Complexity in Games Teaching and Coaching

Shedding new light on sport pedagogy and the teaching and coaching of games, this book shows how complexity theory can be used to improve team sport performance, coach education, and young player development. The book draws together insights from both the humanities and behavioural sciences, including psychology, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, history, and play theory into a new educational methodology for team sports. It shows how concepts from complexity theory underpin and inform team sport dynamics, including the uncontrolled nature of live human systems; the nature of complex systems and how this shapes student and young athlete learning; self-organization and its relation to decision-making in play; and mental self-regulation and motivation. It presents an innovative and sophisticated definition of sport pedagogy that can help teachers and coaches deepen their understanding of teaching and learning in team sports and help them develop more motivated, more effective, and more creative athletes.

Felix Lebed is Head of the M.Ed. degree program in the Physical Education Department at Kaye Academic College of Education, Israel.

Introduction, Part I: What Is Human Play? A Philosophical Issue, 1. Play as a Phenomenon and a Value, 2. Play, Game and Sport as a "Tricky Triad" in the Philosophy of Sport, Part II: How Humans Play: A Psychological Issue, 3. Cognition, Behaviour, and Activity in Games Playing Through a Complexity Prism, 4. Psychology of Play as Mental Escape, Part III: How Human Culture Plays Games: A Social-Anthropological and Historical Issue, 5. From Ritual to Sport Show, 6. From Games Playing to Games Teaching, Part IV: How to Teach and Coach Games: The Pedagogical Issue, 7. Complexity Paradigm in Games Teaching and Coaching, 8. The "8 & 4" Approach to Games Teaching and Coaching (I): Main Principles, 9. The "8 & 4" Approach to Games Teaching and Coaching (II): Basic Concepts