Evolve Move Play Podcast

In our last three podcast episodes, we’ve gone a long way towards explaining why it’s important for humans to approach motor learning and skill acquisition from a standpoint of ecological dynamics. The human organism is an incredibly complex system of systems and for millions of years we’ve learned skills primarily by means of environmental necessity. If a problem or an opportunity arises, our survival could hinge on our ability to adapt and overcome the situation. This adaptability is one of our greatest powers and it exists in us to this day. Compared to this, the advent of instructors, coaches and learning facilities is relatively new to us. While coaching and instruction are invaluable at certain times and certain places, it is a major mistake when we abandon task constrained learning and unstructured play. Unfortunately this isn’t how the vast majority of our modern physical education programs approach movement and motor learning. The emphasis on competitive team sports and reductionist fitness trai