David Hinchliffe makes a welcome return to talk about his coaching experiences working with a constraint led, ecologically driven model within a school environment within mixed ability groups. We explore motivational challenges, 'false gamification', co-designing practice and loads of examples of activities and practice types linked to various types of striking games. David also does some counselling for me to help me work through the challenges that I have been facing coaching u13s (including my son!)Hope you enjoy

The Talent Equation Podcast

"Building training and practice around being adaptable is so important" - a conversation with David Hinchliffe

It's been a while since my last DWD but I had to record an episode to reflect on the journey of the England Football Team during the European Championships ahead of the final on Sunday. I have been fortunate to spend time with Gareth Southgate, the England Head Coach on a couple of occasions and I was able to glean some insights from those interactions that I think are relevant to the success that the team are currently enjoying and would be useful for any coach. Hope you enjoy*GB actually won 1 gold medal in Atlanta (not 1 bronze as I said in the recording) among a total medal haul of 15.

Dog Walk Diary - Gareth

Professor Sean Cumming is internationally recognised as a leading expert on the subject of growth and maturation in sport and exercise. Adopting a biocultural perspective, his research seeks to understand how biological and psychosocial factors impact athletic development and the maintenance of health behaviours during adolescence.Sean joins me for a discussion about the science behind adolescent development and some of the latest thinking in relation to the ways that young athletes could be grouped for competition and selection which would provide for a more effective and inclusive athlete development experience. Hope you enjoy

"Selecting players based on a genetic lottery" – a conversation with Professor Sean Cumming

In this podcast, the tables get turned on me as instead of being the one asking the questions and framing the discussion I am in the hot seat as the subject of a conversation with the awesome Skye Eddy Bruce from the 'Soccer Parenting Association'. We talk about how coaches and parents can work together to develop athletes and the role that parents can play as the first coach of their children. We explore skill development, maturation and how the creation of a motivational climate. Hope you enjoy

Soccer Parenting Webinar with Skye Eddy Bruce

Adam Kelly is a Senior Lecturer and the Course Leader for Sports Coaching and Physical Education at Birmingham City University. He consults with international institutions and organisations in a number of professional sports, including football, rugby union, cricket, swimming, squash, and ice hockey. In this conversation Adam and I explore the latest research into non linear and more equitable talent development and competition frameworks. We discuss the relative merits of 'Birthday Banding' , Bio Banding', 'Average Team Age' and 'Playing Up/Down' approaches. Hope you enjoyLinks to research articles 'Birthday Banding' - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fspor.2020.573890/full 'Playing Up / Down' - https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/handle/1974/27544?show=full'Average Team Age' - https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003163572-10/average-team-age-method-potential-reduce-relative-age-effects-jan-verbeek-steve-lawrence-jorg-van-der-breggen-adam-kelly-laura-jonker 'Bio Banding' - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03014460.2019.1640284?journalCode=iahb20 'Reversal Effect' / 'Underdog Hypothesis' - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7933505/ https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02640414.2015.1119297

"it is unethical to have a talent system based on the luck of the draw of when you were born" - a conversation with Adam Kelly

Adam Haniver is a boxing coach and coach educator that works in the England Boxing talent pathway. He is also the co founder of 'The Box Gathering' - a community of learning for coaches in the boxing world to come together and explore ideas. Adam is a coach that is passionate about learning and improvement and this conversation was stimulated by him reaching out to me with a question following a podcast I recently published with Coach Casey Wheel which touched on deceptive actions. We look at the applications of ecological principles in boxing and get practical as we explore different practice concepts that could be used in a 1 to 1 opponent situation. Hope you enjoy

An exploration of deceptive actions in sport - a conversation with Adam Haniver

Ben Bell is a football coach that is also a Masters Student studying the applications of the Constraints Led approach in Football. His studies led to him to write a book which he hopes will bridge the gap between the theory and the application. 'Introduction to the Constraints-Led Approach: Application in Football' is a coaching resource football coaches can use to understand key theoretical underpinnings such as ecological dynamics, perception-action, degrees of freedom and complexity theory. Examples are then provided within theoretical chapters to assist readers in their practical application. Over 30 designed practices using the constraints-led approach show readers how the theory translates into practice. It was a great conversation...I hope you enjoy.

