Merging Athletic Development With Skill Acquisition: Developing Agility Using an Ecological Dynamics Approach

Abstract

Agility has commonly been regarded as a physical quality, and strength and conditioning practitioners have typically used a closed environment approach for developing agility. This closed environment approach involves the decoupling of perception and action, where actions are trained in isolation from perception. Previous studies have shown, however, that when perception or action is trained in isolation, behavior changes. Therefore, agility is complex and multifactorial in nature. Through ecological dynamics, specifically the principle of representative learning design, practitioners should design training tasks that align more closely with the demands of competition. Representative learning design ensures that perception and action remain coupled to promote greater transfer of performance from training to competition. Another key principle for agility task design is coadaptation, and this can be operationalized through manipulation of opposing players. With these 2 key principles, we offer examples of agility tasks in 3 team invasion sports including soccer, rugby union, and Australian rules football.