Coaching Beyond the Myth of Correctness
A 75-year research timeline proving why “correct biomechanics” is a myth — and why the future of coaching lies in variability, adaptability, and game-realism.
For 75 years, biomechanics carried the myth of a “correct” way to move — an optimal technique drilled until mastered. That assumption shaped coaching everywhere: endless repetitions, rigid drills, and prescriptive cues designed to mold athletes into replicas of a so-called perfect model.
Kathy Sierra’s presentation shows how research has steadily dismantled that myth: from Bernstein’s repetition without repetition, to Gibson’s affordances, Davids’ ecological dynamics, Schöllhorn’s differential learning, and Gray’s coach-friendly frameworks.
The throughline is undeniable: skill doesn’t live in idealized forms but in variability, adaptability, and the live relationship between athlete and environment. Even biomechanics now leads the critique, reframing movement as motor abundance — a landscape of possibilities, not prescriptions.
Here’s the timeline Kathy pokes our eye with:
1930s — Nikolai Bernstein
Notable: Expert blacksmith studies; coined “repetition without repetition”; framed the degrees of freedom problem.
Bernstein showed experts are consistent in outcomes but variable in joint coordination, launching a view of movement as adaptable rather than fixed.
1940s–1970s — James J. Gibson
Notable: The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception; introduced affordances.
Gibson reframed perception as direct pickup of information in context, seeding ecological views of action and learning.
1969 — Eleanor J. Gibson
Notable: Principles of Perceptual Learning and Development.
Eleanor Gibson mapped how perception and learning co-develop, profoundly influencing later practice-design thinking.
1978 — Michael Turvey
Notable: Work on coordinative structures addressing Bernstein’s problem.
Turvey proposed that functional groupings of muscles and joints solve the degrees-of-freedom problem during skilled action.
1980s — Carl (Karl) Newell
Notable: Early articulation leading to the constraints-led approach.
Newell highlighted how organism–task–environment constraints shape coordination and learning.
1998 — Gabrielle Wulf
Notable: Pioneering research on external vs. internal focus of attention.
Wulf demonstrated robust, across-timescale advantages of external focus for immediate performance, retention, and transfer.
1999 — Wolfgang Schöllhorn
Notable: Differential Learning.
Proposed the most nonlinear pedagogy variant—practice via deliberate variability rather than one “correct” technique.
2000 — Kenneth Stanley
Notable: Began work on evolutionary algorithms and neuro-AI.
Stanley explored novelty-driven search as a route to adaptive behavior without prespecifying objectives.
2005–2006 — Keith Davidson and colleagues
Notable: Synthesized ecological psychology with complex dynamical systems into ecological dynamics; emphasized movement variability.
This synthesis positioned variability and self-organization as central features of skill acquisition.
2007 — Chow and colleagues
Notable: Coined “nonlinear pedagogy.”
Chow et al. translated ecological dynamics into practical teaching principles that embrace nonlinearity.
2008 — Chow/Davids et al.
Notable: Dynamics of Skill Acquisition: A Constraints-Led Approach.
This book consolidated constraints-led ideas into an applied framework for designing learning environments.
2010 — Keith Davis and colleagues
Notable: Chapter “The constraints-based approach to motor learning has implications for a nonlinear pedagogy in sport and physical education” in Motor Learning in Practice.
Extended constraints-led reasoning to coaching and PE, arguing for nonlinear teaching designs.
2012 — Mark Latash
Notable: “Bliss of motor abundance”; Fundamentals of Motor Control.
Latash reframed variability as motor abundance, not error, underscoring multiple functional solutions.
2013–2014 — Kenneth Stanley & Joel Lehman
Notable: Novelty-search demonstrations (e.g., bipedal walker vs goal-optimization).
Their simulations showed novelty-driven exploration can yield more robust, less fragile behavior than direct optimization.
2013–2014 — Craig Liebenson
Notable: Functional Training Handbook; later public reflection on over-correcting technique.
