The Constraints-led Approach ― Principles for Sports Coaching and Practice Design

For the last 25 years, a constraints-based framework has helped to inform the way that many sport scientists seek to understand performance, learning design and the development of expertise and talent in sport. The Constraints-Led Approach: Principles for Sports Coaching and Practice Design provides students and practitioners with the theoretical knowledge required to implement constraints-led approaches in their work.

Seeking to bridge the divide between theory and practice, the book sets out an ‘environment design framework’, including practical tools and guidance for the application of the framework in coaching and skill acquisition settings. It includes chapters on constraints-led approaches in golf, athletics and hockey, and provides applied reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of motor learning, skill acquisition and developing sport expertise.

Providing a thorough grounding in the theory behind constraints-led approaches to skill acquisition, and a foundational cornerstone in the Routledge Studies in Constraints-Based Methodologies in Sport series, this is a vital pedagogical resource for students and practising sports coaches, physical education teachers and sport scientists, alike.

Ian Renshaw is a Senior Lecturer in Skill Acquisition and Sports Coaching in the School of Exercise & Nutrition Sciences at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Ian has worked with coaches in many sports including the English Cricket Board, EIS, New Zealand Academy of Sport, New Zealand Netball, Queensland Netball and Rugby Union and South Australia & Queensland Cricket Association

Keith Davids is Professor of Motor Learning at the Centre for Sports Engineering Research, Sheffield Hallam University, UK. He has held professorial positions in the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Finland (Finnish Distinguished Professor 2012-2016). He has conducted research on elite and developmental sport programmes at the New Zealand South Island Academy, the Queensland Academy of Sport, Australian Institute of Sport, Diving Australia, Cricket Australia and the English Institute of Sport

Daniel Newcombe is a Senior Lecturer in Sport, Coaching & PE in the Department of Sport and Health Sciences at Oxford Brookes University, UK. Alongside his role at Oxford Brookes, Daniel is an international and domestic national league hockey coach. He has been the assistant coach for the Men’s Welsh National Team for the past five years in addition to his role as Head Coach at Southgate Hockey Club in London. Daniel has extensive experience working with coaches and physical educators across many domains including Hockey Wales, Great Britain Hockey and the English Institute of Sport

Will Roberts is a Senior Lecturer in Sport, Coaching & PE in the Department of Sport and Health Sciences at Oxford Brookes University, UK. Will has worked in Higher Education for the last 15 years, and held academic teaching positions for over a decade in elite sport environments, establishing his work as a multi-disciplinarian in sport coaching research. Focusing on the socio-cultural and ecological domains of coaching research, Will has developed the undergraduate and postgraduate research programmes in coaching at Oxford Brookes University