Ecological View on Training and Testing Athletic Performance: The Role of Sports Kinesiology

Dear Colleagues,

Ecological dynamics is a contemporary, transdisciplinary theory of human performance development, which investigates interactions between the performer(s) and the environment to better understand skill acquisition and adaptation. This is a new approach aimed at overcoming the traditional way of rehearsal and learning of movement technique in isolated drills. It provides foundation for adapting movement patterns throughout the lifespan in interaction with dynamic environment. This requires to study human movement from different perspectives. Sports kinesiology, which addresses functional anatomy, exercise physiology, sports biomechanics, psychomotor behaviour, and other relevant fields, may play an important role in understanding movement challenges from childhood to old age. This, together with the application of novel assessment methods tailored to individual needs can strengthen the learning environment to enhance athlete performance. An ecological perspective on athlete performance training and testing may help sports scientists and practitioners to build the functional relationship with the sporting environment. However, there is still little evidence to support such a connection and suggest that the appropriate experiments remain to be conducted. Within this topic, contributions in the form of reviews, original research articles or case reports are welcomed. 

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Adapting sport-specific skill to the environment
• Integrating various methodologies to strengthen the learning environment
• Motor learning and talent development in sport
• The acquisition of age-specific skills throughout the lifespan
• An ecological dynamic approach to athlete performance development
• An ecological dynamic approach to athlete performance assessment
• Sports kinesiology in understanding human function and movement

Dr. Dario Novak
Prof. Dr. Erika Zemková
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.