Professor Keith Davids is Professor of Motor Learning at the Centre for Sports Engineering Research at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. Keith is one of the 'founding fathers' of the 'ecological approach' to skill acquisition and motor learning in sport. His research investigates the role constraints play on coordination tendencies in athletes and sports teams which he defines as 'complex adaptive systems'.

In this conversation in the cafe at the University (Keith's office) we explore the world of skill acquisition, 'Non Linear Pedagogy' and the 'Constraints Led Approach'.

We are joined by Ben Galloway from the brilliant 'Opposite Direction' YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsVkH7793RMAhYqKLXle_vQ. (check out these videos for an explanation of some of the concepts we discuss).

It is a fascinating conversation, I hope you enjoy...

Link to Keith's book is available here

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nonlinear-Pedagogy-Skill-Acquisition-Introduction/dp/0415744393/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1547632194&sr=1-1&keywords=nonlinear+pedagogy

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Ready to explore these ideas further? Join The Guild of Ecological Explorers – a community of practitioners committed to deepening their understanding of ecological dynamics and constraints-led approaches. Head to www.thetalentequation.co.uk and click the 'Join a Learning Group' button to become part of this transformative conversation

Chris Panayiotou is the Global Technical Director for Rush Soccer, a worldwide soccer coaching network that has 50,000 players across the globe. Chris is originally from the UK and has been based in America for a number of years and has committed his coaching career to supporting other coaches within the Rush Community to improve and develop to provide the best possible experience for children in their programmes.

In this conversation we reflect on our learning from the 'Future of Coaching' conference which we both attended over the weekend and Chris also shares some valuable insights into his approach and methodology which has seen him named as one of the top coaches in America by the Positive Coaching Alliance.

Enjoy

Link to Chris's Peom called 'Football Done' here

https://youtu.be/vP9uSGPx_kA

End of Average Book

https://www.amazon.co.uk/End-Average-Succeed-Values-Sameness/dp/0062358367

http://www.varush.com/

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-talent-equation-podcast--2186775/support.

Ready to explore these ideas further? Join The Guild of Ecological Explorers – a community of practitioners committed to deepening their understanding of ecological dynamics and constraints-led approaches. Head to www.thetalentequation.co.uk and click the 'Join a Learning Group' button to become part of this transformative conversation

This week's podcast is the final one of 2018...hasn't the year flown by!!

For this episode I asked some of the guests I have had on the show over the year to drop by for a little Christmas sin dig so that they could share their reflections and learnings from the year. It is a bit of a crazy whirlwind of a conversation with people coming and going and we cover a lot of ground but there is some gold in these reflections.

I hope you enjoy it and have a fantastic Christmas and an amazing New Year.

Thanks

Stuart

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Ready to explore these ideas further? Join The Guild of Ecological Explorers – a community of practitioners committed to deepening their understanding of ecological dynamics and constraints-led approaches. Head to www.thetalentequation.co.uk and click the 'Join a Learning Group' button to become part of this transformative conversation

This week's podcast is another experiment in sound recording. I am travelling in my car, Mark has just come out of the gym, Juan is in his office at school and John has just got back from taking the children to school. But we still managed to record a conversation!!

You join us as we are planning our forthcoming conference 'The Future of Coaching' as we finalise how we are going to be delivering the sessions and running the conference as well as discussing some of the themes that we will be covering.

We then delve into a couple of hot topics that are facing many of the coaches that we work with and explore some of the ways in which we can address them.

It is a great conversation and has really whetted my appetite for the discussions to come in the New Year!!

Tickets can be booked for the event through the link below.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-future-of-coaching-with-john-osullivan-stuart-armstrong-mark-bennett-mbe-tickets-49934657906

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-talent-equation-podcast--2186775/support.

Ready to explore these ideas further? Join The Guild of Ecological Explorers – a community of practitioners committed to deepening their understanding of ecological dynamics and constraints-led approaches. Head to www.thetalentequation.co.uk and click the 'Join a Learning Group' button to become part of this transformative conversation

Andrew Gillott describes himself as a Coach Developer. I would describe him as a genius learning architect. Andrew has been instrumental in leading and creating opportunities for coaches to learn and develop and his passion for learning and development has meant that he has led some of the most innovative and creative programmes of development for coaches up and down the UK talent system.

In this conversation we explore the inevitable 'drills v games' debate, how he uses an ecological approach to help coaches to appreciate their effect on athletes and why context is important when understanding the behaviour of coaches.

Hope you enjoy

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-talent-equation-podcast--2186775/support.

