This is a great conversation for coaches and participants of all sports.
Kit and equipment design has always fascinated me. Since my early days of learning to kayak in boats, wearing clothing and using paddles that were designed for men (not people shaped like me), I have been intrigued by how much our kit and equipment can impact skill development and motivation.
Nowadays company's are designing equipment scaled for children, and designed for women. Many coaches understand how important scaled equipment is to support perception-action coupling and skill development.
Corran Addison has always combined designing kit with using it. I wanted to find out more about his understanding of how his kit and equipment design was rooted in his unique perspectives on movement within his performance environments and of how design could support or thwart the development of skill by highlighting or dampening perception action coupling. We also talked about motivation, play and the importance of safe environments for developing confident, competent and happily active and adaptive youngsters.
About my guest:
Corran Addison runs the Soul Adrenaline Factory. "A boutique brand focused squarely on innovation: in design, execution and overall appearance is our company philosophy. We have capitalized on the illustrious design career of Corran Addison, who throughout his years as paddler, surfer, snowboarder, designer and manufacturer, has been known for his innovative work."

At Soul, everything we do is about making our products the very best. We cut no corners, and spare no expense. Our designs are forward thinking and fill specific niches, our kayak outfitting is second to none, and we use the best plastic that money can buy. Our snowboard designs and construction materials are as unique as our kayaks, as are our paddle boards. Everything about our products says “you’re getting the very best” - all backed with a LIFETIME warranty.

For more about Corran check out what SOUL is to him, and who it is for here:
https://www.soulwaterman.com/pages/about-us
SOUL Waterman Website
https://www.soulwaterman.com/

"If we could start again and design sport around the needs of children, would the sports still look the same as they do now?" Mark O'Sullivan asked this question at a conference a few years ago, and I keep revisiting it, thinking about it from the perspective of the needs of horses.
With the continuing issues of abuse in sports, this episode explores what the issues are and whether there are cultural aspects to the way sports have emerged that may make abuse easier to perpetrate and harder to eradicate. Does a historical focus of developing obedience and compliance undermine agency and consent. And if so, how can we move forward and have youth and equestrian sports that are safe, ethical, and meet the needs of those partaking?
Thank you to this weeks guests, authors Dr Jennifer Fraser and Julie Taylor, for joining me for a conversation about abuse and bullying, the impact that it has on individuals and how sports are perceived by those outside of the current systems. This was a difficult but important conversation for me. I am passionate about not losing equestrian sports, but equally passionate that much needs to change moving forward or we will lose them and with good reason.
My guests on this episode are:
Julie Taylor is a journalist and author of 'I Can't Watch Anymore': The Case for Dropping Equestrian from the Olympic Games.' 'Catalogues what happens to sport horses in plain sight ... should be compulsory reading for all of us who care about horses.' - Professor Paul McGreevy BVSc, PhD, FRCVS; author, Equine Behaviour

Passionate, yet rigorous and meticulously researched, this eye-opening book holds equestrian sport up to Olympic standards and finds it sadly wanting.'
Find Julie on Twitter @eponatv Facebook https://www.facebook.com/eponatv and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/eponatv
Dr Jennifer Fraser is the author of 'The Bullied Brain: Heal Your Scars and Restore Your Health.' 'Bullying and abuse are at the source of much misery in our lives. Because we are not taught about our brains, let alone how much they are impacted by bullying and abuse, we do not have a way to avoid this misery, heal our scars, or restore our health.'

Find Jenniferon Twitter @bulliedbrain

In this second part of me conversation with David Farrouk we explore the intricate relationship between ecological psychology, constraints, and the practical implications for coaching and learning. The discussion delves into the differences between behaviourism and ecological psychology and systems approaches, emphasising how the latter offers a more dynamic understanding of behaviour by considering wider time frames, nested events, broader environmental contexts and the fluidity of various interacting scales.
Key themes arise around the concept of constraints, highlighting how both broad laws of nature and local constraints influence behaviour. David points out that effective coaching requires an understanding of these interactions, enabling practitioners to manipulate constraints to promote desired outcomes.
The conversation address the nature of learning and its measurement, advocating for an integrated perspective where learning leads to measurable changes, reflecting a deeper understanding of environmental interactions.
The role of theories is examined as tools that help practitioners navigate their environments and facilitate learning. As theories evolve through practical application, they bring new insights into how constraints affect behaviour and performance.
Through a metaphor of building a dam in a stream, David illustrates how constraints shape dynamics in movement. This conversation invites listeners, particularly coaches and practitioners in sports and animal learning, to re-examine their understanding of learning and leans into a more ecological viewpoint that considers the fluidity of interaction between an organism and their environment in skill acquisition and performance.
This blog post provides an overview to support the main themes of the conversation https://dynamics-coaching.com/learning-and-pedagogy/learning-theories-behaviourism-and-ecological-psychology/
My guest on this episode: David Farrokh is a PhD candidate in the College of Health, Wellbeing and Life Sciences at Sheffield Hallam University. His research adopts an ecological dynamics perspective to investigate multiscaled properties of flow experiences, context-sensitivity, and co-adaptation in sport.
X @bigpicsoccer
Further reading
Fultot et al What are nervous systems for

