Progressão

Jani Sarajärvi

Progressão is a book, a podcast, and a long-term thinking project focused on football, learning, and skilful human behaviour. Our work approaches football from a complex, holistic, and ecological perspective, where players and all football actors are understood as living beings always in correspondence with their environment.

  1. -5 дн.

    #196 Game Models & Ecological Dynamics

    Game models in football are discussed constantly. Most coaches have strong opinions about them, but fewer can describe their own model with depth — or stop to ask where the underlying thinking is actually leading them. In this episode: a new paper by Jones, Kubayi, Stone and Davids that reframes what a Game Model is and what it should do. The core argument is that when a Game Model becomes a script, meaning telling players what to do in advance, it reduces their exposure to the informational complexity of the real game. The player who has learned what to do stands waiting for the right moment to execute a pattern, instead of reading what the game is actually offering. Along the way: affordances and why they appear and disappear in seconds, the difference between skill acquisition and skill adaptation, constraints-led approach, coach feedback reframed as questions that direct attention rather than prescribe solutions, and a new way of visualising the Game Model itself as a continuous infinity loop with a Transition Nexus at its centre. A Sam Allardyce anecdote about the West Ham way, too, which lands well for this context. The thread underneath: if you're coaching from a traditional Game Model, you're trying to build a team that executes your system. If you're coaching from an ecological dynamics perspective, you're trying to build a team that reads the game and adapts. Further reading Jones, G., Kubayi, A., Stone, J.A. & Davids, K. (2026). Game Models in Football Coaching: An Ecological Dynamics Perspective. International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport.🌍 More at progressao.fi  🐦 Follow us on X and Instagram: @progressaofi

    13 мин.
  2. 2 июн.

    #194 The metaphors football lives by

    Metaphor is the lens through which we actually see the game. Call a player a computer and you start looking for software to upgrade. Call a team a puzzle and you start developing pieces to assemble. The metaphor decides, quietly, what counts as a problem and what counts as a solution. In this episode: George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's foundational argument that metaphors shape how we think, not just how we speak, and what happens when you apply that to football. The reductionist family of metaphors that built modern coaching: the clock, the computer, the house, the pyramid, the toolbox, the puzzle. And the newer family challenging them: the radio, Tim Ingold's lines and meshworks, Bruce Lee's water, Rob Gray's Matrix. A study by Thibodeau and Boroditsky showing how a single metaphor change — beast versus virus — shifts what solutions people reach for. And what it actually means for coaching if skill is a relation rather than a possession. The thread underneath: the metaphors we inherit are not neutral. They highlight some things and hide others. And the ones football has lived by for decades may be leaking the most important parts of the game away. Further reading Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. University of Chicago Press.Thibodeau, P. & Boroditsky, L. (2011). Metaphors We Think With: The Role of Metaphor in Reasoning. PLOS ONE.Ingold, T. (2015). The Life of Lines. Routledge.Brette, R. (2022). Brains as Computers: Metaphor, Analogy, Theory or Fact?. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.Sontag, S. (1966). Against Interpretation. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.🌍 More at progressao.fi  🐦 Follow us on X and Instagram: @progressaofi

    18 мин.
  3. 12 мая

    #191 Representative design: does your training really reflect the game?

    Welcome to the Progressão podcast. In this episode, we continue our journey from drills and games, through situations, and now into one of the key concepts of ecological dynamics: representative design. In football, training often looks organised, structured, and even very “game-like”. But does it truly represent the demands players face in matches?  In this episode, we explore how learning depends on the relationship between the player and the environment, especially on the information available, how it is perceived, and how action emerges from it. We discuss key ideas such as perception–action coupling and action fidelity, and why even small differences in timing, spacing, or pressure can completely change player behaviour. Through practical examples, from finishing and pressing to rondos and positional games, we reflect on why some exercises transfer to the game, while others only appear to. Representative design is about identifying the essential elements of football situations and bringing those into training in a meaningful way. Articles mentioned in the episode: Pinder, R. A., Davids, K., Renshaw, I., & Araújo, D. (2011). Representative learning design and functionality of research and practice in sport. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 33(1), 146–155. Full article Headrick, J., Renshaw, I., Davids, K., Pinder, R. A., & Araújo, D. (2015). The dynamics of expertise acquisition in sport: The role of affective learning design. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 16(Part 1), 83–90. Full article 🌍 More at progressao.fi 🐦 Follow us on X and Instagram: @progressaofi

    14 мин.

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Progressão is a book, a podcast, and a long-term thinking project focused on football, learning, and skilful human behaviour. Our work approaches football from a complex, holistic, and ecological perspective, where players and all football actors are understood as living beings always in correspondence with their environment.

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