The River Tiger Podcast from Dynamics Coaching

In this episode we delve into the concept of representative learning design, what it is and why it matters.

As always, the conversation is unscripted and only has a topic as a start point for a genuine curious conversation. Alex, Jane and I pull on the representative practice thread and go on a few off-piste explorations too.

Topics including in this conversation:
- Understanding the relationship of the task and performer (of any level).
- Who is making the decisions and what information is being attended to?
- What is the rider paying attention to? What information is the horse paying attention to?
- What is specifying information and how can practice design help to guide attention toward it?
- What are affordances and shared-affordances?

Link to representative learning design tool for equestrian sports.

Links to my guests:
Jane Randall is now following her passion for all things equestrian as a coach and mentor. She is a British Equestrian Level 4 Coach, British Dressage Accredited Coach, MSc professional Practice in Sports Coaching , Mentor Coach with a keen interest in developing coaching science in equestrian sports. 

When I first met Jane, she was exploring skill acquisition and coaching pedagogy as part of her British Equestrian Level 4 coach award at Gloucester University in the UK. We had many wonderful conversations about understanding and  applying theories of learning and development with horses, humans and horse-human partnerships.

Jane can be contacted at https://www.jrdressage.co.uk/ 
Jane is also active on Instagram @janerandalldressagecoach  and on Twitter @janerandall111

Dr Alex Lascu is a skill acquisition specialist by trade and currently lectures at the University of Canberra. Her passion for talent development and community sport is contagious, and she enjoys existing in the gap between research and practice in the hopes of bringing these two worlds together.
Find Alex on Twitter at @skillacqlascu 

At her website https://skillacqlascu.wixsite.com/whisperer/about
Or LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/alascule/?originalSubdomain=au 

Representative learning design academic paper Train how you play.

Two very experienced coaches join me to chat about coaching behaviours and practice design for improving jumping. You'll find this episode is filled with practical tips and ideas to support your coaching and get the most out of your practice.

My guests this week are:
Katie Williams is a former international event rider, having ridden successfully to 4* level and produced many horses through the grades. Nowadays Katie is a full-time coach and has helped clients achieve success at every level up to international 4* eventing and including GB Junior, YR and Pony team trials and National Championships, BE Regional Youth Championships and Badminton Grassroots Championships. 

Katie is a BECC Level 4 Eventing Coach, and in 2021 graduated as an MSc in Professional Sports Coaching with Distinction. In 2018 she was one of only four eventing coaches to be selected for the BEF cross discipline Youth Pathway Coaching Programme, designed for coaches working with talented young riders within performance pathways. Katie has also completed the Centre 10 Gold level Applied Psychology for Equestrian Coaches Programme, is a BHS Senior Coach in Complete Horsemanship (Reg) and is on the national list of Pony Club Recommended Specialist Eventing Coaches. Katie holds private coaching sessions and regular training clinics both at home in Monmouthshire and across the country.
 Find Katie on her  FaceBook page.

Mia Palles-Clarke can be found on Instagram @miapallesclark. Mia is a level 4 coach and coach educator with British Showjumping and runs her own coaching business Coach Mia  Empowering Equestrians, Mia Palles-Clark International Showjumping Coach. 
In addition to coaching individual riders, Mia has been the England Home Pony Chef d’Equipe since 2017. Bringing home numerous gold medals and developing the young riders to cope with the stresses and complexities that arise from these competitions and selection processes. She also coaches the British Army showjumping team, developing ability, strategy and team ethos.
You can also find Mia on FaceBook. 
Mia has just been selected as part of the British team for the European championships for veterans (as a rider) and we wish her the best of luck!

Carl Woods is a Senior Research Fellow within the Institute for Health and Sport at Victoria University. His research interests reside at the intersection of ecological psychology, social anthropology, and sport science, where he explores concepts of knowing, skill, learning and education. He has an extensive background in both academia and the industry, having held various positions within multiple Australian Universities and the Australian Football League.

