Learning to Fight! Conversations in Combat Skill

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Cal Jones is both a Judo coach and practitioner from North Wales (UK). He also recently completed his Master Degree in sports science with a thesis on "Representative Learning Design".

Cal is well connected in the skill acquisition community and is a frequent guest on the coaching podcast circuits.

Should you want to reach out or follow Cal, he can be reached on his twitter account @CalJonesJudo

This is the part one of a two part episode where we discuss RLD and its implications for effective practice design for skill development. 

Cal and I also discuss much of the dated and stubbornly held perspectives that are so prevelant in martial arts today.

Cal is an understudy of Keith Davis who is one of the giants and leading researchers in ecological dynamics and skill acquisition.

I look forward to Cal being a returning guest on the show as we had a fun discussion and clicked well. 

My appreciation to him and all my guest who work hard to bring the research and data from the labs to the mats. 

Let's be better at getting better!   Ancora Imparo!

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My old pal and returning guest Will Massey PhD,  Sport Psychologist, educator, coach, and practicing martial artist.

In this episode, Will offers his insight into how we can foster and cultivate independent and self-directed learning within a group setting. 

We cover, learned helplessness, implicit learning, practicing for performance vs practice for learning.  Motivation theory and considerations. And finally Will gives some practical takeaways for coaches looking to support athletes becoming more independent and in control of their own development. 

Will is able to pair an academic and theoretical perspective with a practical understanding as both a student and coach of the sport. 

This valuable discussion given retention, motivation and participation involve creating a positive and engaging psychological training environment.

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Today's guest brings both a practical and theoretical perspective to skill development in marital arts.

Dr. Alan Dunton is a former Irish National TKD team competitor and now a researcher and lecturer at Cork institute of technology.  Alan received his PhD in Skill Acquisition under the guidance of  former guest, professor  Ed Coughlan. (aka. Dr SkillAcq) .

I really clicked with Alan and we went down several rabbit holes and discussed a whole lot of different aspects of training and skill development.

Alan is advocate and proponent of a more ecological approach to skill development, but also sees utility and in more traditional approach and frameworks.

This is part 2 of 2 - and we carry on from where we left in part 1. Exploring disguised and deceptive actions.

Alan was extremely receptive and enthusiastic to collaborate when I reached out and i encourage all that enjoyed his insight to follow him or reach out to him on his twitter profile. 

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Today's guest brings both a practical and theoretical perspective to skill development in marital arts.

Dr. Alan Dunton is a former Irish National TKD team competitor and now a researcher and lecturer at Cork institute of technology.  Alan received his PhD in Skill Acquisition under the guidance of  former guest, professor  Ed Coughlan. (aka. Dr SkillAcq) .

I really clicked with Alan and we went down several rabbit holes and discussed a whole lot of different aspects of training and skill development. 

Alan is advocate and proponent of a more ecological approach to skill development, but also sees utility and in more traditional approach and frameworks.

This is part 1 of 2 - and we flesh out a lot of the topics discussed on the previous episode with Dr Rob Gray.

Alan was extremely receptive and enthusiastic to collaborate when I reached out and i encourage all that enjoyed his insight to follow him or reach out to him on his twitter profile. 

Part 2 should drop in next week or so!

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I finally snagged him! After months of pestering, Professor Rob Gray joined me to chat and answer some of my questions on skill development in martial arts.

Rob is a giant in the skill acquisition space, and his voice has become all too familiar to me after spending much of my last few years working through his huge catalogue of podcasts of his show 'The Perception Action Podcast" .

Rob is an Associate Professor of Human Systems Engineering at Arizona State University and recently published and released his book MOVE .

While Rob's podcast is very technical and academic, he has delivered in his book a wonderfully concise and digestible summary of how we learn and acquire movement skills.

Rob's outreach and coach educational resources have profoundly shaped and influenced my perspectives and understanding of skill acquisition which spills over into all aspects of my life.

Life is movement.... Why not be better at it!

In a rush to make the most out of the opportunity I tried to squeeze a lot in this 60 min slot. So this episode moves quick and covers a lot. But he's been busy on the podcast tour these last months. So if you are hungry for more. Follow him on twitter @shakeywaits or search for him on your podcast directory.

 




 

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Coach Leigh Remedios is the owner and head coach of VT Jiu-Jitsu in England UK. 

He is a life long martial artist, former professional fighter  and UFC vet, and a recipient of 4 different black belts. 

My first contact and introduction to Leigh was an exchange over a post I'd made on a BJJ FB group about shrimping and bear crawling in jiu-jitsu practice being a waste of time.

What started off as a terse back and forth led to a more substantive exchange, where Leigh was receptive to some articles and resources I sent him. 

A couple of months later we hopped on the zoom to chat about training. This chat is episode #6 and was a fun discussion, one in which we found much more similarities in our training approaches than differences. 

Leigh, as apparent is a very accomplished coach and competitor and decades later is clearly still in love with martial arts and looking to learn and improve. So a great guest and a an enjoyable chat was had.

Leigh can be found on FB, and at his gym's webpage www.vtjj.co.uk 

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Making the most of our valuable training time with the help of Ecological Dynamics. 

www.primalmke.com

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A bite sized and unsophisticated synopsis of Ecological Dynamics, and how it underpins our training approach at Primal MKE. 

www.primalmke.com

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Coach Bruce Hoyer is the owner and Head coach at Next Edge MMA, Sioux Falls, ND.
 
 After listening to Bruce talk on the Combat Learning Podcast, I reached out to ask him to further explore his flipped classroom model for BJJ.
 
 Optimizing Jiu-Jitsu practice and balancing the technical and theoretical with the live and dynamic practice can be a great challenge.
 
 Bruce seems to have addressed this largely with a 'flipped classroom mode' where he avoids much of the typical "one size fits all' lesson plan by giving his students the autonomy and responsibility of creating their own individualized lesson plans and strategies in their own time.
 
 This frees up precious mat time for testing and exploring.
 
 After years of tinkering, Bruce has found a system that is streamlined and embraced by his students.
 
 Bruce talks about the evolution of this approach and how he implements it at his gym. He also talks about how his strategy to increase retention and create more robust learning outcomes.
 
 A fascinating talk and a lot of nuggets to take away for coaches and students alike.
 
  You can follow and connect with Coach Bruce on FB or his IG @nextedgeacademy and at his website www.nextedgeacademy.com 

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My discussion with Professor Nicola Hodges was all about demonstrations!  Dr Hodges researches and teaches out of the motor skill lab at the University of British Columbia.
 
 I reached out to Dr Nicola to ask for her to lend her expertise and insight into the science of demonstrations and learning in sport.  
 
 Being such a big part of our sport and coaching, I was interested in how we might make the most of the demonstration time while increasing the effectiveness of them.  
 
 Professor Nicola did not disappoint, other than reminding me I get a little overzealous about the ecological dynamics space that place less emphasis on direct instruction and demonstrations. 
 
 Nevertheless it was a great reminder that there are still so many unknowns and that there are many roads to the destination. I fun chat with immediately implementable nuggets of advice. 
 
 You can follow and connect with Dr Nicola via twitter @nicolajhodges and learn more at her website http://msl.kin.educ.ubc.ca/home