Towards a Grand Unified Theory of sports performance
- PMID: 26725372
- DOI: 10.1016/j.humov.2015.08.001
Towards a Grand Unified Theory of sports performance
Abstract
Sports performance is generally considered to be governed by a range of interacting physiological, biomechanical, and psychological variables, amongst others. Despite sports performance being multi-factorial, however, the majority of performance-oriented sports science research has predominantly been monodisciplinary in nature, presumably due, at least in part, to the lack of a unifying theoretical framework required to integrate the various subdisciplines of sports science. In this target article, I propose a Grand Unified Theory (GUT) of sports performance-and, by elaboration, sports science-based around the constraints framework introduced originally by Newell (1986). A central tenet of this GUT is that, at both the intra- and inter-individual levels of analysis, patterns of coordination and control, which directly determine the performance outcome, emerge from the confluence of interacting organismic, environmental, and task constraints via the formation and self-organisation of coordinative structures. It is suggested that this GUT could be used to: foster interdisciplinary research collaborations; break down the silos that have developed in sports science and restore greater disciplinary balance to the field; promote a more holistic understanding of sports performance across all levels of analysis; increase explanatory power of applied research work; provide stronger rationale for data collection and variable selection; and direct the development of integrated performance monitoring technologies. This GUT could also provide a scientifically rigorous basis for integrating the subdisciplines of sports science in applied sports science support programmes adopted by high-performance agencies and national governing bodies for various individual and team sports.
Keywords: Constraints; Control; Coordination; Coordinative structures; Degrees of freedom; Self-organisation.
Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Comment in
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From mosaic to conflation: A model of sport.Hum Mov Sci. 2017 Dec;56(Pt A):176-177. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2017.04.009. Epub 2017 May 2. Hum Mov Sci. 2017. PMID: 28465074 No abstract available.
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Maybe a tad early for a Grand Unified Theory: Commentary on "Towards a Grand Unified Theory of sports performance".Hum Mov Sci. 2017 Dec;56(Pt A):173-175. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2017.04.011. Epub 2017 May 4. Hum Mov Sci. 2017. PMID: 28478982 No abstract available.
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Searching for the Holy Grail: Can there ever be such a thing as a 'Grand Unified Theory of sports performance'?Hum Mov Sci. 2017 Dec;56(Pt A):181-183. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2017.04.012. Epub 2017 May 6. Hum Mov Sci. 2017. PMID: 28483215 No abstract available.
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Commentary on "Towards a Grand Unified Theory of sports performance".Hum Mov Sci. 2017 Dec;56(Pt A):160-162. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2017.04.015. Epub 2017 May 6. Hum Mov Sci. 2017. PMID: 28483216 No abstract available.
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A solid swing and … contact [or miss]? Commentary on "Towards a Grand Unified Theory of sports performance".Hum Mov Sci. 2017 Dec;56(Pt A):163-165. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2017.04.018. Epub 2017 May 8. Hum Mov Sci. 2017. PMID: 28495224 No abstract available.
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Understanding constraints on sport performance from the complexity sciences paradigm: An ecological dynamics framework.Hum Mov Sci. 2017 Dec;56(Pt A):178-180. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2017.05.001. Epub 2017 May 9. Hum Mov Sci. 2017. PMID: 28499742
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Desideratum for GUT: A functional semantics for sport.Hum Mov Sci. 2017 Dec;56(Pt A):169-172. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2017.05.002. Epub 2017 May 10. Hum Mov Sci. 2017. PMID: 28501422 No abstract available.
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Towards a Grand Unified Theory of sports performance: A response to the commentaries.Hum Mov Sci. 2017 Dec;56(Pt A):184-189. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2017.04.016. Epub 2017 May 13. Hum Mov Sci. 2017. PMID: 28511799 No abstract available.
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Commentary on "Towards a Grand Unified Theory of sports performance".Hum Mov Sci. 2017 Dec;56(Pt A):166-168. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2017.05.003. Epub 2017 Jun 7. Hum Mov Sci. 2017. PMID: 28600030 No abstract available.
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