The Constraints Collective

In this episode we are joined by Jamie Hamilton. Jamie is a UEFA A-licenced coach, an academy coach with Ayr United FC, and is football writer (check out his Medium page for some excellent articles, link below). 

We discuss football tactics and theory, and how these ideas might be applied in practice. 

Enjoy! 

X:  @stirling_j 
Medium: https://medium.com/@stirlingj1982

Matt is a coach, coach developer and lecturer in sport coaching with fifteen years’ experience across grass roots, elite and paralympic environments covering team and individual sports. Theoretically underpinned by an Ecological Dynamics rationale of learning, Matt’s research explores how coach learning can be guided in context by a coach developer. As a coach, Matt has been a British Athletics team member (speed and hurdles) on seven international age group teams. His first selection being a particular highlight, Cali Colombia, for the World U18 Championships, where he supported athletes through to five finals, a UK record and medal winning performances. 

Matt joined the University of Northampton in June 2023, from his previous institution, Cardiff Metropolitan University where he was part of the Sport Coaching and PE teaching teams. He is currently completing a Professional Doctorate in Sport, exploring the practice of a coach developer adopting a constraints-led approach. In this research Matt collaborated with a national governing body in the redesign and delivery of mentoring and in-situ coach development across three environments and sixteen coach participants.

Matt is a coach, coach developer and lecturer in sport coaching with fifteen years’ experience across grass roots, elite and paralympic environments covering team and individual sports. Theoretically underpinned by an Ecological Dynamics rationale of learning, Matt’s research explores how coach learning can be guided in context by a coach developer. As a coach, Matt has been a British Athletics team member (speed and hurdles) on seven international age group teams. His first selection being a particular highlight, Cali Colombia, for the World U18 Championships, where he supported athletes through to five finals, a UK record and medal winning performances. 

Matt joined the University of Northampton in June 2023, from his previous institution, Cardiff Metropolitan University where he was part of the Sport Coaching and PE teaching teams. He is currently completing a Professional Doctorate in Sport, exploring the practice of a coach developer adopting a constraints-led approach. In this research Matt collaborated with a national governing body in the redesign and delivery of mentoring and in-situ coach development across three environments and sixteen coach participants.

Part 2 of the episode with Duarte Araújo, where we discuss the role of cognition in sport performance. 

Duarte is the director of Expertise in Sport at the Faculty of Human Kinetics at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. Duarte is also the head of the Interdisciplinary Centre for the study of Human Performance (CIPER) a national research unit funded by the Portuguese Government. His research influences applied practice all over the world, which includes sport expertise, decision-making, cognition and affordances for physical activity.

Duarte has published more than 200 papers in scientific journals mainly about expertise, team performance, variability, cognition and decision-making.

Enjoy the show!

This week we are joined by Duarte Araújo to discuss the role of cognition in sport performance. Duarte is the director of Expertise in Sport at the Faculty of Human Kinetics at the University of Lisbon, Portugal.

Duarte is also the head of the Interdisciplinary Centre for the study of Human Performance (CIPER) a national research unit funded by the Portuguese Government. His research influences applied practice all over the world, which includes sport expertise, decision-making, cognition and affordances for physical activity.

Duarte has published more than 200 papers in scientific journals mainly about expertise, team performance, variability, cognition and decision-making.

Enjoy the show!

P.S. part two will be out next week.

This week we are joined by Paul Garner live from the Manchester Festival of Coaching. Paul is an Assistant Professor in Sport Coaching and Player Development at the University of Birmingham. Paul has represented Great Britain as a member of the British Alpine Skiing Demonstration Team, and has worked extensively in snow sports as a performer, coach, coach developer and assessor. Paul continues to work closely with a number of governing bodies to drive excellence in coach education, development and assessment across the coaching landscape. 

Enjoy!

This week we are joined by 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!

This week we are joined by Marianne Davies from UK Coaching to discuss how an ecological perspective is influencing the design and development of coach education and development in the UK.

Marianne’s coaching experience includes more than 25 years of working in adventure sports, academic and corporate environments. She is a coach developer, coach educator, and national trainer. Marianne is currently working as a Senior Coach Developer for UK Coaching. This role includes shaping learning and development opportunities for the coach development and education workforces, working across the variety of roles and in all sports and physical activities. Creating learning and development experiences and resources with colleagues across the organisation to ensure that UK coaching leads the industry in this space. 

Enjoy!

In this episode we are joined by Véronique Richard from the University of Queensland. Véronique specialises in performance psychology and creativity, working across research and applied environments. She is currently conducting applied research combining creativity and movement sciences to optimize performance, health and wellbeing. 

In her prior roles as a mental performance consultant for Canadian national sport organisations and Cirque du Soleil, Véronique observed the challenges of balancing high-level performance and well-being for sport and performing arts stakeholders. To tackle this challenge, she designs enriched movement activities to build creativity supportive environments, while examining the impact of such environments on creativity-related cognitive, affective, and socio-cultural variables. 

We discuss how the framework of ecological dynamics influences her work and informs intervention designs across all levels of sport.

Enjoy!

In this episode we explore applying the CLA in golf coaching with Pete Arnott. Pete is performance coach consultant and host of the Practice Thinkers podcast. He shares a wealth of experiences and discusses the nuances of working within a CLA framework.

Enjoy! 

Links to golf focused resources
www.practicethinkers.com 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tiger-Practice-Guide-Training-Champion-ebook/dp/B0CKLZKZN9

https://www.routledge.com/A-Constraints-Led-Approach-to-Golf-Coaching/Renshaw-Arnott-McDowall/p/book/9780367482671