In this conversation we explore what is is to learn, become skilful and to have expertise. Particularly the notion of being comfortable with embracing uncertainty, and through dwelling with uncertainty becoming open to the experiences of others (human and non-human).

It's a long and fascinating conversation that touches on many topics including the difference between cues and affordances, why it matters to ensure agency in those we coach and interact with, and what it is to interact though curiosity, care and hope.

This is a fascinating conversation that might need a few sessions to listen to, or a long drive :)

Contacting Carl -
Carl is on Twitter - @CarlWoods25
ResearchGate

Here are a few of Carl's recent papers -
Wayfinding: How Ecological Perspectives of Navigating Dynamic Environments Can Enrich Our Understanding of the Learner and the Learning Process in Sport

Sport Practitioners as Sport Ecology Designers: How Ecological Dynamics Has Progressively Changed Perceptions of Skill “Acquisition” in the Sporting Habitat

Joining with the Conversation: Research as a Sustainable Practice in the Sport Sciences.

Welcome to our first journal club episode where I choose a research paper from a journal that I think would be great to unpick and explore the practical 'so what' with one of the research team and a coach/rider.

The paper I have chosen for this episode is called 'Faults in international showjumping are not random' by David Marlin and Jane Williams (Comparative Exercise Physiology: 16 (3)- Pages: 235 - 241. 2020).

Jane Williams introduces her research, including the why, what, when and how of the study before Emma and I ask some questions and the three (well mostly my two brilliant guests) discuss the implications of the research and findings to everyday riding, coaching, horse and rider welfare, and competition performance.

Emma Slater
Emma has competed and trained at the highest level of Showjumping in the UK and around the world. She is a British Showjumping UKCC Level 3 Coach and Excel Talent Coach who supports national development and coaching programmes including the DiSE (diploma in sporting excellence) programme. Emma is also a level 2 and 3 Assessor and the lead coach from British Showjumping Gloucester.

Emma Slater is an experienced and respected showjumping competitor and still competes at an elite level. As a coach she specialises in the performance management of showjumping and eventing riders from grass roots to the International level. “I really enjoy working with people to develop their long-term goals and to help them achieve success”. Emma has excellent technical knowledge and is used to working in high pressured environments, maintaining a calm, confident manner. In her coaching as well as life Emma is empathetic, honest, motivated and a fair person.

Developing potential in horses and riders, it’s all about the partnership, growing confidence through knowledge and seeing them succeed – I love it!

www.teamslater.co.uk

FB: Emma Slater Showjumping Page

Instagram: slateremsj

Dr Jane Williams
Jane is an Associate Professor and Head of Research at Hartpury University. She is an experienced researcher, with a passion for enhancing equine performance and wellbeing through industry-informed, real-world research that generates change. Jane qualified as a Veterinary Nurse then gained her Masters in Equine Science before completing her doctorate exploring the application of surface electromyography as a tool to assess muscle adaptation during training in racehorses and sport horses. 

Jane's main areas of professional interest include scientific evaluation of equestrian performance, training and wellbeing, rider impacts on equitation, reliability assessment across equestrian science and veterinary physiotherapy, and human-animal interaction. Jane co-edited and authored ‘Training for Equestrian Performance’ with Dr David Evans, to showcase how science and research can be applied practically to improve performance for horses and their riders, and has published over 100 research articles as well as regularly presenting at international equine conferences. She is also Honorary President for the International Society of Equitation Science, which promotes the application of objective research and advanced practice, to improve the welfare of horses in their associations with humans. Jane is also a founding member of the Sport horse Welfare Foundation.

Jane’s research outputs can be accessed here.

In this fascinating conversation Eva shares the main themes and findings from her PhD research. Eva helps to unpack the complexity of equine movement systems and and how gait analysis research is bringing new insights to our understanding of what is healthy or normal gait variability, and what movement strategies may be an indication of pain adaptations.

