Instruments of Control or Instruments of Revelation

Technology use in sport: The blessing, the curse, the remedy

In this presentation, we hear Dr Carl Woods discuss the use of technology in sport. Throughout the presentation he discusses how the use of technology can be each a blessing, a curse and a remedy. Specifically, he outlines that whilst technology has revolutionised and streamlined how we do things in sport, if we don’t consider what it could subtly take away from us, we risk conforming to it. To help prevent over-reliance, its situation in an ecological dynamics framework could invite greater appreciation of why and how behaviour emerges. Situated in an ecological dynamics framework, perhaps we could start considering technology as something of an instrument of revelation, opening new and exciting lines of inquiry beyond just the information provided.

Some examples which Carl outlines include:

The Blessing

• High performance sport: it’s purported to help us select and develop athletes, analyse performance, monitor training and devise strategies intended to win championships.

• Physical education: it’s purported to support pupil assessment, promote activity levels and inclusion, and foster opportunities for enriched movement experiences throughout the lifespan.

• Research: it’s provided unique opportunities to look at phenomena in ways previously unable, leading to the emergence of new and innovative ways of doing.

The Curse

• Users risk conformity due to the on-demand and de-contextualised nature of the information provided by technology.

• It could be covering up the experiential knowledge of its users by detaching them from the environment, leading them to focus on the consumption of the commodity which is provided by the technology.

The Remedy

• Situate technology in a theoretical framework that views behaviour at a transactional level.

• Technology use should help to deepen our knowledge of the environment.

Interested in Ecological Dynamics and its application to sport? Check out some more recent work by Dr Carl Woods.

• Representative co-design: Utilising a source of experiential knowledge for athlete development and performance preparation.

• Theory to practice: performance preparation models in contemporary high-level sport guided by an ecological dynamics framework.

• Wayfinding: how ecological perspectives of navigating dynamic environments can enrich our understanding of the learner and the learning process in sport.

• Sport practitioners as sport ecology designers: How ecological dynamics has progressively changed perceptions of skill “acquisition” in the sporting habitat.

• Training programme designs in professional team sport: an ecological dynamics exemplar.

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