CLA is about designing good learning environments for athletes and using constraints to incentivize behaviour that's desirable for future performance.
Constraints Led Approach (CLA) is a training/coaching framework. In plain English, this means CLA is a lens through which coaches can train athletes. You can use the constraints-led approach to enhance your coaching.
CLA is based on the idea that movement and performance are guided by boundaries called constraints. There are 3 main high-level constraints:
- Performer – The player and their abilities
- Environment – The space in which the activity is performed
- Task – The game itself
Drilling Down
Performer
This is the athlete and their abilities. What their athletic capabilities are will constrain them to be able to perform tasks or limit their abilities. Individual constraints include:
- Body Composition & Fitness – Strength, dimensions, flexibility, and aerobic capacity
- Mental – Ability to concentrate, confidence, and ability to read opponents
- Personality – Aggressive vs passive, emotional control, etc.
Environment
It’s the space with which the player can interact within. The environment is always the first teacher. The environment has more influence on their learning than we do as coaches, but as coaches, we can create or alter an environment
Task
The task is the activity itself. Every activity we design is incentivizing or discouraging behaviors and decisions. Changing rules… change the incentives.
What CLA Incentivizes + Why View Training Through a CLA Lens?
A constraints-led approach incentivizes athletes to problem-solve situations within their abilities and seek to find solutions in ways that work for them. CLA is about situational learning.
Rather than teaching specific tactics or the “perfect” movement/technique patterns, coaches allow the constraints to guide learning. It’s a way to allow the constraints and incentives to teach the players. Many coaches do this instinctively here and there. CLA’s principles can become extremely powerful for coaches once they are aware and purposeful about the constraints their coaching imposes.
Most importantly, CLA is about designing good learning environments for athletes and using constraints to incentivize behaviour that’s desirable for future performance. By understanding CLA, coaches can better manipulate key factors that underpin performance to increase their coaching effectiveness.
There are plenty of constraints a coach can alter to improve their effectiveness.
- Boundaries – Size + shape
- Players – Number + allocation
- Scoring system – Point allocation
- Scoring – Size + orientation of goals
- Time – How much
Examples
Heads Up Hockey within Skill Acquisition
Let’s say a coach is doing a stickhandling drill. Usually, you see players going around cones or other obstacles. What does this environment incentivize? The obstacles or cones are on the ice therefore the constraint is incentivizing the kids to look down to solve the problem of going around the obstacle.
Rather than having to yell “keep your head up,” a coach can use a CLA lens to put multiple players in a tight space and get them moving. Now the players must keep their head up to go around the obstacles (the other players).
More Playmaking within Game Play
A coach sets up a game and allows the player to play. This may be a 3v3 cross-ice game where players must make three passes before shooting. What often happens is that players will then make the three passes and then go back to playing the game. We want to avoid adding in rules that go against the internal logic of our sport.
There are very few absolutes in hockey. Players need to still make decisions, in this case, it may be a better choice not to pass. Rather than having a rule where a player “must pass,” the coach can use a CLA lens to alter the scoring. For each pass completed, the goal increases one point in value. Make five passes = the goal scores five points. Passing is still encouraged but now fits within the framework of an actual hockey game where at any moment, shooting is the best option.
