This article summarizes research from an ecological dynamics program of work on team sports exemplifying how small-sided and conditioned games (SSCG) can enhance skill acquisition and decision-making processes during training. The data highlighted show how constraints of different SSCG can facilitate emergence of continuous interpersonal coordination tendencies during practice to benefit team game players.

Background: There are deeply relevant questions concerning how to integrate and organise various nonlinear pedagogical strategies and methods in order to structure training in the professional development of Physical Education (PE) teachers and sport coaches. To promote the emergence and development of innovative and adaptive performance behaviours in sport, nonlinear pedagogy advocates the methodology of constraints manipulation to facilitate learning. Sport pedagogues have to manage and apply different constraint manipulations at varying times in practice contexts, that is, while planning before/following a learning session (i.e. designing the micro-structure of practice) and in interactions during the session. In nonlinear pedagogy, the design of practice micro-structure is predicated on the continuous, intertwined relationships between decision-making, action, perception and cognition in sport performance and learning contexts. Purpose: Here, we present an analysis of the activities that pedagogues engage in to facilitate learning and performance in sport (i.e. the micro-structure of practice) during practical interventions in sport and exercise contexts, based on the use of a Constraints-led approach by PE teachers and coaches. Method: Based on data from illustrative studies on performance analysis and constraints manipulation, we exemplify some of the main principles and assumptions of nonlinear pedagogy. This synthesis, framed in a nonlinear pedagogy, aims to reveal how adopting a constraint led approach can straightforwardly enhance learning designs of sport practitioners. Conclusions: This article shares insights from a nonlinear pedagogy that can frame the micro-structure of practice during interventions, compared to utilization of traditional pedagogical practices. It is proposed that PE teachers and coaches are designers of learning environments and that both learning and performance improvement are seen as emerging from the interaction of key constraints (related to task, learner and environment).

This study used a virtual, simulated 3 vs. 3 rugby task to investigate whether gaps opening in particular running channels promote different actions by the ball carrier player and whether an effect of rugby expertise is verified. We manipulated emergent gaps in three different locations: Gap 1 in the participant’s own running channel, Gap 2 in the first receiver’s running channel, and Gap 3 in the second receiver’s running channel. Recreational, intermediate, professional, and nonrugby players performed the task. They could (i) run with the ball, (ii) make a short pass, or (iii) make a long pass. All actions were digitally recorded. Results revealed that the emergence of gaps in the defensive line with respect to the participant’s own position significantly influenced action selection. Namely, “run” was most often the action performed in Gap 1, “short pass” in Gap 2, and “long pass” in Gap 3 trials. Furthermore, a strong positive relationship between expertise and task achievement was found.