Interpersonal Coordination and Performance in Social Systems

Interpersonal coordination is an important feature of all social systems. From everyday activities to playing sport and participating in the performing arts, human behaviour is constrained by the need to continually interact with others. This book examines how interpersonal coordination tendencies in social systems emerge, across a range of contexts and at different scales, with the aim of helping practitioners to understand collective behaviours and create learning environments to improve performance.

Showcasing the latest research from scientists and academics, this collection of studies examines how and why interpersonal coordination is crucial for success in sport and the performing arts. It explains the complex science of interpersonal coordination in relation to a variety of activities including competitive team sports, outdoor sports, racket sports, and martial arts, as well as dance. Divided into four sections, this book offers insight into:

• the nature, history and key concepts of interpersonal coordination
• factors that influence interpersonal coordination within social systems
• interpersonal coordination in competitive and cooperative performance contexts
• methods, tools and devices for improving performance through interpersonal coordination.

This book will provide fascinating insights for students, researchers and educators interested in movement science, performance analysis, sport science and psychology, as well as for those working in the performing arts.

Pedro Passos is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Human Kinetics at the University of Lisbon in Portugal. His research involves the study of the dynamics of interpersonal coordination in team sports. He has written numerous journal articles and book chapters, and is the author or editor of four books. His current research is on interpersonal coordination in social systems and team sports, extending the paradigm of analysis to video games and cooperative tasks, and searching for new methods of analysis in collaboration with researchers in Portugal, across Europe, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

Keith Davids is Professor of Motor Learning at the Centre for Sports Engineering Research at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. His major research interest involves the study of movement coordination and skill acquisition in sport. He is particularly focused on understanding how to design representative learning and performance evaluation environments in sport.

Jia Yi Chow is an Assistant Professor at the Physical Education and Sports Science Academic Group, and also Assistant Dean in the Office of Teacher Education at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His area of expertise is in examining multi-articular coordination and a pedagogical approach underpinned by principles from a dynamical systems theory (Nonlinear Pedagogy).