The Talent Equation Podcast

Jennifer Dunaway runs www.soccermomsanddads.com , a website dedicated to supporting parents to navigate the compelx and challenging world of youth soccer in the US. I met Jennifer and her husband, Nick at the United Soccer Coaches Convention in Philadelphia and we got to talking...her story was just jaw dropping!! She told me about how she was a completely 'bat shit crazy' soccer mom that was comp...

Dr Zöe Wimshurst is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology within the School of Psychology, Sport and Physical Activity at AECC Univirsity College in Bournemouth, England. She is a Chartered Psychologist specialising in visual performance in elite athletes. She also runs the consultancy ' Performance Vision ' and has worked with Sir Clive Woodward among others.. Zöe has worked with many Olympic and profe...

Alex Sarama is the Director and Head Coach at the 'College Prep' Basketball Academy in Borgomanero in norther Italy. The College Prep website states: "College Prep exists to help young men between 16 to 20 years old fulfil their complete potential in basketball and life. College Prep is a complete academy program for players wishing to pursue collegiate and professional basketball opportunities. T...

I caught up with Trine Falnes - CEO of Spond at the United Soccer Coaches Convention in Philadephia and we 'got to talking'. I pressed record on my podcast gear and we explored how her company's coaching app 'Spond' has transformed my life as a coach by making it so much easier to manage all of the teams that I coach and also supported with the running of the club. We also discuss how the app is r...

On my travels across the United States I made the trip to see John O'Sullivan from Changing the Game Project and the Way of Champions Podcast. We had a great time and decided to record a podcast to talk about some of the things that we had discussed while I was there. In this podcast we discuss the application of skill in varied environments (including my limited ability at powder skiiing!) We als...

I caught up with Julian after my presentation at the United Soccer Coaches Convention and we reflected on some of the questions that were raised by the audience. 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 d...

Chris Cushion is Professor of Coaching & Pedagogy at Loughborough University as well as the Head of Coaching at England Netball. Chris is one of the most well known researchers in the world of sports coaching and has published widely. I asked Chris to join me to disuss the nature of 'direct instruction' which he argues has some to mean something in coaching that is not an accurate way to depic...

In this dog walk diary I think aloud about work I am doing at the moment to support a reconceptualisation of coaching for children by evoking the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. 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 pr...

Leanne Norman is a Professor of Sport and Sociocultural Studies and Director of the Research Centre for Social Justice in Sport and Society at Leeds Beckett University. Her research utilises a critical sociological lens to examine sport organisational and coaching cultures to address gender equity and diversity within sport coaching workforces. Ellen Jones is a lecturer and the academic lead for a...

After a monster twitter discussion about the relative value of 'two touch' as a constraint I invited some of the protagonists to join me for a live streamed discussion where we could circle around the problem in a more conducive situation than the limits of Twitter. It's a proper CLA geek out but I think we made some good progress and shared some good ideas. Hope you get some new insights from it...

Callum Murray has worked in youth football for the last five years with some of the most talented and respected players of their age in the country, including working in men’s first-team recruitment for a professional club. With a background in sport psychology and a deep interest in football and talent development, he has researched football- talent hotbeds in England exhaustively, speaking to ex...

This is a bit of a different episode, it is the recording from my 'Twitter Spaces' conversation organised by Philip O'Callaghan to explore 'Representative Learning Design'. The chat features a range of people who have all featured on the podcast in the past, Alex Lascu, Marianne Davies, Cal Jones and Mark O'Sullivan. It's an interesting conversation that wanders all over the map of Representative...

Rob McGarr is a YouTuber who has been documenting the ups and downs of his journey of improvement in golf for several years. His honest video diary has seen him travel all over the UK and Europe in search of information that will help him reach his goals of playing consistent scratch golf. His channel is fantastic and I really enjoy it but I have also been struck by the interactions he has had wit...

Some thoughts about a question that was posed to me recently as to how you can justify using a non linear / ecological approach to coaching. 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 unders...

Dr. Tom Parry is the founder and owner of Kestrel Performance Psychology. He has a Ph. D. in Human Performance from Indiana University with specializations in Skill Acquisition and Psychology. He wears many hats including Professor, Father, Coach and Consultant. These roles have blessed him with a detailed understanding of human behaviour from various perspectives and the nuanced nature of perform...

JP Nurbun makes a welcome return to the podcast. JP is a fellow podcaster as host of 'The Coaching Culture' podcast. He is also an author, his first book 'Calling Up' was a real hit and I really enjoyed it. This time round he has gone one better having written 'The Culture System' which is fascinating. In this conversation we delve into some of the key elements of The Culture System and unpack the...

Dan Lycett and Ross Williams are on the PE staff at St David's College in LLandudno in North Wales. They have been very public in sharing their approach to PE and school sport with the world and have been very active in creating learning spaces for other practitioners. In this conversation we delve into the alternative approach that they take to increase engagement in PE and school sport by turnin...

Will Roberts makes a welcome return to the podcast joined by a colleague at University of Gloucester, Kirsten Wing. You will remember Will from a previous podcast talking about the fantastic programme called 'Boing' which is looking to take an ecological approach to the development of movement for children. Kirsten has been studying the effect of Boing on coaching practice and on the way that chil...

Greg Clements is a friend and a colleague. Greg has worked at Sport England for more than 12 years in various roles and he reached out to me because he has been coaching a football team which his son is involved in and they have reached a cross roads in deciding how to group the teams for next year. Having done a bit of research within the sports world he found very little to help shape thinking s...

Mia Palles-Clark is a British show jumping coach and coach developer. She is the England Home Pony Team Chef d'Equipe and the British Army team coach and was awarded British Show jumping coach of the year in 2017. I am joined by my co host Marianne Davies from UK Coaching and Dynamics Coaching https://dynamics-coaching.com/home/marianne-davies/ to explore the cross over between the equestrian worl...

It’s so challenging to have conversations with other coaches or parents about what your approach to creating participation opportunities could or should be. Should be be inclusive, should focus on outcomes, should you prioritise development. In this ‘think aloud’ audio blog I share a framework for thinking about this that might help to clarify thinking and make for more productive conversations. B...

Sharing some thoughts about a session I ran trying to explore how to improve passing in a group of players. Some mistakes I made and what you can learn from them. 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...

Ian Brunnschweiler is a Head of Technical Development at Southampton football club, he is a friend of the show and a previous podcast guest. Dr Mark Jarvis, is making his debut, he is High Performance Manager at the club and his previous experiences were with the English Institute of Sport where he had the role of Director of Performance Solutions. They join me to share insights on the holistic wa...

Neil Plimmer is a golf coach and the co founder of 'JOLF', a golf coaching organisation dedicated to providing brilliant experiences for children. In the past year JOLF has been enjoyed by more than 12,000 children in schools, community settings and and at golf clubs around the country. The concept and what they offer continues to change as they learn and grow. Neil has been invited to speak acros...

I can hardly believe that I have reached the milestone of 200 episodes of the Talent equation Podcast. To celebrate I was joined by several previous guests, some members of the Conclave Community of Learning group and some members of 'The Ecological Explorers Club'. We reminisced about some favourite things about the podcast and then discussed some topical issues that we face into the future. Beco...