The Adaptable Athlete Podcast

Martina Navarro, a senior lecturer at the University of Portsmouth and former Olympic Taekwondo competitor, dives into the Athletic Skills Model, a holistic approach to athlete development. She shares insights on how diverse movement experiences benefit long-term athletic growth, challenging the notion of sport-specific training. Martina highlights her own transitions from elite sport to academia, discusses injury challenges, and emphasizes the art of transferring skills across various sports. Coaches are encouraged to adopt adaptable methodologies for fostering versatile athletes.

Ben Franks, lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, discusses the Ecological Dynamics of Soccer in a new course, emphasizing practice design and skill acquisition. They talk about manipulating constraints in practice, the importance of clear language in coaching, and balancing individual constraints with skill learning in soccer practice.

Send us a textMy guest today is Jason Watson . Who is Jason? Jason is the head  women’s volleyball coach at  the university  Arkansas women’s volleyball. Prior to that he had successful head coaching stance at my alma mater Arizona State and BYU.What’s unique about Jason is that he is a program builder. He took over a program in Arkansas. That is a major conference in the SEC and had not had a lot of historical success and since he took over the program in 2016 he has since taken them to new Heights, including making the NCAA tournament 8 times.In his previous stops at ASU and BYU, he also took programs not known for their success and helped elevate them. Like I said Jason has a knack for building programs.He does this not subscribing to traditional practice method where athletes do isolated drills, and then hope that they can put it together a scrimmage or live action, he instead helps put his athletes in game like situations where they could adapt their skills and become better volleyball players.  You can attribute a lot of his success to his practice structure.I really enjoyed this conversation with Jason, we talk about his coaching journey and practice design from when he started, to what it is today!Before I let you get to the episode, I wanted to let you know that we have a brand new course called the Ecological Dynamics of Soccer, which is currently on sale and available for purchase. It’s our good friend and friend of the podcast Ben Franks. B en is a wicked smart dude and always delivers so be sure to check that out. I’ll put the in the show notes.If you like today's episode, leave a review here....If you want to reach me directly, contact me on social media or shoot me @javier@emergentmvmt.comEpisode ResourcesJason's staff page at Arkansas Jason on X The Ecological Dynamics of Soccer Course Credits: Song- "Starstruck" by Freebeats.ioLet's Chat!Twitter: @thecoachjavIG: @thecoachjavCredits: Song- "Starstruck" by Freebeats.io Let's Chat!Twitter: @thecoachjavIG: @thecoachjav

Tom Parry, head of Butler University's kinesiology department, discusses skill acquisition, coaching strategies, and creating adaptable learning environments in youth sports. He emphasizes the importance of ecological dynamics, effective communication, and principles of play to enhance athlete development and decision-making skills. Parry challenges traditional coaching methods, advocating for a diverse range of sports experiences for optimal growth.

Alex Sarama, Director of methodology with London Lyons and works with the Rip City remix, discusses his new book 'Transforming Basketball' and modern coaching techniques. Topics include upgrading traditional drills, adapting systems for new athletes, and the influence of international coaching experiences on his coaching style.

Send us a textOn this episode, I'm joined by my guy Tyler Yearby and we answer your skill acquisition questions!We asked you  on social media  to post any burning questions you had heading into the new year and you delivered!  Today, we answer those questions.  Some of the topics we covered include:How Important is it for a coach to have experience playing the sport that they want to coach?What are the best games to use for youth athletes?How does skill acquisition fit into a training session?Will there be an east coast Skill Acquisition Retreat? and of course we dive into many more side tangents and rabbit holes!...Enjoy the show!For the next month, we are offering 25% off our "Origins" and "Reconceptualizing The Warm Up".  This is a great opportunity and only available for a limited time...check it out here!If you like today's episode, leave a review here....If you want to reach me directly, contact me on social media or shoot me @javier@emergentmvmt.comEpisode Resources EcoD in MMA Paper - Open Access!!Link for Origins and our Warm Up Course Credits: Song- "Starstruck" by Freebeats.io Let's Chat!Twitter: @thecoachjavIG: @thecoachjav

Send us a textMy guest today is Nick Smallridge! Nick is a teacher and soccer coach in Bentonville, Arkansas, USA.He is he coach at Sporting AR  2007G Coach and the assistant varsity coach at Bentonville High School for the girls team.Nick has over 18 years of coaching experience  including Socorro High School Boys Asst, Grassroots in Socorro, various levels, New Mexico Tech girls(college club) Qiziltepa Mahalla boys(UZ).He played soccer at  FC Haka B1/B2 Finland and  Drury University in Missouri. In this episode, we discuss how coaches can help make their athletes more adaptable by putting the tools back in their hands.  Enjoy!If you like today's episode, leave a review here....If you want to reach me directly, contact me on social media or shoot me @javier@emergentmvmt.comEpisode Resources Nick on X Nick on Instagram   Credits: Song- "Starstruck" by Freebeats.io Let's Chat!Twitter: @thecoachjavIG: @thecoachjav

Dr. Andrew Wilson discusses affordances in sports and daily life, emphasizing the relationship between perception, action, and cognition. Topics include building learning labs in sports, VR training platforms, intentional design choices, and optimizing skill acquisition through affordances.

Rafe Kelley, founder of Evolve Move Play and a renowned movement practitioner, discusses the misconception of athleticism, the upcoming Skill Acquisition Retreat, the concept of being a natural athlete, misconceptions in sports preparation, the role of variability in human movement and development, parkour practices, origins and applications of rough and tumble play, and the importance of physicality and play as a form of communication.

Chris McCosker, a sport scientist and lecturer, discusses applying an ecological dynamics approach to jump training. They explore the importance of observing various jumps in sports games, training methods, transitioning from sports science to academia, understanding performance in training design, building adaptable athletes, and the payroll of the Dodgers.