Keynote Speakers
Professor Linda Griffin
Learner Engagement through Appreciation and Understanding
Linda is a Professor of sport pedagogy in the College of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her area of research and scholarly interests over the past 28 years have focused on a games-centered approach to teaching and learning sport-related games. A games-centered approach links tactics and skills by emphasising the appropriate timing of skill practice and application within the tactical context of the game. The basic assumption of the approach is that students learn best if they understand what to do before they understand how to do it. The overall goal is to increase students’ tactical awareness, which is the ability to identify tactical problems that arise during a game and to respond appropriately. Responses might be on-the-ball skills, such as passing and shooting, and off-the-ball movements, such as supporting and covering. Linda has numerous publications (i.e. textbooks, edited books, book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles) and has been keynote speaker, made presentations and facilitated workshops on this topic. Linda has received several awards and honors UMass Amherst Exceptional Merit Honor, 2015, Frostburg State University Wellner Scholar, 2012, AERA SIG: Research on Teaching and Learning in Physical Education, Exemplar Paper Award; 2008, and National Association of Sport and Physical Education, Council on Professional Preparation in Physical Education, Physical Education Teacher Education Honor Award, 2005.
Professor Daniel Memmert
Tactical Creativity in Sports – TCA 7.0
In 2019, in the longest Wimbledon singles final to date (4 hours, 57 minutes), 37-year-old Roger Federer was beaten in the fifth set by Novak Djokovic. Although he couldn’t come out on top in this particular final, the following comment on Roger Federer highlights the importance of tactical creativity in tennis: “He is an artist who is impressively creative and he transfers his strong emotionality into the game”. However, I would argue that this should be the case not only for tennis but also for soccer, team handball, basketball, field hockey, softball, volleyball, tennis, badminton, or squash. Tactical creativity is a key performance variable in sports (Memmert, 2015). During my presentation I will first define and discuss the relevance of tactical creativity in invasion sports and then analyze sport activities, coaching, and training environments that foster tactical creativity in youth and professional sports. Here, I will introduce the latest version of the tactical creativity approach (TCA, Memmert, 2018) for team and racket sports, which is based on extensive research and can be regarded as the basis for the development of tactical creativity. Currently, the TCA focuses on seven methodological principles that foster tactical creativity in team sports. All of these principles (1-dimension games, diversification, deliberate practice, deliberate play, deliberate coaching, deliberate memory, deliberate motivation) are discussed in more depth for teaching and coaching PE and club training.
Daniel Memmert is a Professor and Executive Head of the Institute of Exercise Training and Computer Science in Sport, German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany, with a visiting assistant professorship 2014 at the University of Vienna (Austria). He studied physical education for high school teaching (PE, math, sport, and ethic) and has trainer licences in soccer, tennis, snowboard, and skiing. Memmert received his PhD (basic cognition in team sports) and habilitation (creativity in team sports) in sport science from the Elite University of Heidelberg. In 2010 he was awarded 3rd place with Germany's most renowned German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) Science Award. His research is focused on human movement science (cognition and motor activity), sport psychology (attention and motivation), computer science in sports (pattern identification and simulation), talent, children and elite research (Trainings-/PE-Curricula) and research methods.
He has 20 years of teaching and coaching experience, has an H-index of 41 (i10-Index 109), and has authored or co-authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, 20 books and 30 book chapters, and he is an ad-hoc reviewer for several international psychology and sport psychology journals. In addition, he gave more than 100 invited talks, 90 scientific talks on conferences, and more than 100 teaching courses for PE teachers and trainers. He collaborates with researchers from the US, Canada, Brazil, and Spain. He transfers his expertise to business companies, the German Football National Team (DFB), and professional soccer clubs (e.g. Red Bull Salzburg, Red Bull Leipzig, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, Philadelphia Union) and organized the first international master in “Performance Analysis/Game analysis”.
