Send us a text This episode is a special repost of my conversation with Stu McMillan on the ALTIS Podcast, originally recorded as a lead-up to the ALTIS Speed Summit where I will be presenting. If you’re attending the Summit this weekend, this will give you a preview of what I’ll be covering in my talk on Saturday, June 7th . The session will be titled "This is Not a Drill: Developing Speed Through Problem Solving." We cover a wide range of topics—everything from designing adaptable athletes to ...
Jun 05, 2025•58 min
Send us a text This episode of the Adaptable Athlete Podcast is part of our special SMSC 25’ Speaker Spotlight Series , highlighting some of the world-class minds presenting at the 2025 Sport Movement Skill Conference, June 26–27 in St. Paul, Minnesota. We're bringing back a classic: Episode 8 with Michael Zwiefel , an impactful voice in our field and a longtime influence on how we approach athlete development. Formerly the founder of Building Better Athletes, Michael now serves as Assistant Hea...
May 21, 2025•48 min
Send us a text In this repost episode of the podcast, we revisit one of our most favorite conversations — a deep dive into combat sport skill acquisition with Scott Sievewright , founder of Primal MMA and host of the Primal MMA Coaching Podcast . Scott brings an athlete-centered and constraints-led approach to his work with MMA athletes. In this conversation, we discuss how to design representative practice without traditional drills, how to keep intensity high while still respecting athlete saf...
May 14, 2025•1 hr 5 min
Send us a text SMSC Speaker Spotlight: Garrett Baker In this episode, we’re highlighting one of our featured presenters for the 2025 Sport Movement Skill Conference — Garrett Baker, Skill Acquisition Specialist and Pitching Coach for the New York Mets. Garrett joins us to talk about the current state of skill development in baseball and why he believes coaches must move beyond traditional notions of “perfect mechanics.” We dig into how Garrett blends theory and practice in the bullpen, what make...
May 07, 2025•49 min
Send us a text In this Speaker Spotlight episode, Coach Jav sits down with Dr. Rob Gray—renowned researcher, author, and podcast host—for a timely re-release of their impactful conversation on ecological dynamics, information, and movement learning. Rob is one of the featured speakers at the upcoming 2025 Sport Movement Skill Conference , taking place June 26–27 in St. Paul, MN . As the SMSC returns to its in-person roots, Rob shares a preview of the thinking that’s shaped his writing, research,...
Apr 30, 2025•56 min
Send us a text In this special episode of the Adaptable Athlete Podcast powered by Emergence, Javi welcomes back movement specialist and Emergence co-founder Shawn Myszka for the official preview of the 2025 Sport Movement Skill Conference (SMSC) . They break down what to expect at this year’s in-person event -including immersive learning sessions, athlete-led demos, roundtable discussions, and a new certification opportunity -all designed to help coaches better understand and apply ecological d...
Apr 16, 2025•41 min
Send us a text In this episode of the Adaptable Athlete Podcast , Javi sits down with performance coach Sean Smith , who shares lessons from a unique career that’s spanned elite collegiate volleyball and the high-octane world of IndyCar racing. They dive into what it takes to support athletes across vastly different sports, why curiosity and communication are non-negotiables for great coaching, and how to create high-performance environments without losing the human element. From letting athlete...
Apr 02, 2025•1 hr•Ep. 99
Send us a text In this Six Minutes of Skill episode, Coach Jav explores the concept of the Challenge Point —both for athletes and coaches. He breaks down how finding the right level of difficulty in training can accelerate skill acquisition, improve decision-making, and better prepare athletes for real-game situations. Key Topics Discussed: ✅ Understanding the Challenge Point and its role in learning ✅ Why failing too much or too little in practice can hinder development ✅ How to adjust practice...
Mar 12, 2025•9 min•Ep. 98
Send us a text In this episode, Javi sits down with Jim Haverstrom to explore a fresh approach to youth hockey coaching. Jim explains how his game-based, small-area practices transform the way young players develop skills and decision-making. Rather than isolating techniques, his methods use purposeful, in-game scenarios to build hockey IQ and foster creativity on the ice. He also shares strategies for communicating these innovative methods to parents, emphasizing long-term growth over immediate...
Feb 26, 2025•57 min•Ep. 97
Send us a text In this episode, Javi sits down with Marianne Davies to explore a fascinating blend of topics, from adventure sports and ecological coaching to the power of language and learning. They dive into how language shapes perception, the unique relationship between teaching and learning, and the role of affordance perception in high-risk environments. Marianne shares her experiences in equestrian sports, adventure coaching, and expedition leadership, emphasizing how outdoor challenges ca...
