The River Tiger Podcast from Dynamics Coaching - 'Can't jump, won't jump!' Reflections on considering an ecological approach to coaching with Warren Lamperd.

'Can't jump, won't jump!' Reflections on considering an ecological approach to coaching with Warren Lamperd.

06/25/22 • 101 min

The River Tiger Podcast from Dynamics Coaching

Welcome to episode 4! This is the first of a series of episodes that will be focussed on the recent publication of my concept paper making a case for applying an ecological perspective to coaching in equestrian sports (Can’t jump, won’t jump: Affordances of the horse-rider dyad underpin skill adaptation in Showjumping using a constraints-led approach).
In these episodes, my guests will question, challenge and explore the ideas with me. They will be bringing the concepts to life, adding practical examples and discussing the potential benefits and challenges of embracing contemporary theories of skill acquisition and coaching practice.
During the conversation we cover many topics, including:
- Brief explanation of theories of learning used in sport coaching and with horses.
- Why theories of learning change or influence the way we teach and coach.
- Are cues and affordances different? - the role of context and agency.
- What the implications of these ecological concepts are in designing practice. The importance of variable practice and making mistakes in training.
- Perception-action coupling and what information (visual, auditory, haptic, kinaesthetic) is important.
- The importance of embracing uncertainty and becoming comfortable feeling uncomfortable.
- Creating safe uncertainty or safe-to-fail opportunities in practice.
- Importance of a social licence to operate (SLO).
Link to the research paper (open access):
Research Gate copy: Can’t jump, won’t jump: Affordances of the horse-rider dyad underpin skill adaptation in Showjumping using a constraints-led approach
Links to my guest:
Warren Lamperd. Warren is a British Equestrian Federation UKCC Level 4 coach for British Showjumping and UKCC level 3 British Eventing Warren has a Masters Degree in Coaching Science, a Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Practise in Sports Coaching and a Bachelors Degree in Agricultural Science. https://warrenlamperd.com/content/coaching
Hosted by Marianne Davies. Marianne is a PhD candidate at Sheffield Hallam University researching the application of non-linear pedagogy to equestrian sports coaching. Marianne is also a director at Dynamics Coaching. https://dynamics-coaching.com/

Previous Episode

'If the horse (or child) can't say no, saying yes is meaningless.' Exploring agency with Mia Palles-Clark and Stuart Armstrong.

Welcome to the third episode of the River Tiger Podcast. In this conversation I am co-hosting with Stuart Armstrong (The Talent Equation Podcast) and welcoming our fabulous guest Mia Palles-Clark. Mia is a British showjumping BSCC Level 3 Coach, Coach Developer, British Army team coach, England Home Pony Chef d'Equipe and UKCC Coach of the Year 2017. For many of you, Stu needs no introduction, but if you have not checked out his podcast yet you are in for a treat. There is a link to Stu's podcast at the end.
In this episode we start to explore some of the implications of agency (or lack of) for horses and children within our sporting communities. Not surprisingly, this ended up as a long conversation and covered many fascinating areas and ideas. The focus was always on how we move forward and what all of us can do to help shape a great future for both equestrian and youth sports.
The themes we covered included:
- why agency is important
- aspects of our language and culture that shape our interactions and behaviours
- what can we do to change the landscape of our sporting and coaching eco-systems
- listening to our horses and children
- why agency is just as important in youth sports and how we can learn from other sports and disciplines
- why and how ecological dynamics and a constraints-led approach could have an impact on competence and also support agency
- a bit of a wish list of what we would love the future could look like.
Links to my guests/co-hosts
Mia Palles-Clarke can be found on Instagram @miapallesclark. She is a coach educator with British Showjumping and runs her own coaching business Mia Palles-Clark Showjumping (find her on FaceBook).
Stuart Armstrong is the host of the wonderful The Talent Equation Podcast which can be found on most podcast platforms. He is also active on Twitter @stu_arm.

Next Episode

Exploring how and why we need to become 'learning environment designers' for our horses, with Kathy Sierra.

In this episode I am joined by the brilliant Kathy Sierra. I came across Kathy's work near the beginning of my PhD due to her work with a fellow PhD candidate (studying skill acquisition in American Football) in Keith Davids Lab.
Kathy has been exploring using a constraints-led and differential learning approach underpinned by ecological dynamics theory for many years. This is a conversation I have been looking forward to for a long time, I know it's long but it is full of absolute gold so I couldn't edit it down.
I hope you find this episode as fascinating as I did. I know some of you will find it challenging in places because much of what is traditional wisdom in sports (including equestrianism) does not hold up under the lens of contemporary science of movement, skill acquisition, or pain science.
Kathy's area of interest is in the rehabilitation and skill adaptation of horses. She has an incredible amount of knowledge, skills, and experience in designing movement activities and learning environments/contexts that support horses to re-access their movement toolboxes. Using an ecological approach Kathy found that the horses she worked with would quickly blow past rehab and into high performance with surprising ease and motivation.
In this episode we explore a number of themes, including -
- How we can apply knowledge from neuroscience, pain science, and skill acquisition science research to working with our horses.
- Why a constraints-led approach to skill acquisition may be important for horse sports moving forward, particularly the role of self-determined motivation.
- Supporting horses to have autonomy and ownership of their movement.
- Why people and horses need to expand not reduce their movement toolboxes.
Links:
Kathy's website and information about her pain science courses and free resources.
The spider robot that learnt to limp.
Self-determination theory. How do we create optimal learning environments?
Learning the ugly zone.