Bio:
Keith Davids is interested in skill acquisition and expertise in sport and the design of learning environments and talent development programmes. A related interest concerns how to enhance levels and quality of physical activity in different societal groups such as children, elderly people and those with diseases and disabilities. His research is based on the theoretical framework of Ecological Dynamics, producing different types of evidence to support the application of key concepts to learning design and practice organisation in different sports and physical activities. His current position is Professor of Motor Learning at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. He has over 30 years relevant experience of teaching and conducting research with international collaborators in related fields like Sports Science, Psychology, Behavioural Neuroscience, Physical Education and Human Movement Science. He has held academic positions in the UK, Finland (University of Jyvaskyla, Finnish Distinguished Professor), New Zealand (University of Otago) and Australia (Queensland University of Technology). He has published his work in many journal articles and books and has supervised over 40 Postgraduate students to completion of Masters and Doctoral research degrees. His applied scientific research has been conducted in collaboration with sports organisations including the Queensland Academy of Sport and national Institutes of Sport in Australia, New Zealand, and England, as well as the Finnish Government. He regularly consults with professional coaches and coach educators in different elite and developmental sports organisations, with the aim of helping sport practitioners to understand how theoretical principles of Ecological Dynamics can enhance their applied work with athletes at all performance levels.
Timeline:
 
0:00 – 8:00 – Robbie Intro’s show and ask Keith to give us his background8:01 – 11:43 - Robbie asks Keith about the influence of James Gibbons “ecological dynamics” model and Karl Newell’s “constraint-led approach” model had on him as a practitioner and researcher
11:44 – 15:14 - Robbie asks Keith – How do we learn?15:15 – 22:32 - Robbie asks Keith – what determines someone’s ability to formulate movement solutions? 22:33 – 24:05 - Robbie speaks about how too much feedback can lead to dependency, re-investment, and choking in sport performance24:06 – 36:28 - Robbie shares his thoughts on affordances, technical models, and the concept of re-calibration within skill acquisition, and ask Keith to share his thoughts on these topics. Keith goes on to discuss his work with Parkour36:29 – 37:49 – Robbie mentions to Keith about hearing him talk about on Rob Gray’s Perception & Action Podcast that modern playgrounds need to have more built-in variation and not be so sterile
37:50 – 47:55 - Robbie asks Keith to expand on inter-individual synchronization movement strategies often witnessed within team-based sports47:56 – 51:14 – Robbie shares some thoughts on perceptions in skill acquisition and Keith shares with the audience some of the upcoming book releases he and his fellow authors have coming out soon51:15 – 1:00:30 - Robbie asks Keith to share his thoughts on how a coaches perceptions can actually be vey limiting to an athlete’s development1:00:31 – 1:05:35 - Robbie asks Keith – when is it appropriate for a coach to step away from injecting with the athletic development?1:05:36 – 1:06:09 - Robbie shares a thought with Keith about how animal trainers communicate with their animals and how these trainers use a constraints-led model in training their animals training environment1:06:10 – 1:10:08 - Robbie talks about how when an organism has more variability within its environment – it leads to the organism becoming more robust (to an extent), and then goes onto to share with Keith how musician Jack White uses a constraints-led approach to creating music and when performing live1:10:09 – 1:11:53 - Keith gives his thoughts on what Rob