EXPERT | Rob Gray on The Gap Between Sports Science Researchers and Coaches (Part 1)

The Power Company Climbing Podcast

Rob Gray is an associate Professor at Arizona State University, host of The Perception & Action Podcast, and a Skill Acquisition Specialist for the Boston Red Sox. He’s been studying movement and publishing research on it for 25 years. In this Part 1 of 2, Kris and Rob discuss the limitations and challenges of using sports science research for coaches and practitioners, as well as some ways both coaches and researchers could do it better.

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EXPLORE FURTHER

Our entire movement skills resource library

Coaching for Mastery course mentioned in the episode

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Check out The Perception & Action Podcast

Check out Rob's books:

How We Learn to Move: A Revolution in the Way We Coach & Practice Sports Skills

Learning to Optimize Movement: Harnessing the Power of the Athlete-Environment Relationship

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Find full episode transcripts and more at our website.

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CHAPTERS

(0:00) Intro

(1:31) Guest Introduction

(3:20) Topic Explanation

(5:18) Accessibility

(6:13) Impenetrability

(7:33) Generalizability

(8:43) ANNOTATION: Don’t Discount Small Studies

(10:49) Researchers Asking the Wrong Questions

(11:49) How to Make it User Friendly

(19:34) The Value of Case Studies

(22:19) Studies Lack Real World Variables

(24:23) ANNOTATION: Functional Movement Variability

(26:44) What is it We Should be Looking For in Studies?

(30:49) Coaches and Researchers Meeting in the Middle

(33:48) Limitations of Using Studies From Other Sports

(37:24) ANNOTATION: Constraints and Self Organization

(40:54) ”Evidence-Based” Elitism

(43:27) Wrap Up