The Emperor HaS NO Clothes: what the hell is a Sesquipedalian?
“There is no progress without change, but not all change is progress.” These are the wise words of coach John Wooden. It also happens to be one of my favorite Wooden quotes. I wonder what he would say today regarding coaching pedagogy paradigms in athletic development and motor learning. Perhaps he would state: “There is no progress without change, but we can confuse people into thinking change has occurred by using research and pretentious language.” Alright, maybe he wouldn’t say this, but I certainly feel this way at the current moment after 25+ years in the coaching profession. This long winded, pretentious, esoteric banter is called being a sesquipedalian. According to vocabulary.com:
“Sesquipedalian can also be used to describe someone or something that overuses big words, like a philosophy professor or a chemistry textbook. If someone gives a sesquipedalian speech, people often assume it was smart, even if they don’t really know what it was about because they can’t understand the words.”
Coaching pedagogy paradigms may be the worst offenders of all! “Ecological Dynamics,” “The Constraints Led Approach,” and “contextual interference,” may lead an experienced coach to question themselves and wonder...”do I need to change the way I’m coaching?” You need to do your own research just to make sure you’re relevant these days (don’t forget the thesaurus). Let’s take a deeper look at the Emperors Clothes.
The Emperor has no clothes!
Ecological Dynamics: “Ecological dynamics is a multi-disciplinary framework that adopts concepts and tools of dynamical system theory, ecological psychology and complex system in neurobiology to investigate and model the relationships that emerge in extreme sports between athletes and their environment.”
Let’s start with common sense approach. What does it mean to be “complex”, and what are the “relationships that emerge in extreme sports?”
Complex simply means athletes can adapt to their environments (yes complex also may mean irregular, disorderly, random, and unpredictable).
Relationships in team sports? Let’s not overcomplicate. If you’re playing offense, the goal is to create time and space. Defense? Eliminate time and space. Simple. Choose your drill set accordingly based on age, skill, and end goal.
The Constraints Led Approach: “A constraints led approach is a teaching/coaching method based on the principles of non-linear pedagogy (another fancy word). It advocates a more ‘hands-off’ approach to teaching and learning within Physical Education. Through the manipulation of certain constraints, different information is presented to the learner.”
More common sense emerges when one asks the logical question: what are the constraints? The answer is not earth shattering. Simple in fact! It’s the task, the player, and the environment! That is essentially EVERY drill on the ice or pitch. A great coach can manipulate them all for the desired effect. This is not ground breaking, it’s common sense! Choose your drill set accordingly!
Contextual Interference: “The contextual interference effect is a learning phenomenon where interference during practice is beneficial to skill learning.”
Great. I just call this good coaching! When to choose blocked practice to attain a motor skill for beginners/novice, and random practice to retain a motor skill. It’s hard to retain what you haven’t already attained in the first place. Choose your drill set accordingly. Once again, great coaches have done this for decades.
With all these fancy words floating around, it’s easy to view the beautiful clothes the emperor has on without realizing he’s naked. Yes, these ideas have merit, but they are cloaked in obfuscating language. Furthermore, smart coaches have done this for years! I’m all for research, yes even observational research which doesn’t provide causation, but at what point do we start to ask ourselves: what’s going on here? Are we moving the needle, or creating more confusion? Is someone naked? My opinion, most still think the emperor is well dressed.
