Addressing our biases within talent identification - A conversation with Professor Joe Baker

Joe Baker is a professor at the school of kinesiology and life sciences at York University in Toronto, Canada. He is one of the most respected and well published researchers in the field of expertise, talent development and lifelong physical activity.

In 2013 Joe was a key player in contributing to a the creation of a consensus statement on talent for English Rugby. This document went on to become a central pillar in bringing about a lot of change throughout the talent system for young rugby players in England.

It's fair to say that Joe knows a thing or two about talent!!

In this fascinating conversation we cover a lot of ground including...

• Joe's take on the 10,000 hours of deliberate practice debate.

• His theory that deliberate practice may assist in the talent identification process.

• How 'confirmation bias' can affect our decision making and leave talented athletes deselected.

• His surprising research that shows that experienced coaches aren't necessarily better than ordinary people at identifying talent.

• Why he doesn't have much time for coaches that think that they "know a player when they see one".

• Why he thinks professional leagues should stop throwing money away at talent ID and start investing in intellectual capital to make people better at it.

Joe can be found on Twitter at @bakerjyorku

As always, you can listen to the episode in the player below or subscribe in itunes here.

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5000+ miles in the search for new coaching knowledge - a conversation with Nick Hill

Nick Hill is probably one of the most committed coaches to his personal development that I have ever met. His quest for continuous improvement has taken him to all corners of the globe from Australia, to New Zealand to Chile and the US.

If coaching expertise was measured in air miles then this guy has to be in the premier league!

Nick's career has seen him working in talent environments for most of his career and his dedication to his craft really shines through in this episode.

In this conversation we discuss...

• How being coached by Brian Ashton while representing England U19s was a turning point in his career. Driving him to become a coach and do it better than he had done before.

• His journey from being a drill based, instructional coach to a player centred, facilitation style coach and why this has made him choose a more game based approach.

• How he overcame the language barrier while working in Chile by tapping into the 'language of rugby'

• His methods for getting buy in and developing goals with groups of players

• How he allows techniques to develop by being patient and using clever practice design.

• The challenges of introducing a new set of players to his approach and how he overcomes negative responses.

As always, listen in the player below or subscribe in itunes here

Happy listening

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Creating learning environments through 'safe uncertainty' a conversation with Ric Shuttlewor

Ric Shuttleworth is a unique individual with an unparalleled wealth of knowledge and insight into skill acquisition and coaching.

While Ric has a strong academic background and has worked within the sports science domain for a good part of his career, he is very much a practitioner and has spent most of his life on the sidelines working directly with athletes and coaches.

Ric is currently working with elite coaches across a range of sports as a coach developer and he shares a series of high quality insights and 'knowledge bombs' that will really challenge the coaching and talent community to re-imagine the way that they develop the capabilities of the athletes they guide.

In this episode we discuss...

• How to avoid falling into the pitfall of 'comparative coaching'

• Why trying to develop a 'shared mental model' can destroy creativity

• Using a 'principles based' coaching approach

• How coaches should be part of the learning system not in control of it

• Why following a plan is the worst thing you can do

• Eddie Jones secret - the "cut - bleed & bandage' approach

• Using an 'explore - discover - adapt' approach to player and coach learning

• How to move away from overly structured coaching towards a more reactive model that Ric describes as an 'interactive action' approach

• How you could be part of a learning and development community that is being organised by Ric and Mark Upton. Email info@myfastestmile.com for more information

I highly recommend having a notepad handy when you listen to this or at the very least listening to it more than once.

You can listen in the player below or subscribe on itunes. If you like what you hear then I would be really grateful if you would take 5 mins to leave a review so that more people can find the podcast.

Enjoy