Polanyi Life's irreducible structure

Johnston & Turvey A sketch of an ecological metatheory for theories of learning

In this episode we delve into the concept of representative learning design, what it is and why it matters.
As always, the conversation is unscripted and only has a topic as a start point for a genuine curious conversation. Alex, Jane and I pull on the representative practice thread and go on a few off-piste explorations too.
Topics including in this conversation:
- Understanding the relationship of the task and performer (of any level).
- Who is making the decisions and what information is being attended to?
- What is the rider paying attention to? What information is the horse paying attention to?
- What is specifying information and how can practice design help to guide attention toward it?
- What are affordances and shared-affordances?
Link to representative learning design tool for equestrian sports.
Links to my guests:
Jane Randall is now following her passion for all things equestrian as a coach and mentor. She is a British Equestrian Level 4 Coach, British Dressage Accredited Coach, MSc professional Practice in Sports Coaching , Mentor Coach with a keen interest in developing coaching science in equestrian sports.

When I first met Jane, she was exploring skill acquisition and coaching pedagogy as part of her British Equestrian Level 4 coach award at Gloucester University in the UK. We had many wonderful conversations about understanding and applying theories of learning and development with horses, humans and horse-human partnerships.
Jane can be contacted at https://www.jrdressage.co.uk/
Jane is also active on Instagram @janerandalldressagecoach and on Twitter @janerandall111
Dr Alex Lascu is a skill acquisition specialist by trade and currently lectures at the University of Canberra. Her passion for talent development and community sport is contagious, and she enjoys existing in the gap between research and practice in the hopes of bringing these two worlds together.
Find Alex on Twitter at @skillacqlascu

At her website https://skillacqlascu.wixsite.com/whisperer/about
Or LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/alascule/?originalSubdomain=au
Representative learning design academic paper Train how you play.

I believe that this is probably the most important topic that I have explored on these podcasts, and that embracing and using the Ridden Horse Pain Ethogram (RHPE) could transform equestrian sports.
Firstly, I need to apologise to Sue for being over enthusiastic and not the best host. It was due to my excitement and passion for supporting what she has been doing.
This is a conversation that I will be listening to again a few more times.
My guest is Dr Sue Dyson
Sue Dyson qualified as a veterinarian from the University of Cambridge in 1980. After an internship at the University of Pennsylvania and a year in private equine practice in Pennsylvania, Sue returned to Great Britain to the Animal Health Trust, Newmarket. Sue ran a clinical referral service for lameness and poor performance, attracting clients from all over the United Kingdom, Ireland and continental Europe for 37 years. During this period Sue was also awarded a PhD and Fellowship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. From 2019 she has worked as an independent consultant, combining her horsemanship skills with her previous veterinary experience, with the aim of maximising performance potential.

Sue’s key interests are improving the diagnosis of lameness and poor performance and maximising the opportunity for horses to fulfil their athletic potential at whatever level, taking a holistic approach to the horse, rider and tack combination, and improving approaches to diagnosis and management. She has been involved not only in providing clinical services, but also clinically relevant research and education. Sue is co-editor, with Mike Ross, of Diagnosis and Management of Lameness in the Horse and co-author of Clinical Radiology of the Horse and Equine Scintigraphy. She has published more than 400 papers in peer reviewed journals concerning lameness and diagnostic imaging and has lectured worldwide to veterinarians, paraprofessionals, coaches, riders and judges.
Sue is a former President of the British Equine Veterinary Association and is currently scientific advisor to the Saddle Research Trust and Moorcroft Rehabilitation Centre. Sue is also a rider, and has produced horses from novice to top national level in both eventing and show jumping. Sue holds the Instructors and Stable Managers Certificates of the British Horse Society (BHSI).

Sue has been awarded many international accolades for her work including induction into the University of Kentucky Equine Research Hall of Fame for outstanding contributions to research in equine veterinary science, Honorary Membership of the British Equine Veterinary Association and Societa Italiana Veterinari Per Equini, Italy, the American Association of Equine Practitioners Frank J. Milne Award and the Tierklinik Hochmoor Prize, Germany, for outstanding, creative and lasting work in equine veterinary medicine.

The 24 behaviour website is here https://www.24horsebehaviors.org/
Sue can be contacted on her ResearchGate profile (below) and at the Saddle Research Trust https://www.saddleresearchtrust.com/meet-the-team-2/

The 24 Behaviors of the Ridden Horse in Pain: Shifting the Paradigm of How We See Lameness at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrZgtrqbMVI

This is Dr Sue Dyson's profile on ResearchGate where you can get access to most of her research papers https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sue-Dyson-2
Other useful links:

Lorimer Moseley - Why Things Hurt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwd-wLdIHjs