Teaching by Doing: Learning to Instruct Through Ecological Dynamics
Introduction
Many coaches teach by telling students exactly what to do. They explain step by step and expect students to memorize movements. But this method often fails to prepare students for real situations where they must adapt quickly.
Ecological dynamics is a different way of adapting. Instead of just listening to instructions, students improve by playing. The instructor’s job is not to give answers but to set up training situations where students can explore, solve problems, and adapt their own strategies.
To teach using this method, an instructor must also learn this way. This means:
People adapt best by playing.
To teach this way, you must learn to teach by playing.
The focus shifts from centering the coach to centering the student’s adapting process.
Insight #1: Adapting Happens Through Playing
Humans adapt by interacting with their environment. Think about how babies learn to walk. No one gives them step-by-step instructions. They stand, fall, and adjust until they figure it out.
In martial arts, this means students improve by practicing in realistic situations, not just by memorizing strategies. The instructor’s job is to create challenges that push students to solve problems.
For example, instead of explaining how to escape from a headlock, an instructor can set up a game where one student tries to hold the other while the other tries to escape. The students naturally find ways to move better over time.
The Role of the Instructor
A key shift in ecological dynamics is that the adapting process is no longer centered on the coach. In traditional information-processing models, the coach is the main source of knowledge, and success is measured by how well a student can replicate the coach’s instructions. This often leads to a system where specific styles and approaches dominate, selecting for those who naturally fit within them while leaving others out.
Ecological dynamics removes this centrality and replaces it with a responsibility on the coach to develop their own competence in designing environments that support individual adapting. The instructor’s role is to:
Shape affordances: Create opportunities for action that students can recognize and use. Example: A gap in an opponent’s defense is an affordance for a strike.
Apply constraints: Adjust the training environment in ways that guide students toward effective solutions without prescribing exact strategies. In a game-based learning approach to ecological dynamics, constraints can be understood as the limitations, rules, and goals within a game.
Encourage exploration: Allow students to discover their own solutions instead of copying a single answer.
This requires instructors to be adaptable, competent in their domain, and capable of designing training experiences that help students progress from where they are to where they need to be.
Insight #2: Teaching Must Be Learned Ecologically
Many instructors try to use ecological dynamics while still thinking like traditional coaches. They read about it, try to apply concepts without experiencing them, and then struggle when it doesn’t work right away.
To teach this way, you have to adapt the same way your students do—by playing, experimenting, and adjusting.
Transition Toolkit: Moving from Information Processing to Ecological Dynamics
For instructors shifting from step-by-step coaching to an ecological approach, this toolkit provides a starting point by converting traditional information-processing techniques into ecological dynamics-based games. Below are three examples—two detailed ones for grappling and striking, and one even simpler situational sparring example to help ease into this approach.
Example 1: Grappling – From Step-by-Step Guard Passing to a Dynamic Game
Information-Processing Approach:
The instructor teaches a specific guard pass (e.g., knee slice) step-by-step.
Students rep the pass repeatedly without resistance.
Later, they try to apply it in live playing.
Ecological Dynamics Approach:
Game Constraint: The top player must pass the guard by pinning at least one of the bottom person’s legs to the mat before progressing.
Why This Works:
Encourages exploration of multiple guard passing solutions.
Forces players to feel how weight distribution and angles affect control.
Keeps adapting alive, as each attempt provides different resistance.
Key Shift: Instead of memorizing steps, students discover effective passing through interaction and adaptation.
Example 2: Striking – From Technical Breakdown to a Dynamic Learning Process
Information-Processing Approach:
The instructor teaches a straight punch with detailed biomechanical cues (e.g., hit with the first two knuckles, keep the elbow tucked, rotate the hip, push from the legs, etc.).
Students rep in isolation before applying it in controlled drills.
Ecological Dynamics Approach:
Knuckle Push-Ups (Structural Awareness Before Impact):
Before hitting anything, students perform knuckle push-ups to feel wrist alignment and stability.
Why This Works: They experience how a misaligned wrist feels weak and adjust accordingly.
Heavy Bag Power Test (Finding the Best Stance):
Students hit a heavy bag as hard as they can to discover what stance works best for them.