Liebenson, a functional movement leader, acknowledged shifting from correction-centric methods to more adaptive approaches.
2015 — Kenneth Stanley & Joel Lehman
Notable: Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective; Nature-featured work on robots that adapt like animals.
They argued fixed objectives can hinder discovery, advocating exploration to enable adaptation.
2015 — Rob Gray
Notable: Launched the Perception-Action Podcast (the “OG” for ecological dynamics).
Gray began curating and translating ecological dynamics research for coaches, scientists, and practitioners.
**2016 — Dr. Nicholas Stergiou
Notable: TED talk on movement variability.
An accessible introduction linking fractal-like variability to healthy, adaptive movement.
2017–2018 — Holmes and colleagues
Notable: “The Myth of Optimality in Clinical Neuroscience.”
Questioned optimality assumptions, aligning clinical reasoning with complexity and variability.
2017–2018 — Greg Lehman
Notable: Talk “Reconciling Pain Science and Biomechanics” (San Diego Pain Summit).
Bridged pain science with biomechanics, challenging rigid technique-centric models.
2018–present — Multiple researchers
Notable: Near-exponential growth of ecological dynamics research across injury, rehab, beginners to elites.
Broad adoption has stress-tested and strengthened nonlinearity- and variability-based approaches.
2021 — Rob Gray
Notable: How We Learn to Move; later Learning to Optimize Movement and Learning to be an Ecological Coach.
Gray synthesized ecological principles into coach-friendly frameworks for designing learning environments.
2025 — Madhur Mangalam
Notable: Paper on “the myth of optimality in human movement science” (from a biomechanics lab).
Offers a scathing, evidence-rich critique of optimization paradigms, arguing biological movement is emergent, variable, and non-optimal by nature.
Read the timeline carefully and the verdict is clear: a coach clinging to outdated, drill-heavy methods is no different than a surgeon ignoring modern techniques — it borders on malpractice. Harsh? Maybe. But the research doesn’t blink. To keep coaching “the old way” when science has rewritten the playbook is to knowingly shortchange athletes.
This isn’t about throwing stones at colleagues. Many are simply passing down what they were taught. But flag football — young, unburdened by decades of ritual — has the rare chance to leapfrog. We don’t need to inherit American Football’s baggage of cones, choreography, and correction. We can build on ecological dynamics from day one: practices that mirror the game, nurture adaptability, and unlock creativity.
If you want to dig deeper, here are three places to start:
And more is coming. I’m working on more of the practical tools to help coaches design sessions the ecological way — simple, usable, field-tested. And without the academic verbiage. Stay tuned!
The research is no longer hidden in journals; it’s here, on the surface. The only question left is whether we’ll be honest enough to admit the old way was wrong — and responsible enough to change.
📌 PS: Thank you Loren Anderson, you brought this to my attention with your great post on The Death of Correct Biomechanics
📌 PPS: You know I am all for non-linear pedagogy, so this probably a surprise, but honest verdict: The rigid “one correct technique” model was always a caricature, but so is the idea that variability alone is the answer. Real skill lives in the tension between stability and adaptability, repetition and variation, prescription and exploration. Ecological frameworks don’t erase biomechanics—they expand the coaching toolkit. The win for coaches isn’t in choosing sides, but in knowing when each approach serves the athlete in front of them.
🌀
What’s the first idea this unlocked for you? Leave it in the comments, please, or send me a quick message. I don’t want what I publish to vanish into the void.
Rolf is a non-linear pedagogy advocate, author, and coach developer from Germany. He writes about humane coaching, purposeful change, and the road toward dreams worth chasing.
If his work resonates, why not walk a stretch of the road with him?
My Payhip Store
Buy me a coffee, pls
LinkedIn
Instagram
Email: info@flag-academy.com
Email: rolf@beyondchampionships.eu
Facebook: Coaching Beyond Championships