Dynamic Systems Theory and Team Sport Coaching

This article examines the theory of dynamic systems and its use in the domains of the study and coaching of team sports. The two teams involved in a match are looked at as two interacting systems in movement, where opposition is paramount. A key element for the observation of game play is the notion of configuration of play and its ever-changing shape, namely through phases of contraction and expansion, and its moving location on the court or the field. Analysis of specific configurations of play by players, or external observers, is discussed in light of the notion of prototypical configuration of play and the process of learning by analogy. Offensive and defensive matrices of play, encompassing play in movement as a systemic whole, are presented as advance organizers that provide players with advance strategic representations of reference key points in the unfolding of game play. These various concepts, along with elements of movement in play, are integrated in a model intended to help players and observers grasp a systemic view of action play and its underlying fulcrums.