Professor Stephen Harvey
Maximizing student motivation with hybrid models
Stephen Harvey is Professor of Recreation and Sports Pedagogy at Ohio University, USA. He completed his PhD at Oregon State University (2003-2006). In 2016, Dr. Harvey was honoured as a Research Fellow by the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) America due to his extensive contributions to research in both physical education and sports coaching. His main research interest surrounds game-based approaches to teaching and coaching. However, his work in coaching has additionally been focused on the systematic observation of coaching behavior, and how coaching behavior is tied to coaching biographies. Dr. Harvey has maintained an interest in educational technology and co-developed an app (Axis Coaching) that a trained observer can use to investigate and record coaches' behavior. Finally, Dr. Harvey's interest in educational technology has led to him researching with and about teachers and coaches social media use.
Dr. Harvey is a former junior international field hockey coach and currently works with organizations such as USA field hockey and the United States Olympic Committee in a coach development and education role. Recently Dr. Harvey has successfully completed international coach educator/developer qualification and was previously a coach educator with England Hockey, the National Governing Body of Field Hockey in England. Dr. Harvey is also an experienced, licensed soccer and badminton coach and has coached both these sports at the collegiate level in England. In addition, he is also a licensed physical education teacher in England.
Professor Jean Côté
An Evidence-Based Intervention to Help Leaders Adopt Inclusive and Positive Interpersonal Behaviours When Teaching Games for Understanding.
There is growing recognition that effective coaching is not only about developing better athletes, but better people. To achieve this important goal, education programs are needed to help adults foster high-quality interpersonal relationships when interacting with students and athletes. Developed by a team of researchers across Canada and the United States, the Transformational Coaching workshop is an innovative, evidence-informed workshop which is ideally suited for games-based practitioners. The workshop is designed to enhance leadership skills, and ultimately improve the quality of relationships between young athletes and their leaders. By becoming more effective leaders, coaches and game-based practitioners can positively contribute to their athletes’ performance, long-term participation, and personal development. This presentation will revolve around three main sections that summarize some recent research around Transformational Leadership behaviours in sport coaches. The first section will focus on reviewing and examining the concept of coaching effectiveness and to present fundamental principles of Transformational Coaching. The second section will focus on the components of a newly designed Transformational Leadership-based training intervention designed to enhance coaches’ interpersonal behaviors and how these elements align with games-based approaches such as Games Sense and Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). Finally, the third section will be centred around increasing participants’ understanding of the principles of transformational coaching and the implementation of transformational coaching behaviors in sport.
Dr. Jean Côté is professor the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen’s University in Kingston (Canada) where he served as the Director of the School from 2006-2019. His research interests are in the areas of children in sport, coaching, positive youth development, and sport expertise. Dr. Côté is on, or has been on, the editorial boards of the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, The Sport Psychologist, Revue International des Sciences du Sport et de l’Education Physique, International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, International Sport Coaching Journal, and Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy. He was a co-editor of the International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology between 2008-2011. In 2009, Dr. Côté was the recipient of the 4th EW Barker Professorship from the Physical Education and Sport Science department at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. He received the Queen’s University Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision for 2013.
Dr. Côté is regularly invited to present his work to both sport governing organizations and academic conferences throughout the world. He has delivered 60 keynote addresses at major national and international conferences. Since 1999, he has received, as a Principal Investigator, six consecutive grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to fund his research work. His most recent grant involves the use of observation techniques to examine the influence of different types of coach-athlete relationships and the development of a Transformational Coaching workshop that focuses on positive youth development.
Dr. Côté has also assisted different international organizations as a research advisor or through the completion of position papers such as the International Olympic Committee, National Federation of State High School Associations, American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine, Sport Coach UK, National Basketball Association, UNESCO, International Council of Coaching Excellence, the English Premier League, UK Sport, Fédération de Golf Française, and Irish Sport Council.
Further Keynote speakers will be announced in due course