Book or article reviews & recommendations

[strapping]

reading is hard but sometimes worth it. post collections of words here

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Title:
How We Learn to Move

Author:
Rob Gray

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 – The Myth of the One “Correct”, Repeatable Technique
Chapter 2 – We Are Built to Produce and Detect Variation
Chapter 3 – The Business of Producing Movements & Why We Don’t Need a Boss
Chapter 4 – Freedom through Constraints?!
Chapter 5 – We Perceive the World in Terms Of What Our Body Affords Us
Chapter 6 – Learning as Search, the Laws of Attraction & the Tim Tebow Problem
Chapter 7 – New Ways of Coaching I: The CLA
Chapter 8 – New Ways of Coaching II: Differential Learning
Chapter 9 – Good Vs Bad Variability, Optimal Movement Solutions & Effective Self-Organization
Chapter 10 – A New Perspective on What It Means to Be Creative
Chapter 11 – Youth Coaching: The Problem with Cones & Making Practice Fun Again
Chapter 12 – What Are We “Acquiring” Anyways? The Nature of Expertise, Automaticity and Direct Learning
Chapter 13 – The Evolving Role of Technology & Data in Supporting Skill Development
Chapter 14 – Injury Prevention & Adaption (Not Rehabilitation!)
Chapter 15 – A Little about My Journey & Some Exploration Guides for Your Own

Synopsis
The book is an introductory book on the ecological model of human motor learning, expression and skill development. It starts off with a history of ecological and "traditional" models of motor learning, with comparison to the "traditional" models of motor learning.

It then discusses common observations, problems and contradictions with our typical understanding of skill development through an ecological lens, along with examples of coaching methods.

Discussion
This is a good read overall, though it can definitely be very dense reading especially for those who have not yet been exposed to ecological/dynamic systems models of motor learning. It's written in broad/general terms, so it does require a bit of thinking to apply the understanding to specific situations.

The model is applicable to weightlifting, even if it's probably more applicable/efficacious for understanding other sports.
I would suspect that weightlifting being a fairly simple sport where skill expression is heavily limited by physical capacity does mean that the ideal variability is probably lesser than other sports.

The broader concepts are heavily applicable to weightlifting as most models of weightlifting technique are too rigid and do not hold up to physical scrutiny when applied to different athletes with different backgrounds. I think weightlifting coaching also rarely encourages exploratory learning, despite the fact that most of us think we do that well.

The discussion around injury rehabilitation vs injury adaptation is an interesting perspective that makes sense given my personal experiences and broader understanding. I think this is more pertinent to those who have more limited adaptability (e.g. Masters lifters).

[Hawkpeter]

So much of people's approach to coaching weightlifting appears to be merely a skill taxonomy. Absent is precisely what it sounds like this text is trying to address.