The boys from emergence are back to discuss their recently accepted and published paper on "Applying an ecological dynamics framework to mixed martial arts training". This paper followed their previous publication from 2023 "(Re)conceptualizi

#47 - "ACTION ~ perception" Coach James de Lacey on building action capacities for combat sports.

Feb 22nd, 2024 56m 30s

In this episode I talk with Coach James de Lacey of Sweet Science of Fighting.While most discussions on the podcast have been biased toward the perceptual half of the perception-action loop. Coach James talks about how we can support the action

#47 - All Choking Aside - Dr Andy Bass talks about self-talk, attention and focus and how these can interfere with us all on game day.

Feb 5th, 2024 1h 35m

Today I talk with Dr Andy Bass. Andy is a researcher, educator, former pro baseball player and is currently a performance coach with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Andy talks about both the mental side and motor learning side of skill development. H

#46 - The gimmicks of the Gram - Coach Jon Mackey returns to discuss agility ladders and other questionable training tools.

Nov 16th, 2023 1h 49m

Today I chat with Irish National Kickboxing Coach Jon Mackey about the role of training tools in striking sports. We'll explore whether these tools actually support skill acquisition and debunk some of the popular training gimmicks that are flo

#45 - Game on! - Kit Dale and Greg Souders on ditching the drills to become better quicker!

Nov 1st, 2023 2h 44m

Today I welcome Kit Dale and Greg Souders on to the show.Kit is well know in the jiu-jitsu world for his rapid development in the sport and his achievements at high level no-gi grappling in a short few years. An advocate of 'learning through tr

#44 - A student's perspective - Standard's Noah Shaffner talks about learning to grapple at the black temple.

Oct 24th, 2023 1h 29m

Today, I chat with Noah Shaffner from the Standard Jiu-Jitsu Grappling Team, mentored by Greg Souders. Unlike my usual guests who are coaches or academics, Noah stands out as a student who has embraced the ecological approach to skill developme

#43 - Managing Expectations - Rory Singer on playing the long game in developing Mixed Martial Artists.

Sep 29th, 2023 1h 43m

Today I talk with Coach Rory Singer. Rory is the younger brother of Coach Adam Singer and together they have run and coached MMA in Athens Georgia for several Decades. Rory is an UFC Vet and lifelong martial artist.In this convo we spoke about

#42 - Demystifying Strickland's win over Adesanya - Shawn Myszka joins me to discuss last week's UFC title fight.

Sep 15th, 2023 1h 26m

Emergence founder, NFL skills coach and MMA superfan Shawn Myszka joined me to discuss Strickland's win over Adesanya last week.As stated during intro. Must of this analysis is somewhat speculative given we are not privy to the innerworkings of

#41 - Grappling with memory and perception - Ed Ingamells on

Jul 13th, 2023 2h 30m

Today I am chatting with Ed Ingamells. (Aka the Partybear). Ed is a black belt and coach at the Institute of Grappling in North London, UK.As a former Neuroscience PhD student, Ed has a deep understanding of cognitive psychology. Ed talks about

#40 - On the shoulders of the "Aliveness" Giant! - SBG's Adam Singer on alive training environments.

Jun 26th, 2023 2h 12m

Adam Singer joins me today to talk coaching, culture and continuing the SBG philosophy of aliveness through an ecological lens.

#39 - 'Second Guessing the Traditional Approach' - Coach Josh Root on doubling down on the Ecological Approach.

Jun 13th, 2023 1h 1m

Today I am joined by Coach Josh Root from Gravitas Martial Arts in Arkansas. Josh has recently re-visited an Eco D approach to grappling after initially abandoning it due to uncertainty.With a deeper understanding and support from Standard's Gr

#38 - 'It takes two to Tango' - Professor Alan Dunton on 'information rich' training practice to develop metastability.

May 18th, 2023 1h 2m

Professor Alan Dunton is back. Alan is a lecturer and researcher at MTU Cork, Ireland. With a PhD in Skill Acquisitor and having been a long time martial artist himself and a National TKD team competitor, Alan is well informed on both the theor

#37 - 'Light for Learning' - Coach Jon Mackey on Kickboxing Training and Sparring Culture.

May 10th, 2023 1h 49m

In today's podcast, we're honored to have Jon Mackey as our guest, a celebrated coach in both Taekwon-Do and Kickboxing. With a career that began in 1987, Jon has trained numerous national, European, and world gold medalists in Taekwon-Do and K

#36 - Developing wizards from Oz - Ricky Pachon on taking his Gracie comp team ecological.