Feb 12, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 96
Send us a text In this episode, we dive deep into the transcendent movement skill of Lamar Jackson with special guest Shawn Myszka! In addition to having partnered with 139 NFL athletes and many pro bowlers, Shawn also has been deeply investigating and writing about movement on his website Football Beyond The Stats for over a decade. Every year Shawn names "Mover of the Year", and this year it was none other than Lamar Jackson! As a two-time Mover of the Year, Jackson’s ability to adapt, create,...
Jan 29, 2025•1 hr 12 min
Send us a text Welcome to today's show! Today I'm joined by Brian Neff of US Ski and Snowboard! Brian is an athletic development coach for US Ski and snowboard and specifically works with US Paralympic, Alpine and snowboard athletes. Prior to his current position, Brian has had roles in athletic medicine, strength and conditioning, and sports science across many different universities in the collegiate sector, such as Big Ten, Pac12 and Summit League colleges such as University of Minnesota, Uni...
Jan 15, 2025•58 min•Ep. 94
Send us a text Welcome to today's show! Today we are going to be doing another installment of our "6 Minutes of Skill" series. A series where we dive into a topic related to skill acquisition, in under 6 minutes. To catch the last installment of this series, click here. Today, we are going to be discussing information. Specifically, what information is present in your training environments. Hope you enjoy the show! Right now, we offering an After Christmas Sale . It ends on 1/1, so be sure to ta...
Jan 01, 2025•11 min
Send us a text Welcome to today’s episode! My guest today is Brian Gilliam Brian works in hockey and has been working in player development for 39 years. He's the owner of Brian Gillum Hockey, which specializes in player and coach development. He is a Hockey Canada skills coach, coach development coordinator with Hockey Eastern Ontario and a Hockey Canada coach developer. n addition to that, Brian was a presenter at the most recent Sports Women's Skill Conference which is available for purchase....
Dec 11, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 92
Send us a text On this episode I'm joined by Dr. Rob Gray! Rob is a multi-time guest on this podcast and is always a fan favorite. He is truly a giant in the movement community and one of the most knowledgable people around. In this convo, we discuss his latest book Learning to Be an Ecological Coach and what readers can expect to get out of it. He also answers several your questions from social media, including: What's the role of memory in EcoD? Explain the myth of "muscle memory" and of cours...
Nov 27, 2024•53 min•Ep. 91
Send us a text Welcome to today's episode! Today we are kicking off a brand new segment called, "6 minutes of skill" where we dive into a skill related topic in under 6 minutes. These are meant to be very practically driven This constraint serves 2 purposes: To challenge me to be concise yet descriptive in my language, and to give you (the listener) a quick and actionable episode. Today we are going address "Why we don't do drill" ...stay tuned and find out why If you like today's episode, leave...
Nov 13, 2024•8 min•Ep. 90
Send us a text On this episode, I'll and we answer your skill acquisition questions! We asked you on social media to post any burning questions you had and you delivered! Today, we answer those questions. Some of the topics we covered include: Affordances - Can 2 athletes need unique solutions to solve the same problem? What about the phrase "let the environment speak first" - How can we use this framework? Stealing a pass in basketball - What to look for? How to anticipate? A HUGE thank you to ...
Oct 30, 2024•19 min•Ep. 89
Send us a text Welcome to today's show! On this episode, we announce our Movement & Skill Acquisition Award Winner! This is something, we started last year, where we get to honor the best and brightest on the skill acquisition community. We have categories: Lifetime achievement award, practitioner of the year award, and researcher of the year award. Last year Kieth Davids, Alex Sarama, and Rob Gray won the awards respectively. This year Shawn and Tyler got the privilege of honoring the 2024 ...
Oct 16, 2024•43 min•Ep. 88
Send us a text Welcome to today's episode!...My guest today is Stuart Armstrong! Stu is speaker, coach developer, and host of of our favorite podcast, the talent equation Stu has worked as a head of coaching for sport England and , the player development manager for rugby football union and is one of the top experts on skill acquisition. As you could expect with Stu and I, today’s conversation is emergent and wide ranging. We discussed everything from Stu's coaching journey, which is so great to...
Sep 18, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 87
Send us a text On this episode, my guest is Shawn Myszca! Shawn has appeared on this podcast a number of times and I’ll there will be a link to some of his previous appearances so you can catch up with his work! In my humble opinion, this episode tops all of Shawn’s other appearances! Today, we dive into a recap of Shawn’s work with his NFL athletes. Shawn has been an innovator of using an ecological dynamics framework in American football as partnered with NFL athletes for 16 seasons. We discus...
