Author

Ben Franks

Ben is a current Masters by Research candidate and Associate Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University. His research is currently exploring the field of visual search strategies and the role this plays within the design of learning environments and expertise in elite sport. He is also a Development Assistant for the Boing Kids Primary education project and contributed to the top selling book, 'The Anatomy of a Goalkeeper'.

From the archive

Articles by Ben Franks

2 articles

Do you understand the context of your coaching environment? PDP contributor and associate lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, Ben Franks discusses the issues around the ongoing unopposed vs. opposed training debate and explains why context is key in a learning environment.   Going Beyond the Opposed vs. Unopposed Dualism Unopposed vs. opposed, technique vs. skill – these arguments are forever plaguing Twitter, Facebook and coaching platforms. Some arguments come from theory, others from years of coaching experience, but all seem to be missing a really obvious point: everything pertains to context….

What are affordances? PDP contributor and associate lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, Ben Franks shares his work on affordances, what the term means and examples to bring the concept to life.   Affordance is a new ‘in vogue’ term, and appears to be replacing the Constraints-Led Approach (CLA) as the modern evolving coaching methodology. Similarly to the nature of a CLA, affordances exist – they are properties of the environment that are ‘real’, emerging and decaying naturally. By definition, an affordance is the key origin…

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