Why This Works: Instead of being told the “correct” stance, they feel what allows them to generate power efficiently.
Shoulder Tag (Testing Movement & Evasion):
Students try to tag each other’s shoulders while avoiding being tagged—but they must stay in the stance that felt strongest from the heavy bag test.
Why This Works: This bridges static stance mechanics with real movement under pressure.
High Cover & Countering (Developing Defensive Awareness and Counters):
One student throws only straight punches to the partner’s head, while the other maintains a high-cover defensive guard.
The defender’s goal is to stay protected and, when comfortable, counter with rib shots to force the attacker to consider in-and-out movement and elbow placement.
Why This Works: It forces dynamic offensive and defensive decision-makinginstead of rigidly following a prescribed motion.
Example 3: Simple Positional Sparring with Constraints
Information-Processing Approach:
Traditional situational sparring often starts from a dominant position with the top person trying to hold and the bottom person trying to escape with no further constraints.
Ecological Dynamics Approach:
Game Constraint:
The top player must maintain a top pin and try to get one or both of the bottom person’s elbows above their shoulder line or take their back if they turn away.
The bottom player can escape or improve position however they like—as long as they improve their position, they win.
Why This Works:
It guides students toward key control and escape principles without explicitly telling them how.
The task naturally encourages movement exploration rather than static resistance.
It ensures real-time decision-making, as top players must adapt to the bottom player’s reactions.
Conclusion
Ecological dynamics is not just about changing how students train—it’s about changing how instructors think. Just as students develop skills by interacting with their environment, instructors improve by interacting with their teaching methods. It’s a cycle of playing, adapting, and improving.
By shifting the focus from the coach to the student’s adapting experience, instructors open up the possibility for every student—not just those who fit a particular style—to reach their full potential.
Glossary
Adaptation: The process of adjusting behavior or strategies in response to changes in the environment or situation. In learning, adaptation is how individuals improve their skills over time through experience.
Affordances: Opportunities for action within the environment. These are the possibilities that the environment offers to an individual, based on their abilities and perception. For example, a gap in an opponent's defense is an affordance for an attack.
Constraints: Limitations or boundaries within a learning environment that shape behavior. In game-based learning, these can be the rules, limitations, and goals of the game. They guide exploration without dictating a specific path.
Ecological Dynamics: A theory of skill acquisition that emphasizes the interaction between the individual and their environment. It focuses on how individuals adapt and learn through exploration and experience.
Game-Based Learning: An approach to instruction that uses games or game-like activities to engage learners and promote skill development.
Information-Processing Model: A traditional coaching approach where the coach is the primary source of knowledge, and the learner's goal is to replicate the coach's instructions. This contrasts with ecological dynamics.
Nonlinear Pedagogy: A teaching approach aligned with ecological dynamics that emphasizes creating learning environments where students explore, adapt, and discover solutions for themselves.
Skill Acquisition: The process of learning and improving skills through practice and experience.
References
1. Davids, K., Button, C., & Bennett, S. (2008). Dynamics of Skill Acquisition: A Constraints-Led Approach. Human Kinetics.
2. Chow, J. Y., Davids, K., Button, C., & Renshaw, I. (2016). Nonlinear Pedagogy in Skill Acquisition: An Introduction. Routledge.
3. Renshaw, I., Davids, K., Newcombe, D., & Roberts, W. (2019). The Constraints-Led Approach: Principles for Sports Coaching and Practice Design. Routledge.
4. Araújo, D., Davids, K., & Hristovski, R. (2006). The ecological dynamics of decision making in sport. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 7(6), 653-676.
5. Seifert, L., Button, C., & Davids, K. (2013). Key properties of expert movement systems in sport. Sports Medicine, 43(3), 167-178.
Acknowledgments
This article was developed with the assistance of various tools and resources:
1. The author used Perplexity AI to assist in research and gathering information on ecological dynamics and its application in martial arts instruction.
2. The author used ChatGPT to assist in formatting and structuring the content to enhance readability and flow.
3. The author used Gemini AI to assist in refining and enhancing this article.
This collaborative effort between human expertise and AI assistance aims to provide a comprehensive and accessible guide to ecological dynamics for martial arts instructors and students alike.
