New knowledge is continually being developed in the exercise, sport, and movement sciences. Yet, these scientific endeavors may not be as efficient or productive as possible. Revisiting the writings of philosophers of science, such as John Platt (1964) and Thomas Kuhn (1962), offers a roadmap for more sophisticated inquiry that will produce enhanced understanding of sport and movement. For example, Platt warned about the pitfalls of “the frozen method” and “the all-encompassing theory which can never be falsified”(p. 350). He suggested scientists should design crucial experiments that test competing explanations. This method, called “strong inference,” focuses on designing studies that eliminate alternative hypotheses. Kuhn described the role of scientific paradigms in shaping how we do science and how we interpret data. He explained that “normal science” provides a set of rules grounded in an accepted paradigm. A paradigm refers to the accepted rules, standards, methodologies, and theories used when engaged in normal science (e.g., logical positivism is a paradigm). On one hand, shared paradigms provide a common foundation for examining research questions in that researchers test current, accepted theories with conventional methods. On the other hand, Kuhn warned that paradigms also limit creativity in theorizing and in methodology. Kuhn further explained that a scientific crisis occurs when there is a proliferation of new theories attempting to explain a phenomenon or when a commonly accepted theory fails to explain new data. In other words, studies frequently reveal findings that cannot be explained by accepted theory; yet, often researchers ignore the discrepancies and continue to espouse the same paradigm. When enough researchers begin to doubt the old paradigm, a shift to new explanations or paradigms occurs. An example of a paradigm shift in the movement sciences is the change from an information processing perspective to the dynamic systems perspective. In sport psychology, the area of competitive anxiety may be considered to be in a paradigm crisis as a variety of different theories have been forwarded in attempts to explain the anxiety-performance relationship. A paradigm shift appears to be occurring in sport management as a number of researchers are abandoning logical positivism for interpretive and critical approaches. In this presentation, we will provide additional background on Platt's and Kuhn’s ideas and present examples of paradigm crises and strong inference applications in sport psychology, motor development, and sport management.