Is it too early to condemn early specialisation? - a conversation with Joe Baker and Sandy Mosher

Joe Baker is Professor at the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University. He makes a welcome return to the podcast along with his research associate, Alexandra 'Sandy' Mosher.

Joe's research team focuses on optimal human development to understand how someone gets to, and stays at, the highest levels of performance. His previous research in this area has considered various psychosocial and environmental factors influencing athletic skill development across a range of sports to catalogue the extensive range of factors affecting an athlete's capacity to maximize their potential.

In this episode with unpack some fascinating new research which challenges the commonly held suggestion that early specialisation is "the villain of talent development", how it might be possible to experience 'healthy early specialisation' and why the link between early specialisation and burnout and injury is not what we think it is.

It is a fascinating discussion...

I hope you enjoy

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.

If you like the podcast I would be very grateful if you would leave me a review on itunes or share it with your friends.

The 7 deadly sins of talent development - Episode 3 - Correction

Here is my latest Vlog in the 7 part series looking at the biggest mistakes and traps that people can fall into when helping young people develop their potential.

This one centres on our desire to correct mistakes which robs the young person of the learning opportunity that is created by the error and also creates a motivational climate that encourages 'learned helplessness' where children are discouraged from trying things out because they know that someone is going to come along with either a correction or a solution at any moment.

Enjoy....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you would like to get these posts beamed directly to your inbox click here and sign up for the email updates. I promise I won't bombard you with stuff and will never use your details for anything other than providing you with useful information.