We discuss how research findings from gait analysis of horses could one day become much easier and cheaper to access and the implications of being able to pick up changes in in movement strategies used by your horses. Finally we explore how findings from research with and without riders can be used to inform coaching and training practice design. 

Eva is an equestrian coach, a university lecturer and a researcher. She is a British Horse Society Accredited Professional Coach with diverse teaching experience from grassroots to expert riders. As a coach, her main interest lies in developing a horse-rider relationship based on biomechanics principles and equitation science. Eva is currently completing a PhD programme at The Royal Veterinary College - her research focuses on the quantification and evaluation of movement asymmetries in horses and the associated movement adaptation strategies horses might utilise under different conditions. This is an exciting area of research which is quickly gaining momentum in the veterinary circles as well as in the wider equestrian community.

Eva's social media links:
Facebook
Instagram
Website

Blog posts mentioned in the podcast: Rider position      Exercises to improve your rising trot

Eva's research article (open access): Smartphone-Based Pelvic Movement Asymmetry Measures for Clinical Decision Making in Equine Lameness Assessment

In this episode I am joined by the brilliant Kathy Sierra. I came across Kathy's work near the beginning of my PhD due to her work with a fellow PhD candidate (studying skill acquisition in American Football) in Keith Davids Lab.

Kathy has been exploring using a constraints-led and differential learning approach underpinned by ecological dynamics theory for many years. This is a conversation I have been looking forward to for a long time, I know it's long but it is full of absolute gold so I couldn't edit it down.

I hope you find this episode as fascinating as I did. I know some of you will find it challenging in places because much of what is traditional wisdom in sports (including equestrianism) does not hold up under the lens of contemporary science of movement, skill acquisition, or pain science.

Kathy's area of interest is in the rehabilitation and skill adaptation of horses. She has an incredible amount of knowledge, skills, and experience in designing movement activities and learning environments/contexts that support horses to re-access their movement toolboxes. Using an ecological approach Kathy found that the horses she worked with would quickly blow past rehab and into high performance with surprising ease and motivation.

In this episode we explore a number of themes, including -
- How we can apply knowledge from neuroscience, pain science, and skill acquisition science research to working with our horses.
- Why a constraints-led approach to skill acquisition may be important for horse sports moving forward, particularly the role of self-determined motivation.
- Supporting horses to have autonomy and ownership of their movement.
- Why people and horses need to expand not reduce their movement toolboxes.

Links:
Kathy's website and information about her pain science courses and free resources.
The spider robot that learnt to limp.
Self-determination theory. How do we create optimal learning environments?
Learning the ugly zone.

Welcome to episode 4! This is the first of a series of episodes that will be focussed on the recent publication of my concept  paper making a case for applying an ecological perspective to coaching in equestrian sports (Can’t jump, won’t jump: Affordances of the horse-rider dyad underpin skill adaptation in Showjumping using a constraints-led approach).

In these episodes, my guests will question, challenge and explore the ideas with me. They will be bringing the concepts to life, adding practical examples and discussing the potential benefits and challenges of embracing contemporary theories of skill acquisition and coaching practice.

During the conversation we cover many topics, including:
- Brief explanation of theories of learning used in sport coaching and with horses.
- Why theories of learning change or influence the way we teach and coach.
- Are cues and affordances different? - the role of context and agency.
- What the implications of these ecological concepts are in designing practice. The importance of variable practice and making mistakes in training.
- Perception-action coupling and what information (visual, auditory, haptic, kinaesthetic) is important.
- The importance of embracing uncertainty and becoming comfortable feeling uncomfortable.
- Creating safe uncertainty or safe-to-fail opportunities in practice.
- Importance of a social licence to operate (SLO).