Feb 18th, 2023 1h 52m

In this episode I speak with Coach Ricky Pachon . A young coach from Gracie Barra, Bondi Beach, Australia. Ricky leads a successful youth competition team and is himself an avid competitor on the Australian BJJ/Grappling scene. Recently a pare

#35 - The Black Temple's Greg Souders - Coach Souders interview with Brian Willis.

Jan 13th, 2023 1h 7m

This episode is the second of two interviews by Brian Willis of the Excellence in Training Academy.Brian reached out to both myself and Standard Jiu-jitsu's Greg Souders to talk about our application of Ecological Dynamics to Striking and Grapp

#34 - On the other side of the mic - My interview with Brian Willis talking about Primal's approach to practice design for striking and MMA.

Jan 13th, 2023 1h 11m

This episode is the first of two interviews by Brian Willis of the Excellence in Training Academy.Brian reached out to both myself and Standard Jiu-jitsu's Greg Souders to talk about our application of Ecological Dynamics to Striking and Grappl

#33B - Battling the Biases! Josh Peacock on resistance to change in combat sports training.

Jan 5th, 2023 50m 37s

(PART 2) Today my guest is my friend and fellow podcaster Josh Peacock.Josh is the host of the Combat Learning Podcast and a fellow advocate of an ecological approach to combat sports training.A real student of the science of skill development,

#33A - Fighting the fallacies! Josh Peacock on resistance to change in combat sports training (PART 1 of 2).

Jan 3rd, 2023 59m 11s

Today my guest is my friend and fellow podcaster Josh Peacock.Josh is the host of the Combat Learning Podcast and a fellow advocate of an ecological approach to combat sports training.A real student of the science of skill development, teaching

#32 - Embodied and Embedded! Danny Hatcher talks about Ecological Dynamics and how we learn skills.

Dec 15th, 2022 2h 24m

Danny Hatcher joined me to talk more about ecological dynamics for sport.Danny is a Podcaster, youtuber, educator, coach and sport scientist from the UK. We connected after I watched his terrific youtube video on Ecological Learning. Among his

#31 - Another Drill Ditcher! Kaboom's Kabir Bath talks to me about going full ecological!

Dec 2nd, 2022 1h 44m

In this episode I welcome on Coach Kabir Bath, founder and owner of Kaboom Jiu-Jitsu in Surrey, British Columbia. Kabir is a Raphael Lovato Jr Black belt/affiliate and was a Lovato associate coach of the year 2017.As Kabir explains in the episo

#30 - The Reddit Technique Debate! Greg Souder's clarifies some misconceptions.

Dec 1st, 2022 1h 59m

Today I welcome back Standard Jiu-Jitsu's coach Greg Souders.Greg and I were chatting about a very recent reddit post aptly named, 'Training at a gym that doesn't teach technique'. The post was specifically posing the question about Standard's

#29 - Shifting the Red line! @Doctor_Kickass on increasing physical capacities.

Nov 17th, 2022 1h 11m

On this epsiode, I welcome Dr Mike Piekarski aka. @doctor_kickass about to talk about S&C for MMA. As I discuss with Mike, I've believe that in being so focused on skill development in practice, I've been guilty of undervaluing the role of S&C

#28 - If Fred learned to fight! Professors Blau and Wagman discuss their new book, 'Introduction to Ecological Psychology'.

Oct 31st, 2022 1h 12m

On this episode we delve a little more into the underpinning science of Ecological Dynamics.I recently read 'Introduction to Ecological Psychology' written by Dr Julia Blau and Dr Jeff Wagman which was a terrific read. The book was just recentl

#27 - Play the whole game every day! Greg Souders is back to talk about practice design.

Sep 26th, 2022 1h 16m

In this episode, I talk with again with Coach Greg Souders of Standard Jiu-Jitsu , Rockville MD (Maryland).Greg is a black belt who founded Standard Jiu-Jitsu several years back following many years of training and competing with Team Llyod Irv

#26 - Pugilist turned Professor! Dr Andy Lane, chats about developing psychological skills for combat, in and out of the ring.

Sep 21st, 2022 1h 16m

Andy Lane is a professor and researcher in sports psychology at the University of Wolverhampton UK. Andy joined me to discuss strategies and methods for developing and building psychological skills in training and competition. A former boxer w