Ready to explore these ideas further? Join The Guild of Ecological Explorers – a community of practitioners committed to deepening their understanding of ecological dynamics and constraints-led approaches. Head to www.thetalentequation.co.uk and click the 'Join a Learning Group' button to become part of this transformative conversation

Dr Amanda Visek is a researcher from George Washington University in the U.S as well as being an active sports coach and someone who is passionate about the role that sport can play to improve children's lives. Her research provides a fascinating look into what makes sport fun for children and the results will surprise you.

In this super interesting conversation we delve into the way that she gathered the information and then used 'concept mapping' techniques to provide a visual reference as to the key elements of fun for children. She then shares some of her latest unpublished research that compares how parents and coaches rank certain elements and how this is not necessarily aligned to the way children rank things!!

The research can be found here
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4201634/

A presentation on the fun maps with visuals can be found here https://appliedsportpsych.org/site/assets/files/14874/visek.pdf

I hope you enjoy the conversation

Scott McNeill is a Performance Coach Developer for GB Hockey, a Performance Director for the Canoe Association of Northern Ireland as well as a mentor for the Premier League. He has been part of a group of people that have led a transformation within GB Field Hockey to redevelop the player development system in line with the principles of Ecological Dynamics.

In this fascinating conversation, Scott describes the journey of bringing about this change within the sport and some of the key pillars of embedding these concepts and ideas into the psyche of the playing and coaching community.

While this discussion explores how this is done on a whole sport scale, the ideas and approaches that are shared by Scott apply to anybody looking to foster a player centred environment which allows players to thrive and develop.

Even though I have been on this journey with Scott and his colleagues as a coach and coach developer, I still found the conversation fascinating and insightful. I know you will too!!

Enjoy!!

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-talent-equation-podcast--2186775/support.

Ready to explore these ideas further? Join The Guild of Ecological Explorers – a community of practitioners committed to deepening their understanding of ecological dynamics and constraints-led approaches. Head to www.thetalentequation.co.uk and click the 'Join a Learning Group' button to become part of this transformative conversation

Richard Shorter has spent his life committed to supporting families to improve their communication and relationship dynamics. He set us www.non-perfectdad.co.uk to provide a space for sporting parents to help to navigate the dynamic world of sport for young people.

In this illuminating and energising conversation Richard unloads 20 years of knowledge about the challenges of parenting into an hour and a half conversation that is rich with valuable ideas!

Many of these ideas have been encapsulated in Richard's new book 'Conversations for the Journey - 40 ways to build sporting character' which can be purchased at his website using a special promo code especially for Talent Equation subscribers. Use the link below to get your discount. https://non-perfectdad.co.uk/talentequation/

The book has been really useful for me in the few short weeks that it has been in my possession so I can't recommend it highly enough.

Hope you enjoy as much as I did!!

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-talent-equation-podcast--2186775/support.

Ready to explore these ideas further? Join The Guild of Ecological Explorers – a community of practitioners committed to deepening their understanding of ecological dynamics and constraints-led approaches. Head to www.thetalentequation.co.uk and click the 'Join a Learning Group' button to become part of this transformative conversation

Sergio Lara-Barcial has committed his life to improving the coaching experience for young people. As a coach, researcher and policy maker he is working hard to give himself and others more opportunities to learn, develop and improve.

In this conversation we discuss his role as a national team coach and how he had to find strategies to ensure that the stress didn't affect him. He shares his research into the characteristics of serial winning coaches and he also shares the insights into his latest project...a global campaign and movement called 'icoachkids' designed to improve the sports experience for children by supporting coaches to be the best they can be.

Sergio is a genuinely inspirational figure in the word of coaching...i know you will enjoy listening to his story as much as I did.

Find out more about icoachkids and take the pledge at www.icoachkids.eu

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-talent-equation-podcast--2186775/support.

Ready to explore these ideas further? Join The Guild of Ecological Explorers – a community of practitioners committed to deepening their understanding of ecological dynamics and constraints-led approaches. Head to www.thetalentequation.co.uk and click the 'Join a Learning Group' button to become part of this transformative conversation

Jack Shakespeare is the head of UK Active Kid a 'not for profit health body' that is focused on tackling the growing epidemic of inactivity among young people in the UK. In this conversation Jack and I explore the ways that they are taking a 'socio-ecological' approach to creating communities and environments that support young people into a more physically active life.

This is a fascinating conversation with a passionate and skilful operator working to achieve some pretty extraordinary things.

I hope you enjoy.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-talent-equation-podcast--2186775/support.

Ready to explore these ideas further? Join The Guild of Ecological Explorers – a community of practitioners committed to deepening their understanding of ecological dynamics and constraints-led approaches. Head to www.thetalentequation.co.uk and click the 'Join a Learning Group' button to become part of this transformative conversation