Link to the research paper (open access):
Research Gate copy: Can’t jump, won’t jump: Affordances of the horse-rider dyad underpin skill adaptation in Showjumping using a constraints-led approach

Links to my guest:
Warren Lamperd.  Warren is a British Equestrian Federation UKCC Level 4 coach for British Showjumping and UKCC level 3 British Eventing Warren has a Masters Degree in Coaching Science, a Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Practise in Sports Coaching and a Bachelors Degree in Agricultural Science.  https://warrenlamperd.com/content/coaching

Hosted by Marianne Davies. Marianne is a PhD candidate at Sheffield Hallam University researching the application of non-linear pedagogy to equestrian sports coaching. Marianne is also a director at Dynamics Coaching.  https://dynamics-coaching.com/

This short podcast is an audio version of the blog article of the research paper. Academic writing is not very accessible, or practical, so I have tried to summarise the paper in plain language and with practical examples.

If you would like to read the blog article which is written more practically and has lots of links to other sites you can access it here.

The original academic paper (open access) is available here.

Hosted by Marianne Davies. Marianne is a PhD candidate at Sheffield Hallam University researching the application of non-linear pedagogy to equestrian sports coaching. Marianne is also a director at Dynamics Coaching.  https://dynamics-coaching.com/

Welcome to the third episode of the River Tiger Podcast. In this conversation I am co-hosting with Stuart Armstrong (The Talent Equation Podcast) and welcoming our fabulous guest Mia Palles-Clark. Mia is a British showjumping BSCC Level 3 Coach, Coach Developer, British Army team coach, England Home Pony Chef d'Equipe and UKCC Coach of the Year 2017. For many of you,  Stu needs no introduction, but if you have not checked out his podcast yet you are in for a treat.  There is a link to Stu's podcast at the end.

In this episode we start to explore some of the implications of agency (or lack of) for horses and children within our sporting communities. Not surprisingly, this ended up as a long conversation and covered many fascinating areas and ideas. The focus was always on how we move forward and what all of us can do to help shape a great future for both equestrian and youth sports.

The themes we covered included:
- why agency is important
- aspects of our language and culture that shape our interactions and behaviours
- what can we do to change the landscape of our sporting and coaching eco-systems
- listening to our horses and children
- why agency is just as important in youth sports and how we can learn from other sports and disciplines
- why and how ecological dynamics and a constraints-led approach could have an impact on competence and also support agency
- a bit of a wish list of what we would love the future could look like.

Links to my guests/co-hosts
Mia Palles-Clarke can be found on Instagram @miapallesclark. She is a coach educator with British Showjumping and runs her own coaching business Mia Palles-Clark Showjumping (find her on FaceBook).

Stuart Armstrong is the host of the wonderful The Talent Equation Podcast which can be found on most podcast platforms. He is also active on Twitter @stu_arm.

In this episode I catch up with dressage rider and coach, Jane Randall. Jane is a Dressage Coach and Rider with an all round equestrian background having evented and show jumped, ridden point to point and enjoyed many happy days on the hunting field. Dressage is Jane's passion and she has competed Nationally &  Internationally and produced her own horses to Grand Prix. (including her hunter!) 

Jane is now following her passion for all things equestrian as a coach and mentor. She is a British Equestrian Level 4 Coach, British Dressage Accredited Coach, MSc professional Practice in Sports Coaching , Mentor Coach with a keen interest in developing coaching science in equestrian sports. 

When I first met Jane, she was exploring skill acquisition and coaching pedagogy as part of her British Equestrian Level 4 coach award at Gloucester University in the UK. We had many wonderful conversations about understanding and  applying theories of learning and development with horses, humans and horse-human partnerships.

When I was asked to host a session about applying a constrains-led approach (CLA) to equestrian disciplines and activities at the upcoming Connected Equestrian Coaches Conference, I was really keen to ask Jane to share her experiences.

Jane can be contacted at https://www.jrdressage.co.uk/  
Jane is also active on Instagram @janerandalldressagecoach  and on Twitter @janerandall111