Creativity is an essential component of sport performance. The player who can make decisions that are both unexpected – and therefore less easily predicted by his/her opponent – and appropriate is the player who is likely to be successful. In this ground-breaking new book Daniel Memmert explores the concept of tactical creativity, introducing a new theoretical framework based on extensive empirical research. He argues for the importance of encouraging divergent thinking abilities at an early age, and explains how tactical creativity sits alongside conventional approaches to 'teaching games for understanding'. The book outlines essential rules for environmental and training conditions, and suggests a wide range of game forms for teaching and coaching tactical creativity to children and young people. This is important to all students, researchers, coaches and teachers working in physical education, sports coaching, sport psychology or skill acquisition.

Creativity is an essential component of sport performance. The player who can make decisions that are both unexpected – and therefore less easily predicted by his/her opponent – and appropriate is the player who is likely to be successful. In this ground-breaking new book Daniel Memmert explores the concept of tactical creativity, introducing a new theoretical framework based on extensive empirical research. He argues for the importance of encouraging divergent thinking abilities at an early age, and explains how tactical creativity sits alongside conventional approaches to 'teaching games for understanding'. The book outlines essential rules for environmental and training conditions, and suggests a wide range of game forms for teaching and coaching tactical creativity to children and young people. This is important to all students, researchers, coaches and teachers working in physical education, sports coaching, sport psychology or skill acquisition.

The ability to anticipate and make accurate decisions in a timely manner is fundamental to high-level performance in sport. This is the first book to identify the underlying science behind anticipation and decision making in sport, enhancing our scientific understanding of these phenomena and helping practitioners to develop interventions to facilitate the more rapid acquisition of the perceptual-cognitive skills that underpin these judgements. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach — encompassing research from psychology, biomechanics, neuroscience, physiology, computing science, and performance analysis — the book is divided into three sections. The first section provides a comprehensive analysis of the processes and mechanisms underpinning anticipation and skilled perception in sport. In the second section, the focus shifts towards exploring the science of decision making in sport. The final section is more applied, outlining how the key skills that impact on anticipation and decision making may be facilitated through various training interventions. With chapters written by leading experts from a vast range of countries and continents, no other book offers such a synthesis of the historical development of the field, contemporary research, and future areas for investigation in anticipation and decision making in sport. This is a fascinating and important text for students and researchers in sport psychology, skill acquisition, expert performance, motor learning, motor behaviour, and coaching science, as well as practicing coaches from any sport.

Sport performance analysis techniques help coaches, athletes and sport scientists develop an objective understanding of actual sport performance, as opposed to self-report, fitness tests or laboratory based experiments. For example, contemporary performance analysis enables elite sports people and coaches to obtain live feedback of match statistics and video sequences using flexible internet systems, systems that have become an indispensible tool for all those involved in high performance sport. The Routledge Handbook of Sports Performance Analysis is the most comprehensive guide to this exciting and dynamic branch of sport science ever to be published. The book explores performance analysis across the four main contexts in which it is commonly used: support for coaches and athletes; the media; judging sport contests, and academic research. It offers an up-to-date account of methodological advances in PA research, assesses the evidence underpinning contemporary theories of sport performance, and reviews developments in applied PA across a wide range of sports, from soccer to track and field athletics. Covering every important aspect of PA, including tactics, strategy, mechanical aspects of technique, physical aspects of performance such as work-rate, coach behaviour and referee behaviour, this is an essential reference for any serious student, researcher or practitioner working in sport performance analysis, sport coaching or high performance sport.

This worldwide top-selling text on the tactical games approach is stronger than ever. The fourth edition of Teaching Sport Concepts and Skills: A Tactical Games Approach adds four new chapters, more lesson and unit plans, and more detailed guidance in addressing broad ranges of student abilities than ever before. It offers the same stellar foundation for understanding the principles behind the approach, and instruction in applying the approach, to help students learn the concepts and develop the skills involved in a variety of sports. Elementary school teachers will use games to teach the basic concepts and tactics of invasion sports, net and wall sports, striking and fielding sports, and target sports. Middle school and high school instructors will guide students in developing sport-specific technical skills for 12 sports, including soccer, lacrosse, flag football, tennis, basketball, and volleyball. The book has four new chapters that will help you do the following: Align the tactical games approach to content standards in the United States and other countries Use technology in tactical games teaching and assessment Use the games to teach social justice Develop approaches to teaching social and emotional learning (SEL) through tactical games Teaching Sport Concepts and Skills offers more than 350 detailed lesson and unit plans that can be used as is or be easily modified and incorporated into an existing curriculum. More than 240 diagrams throughout the lessons make it easy to set up and execute the games. There are 14 video clips, delivered on HKPropel, that show some lessons in action—for example, the volleyball segments show complete question-and-answer sessions, highlighting an effective way to make sure students are understanding the lesson. Also available on HKPropel are reproducible forms, including a team contract, assessments, and game scenario worksheets for tactical problem solving. (For each thumbnail reproducible worksheet shown in the book, readers can download the full-size versions from HKPropel.) These resources will help teachers put concepts from the text into use with their students. Teaching Sport Concepts and Skills is organized into three parts: Part I offers a thorough understanding of the tactical games approach—preparing and teaching students, transferring tactical knowledge, planning the curriculum, assessing learner performance, using games to teach social justice and to take social emotional learning into account, and more. Part II provides lesson plans for varying levels of complexity—with modifications and progressions—for invasion games, net and wall games, striking and fielding games, and target games, all at the elementary school level. The authors take great care in helping readers understand how to individualize instruction for novice, developing, and advanced performers by either reducing or increasing the challenges involved with the tasks. In part III, secondary-level teachers can choose from lesson plans for various levels of play in 12 sports. Teaching Sport Concepts and Skills offers expert instruction and an array of multilevel games that provide an exciting and interactive environment for learning in all domains. Current and future teachers will learn how to structure positive and engaging learning experiences that set the stage for students to improve their performance, develop problem-solving skills, and enhance their lifelong enjoyment of sport. Note: A code for accessing HKPropel is not included with this ebook but may be purchased separately.

Underpinned by a philosophy of empowerment, athlete-centred approaches to coaching are defined by a style that promotes learning through ownership, responsibility, initiative and awareness. Perspectives on Athlete-Centred Coaching offers an in-depth theoretical examination of player-focused coaching models, and provides professional guidance for practising coaches. Written by a cast of world-leading scholars and practitioners, and offering a breadth of approaches to, and critiques of, the application of athlete-centred coaching, the book covers topics including: • athlete-centred coaching and holistic development • coaching tactical creativity • athlete-centred coaching in disability sport • team culture and athlete-centred coaching • developing thinking players through Game Sense coaching • supporting athlete wellbeing • athlete-centred coaching and Teaching Games for Understanding • athlete-centred coaching in masters sport. Based on the latest research and offering the most comprehensive enquiry into this central area of coaching theory, Perspectives on Athlete-Centred Coaching is important reading for any students and lecturers of sports coaching or physical education, and practising coaches across any sport.