COnstraints Based Approach
“Any situation in which some men prevent others from engaging in the process of inquiry is one of violence;… to alienate humans from their own decision making is to change them into objects.”
- Paulo Freire
CONSTRAINTS BASED APPROACH
A methodology that proposes the use of task and environment constraints to create problem-based training situations, which promote autonomous decision-making, tactical insight, perception, anticipation, self regulation, memory, motivation or group dynamics.
These various constraints, in a given environment, afford opportunities for behaviors to emerge and depending on the constraints within the environment, certain actions or behaviors will be more or less available to the performer(s).
Individual: These represent the individual psychological and physical characteristics of the learner or player. These features can be further divided into structural and functional characteristics. Structural characteristics are relatively stable, like genetics, height, etc., whereas functional characteristics are more susceptible to rapid changes and embrace emotion, intention, perception, action, attention, motivation, endurance and strength.
Task: This represents all the characteristics of the practice as the rules or laws of the game, the number of players (teammates and opponents) goals, equipment, playing space and time.
Environment: This identifies part of the performance landscape (playing surfaces, weather conditions etc.) sociocultural (family, culture, spectators), and informational features.
“The Interaction between these constraints creates opportunities for action to emerge. Even though the constraints-based approach was developed for the learning of motor skills, its rationale could be extrapolated to team sports training.” - Mallo
A constraint is an inherent factor to the individual (player), task (exercise), or environment that through restrictions or facilitation, potentiate the movement or behavior.
Examples of Individual player variables: ability, weight, preferred foot.
Examples of task variables: number of players, space, obstacles.
Examples of environmental variables: pitch condition, surface, weather.
Constructing actions indicates there is a space of action within which all solutions are possible. Poor Messaging – not clear
CBA understands technical-tactical, physical, and psycho-social development, through interaction and related methods; what is wanted to train (task), the athletes (individual), and the situation where the learning takes place (environment).
Learning from the approach consists of the creation of exercises that, by manipulating the key constraints and increasing the information that supports the action, allow the emergence of a certain behavior - increase in decision-making.
