Representative Design: Does the Addition of a Defender Change the Execution of a Basketball Shot?

                                                     Photo by Mira Kireeva on Unsplash

🚀 Article in 3 Sentences

1. The authors wanted to extend the existing literature on the influence the presence of a defender has on the attacker. They focused on changes induced by the presence of a defender during a basketball shot are likely to occur when variations of the same motor task are performed in a randomised manner across different situations.
2. The study showed that task dynamics were linked to performance changes. For the free throw, where the defender had limited opportunities to affect the shooter, there were no significant differences in performance between defended and undefended conditions. However, for the pull-up jumper and the screen and curl cut, which were more dynamic tasks, there were significant differences in all measured variables between the defended and undefended conditions.
3. The authors then discuss the results of the study and the subsequent implications that they will have for practice design

🤝Impressions

Really enjoyable paper that has many practical implications for coaches of any sport

👨‍🏫Who should read this?

Important read for any coach, but especially Basketball coaches

🎾How Article will influence my coaching

• ‘According to previous research, even slight variations in task conditions, such as differences in the position of the defender or the player's location relative to the scoring area, can significantly impact the movements of basketball players’- This highlights how small details can have a big impact on the representativeness of a task.
• When required to shoot against an opponent, participants spent more time in the air, shot faster, and made the ball spend more time in the air before it hit the basket. They also shot in a more variable way which due to the presence of the opponent. Last bit here is particularly interesting and the question I have is how can we scale the complexity in practice so we can keep % smaller and build on complexity then.
• ‘The participants were trying to adjust their movements to the presence of the defender, but their adaptations were not well-adjusted and were therefore not always successful’-In practice we need to give lots of chances to learn to calibrate and it’s not something that they will just be able to do
• The extent to which a defender perturbs a basketball shot depends on the context and the nature of the task.

📃Takeaways for coaches

• The close proximity of a defender during a basketball shot leads to; faster shot execution times, longer jump times, and an increase in the amount of time the ball spends in the air after being released from the shooter's hand
• When there was a defender present there was more movement variability. The suggestion for why this occurred is that the players had to adapt their movement to solve the problem due to the presence of the defender
• Highly refined perceptual-motor skills are a hallmark of expert performances
• Skilled performance requires individuals to selectively attune to the critical sources of information in the performance environment to facilitate an appropriate and timely motor response. This means that acquiring a skill involves becoming attuned to the key affordances in the environment in order to respond appropriately and quickly.
• If we observe greater variability when a defender is present, then these tasks are likely to offer more chances to develop functional movement solutions.
• Removing specific sources of perceptual information, such as the defender's hand and foot position, during an invasion sport task, like a basketball shot, can change the way attacking players behave
• Skilled team sport performers tend to increase their movement variability when performing under defensive pressure, compared to when performing the same task without a defender. This was observed in both this study and previous research.

🥇Top Quotes

💡 The implication is that skill acquisition requires the individual to become selectively attuned to the critical sources of information that exist within the performance environment in order to facilitate both an appropriate and timely motor response 

💡 Previous research has shown that variations of the same task, differing only by defender proximity and the positioning of players relative to the scoring zone, can have a marked influence on the movement characteristics of performers

💡 Thus, if defended conditions promote more variable movements, this would suggest that such tasks may provide useful practice opportunities to promote the acquisition of functionally adaptable movement patterns

💡 These results, and those of the present study, suggest that skilled team sport performers tend to significantly increase the variability of their movements when performing under defensive pressure, compared to when they perform an identical task in the absence of a defender 

 💡 Defended tasks are more likely to preserve the coupling between perception and action, thereby providing opportunities for performers to become closely attuned to the key information sources that guide and influence their behaviors

 💡 Moreover, the increased movement variability that occurs as a result of competing against a defender may also provide useful practice tasks to promote the acquisition of functionally adaptable movements 

Reference

Gorman, A. D., & Maloney, M. A. (2016). Representative design: Does the addition of a defender change the execution of a basketball shot?. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 27, 112-119.