Creativity values, culture, systems and control. What does it all mean and how does it impact coaching and sporting environments? In this Masterclass Discussion, PDP Editor, Dave Wright hosts Co-Founder of my fastest mile, Mark Upton alongside PDP Lead Researcher and AIK Academy Coach, James Vaughan. In this wide-ranging conversation, the guys discuss some of James’ Phd research and his recently published paper on creativity, as well as diving down a number of rabbit holes such as: This philosophical discussion will hopefully leave you considering…
Mark Upton
What is leadership? Mark Upton, Co-creator of myfastestmile and world class coach developer discusses leadership in sport, some of the traditional perspectives of what leadership is and the importance of empathy and collaboration. “They are after strong leadership…someone to come in with a clear plan” A snippet from a recent conversation where we discussed a national sports body looking to fill a senior position in the organisation. It drew me back to a moment in time a couple of years ago where my conversational partner…
What influence does sporting governance have on player development and the athlete environment? Mark Upton, founder of myfastestmile, discusses how governing and funding bodies are PART of a complex social system – not THE system Previous fragments – #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9 In one of the links in fragment #9 it was intimated that innovation in football academies could be hampered by rigid regulations imposed from the governing body of that sport. This is not a sport-specific phenomena…Peter Gray (2014) talks of the same issue in education and the challenges of…
How does a teacher or coach transition to a learner-centric view where you can allow the learner to explore and develop within the environment? Co-founder of Myfastestmile, Mark Upton reflects on how coaches can facilitate this process. The image below appeared on my twitter timeline a couple of times today… It prompted retrieval of one of my favourite passages on teaching/learning… “Teaching is, in some ways, a myth. The greatest skill is learned, more than it is taught. And the great teacher realizes…
Mark Upton, Co-founder of myfastestmile continues his discussion on learning dynamics. Mark outlines the challenges and benefits that come with the concept of self-organising and understanding what you can & can’t control in coaching. “When I explain complexity theory to my old Mum, she looks at me quizzically and says, ‘Isn’t that common sense, dear?’” In a recent post on Learning Dynamics I covered how patterns of behaviour emerge due to interactions between people in a system (or at a different scale of analysis, interactions…
Co-founder of Myfastestmile & regular PDP contributor, Mark Upton discusses learning dynamics and the challenges of making change within any existing system citing examples from performance sport. I was recently asked for a reflection on my experiences in performance sport. After some pondering what came to mind was how learning (for all involved, not just players) needs to be a constant given that there will never be a blueprint/recipe/formula that can be settled upon with any permanency. Over time this becomes easier said than done,…
In this Live Webinar replay, Mark Upton joins us to discuss the non-linear journey of player development, constraints based coaching, skill acquisition and more. Mark is co-founder of myfastestmile and is one of the UK’s top coach education researchers. Mark will join the PDP Team, regular hosts Dave Wright & Jimmy Vaughan for an engaging discussion about topics from both Mark & Jimmy’s research. We break the conversation down into a number of key topics around non-linear pedagogy and athlete development. This is a must watch for…
Coming from a position of influence in young players’ lives, we continually aim to create ‘perfect’ environments for development. Mark Upton co-founder of myfastestmile, explains the organic learning curve that occurs without our involvement, and often beats all of our over-engineered solutions. I believe things get more interesting in player learning and development when we take a much broader view and consider it over longer periods of time and factor in the experiences young people have in their daily lives, inclusive of (but certainly not restricted to) coach-led practice…
Re-imagine the way you think about player development with Mark Upton and Al Smith. Two of the sports world’s leading minds share their player development frameworks and principles, informed by a unique blend of cutting-edge research and nearly 30 years experience in sporting environments. In this Live Webinar replay, Al and Mark about the key factors affecting player development environments, and how to get the best out of your athletes. Mark and Al have recently teamed up as co-creators of myfastestmile.com – a social enterprise…