The Talent Equation Podcast Stuart Armstrong

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 enjoy

Links 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

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

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.

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

My good friend William Anderson and I caught up recently to discuss the fascinating story of his 5 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/

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.