Pete Sturgess has dedicated his life to football coaching and coach development. Pete retired in March 2023 after working at the FA for 17 years. The majority of his tenure leading the way in coaching young children in the Foundation Phase. He has long been internationally recognised as an expert in his field and his retirement year saw him recognised formally for his contribution to football, coaching and sport. 

In honour of the influence Pete has had on coaches in the region, the Lancs FA renamed their 3G pitch to become the Pete Sturgess Hub. In October 2023, Pete was inducted into the Coach Development Hall of Fame at St George’s Park where his photo sits beside some of the other greats in coach education and in December 2023, Pete received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Annual UK Coaching Awards.

We were truly honoured to have Pete join us for episode 35.

Check out Pete's website https://www.thesessioncollective.co.uk/

Adam is currently working as a Senior Lecturer in Skill Acquisition at QUT. Adam completed his PhD through the University of Queensland under the supervision of Professor Bruce Abernethy and Professor Damian Farrow. His thesis investigated the capability of expert basketball players to extract information from the patterns of play that exist in a typical basketball game. 

Adam's previous work experience includes 4 years as a Physical Education teacher in British and Australian secondary schools, as well as 10 years working at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in Canberra, Australia, as a Senior Skill Acquisition Specialist. 

Adam's employment at the AIS involved working with a range of sports including basketball, netball, water polo, volleyball, rowing, swimming, and athletics. Adam's research interests cover a diverse range of topics, but most notably focus upon the areas of representative design of practice sessions, scaling of equipment for junior sport, performance analysis, manipulating constraints to enhance skill acquisition, and analysing the underlying factors that contribute to expertise in the sports domain. Adam continues to work with a number of different sports and sporting organisations ranging from elite sport through to junior and developmental levels.

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Adam-D-Gorman-53522550

Representative design: Does the addition of a defender change the execution of a basketball shot? https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305888649_Representative_design_Does_the_addition_of_a_defender_change_the_execution_of_a_basketball_shot

Jona Bronswijk is a boxing coach working with the Dutch Olympic boxing squad. He is interested in practice and training designs that are informed by the constraints led approach. Jona is also studying for a masters degree in sport coaching science. 

Dr Kane Middleton is an Associate Professor of Sport and Occupational Biomechanics within the Discipline of Sport and Exercise Science and the Sport, Performance, and Nutrition Research Group. Kane also serves as La Trobe University's Academic Program Director for the La Trobe - Sheffield Hallam joint PhD program. He completed his PhD in Sports Biomechanics at The University of Western Australia and has previously held post-doctoral positions at The University of Western Australia and the University of Wollongong.

Jack Bale is a PhD student at La Trobe University. He is interested in the Ecological Dynamics Framework and its application to combat shooting, where he is uniquely positioned to combine his sports science background with extensive experience as an ISSF rifle shooter. Jack has shot for Great Britain at European Championships, World Cups, and the World Championships. He is actively applying his shooting knowledge by coaching ISSF rifle athletes in Australia, from athletes just starting out to those aiming for success on the world stage. 

In this episode with discuss learning and performing in sport. For too long, learning and performing have been viewed as separate processes—train, then apply. 

But is that truly how we skilfully engage in competitive situations?  

In this episode we suggest learning and performing are a symbiotic process. If you’re not learning while performing or performing while learning, are you truly progressing?

We discuss this theme from a motor learning and skill adaptation perspective and explore how to create environments that balance exploration (learning) and execution (performing). 

This approach can develop problem solvers who can adapt, attune, and thrive under real-world conditions.

Papers discuss in the episode.

Learning and performing: What can theory offer high performance sports practitioners?
https://socibracom.com/bjmb/index.php/bjmb/article/view/280

An ecological dynamics approach to motor learning in practice: Reframing the learning and performing relationship in high performance sport 
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667239122000089

Christian Thue Bjørndal is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sport and Social Science. He has a Master’s Degree in Sports Coaching and Sport Psychology from NIH and received in 2017 his PhD from research focusing on the dynamics of talent development in Norwegian handball.

Christian is interested in interdisciplinary perspectives on athlete learning and development in sport with a special emphasis on sociocultural perspectives and ecological dynamics. He has extensive coaching experience from youth and elite handball and is certified EHF Master Coach.

Returning for a second time this week is Craig Morris, who has been a British Canoe Slalom performance coach for the past 20 years.  

Craig started his career as a pathway development lead in the Olympic sport of Canoe Slalom, he found a home in coaching at the age of 23. The process of co-creation in the pursuit of growth and performance enthralled and drove him to work tirelessly to learn more of himself, others and the concept of learning itself. 

Many years later as personal coach to multiple Olympic, World and European medal winning individuals his adventure horizons continue to expand. The passion to carry his learning as a leader and coach in Olympic Sport guides him into new environments with new challenges including individual and team consultancy, executive coaching and mentoring and much more. 

Enjoy the show!

Sion has been involved in futsal since 2004. As a player he represented Great Britain at two World University Games and played International futsal for Wales for 5 years. Captaining his country and scoring at international level are his proudest playing moments. 

He has also had the honour of coaching the England & Wales U19s as well as the England U21s and being assistant coach for the Men’s senior team over the last 5 years. 

Sion has worked in the sport sector for the past 15 years; with the FA a Coach Educator, mentor & Development Officer, for Sport England leading their work on coaching, and is now with England Hockey supporting the implementation of their talent system.

He is never happier than when spending time with his family exploring new places, or being on the futsal court working with players (something he is particularly looking forward to resuming over the next 12 months with the national programme). 

Sion is an advocate of creating opportunity for young players to achieve beyond what they thought was possible. He enjoys listening to the High Performance podcast and learning from high performing individuals from across the sport & the business world in order to further develop himself in service of the Game he loves.

Link to the video mentioned in the episode.

 https://youtu.be/XfWU62xfNmQ?feature=shared

Enjoy!

This week we are joined Timo Jaakkola, Sami Kalaja, and Pauliina Vastamäki, organisers of the The International Motor Skills Acquisition Conference.

We discuss the forthcoming conference that will run from March 26th to 28th, 2025. Full conference details in the link below. 

Link to conference registration Event Registration - Kisakallio

Eric Brymer is an AHPRA registered psychologist, endorsed sport and exercise psychologist and board approved supervisor. He is also a chartered psychologist with the British Psychological Society and Associate Professor at Southern Cross University.

Eric is interested in the psychology of performance, wellbeing and learning in adventure and nature-based contexts. His research is particularly focused on the impact of adventure and the human-nature relationship on health and wellbeing and the design of effective interventions.

Enjoy!