction with the sociocultural context in which practitioners and athletes are embedded.

Effect of Modification Rules in Competition on Technical–Tactical Action in Young Tennis Players (Under-10)

“…Overall, these studies highlight that the need for adapting competition at early training does not provide an integral development of young athletes (Burton et al, 2011b;Ortega et al, 2015;Buszard et al, 2016;Gonçalves et al, 2016;McCarthy et al, 2016). This problem encourages science to seek methodological approaches that will aid coaches, federations, and sports institutions in designing competitions that will improve the teaching-learning processes of young players (Araujo et al, 2006;Davids et al, 2013b;McCarthy et al, 2016;Peráèek and Peráèková, 2018).…”

Using Smart Sensors to Monitor Physical Activity and Technical–Tactical Actions in Junior Tennis Players

“…These findings, while preliminary, suggest that the use, mainly, of one kind of stroke or dominant side does not encourage the variability by playing associated with creative problem-solving [57]. One possible explanation for these results may be the lack of training in global and integral situations to develop different skills and behaviors in problem-solving.…”

Identification Of A Group For Research Of Telomeric Aging

“…Since they begin to train in childhood and adolescence (Kwon, 2018), when the influence of any effects on the telomere length is most pronounced, both positive and negative (Bersani et al, 2016;Henje Blom et al, 2015), we might assume that the corresponding telomere status is established roughly at that time. Therefore, all the positive things that sport brings to life, like education opportunity, career success, etc., affect telomere length quite strongly, especially when supported by personal qualities necessary for the athlete (Vaughan et al, 2019). At the same time, increase in telomere length was shown in people coping with life stress, which was considered as a protective reaction leading to an increase in telomerase activity, and elongation of telomere length, as a result .…”