Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport
Volume 13, Issue 6 , Pages 633-640, November 2010

The concept of ‘Organismic Asymmetry’ in sport science

  • Keith Davids

      Affiliations

    • School of Human Movement Studies, Queensland University of Technology, Lisbon, Australia
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author.
    • ,
  • Duarte Araújo

      Affiliations

    • Faculty of Human Kinetics (FMH), Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal

Received 13 October 2009; received in revised form 7 March 2010; accepted 12 May 2010. published online 28 June 2010.

Abstract 

The concept of organismic asymmetry refers to an inherent bias for seeking explanations of human performance and behaviour based on internal mechanisms and referents. A weakness in this tendency is a failure to consider the performer–environment relationship as the relevant scale of analysis. In this paper we elucidate the philosophical roots of the bias and discuss implications of organismic asymmetry for sport science and performance analysis, highlighting examples in psychology, sports medicine and biomechanics.

Keywords: Organismic asymmetry, Ecological dynamics, Performance optimization, Constraints, Decision-making

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PII: S1440-2440(10)00111-8

doi:10.1016/j.jsams.2010.05.002

Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport
Volume 13, Issue 6 , Pages 633-640, November 2010

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