The Talent Equation Podcast

Jonathan Harding makes a welcome return to the show to share insights from his new book 'Soul: Beyond the Athlete'. Jonathan describes himself as "A sports writer who cares about the person and the player, the coach and the community. I speak German, am a father and try to look after the planet. Seagulls and San Francisco." Jonathan's first book 'Mensch' which explored the sophistication of the Ge...

Phillip O'Callaghan is a tennis coach from Cork in Ireland. As he says in this podcast, people from Cork are very humble (even though Cork might well be the most represented city on my podcast!) so he describes himself on his bio on his website www.mrtenniscoach.com as being..."Really passionate about learning how to be a better coach and spend a lot of my free time learning about coaching. I'll b...

Dr Amy. E Whitehead, PhD is Reader (Associate Professor) in Sport Psychology and Coaching at Liverpool John Moores University. Amy also delivers sport psychology support and coach development to a range of athletes and coaches, and also brings this work into her teaching in the classroom. Jenny Coe is Head of Performance and Wellbeing with West Ham United Women’s Team. She also works across a numb...

Happy New Year - welcome to 2022!! Ian Renshaw and Peter Arnott make a welcome return to the podcast. If you haven't heard them before then I recommend checking out these other episodes where they have made appearances before (Links below). In this episode we discuss Ian and Peter's latest project 'Swing Like Tiger' which is a course that they have created for players and coaches to learn all abou...

Jia Yi Chow is the Associate Dean within the Office of Teacher Education at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Jia-Yi is most well known for being one of the originators of the concept of 'Non-Linear Pedagogy' which was articulated in a seminal book he co wrote with Keith Davids, Ian Renshaw and Chris Button in 2015 https://amzn.to/3GXgdPA In this podcast we dive into the key concepts...

Martyn Rothwell is a lecturer in sports coaching at Sheffield Hallam University. He is the national coach for the England Wheelchair Rugby League team and has worked in the fields of coaching and talent development since 2003. His latest research looks into the practices and behaviours of coaches in professional rugby league academies and explores how stated aspirations around the development of c...

Olympic Champion, Amy Williams MBE joins me to explore the entire sporting journey from someone with potential to Olympic glory. Using her own experiences & those of some of Britain’s greatest athletes to help young athletes turn their ability into performance. We talk about mindset, confidence, teamwork, overcoming barriers & setbacks, dealing with injuries, longevity, training & preparation. We...

Jack Rolfe is the founder of 'The Coaching Lab' a hothouse of coaching innovation including the creation of the Coaching Lab 'Matchplay Cards'. MatchPlay Cards support coaches to change the game and coach through games, add in-game challenges and set player missions. Jack shares his story about how he created these cards and also the research and theory behind them. We also geek out on various way...

Stephen Griffin is a former certified accountant who became an angel investor and fund manager into community sports organisations and companies. His journey took him into some of the shady underbelly of sports organisations that are outwardly providing positive community physical activity experiences but are actually acting corruptly and dealing in illegal immigration, people trafficking and inhu...

Rob Gray is a regular guest on The Talent Equation and should be well known to regular listeners. Rob is an associate professor in human systems engineering in the Polytechnic School at Arizona State University as well as the host of the brilliant 'Perception and Action Podcast' (I like to think of it as the 'brainy cousin' of this show!). In this conversation Rob drops by to talk to me about the...

Andy Pitchford is the Head of the Centre for Teaching and Education at the University of Westminster in London. His research is in the fields of education, pedagogy and community sport. In the early 2000s, Andy was part of a team of researchers who investigated safeguarding in sport, and particularly in football, and this led to a series of publications including a book - Child Welfare in Football...

Dr Andrew Wilson (@psychscientists) is an internationally recognised expert in perception, action and embodied cognition. His research interests are broadly in the area of perception and action, with a particular interest in learning and theories of embodied cognition. Andrew joined the talent equation learning community aka 'The Conclave' to share some of his latest projects working with Southamp...

Jamie Munro is a Lacrosse coach who has found a fascinating way to coach his sport through film. His method is to use free play as the basis for learning and to then use reflection through watching the film of these sessions with athletes to observe what might be useful as a tool for learning. Jamie is a free play evangelist but as he say's this doesn't remove the place for the coach, in fact the...

Laurence Cassoe Halsted is a two-time Olympic fencer, having competed for Team GB in the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Games. Following his retirement from competitive fencing after Rio he has been in the role of Performance Director for the Danish Fencing Federation. Laurence is also engaged with a charity called The True Athlete Project as Director of Mentoring. ​ In this conversation we dive into La...

Dr Josephine Perry is a chartered psychologist working with those in sport and on the stage and in business to help them overcome their barriers to success so they can achieve their goals. Josie has a background in communications and behaviour change having worked for many years in journalism, marketing, public relations and crisis communications across private corporations and government. She has...

Craig Morris joins some members of The Talent Equation learning community 'The Conclave' and myself from his hotel room in Slovakia (where he is preparing for a world championships with his athletes) to share some reflections from his experiences at the recent Tokyo Olympic Games. It is an open and honest insight into the preparation for the games during the pandemic and the ways that he and the a...

Andy Kirkland is a Lecturer in Sports Coaching in the Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport at the University of Stirling in Scotland. He leads the MSc. in Performance Coaching at the university as well as being a Chartered Scientist and a BASES Accredited Sport & Exercise Scientist (support & pedagogy). Andy has worked as a sport physiologist, a coach developer at British Cycling and support other...

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 counsell...

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...

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...

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...

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 tal...

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 p...

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 under...

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 whe...