A constraints led approach to coaching football - a conversation with Ben Bell

In this episode the tables get turned a little as I am joined by Tim Marshall who is starting a post graduate course looking at all aspects of coach education and he asked me if he could interview me for an assignment he has coming up. I agreed on the proviso that we could record it and share it on the podcast. So here is a look at the history of coach education, how we got to where we are and where we need to go to next. Hope you enjoy

What needs to change in coach education and development - a conversation with Tim Marshall

My good friend William Anderson and I caught up recently to discuss the fascinating story of his 2 year journey to go from average player to international representation. It is a story of commitment, planning, relentlessness, perseverance and hard work. William shares how he used the skills and knowledge gained from a career as a specialist in providing experiential learning solutions for corporate clients and sporting organisations to develop a plan to achieve his dream of representing England. There are so many takeaways that apply to all aspects of human development. I hope you enjoy. Check out William's website and blog here https://www.the-teamworks.co.uk/

Making the dream happen - the mission to play for your country - in your 50s - a conversation with William Anderson

Danny Newcombe makes a welcome return to the show to share his experiences since taking over the Head Coach role with the Wales Senior Men's Field Hockey programme. Danny is his usual very open and vulnerable self and his reflections are relevant to anyone taking a leadership role in pretty much any walk of life. As you would expect, the conversations meanders on to the specifics of coaching and we explore a range of subjects related to practice design, individual practice, game based approaches, over constraining, co adaptation....the list goes on. Lots and lots to be taken out of this conversation. Hope you enjoy.

The transition from 'Assistant Coach' to 'Head Coach' (whatever those terms actually mean!) - a conversation Danny Newcombe 3

This is an 'Ask Me Anything' (AMA) episode where I respond to listener questions that have been sent to me. I can't respond to every question but I will respond on here if it is a particularly interesting questions that requires a more thorough response than I have time to write. This one is all about CLA in coach education. Generally, I prioritise questions that come from people who subscribe to the website or support the show through Patreon....if you would like to support the show in this way (buy a cup of coffee a month) head to https://www.patreon.com/thetalentequation

Ask Me Anything - Should a Constraints Led Approach be embedded in Coach Education?

Sometimes the stars align and the article you have just published speaks perfectly to the next guest you booked on your podcast. This weeks episode I speak to Martin Erikstad who is a researcher at the Department of Public Health, Sport and Nutrition, Universitetet i Agder in Norway. Martin has just published a fascinating case study about a football club called FK Bryne which is a small city of 12,000 people in North West Norway which is defined as a talent hotbed. The study follows the journey of a team of young players that included Erling Haaland (the young super star striker that plays for Borussia Dortmund and has been linked with every top club in Europe) and their coach and the remarkable environment that they created which led to amazing outcomes in terms of retention, progression and personal growth of the young players. It is a real life Norwegian version of Coach Carter. It's telling that the club motto is "We will enjoy football, cultivate talent and perform miracles". https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/tsp/aop/article-10.1123-tsp.2020-0107/article-10.1123-tsp.2020-0107.xml?content=fullHtml-6977

"We don't rate human worth by whether or not you are good at kicking a ball" - a conversation with Martin Erikstad

Casey Wheel studied Kinesiology at San Diego State University while also interning with the strength and conditioning department. He still lives in the San Diego area working as the strength coach for Pacific Ridge School. His passion lies with the development of young athletes and developing programs that build agility and something he calls 'athletic plasticity'. In this conversation Casey and I explore his approach to developing movement within a framework that is mainly grounded in principles associated with non linear pedagogical thinking. He shares his layering system for practice types and explains why agility is not the same as 'change of direction'. He shares some cool games (that I have already stolen!) and we talk about movement deception and why agility work is like the 'rap battle' of physical activity and is full of 'movement banter'.Its a cool conversation....Hope you enjoy

"It's not about the ability to change direction, it's about the ability to create deception" - a conversation with Casey Wheel

Over Christmas I got to reading some books. The latest from Andreu Enrich '50 tips for intelligent players' spoke to me very deeply so I asked Andreu to come back on the show following his debut with me just before Christmas to talk me through some of the ideas in the book and let me check my understanding of some of the concepts. Although this book was originally written with Field Hockey players in mind, it has significant cross over and transfer to a range of other invasion sports. The tips are written for players but they have huge potential for the development of coaches as they ask questions about the kind of environments that are required to support the development of 'intelligent players'. In part 2 we cover 6 of the later chapters that I handpicked because they were particularly interesting to me. Hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

50 Tips for intelligent players (and coaches) Part 2 - the second conversation with Andreu Enrich

AMA - (Ask Me Anything) Dog Walk Diary where I respond to a great question from Rob Farrington about whether we should coach using an Information Processing approach if the athlete prefers it. Should we be athlete centred and respond to their preferences? If you would like to ask a question or become part of the Talent Equation Community then head over to my Patreon page and you can choose a donation amount. https://www.patreon.com/thetalentequation?fan_landing=trueIf money is an issue then just drop me a line and I will get you access. I don't want money to stop people joining.

Dog Walk Diary - AMA - 'What if someone prefers to be coached in an Information Processing Style'?'

Want to help young people to unleash their potential? Need advice on the best approaches and the latest science? The Talent Equation podcast seeks to answer the important questions facing parents, coaches and talent developers. Each episode will help to wade through the research, and offer independent guidance to anyone that wants to see young people flourish.

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The Talent Equation Podcast

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