In this XPS Monday Series, we are reviewing another book worth reading for coaches, recommended by some of the XPS Network’s country managers:
“How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach & Practice Sports Skills”, by Rob Gray (2021). Paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions available.
Every one of the XPS team is involved in sports in some way. In most cases, country managers are active coaches, all of whom have played at a professional, semi-pro, or college level.
So, when one of them recommends a book about how coaches can improve how they practice sports skills, we have to check it out!
How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach & Practice Sports Skills is well worth reading.
Why should coaches read How We Learn to Move?
The author, Rob Gray, is an Arizona State University professor who’s been researching and teaching courses related to perceptual-motor skill for over 25 years.
Gray applied movement theory to address real-world challenges, supporting the US Air Force, Nissan, and numerous sports teams as a consultant. In 2007 he was awarded the Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology from the American Psychological Association.
One of his proudest sports-sector accomplishments is the application of virtual reality/environments in baseball batting practice for pro baseball teams. Gray’s approach and use of virtual reality (VR) helps teams improve performance amongst players, showing clear evidence of transfer of training to real performance.
He also runs and hosts the Perception & Action Podcast, with over 2 million downloads since 2015. It’s a podcast specifically created to help coaches transfer movement knowledge into actionable steps they can integrate into coaching programs.
The book promises a new approach to coaching: “A look at the exciting alternative approach to how we learn to move and its implications for practice design, coaching, keeping kids engaged in sports, injury prevention, developing training technology, using analytics and more.”
Although academic in nature and self-published, How We Learn to Move offers a truly revolutionary approach to coaching. After reading it, you don’t have to throw out your whole coaching playbook. However, taking actionable lessons and approaches from this and implementing them in training can make a difference to coaching outcomes.
One of the key concepts is “freedom through constraints”, with practical examples of how to apply this in coaching and athletic development. Gray also covers variability, optimal movement solutions, self-organization, coaching creatively, and for youth coaches, how to make training sessions fun again.
He also covers injury prevention through more effective movement techniques and the evolving role of data in sports training and coaching.
Alongside XPS coaches and country managers, coaches reviewing this on Amazon and GoodReads say it’s worth reading.
One coach said, “there is definitely a place for the constraints based approach to learning as described in this book. That approach works even better when there is a sound base in understanding and application of principles and how they apply to [any sport]. From that point the constraints approach is the way to go to bring out the artistry in the athlete.”
Summary & Key Takeaways
Movement is integral to the success of every athlete. If there are new techniques that coaches can learn from and deploy in training sessions then they are worth exploring.
Coaches can always learn from experts inside and outside of specific sports and the overall sector. Practicing new techniques effectively can also prevent injury, as this book is suggesting.
How We Learn to Move introduces new concepts and revises older models, such as constraint-based movement, in new ways. Coaches would benefit from reading this book and taking out actionable lessons to inspire and improve training sessions and approaches to athletic movement.
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