Sampling perception-action couplings from competition create representative basketball shooting tasks: A replication and extension of Gorman and Maloney (2016)

Designing representative learning tasks requires a theoretically informed sampling of key performer-environment interactions. This study sampled the constraints from basketball to create a representative environment by examining the effect of a defender on the shooting performance of skilled female basketballers. Participants performed a one-on-one defended shooting task and an undefended shooting task. Temporal variables were recorded during each shooting task, and a sample of the cohort completed a focus group to gain qualitative insights into each testing condition. Results found that the defended condition caused a decrease in shooting accuracy and shot execution time, with an increase in ball flight time and jump time compared to the undefended condition. Within-subject variability increased in the defended condition for jump time and shot execution time, suggesting that the presence of the defender prompted players to change their movements. Shooting accuracy in the defended condition showed a high correlation to the shooting accuracy exhibited in competition statistics. Qualitative data revealed three themes; affective-cognitive response, sampling to design representative practice tasks, and shooting as an adaptive skill. Introducing a defender into a shooting practice task created a more representative activity that influenced the players’ shooting technique and accuracy. The players adapted to the presence of a defender by executing their shot faster, increasing jump time, and increasing the flight time of the ball. Sampling key performance constraints to create defended situations may encourage a more adaptable technique, resulting in greater skill transfer from training to in-game performance.