Sep 04, 2024•50 min•Ep. 86
Send us a text Welcome to today's show!..Today, I'm joined by Shawn Myszka! Shawn is the founder of the Sport Movement Skill Conference, which is very relevant for today's topic. Today we are previewing the 2024 SMSC and telling you why we are so excited about this year's theme "Show you work"! Mark you calendar for October 4th and 5th and get your tickets here! If you like today's episode, leave a review here. ...If you want to reach me directly, contact me on social media or shoot me @javier@e...
Aug 28, 2024•25 min•Ep. 85
Send us a text Today we are going to be taking a deep dive into the importance of the athlete environment relationship and why it's so important in training! In order to do this, we will be revisiting some clips from some of the best clips from previous podcast guests. Today, you will hear clips from the following: Dr. Carl Woods Dr. Rob Gray Scott Sievwright In addition to their wisdom, Coach Jav will be adding some commentary to the set the tone. Enjoy the epsiode! One quick note before we get...
Aug 14, 2024•23 min•Ep. 84
Send us a text On this week's episode, Coach Jav is joined again by Yuji Suzuki! Yuji joined us during our last episode and in this one, they dive into the topic of deceleration training! The skill of deceleration is an important one for athletes, but it is traditionally trained in a very decontextualized way. Which is devoid of many of the elements that help skills transfer to the game. This episode dives into how coaches can train deceleration, in a more contextual way, which can lead to great...
Jul 31, 2024•30 min•Ep. 83
Send us a text My Guest today is Yuji Suzuki! Yuji works as a chiropractor and a remote coach to help people of all backgrounds overcome obstacles related to their health and fitness. Over the years, his education has shifted his views on how he can be most helpful to someone dealing with pain and injuries, particularly being informed by the updated models of pain and the ecological dynamics framework for approaching human movement. Yuji was a guest on this show in episode 69, which you can list...
Jul 17, 2024•40 min•Ep. 82
Send us a text Hey everyone, welcome to today's show! On this episode, we are going to be doing a deep dive on practice design! This is a topic many of you are very interested in and passionate about so I figured we would shine a light on it. To do this, I've compiled some clips from some of my amazing guests that will give you their insights on practice design. In addition to that, I will be giving my input on each clip to hopefully guide you towards your own takeaways. I hope you enjoy the sho...
Jul 03, 2024•27 min•Ep. 81
Send us a text My guest for today’s episode is Dr. Martina Navarro. Martina is a native of Brazil and a senior lecture at the university of Portsmouth in the UK. She received her undergrad from the university of São Paulo in Brazil and her PhD from São Paulo and the university of Amsterdam in Netherlands. Her PhD focused on effects of strategies and high levels of stress and anxiety and human cognition and motor control She has also done post doctorate work in , Switzerland was awarded the excel...
Jun 19, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 80
Send us a text Hey, what’s up everybody welcome to adaptable podcast powered by emergence. I’m your host Coach Jav and thank you so much for joining me today. My guess today is Ben Franks Ben Franks is a lecturer in applied coaching science at Oxford Brookes University in the UK. Primarily his work is focused on the visual control of movement in sport during interceptive actions. Ben has also coached in numerous settings in soccer from amateur to professional levels Speaking of his work, Ben has...
Jun 05, 2024•36 min•Ep. 79
Send us a text My guest today is Jason Watson . Who is Jason? Jason is the head women’s volleyball coach at the university Arkansas women’s volleyball. Prior to that he had successful head coaching stance at my alma mater Arizona State and BYU. What’s unique about Jason is that he is a program builder. He took over a program in Arkansas. That is a major conference in the SEC and had not had a lot of historical success and since he took over the program in 2016 he has since taken them to new Heig...
May 15, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 78
Send us a text My guest for today's episode is Tom Parry! Tom is the head of the kinesiology department at Butler University and received his PhD from Indiana University. His research interests are centered on the application of kinesiology theory and concepts to practitioner-based settings such as therapy, coaching and strength & conditioning. His expertise is in skill acquisition, sport psychology and coaching and regularly publishes research in these areas If you like today's episode, lea...
Apr 24, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 77
Send us a text On today’s episode, I’m joined by Alex Sarama! Alex is a 2x guest on the show and appeared on the podcast way back in Episode 33! Since that episode, Alex’s life has changed quite a bit. he found it a company called Transforming Basketball , which is seeking to change the way that basketball is coached. He is also the Director of methodology with London Lyons in England, and also works with the Rip City remix, the G league affiliate team for the Portland, Trailblazers of the NBA. ...
Apr 10, 2024•53 min•Ep. 76
