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

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