Latest Research

Sara D. L. Dos Santos, Daniel Memmert, Jaime Sampaio, and Nuno Leite The Big Idea In the team sports it is traditional that when coaches are asked what they are coaching, the usual response is, for example, “I coach soccer.”  But if soccer coaches were collectively to adopt the general idea of what these researchers call the Creativity Development Framework, they might be more inclined to say “I coach creativity.”  However odd this latter response may seem, the authors of this paper imply that this…

N. Balague, C. Torrents, R. Hristovski, and J. A. S. Kelso The Big Idea As scientific disciplines go, sport science is but a babe in the historical woods of science proper. In spite of the fact that the recent evolution of sport science is essentially interdisciplinary, many believe it has already become a victim of its own success. That is, instead of achieving its promise of successfully integrating the disciplines and sub-disciplines it is composed of (such as anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, psychology, sociology, and the…

Alfonso Del Percio The Big Idea Perhaps an analogy might bring home the big idea of this research paper.  In the world of Western Pleasure Horse Competition, the competitor is penalised if the horse swishes its tail.  Although now illegal, it was a common practice among competitors to eliminate this possibility by “nerving” the horse’s tail.  Nerving was essentially deadening the tail by cutting the nerves in the tail.  This prevented the horse losing points for the rider in the show. Now this abuse caused…

Carol S. Dweck The Big Idea A good number of years ago the American educator and philosopher, John Dewey, wrote a little, sticky sentence when talking about learning.  It was this sentence: “We must have lions in our path.”  In a general sense, Carol Dweck’s literature research review turns nicely on exactly that sentence.  Dewey was arguing that progressive human development depended upon facing challenges.  How we respond to those challenges largely defines the extent to which we become all that we can be. Dweck’s subject…

Alfonso Montuori The Big Idea While summarising Montuori’s paper may well bring it home to the reader, there is an even better way to see the Big Idea.  For a wonderful and current example of this big idea in action, just follow the United States Presidential election process for the duration of the summer and fall of 2016.  In it you will see exactly what an anti-pluralist, totalitarian mind-set is in the so-called campaign of the Republican candidate for President. We are not trying to…

Alfonso Montuori and Ronald Purser The Big Idea Get ready for a dust-up!  The authors of this paper published a lengthy literature review and discussion on the social dimensions of creativity in an earlier paper we previously summarised for the Player Development Project.  Its title was “Deconstructing the Lone Genius Myth:  Toward a Contextual View of Creativity.”  Their primary intent in that paper was to argue that the idea of the lone genius theory of creativity needs revisiting.  It wasn’t long before Carl Hale took…

Alfonso Montuori and Ronald E. Purser The Big Idea The topic is creativity.  The problem is the stubborn persistence in popular culture of believing creative artists of all sorts—musicians, scientists, inventors, athletes, writers—are lone geniuses.  These authors ask the question:  Just how autonomous is the creative individual?  They answer:  Not very. Takeaways This paper exhibits what it explains: that creative ideas (in this case on the subject of creativity itself) depend heavily on social contexts, dimensions, and histories. The authors attempt to demystify the idea…

Tania Cassidy and Lynn Kidman The Big Idea When most anyone—whether in or out of the institution of sport—brings up the idea of coaching education programs, the quick response is “Yes, but . . .”. The “yes” is near-universal agreement that such education is necessary; the “but” is near-universal hesitation about what such programs should entail. The typical compromise results in creating programs that are big, dependent largely on generic and formal coaching courses, and entail elaborate qualifications and certificates. Cynicism usually follows. And coaching…

Carol S. Dweck and Ellen L. Leggett The Big Idea This paper is a continuation of the line of research by Carol Dweck and others on behaviours that are characterised as adaptive or maladaptive.  In other words, there are patterns or tendencies in children that are identifiable by way of the choices made with regard to achievement opportunities.  While sport is not mentioned in this paper, it is an easy pivot to see how it is that some players truly thrive on challenges and obstacles;…

Mark Williams and Nicola J. Hodges The Big Idea These authors celebrate growth of sport science over the years.  But their concern is that especially in the sport of soccer “sport science” is construed to mean the physiology of it all and little else.  In this research review light is thrown on the behavioural and social sciences as an example of the contribution to the larger world of the “sciences of sport.” The subject of this study is the incredibly important scientific study of the…

Sarah Ullrich-French, Meghan H. McDonough, and Alan L. Smith The Big Idea We moderns are sometimes seduced into believing that our remarkable, collective technological progress and improvement is equivalent to human progress and improvement.  But this is not necessarily so.  Creating and sustaining positive individual and even national character is one heck of a social problem that befuddles us still, no matter our technical wizardry. The growing interest in creating positive youth development (PYD) programs most certainly is one international effort to help the youngest…

Joseph Baker, Jean Cote, and Bruce Abernathy The Big Idea When asked about his early years, hockey great Wayne Gretzky, said: “I played everything.  I played lacrosse, baseball, hockey, soccer, track and field.  I was a big believer that you played hockey in the winter and when the season was over you hung up your skates and you played something else.” This paper is one of the early research warning signs that Gretzky may have been right about the value of playing multiple sports when…

Lecturer and Sports Coaching & Development expert, Dr. John Stoszkowski discusses how systems and stories shape the way we learn and whether we do enough to question our current paradigm as coaches. “Humans are pattern-seeking story-telling animals, and we are quite adept at telling stories about patterns, whether they exist or not.” – Michael Shermer Imagine you’re a hominid going about your business on the plains of Africa a few thousand years ago. It’s daylight, so you’re out hunting and gathering food or wood for…

Jessica L. Fraser-Thomas, Jean Cote, and Janic Deakin The Big Idea Richard Feynman (1918-1988), the celebrated theoretical physicist, once wrote about an experience he had while visiting Hawaii.  It was suggested that he visit a Buddhist monk who lived high up in the mountains.  He did so.  Somewhere in their discussion, the monk told Feynman something he never forgot.  The monk said: “To Man is given the key to the gates of heaven; the same key opens the gates of hell.” When we talk of…

Jean Cote The Big Idea Early in the 21st Century support for children of families with a parent who was deployed in the United States Military was identified with the slogan “We Serve Too.”  The big idea of this research paper on families of elite athletes by Jean Cote could easily be captured by the same slogan—only in this case it is the families of deployed athletes Who Serve Too.  Families are often forgotten as having significant influence on the social context of developing athletes. Cote…

PDP Lead Researcher, James Vaughan examines the influence of corporations on football. Highlighting the danger of economic incentives he looks at how Leicester City’s story could be catalyst for a revolution in the global football story.   Where do you think future of the game (football) is going? Question posed by Eduardo Rubio  (Head of Academy Coach Development at MK Dons, England) at a panel discussion entitled “Building a learning culture in a football club” at the 2016 AIPAF: III International congress of Applied Psychology in…