A functional approach to movement analysis and error identification in sports and physical education

HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY published: 10 September 2015 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01339 A functional approach to movement analysis and error identification in sports and physical education Ernst-Joachim Hossner 1*, Frank Schiebl 2 and Ulrich Göhner 2 1 Institut für Sportwissenschaft, Universität Bern, Bern, Switzerland, 2 Institut für Sportwissenschaft, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany Edited by: Thomas Heinen, University of Hildesheim, Germany Reviewed by: Bettina E. Bläsing, Bielefeld University, Germany Blandine Bril, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, France *Correspondence: Ernst-Joachim Hossner, Institut für Sportwissenschaft, Universität Bern, Bremgartenstrasse 145, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland Specialty section: This article was submitted to Movement Science and Sport Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology Received: 30 March 2015 Accepted: 20 August 2015 Published: 10 September 2015 Citation: Hossner E-J, Schiebl F and Göhner U (2015) A functional approach to movement analysis and error identification in sports and physical education. Front. Psychol. 6:1339. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01339 Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org In a hypothesis-and-theory paper, a functional approach to movement analysis in sports is introduced. In this approach, contrary to classical concepts, it is not anymore the “ideal” movement of elite athletes that is taken as a template for the movements produced by learners. Instead, movements are understood as the means to solve given tasks that in turn, are defined by to-be-achieved task goals. A functional analysis comprises the steps of (1) recognizing constraints that define the functional structure, (2) identifying sub-actions that subserve the achievement of structure-dependent goals, (3) explicating modalities as specifics of the movement execution, and (4) assigning functions to actions, sub-actions and modalities. Regarding motor-control theory, a functional approach can be linked to a dynamical-system framework of behavioral shaping, to cognitive models of modular effect-related motor control as well as to explicit concepts of goal setting and goal achievement. Finally, it is shown that a functional approach is of particular help for sports practice in the context of structuring part practice, recognizing functionally equivalent task solutions, finding innovative technique alternatives, distinguishing errors from style, and identifying root causes of movement errors. Keywords: movement science, task analysis, constraints, augmented feedback, dynamical systems, internal models, modularity, basic action concepts Setting the Stage: Performance Errors and a Functional Framework When it comes to the identification of performance errors in sports and physical education, on the teacher’s or coach’s side, a well-grounded idea is demanded on what kind of performance counts as an error and what kind of performance does not. Thus, the question arises on how this idea can be underpinned. In this regard, it seems useful to distinguish, in the first place, errors in decision-making from errors that are related to the movement as a means of putting the decision into practice. Failure can result from both because a good realization of a bad decision is to the same degree worthless as a bad realization of a good decision. In the following, only performance errors of the second kind will be considered further, meaning that the pursued perspective will be less rooted in the psychology of decision-making but more in a movement-scientific framework of motor control and learning. Hence, for the issue at hand, the scope can be narrowed down in such a way that independent from the quality of decision-making, a well-grounded idea is demanded from the teacher’s or coach’s side on what kind of motor performance counts as an error and what kind of motor performance does not. 1 September 2015 | Volume 6 | Article 1339 Hossner et al. Functional approach to movement analysis one’s own perception, it might be helpful for the coach to focus on crucial aspects of the athlete’s movement repeatedly, maybe supported by the choice of an optimal angle of observation or by the pre-definition of a perception-enhancing gaze strategy. In addition, the coach could apply video technology, or if available, count on even more elaborate measures derived from biomechanical analyses. However, as this paper focuses more on the conceptual understanding of movement errors and less on their diagnosis on a technical level, we want to assume for the moment that the access to the actual movement value is not a problem. Then, the overall issue of error identification is reduced to the availability of a desired value. Regarding the identification of desired values, two kinds of approaches can be used in sports practice. The first approach is based on the performance of top-level athletes, and thereby, on the idea that peak performance necessarily comes along with the highest level of movement-related expertise. Consequently, in textbooks on sport-specific didactics, techniques are often illustrated by a series of pictures taken from an international champion in order to give the reader an idea of how the respective movement should ideally be executed. However, this approach is infected with a number of issues. First, even in top-level sports, elite athletes differ considerably regarding details of their movements. On an expert level, those individual features are typically referred to as “personal style.” At this point, for the topic at hand, the issue arises on how stylerelated and non-style-related features can be distinguished from each other if the description of the performed movements is, as presumed above, the sole basis for the definition of the desired value. Secondly, it makes sense to assume that style-related features are mainly due to differences in the athletes regarding their physical or physiological conditions. Consequently, in basketball, for instance, for athletes of different body heights, masses or leg muscle strengths, the desired values for the jump to a layup should also be expected to differ. Apparently, this issue is further increased if athletes of different levels of expertise are compared to each other, for instance, an adult, tall, highly trained top-level athlete depicted in a textbook’s picture series with a young, small and weak schoolchild who needs the teacher’s advice for learning the basketball layup. In those cases—that are absolutely typical for physical education as well as for sports practice below a top-level threshold—it seems questionable whether mere illustrations and descriptions of elite athletes’ performances should be considered as helpful at all. The second approach, which in our eyes is the superior approach to the identification of movement errors, can be labeled as “functional” as desired values are not based on experts’ movements but on the functions that are fulfille (...truncated)