Non-linear pedagogy as a method of teaching tactical behaviors in team sports, rugby application

Abstract

From non-linear pedagogy the athlete is understood as a complex system in continuous interaction. The interaction between the different elements of the system and the environment causes the emergence of new patterns of behavior. If an external variable is introduced that alters the equilibrium of the system, it adopts a new state, and this external variable is known as constraint. By manipulating constraints, we can favor the appearance of a desired tactical behavior. When designing exercises from this perspective we must consider four pedagogical principles: tactical complexity, task representativeness, exaggeration and sampling. In this paper we review the studies that address tactical behavior from nonlinear pedagogy and discuss the procedures for designing exercises for analysis from this perspective. From the data shown in this study it is concluded that non-linear pedagogy can be a useful tool for the design of exercises to improve tactical behaviors in collective sports.