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Emotion has long been treated as noise to keep out of practice until a skill is stable.
In this month's members' paper review, we revisit Headrick et al. (2015): a wider range of emotions can be a sign that learning is underway.
Members only: theconstraintscollective.com
"Why are our defensive linemen running around a plastic hoop on the ground to hit a static practice dummy?"
Tyler on the question he started asking: it isn't specifying information, so players become attuned to the wrong information.
Archive, Ep 5 🎧 buzzsprout.com/2354827/episo…
Keith and I chatted about the NBA calendar: 82 games in 170 days, almost a game every two days, plus travel. The analytics show the probability of a win goes up when there's at least 48 hours between games.
From our July catch-up 🎧 buzzsprout.com/2354827/episo…
Noah's players never practised 5v5 together during the week. Small-sided games built on shared principles, then on the weekend "they would play this beautiful basketball together."
From the archive, Ep 4 🎧 buzzsprout.com/2354827/episo…
190 in Durban. 28% of balls left alone.
Knowing where your off stump is starts early. As a teenager Matt Renshaw played 'Mind the Gap', one of the games in Dynamic Coaching: A Playbook for Cricket Coaches.
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"If they read the play quicker... they're going to get way more gain than they would from a 12-week sprint program."
Ben on the moment, as an S&C coach at a WAFL club that was 0-6, that turned him to skill acquisition.
🎧 buzzsprout.com/2354827/episo…
"They were decoupled from the game by instruction."
James Vaughan on watching a young team's wide players told to stay high and wide: not attuned to the ball, teammates or opposition. Just standing there.
From the archive, Ep 3 🎧 buzzsprout.com/2354827/episo…
Out now on The Constraints Collective, Ep 111: Adam Singer, Part Two.
"Durability is almost like a superpower." A staph infection pulled Adam's fighter Forrest out of a fight he'd have lost. Two fights later, he was fighting for a world title.
🎧 buzzsprout.com/2354827/episo…
The Constraints Collective retweeted
In this bonus episode, we celebrate Dr. Ian Renshaw of the @ConstraintsColl, recipient of Emergence’s 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award in Movement & Skill Acquisition.
Ian shares his journey and insights on coaching and athlete learning!
Listen: theadaptableathlete.com
From The Constraints Collective podcast: Ian and Keith review their conversation with Daniel on rebuilding PE.
Keith: the practitioners who impress him admit they've been turning the handle on traditional practice. Context is everything.
🎧 Ep 96: buzzsprout.com/2354827/episo…
"I'm getting really frustrated with 'blocked is cognitive and variable is ecological', because it's not. It just simply isn't." Ian, Sept Members' Catch-Up
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"We call it the constraints-led approach. But really, for me, it was always the self-organisation under constraint idea."
Ian on why self-organisation deserves more credit than the name gives it.
From the archive, Ep 2 🎧 buzzsprout.com/2354827/episo…
May round-up: Ian and Keith on why blocked putting practice sets the wrong expectations (pros don't hole 10 out of 10 from ten feet), reading greens, and Keith on Ludovic Seifert's ice-climbing research.
buzzsprout.com/2354827/episo…
1/ Adam Singer's entire coaching philosophy compresses to one binary test: is the training alive, or isn't it? The moment you ask a partner to modify their resistance, it's not sparring anymore — it's something else.
2/ That's not a machismo stance, it's a scientific one. "The only thing we know for real is what we test," he says. Sparring is the experiment. Everything else in the gym exists to prepare for it.
"They act like scientists. They're not interested in things that don't work."
Keith on coaches: always tweaking, refining, looking for adaptations. The constraints approach brings evidence and theory to that way of working.
From the archive, Ep 1 🎧 buzzsprout.com/2354827/episo…
"Every day we constrain something in practice, based on the last match — creating opportunities so players can read the game." From the archive: Ana Ramos. buzzsprout.com/2354827/episo…
Lamine Yamal told The Guardian he tries to make sure defenders can't mechanise him. Ian Renshaw on why that's a practice design question, not a talent one. Blog: link in bio. Substack: substack.com/@ianrenshaw
#ConstraintsLedApproach #EcologicalDynamics
1/ Before the 2003 World Cup, Clive Woodward told a general audience: if we win this with a six-foot pink furry dice hanging from a tree by the training ground, everyone will want one. This month's TCC catch-up is about why that keeps happening.
2/ Ian & Keith on referees getting more decisions right over time, not fewer (the scrutiny just got louder), and on "our DNA" as what Keith calls a motif: language that sounds like an explanation but short-circuits ever having to give one. Muscle memory is another.