Today I’m stoked to welcome Dr Balin Cupples, head of performance at the One NZ Warriors.

What I love about Balin’s story, and why I brought him on the show, is the insight he brings at the intersection between science and practice.

Balin has a strong academic background, having earned a Bachelor of Education, a Master of Education, and not long ago a PhD from the University of Sydney. But he also grew up playing the game and made a handful of NRL appearances for the Wests Tigers Rugby League Club in his early twenties.

In this conversation, Balin shares his PhD research findings, which investigated what successful talent development environments look like in schools.

Enjoy!

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This week, I’m excited to be talking with Young People’s Lead at Athletics New Zealand , Fiona Maisey. It’s a relatively new role for the organisation, yet super important considering 82% of registered participants in the sport are under the age of 18. Fiona brings a diverse background to the position, including many years practising as a nurse, parenting 4 boys, and a passion for music. We dig into all of this on the show.

We also talk about Fiona’s efforts to create young people friendly environments, including the importance of finding your tribe, why time is such a valuable resource for building meaningful relationships, retaining teenagers in the sport, avoiding athlete entitlement, what fun really looks  like for young people, learning how to lose, the importance of gratitude, coaching the person, and much more.

I’ve always loved athletics. There’s something about how it tests the fundamentals of human physiology  – speed, power, endurance – that really appeals to me. So I’m really excited to bring Fiona on the show to share with us her thoughts on development and where the sport of athletics is headed in the future.

Enjoy!

Sign up for Craig’s newsletter (Beyond the Game) at athletedevelopmentproject.com/newsletter

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Connect with Craig:

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On the show today, I’m winding the clock back a couple of years to when I sat down with Dr Katie Cunningham to talk about joy.  Dr Katie Cunningham is an Associate Professor of Literacy and English Education at Manhattanville College and the author of “Start With Joy: Designing Literacy Learning for Student Happiness”.

In her book, Katie describes 7 pillars at the heart of joyful literacy experiences – connection, choice, challenge, play, story, discovery and movement. I love how each pillar transfers beautifully to athlete development, and the idea of “starting with joy” continues to have a big impact on my work.

Enjoy!

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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!

Connect with Craig:

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The Wellington Phoenix is the only professional football club in New Zealand. Today on the show we explore the academy system in charge of developing their elite players of tomorrow.

To better understand the club’s processes – and how they get the balance right between striving for success and looking after the young people at the heart of it – I sat down with Phoenix Academy Director, Paul Temple (@paultemplecoach).

Paul Temple is an UEFA A license coach and has been working in football for over 20 years. In addition to leading the Academy at the Phoenix, he also works for New Zealand Football as the Men’s U20 Assistant National Team Coach.

I’ve known Paul since we met as part of the New Zealand U17 Women’s Team staff back in 2011. I love the way he thinks about development, both from a strategic point of view, and how he rolls it out on the grass in practice. In this conversation, I wanted to understand Paul’s core values – both personally and as a professional – and how he uses them to drive behaviour. I think this comes through very clearly.

We also talk about the importance of a growth mindset, the intersection between the ex-pro and the career coach and how Paul brings the two together, how they recruit young players at the Phoenix, the key ingredients for successful long-term player development, Ted Lasso, and much more.

This conversation really challenged my thinking about creating developmental environments and I think it will do the same for you.

Enjoy!

Connect with Craig:

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