An ecological approach for skill development and performance in soccer goalkeeper training: Empirical evidence and coaching applications

Ecological approaches in sport consider that athletes adapt to properties of the task and the surrounding environment. Thus, task and environment are key constraints of performance. Yet, the influence of task and environmental constraints on athletes' performance needs empirical examination, especially in sport-specific contexts such as soccer goalkeeping. This study aimed to examine if and how task and environmental constraints influenced goalkeepers (GKs') performances. We monitored performance coefficients of two professional female GKs across 13 training tasks that varied based on 9 constraints, referring to both interactions among athletes and properties of the surrounding landscape. Results showed that constraints explain similar to 47% of the observed variability in GKs' performances. Numerical complexity (i.e., the potential interactions between athletes) showed a major influence on performance, which indicates that number of interactions among athletes may constrain GKs' perceived opportunities for action. Field dimensions and landscape representativity (including elements such as penalty area(s), target goal(s) and constraints for shooting) showed positive relationships with performance, supporting that training designs retaining closer proximity to the game may benefit GKs' performances. Overall, results supported that athlete-environment couplings could be understood as a multifactorial model and hence, a combination of task constraints are necessary for designing effective learning environments.