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What really is talent? And how do we measure it?

My guest on today’s show suggests we are a long way off answering either of these questions with any certainty and so we should stop trying. Instead, we should focus on designing sporting environments that support every young learner.

Dr. Joe Baker (@bakerjyorku) is Professor and Director of the Lifespan Performance Laboratory at York University, Canada.

His research considers the varying influences on optimal human development, ranging from issues affecting athlete development and skill acquisition to barriers and facilitators of optimal aging.

Joe works with high performance sports teams and organizations around the world in their quest for international success.

In this episode we dig into Joe’s latest book “The Tyranny of Talent: How it compels and limits athlete achievement… and why you should ignore it.”

We also chat about common human biases and how they affect coaching, the problem with splitting development into participation and performance pathways, first principles of athlete development, why collaboration in research is so important, combating early specialisation, and much more.

Enjoy!

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