The Talent Equation Podcast

About The Talent Equation Podcast

The Talent Equation podcast is an 'exploration in human advancement'... mostly (but not exclusively) through the lens of sport and physical activity. Each episode is an 'emergent conversation' with practitioners, parents, researchers, authors (or some combination of all three) taking a deep dive into the ways that people can help others to enhance their developmental journey in whatever field they are committed to. These conversations are not mainstream - you will not hear ideas that are provided on standard education courses - they often fly in the face of convention - they will sometimes be controversial and provocative - the show is about doing things differently and doing different things. The people who come on the show are innovators - they are trying to break new ground or swim against the tide of what they see as a broken culture or an ineffective system - what they say will prompt new thinking or new ideas. All that is asked of the listener is to embrace the conversation with an open mind. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-talent-equation-podcast--2186775/support (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-talent-equation-podcast--2186775/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss).

Publisher

Stuart Armstrong

Category

sports

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

24 Feb 2017

Latest episode

22 Mar 2026

Latest episodes

1 of 298 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   22 Mar 2026TRANSCRIPT

   "The coaching police knocked at my door — and I'm glad they did" - a conversation with Simon Harling

   I had a conversation I've been looking forward to for a long time — Simon Harling, author o'f Good Coach, Bad Coach', joins me to explore what it actually means to examine your own coaching practice with honesty, humility, and a willingness to sit with the uncomfortable stuff. Simon's journey started in sports science, moved through fitness coaching into professional football and strength and conditioning, and eventually arrived at a reckoning. He was brilliant with athletes who arrived with intent and clarity — people who just needed directing. But with everyone else? Not so much. That gap forced the question that became a book. What I love about this conversation is that Simon isn't here to tell you what good coaching looks like. He's here to hand you the lens and let you look for yourself. Three key takeaways: You can't coach people who don't feel stable and secure. Before we talk about instructional design, ecological dynamics or any model of practice, Simon argues we have to address whether a coach feels safe enough to make genuine choices. If they're compromised — financially, emotionally, environmentally — everything else is noise. The tension is the work. Whether it's performance versus development, money versus impact, or fear versus hope, the answer isn't to pick a side. It's to name the tension, sit with both poles, and design from there. That's Simon's definition of leadership — and it maps neatly onto ecological thinking. The student picks the teacher. The moment Simon genuinely became a learner wasn't when he got his master's or his accreditations — it was when he became open, curious, and willing. That shift changes everything about how you engage with development, and it applies to athletes and coaches alike. Simon's book is available in paperback, ebook, and audio, and you can connect with him at simonharling.blog. If this conversation sparked something for you, come and continue it with a community of practitioners who are asking the same kinds of questions. Join The Guild of Ecological Explorers — head to www.thetalentequation.co.uk (http://www.thetalentequation.co.uk) and click the 'Join a Learning Group' button Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-talent-equation-podcast--2186775/support (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-talent-equation-podcast--2186775/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss). Ready to explore these ideas further? Join The Guild of Ecological Explorers – a community of practitioners committed to deepening their understanding of ecological dynamics and constraints-led approaches. Head to www.thetalentequation.co.uk (http://www.thetalentequation.co.uk) and click the 'Join a Learning Group' button to become part of this transformative conversation

2. 

   7 Jan 2026

   From caged Tigers...to hunter killers - a conversation with Barry Jones

   In this conversation, I speak with Barry Jones, an ice hockey coach based in Australia who works with the Perth Inferno Women's team. Barry shares his remarkable journey from working with people with disabilities to enbracing the principles of ecological dynamics and aplying them with an eleite level team where his team has just 45 minutes per week to train whilst competing interstate. Three Key Takeaways: Autonomy carries emotional weight: Barry discovered that when athletes transition from being controlled to becoming autonomous decision-makers, they begin to wear failure personally. This emotional shift requires coaches to understand the psychological safety needed when athletes are learning to become independent thinkers, particularly with athletes who may have been conditioned to wait for coach direction. 'Environmental sports' shape how games are played: Barry introduces the concept of "environmental sports"—the idea that sports reflect the cultural and sporting environment they're played in. Ice hockey in Australia is influenced by AFL, basketball, and cricket, creating a different flavour of the game compared to Canada or the US. Understanding these sociocultural constraints is crucial for effective coaching. If you're comfortable, you're not learning: Barry's coaching philosophy centres on creating productive discomfort through battle games with time constraints. Rather than flow drills where players rehearse scripted movements, every training task places athletes in decision-making situations that mirror game pressures. This approach demands that both athletes and coaches feel uncomfortable in their learning. Join The Guild of Ecological Explorers to dive deeper into conversations like this and connect with practitioners exploring constraints-led approaches in their own contexts. Head to www.thetalentequation.co.uk (http://www.thetalentequation.co.uk) and click the 'join a learning group' button. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-talent-equation-podcast--2186775/support (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-talent-equation-podcast--2186775/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss). Ready to explore these ideas further? Join The Guild of Ecological Explorers – a community of practitioners committed to deepening their understanding of ecological dynamics and constraints-led approaches. Head to www.thetalentequation.co.uk (http://www.thetalentequation.co.uk) and click the 'Join a Learning Group' button to become part of this transformative conversation

3. 

   21 Dec 2025

   "Memory is a verb, not a noun" - The Ecological Explorers Christmas Lecture feat Andrew Wilson

   In this special 300th episode of the podcast my good friend Andrew Wilson from Leeds Beckett University delivers a ;Christmas Lecture for members of the Ecological Explorers Club and The Guild of Ecological Explorers. In the lecture he navigates a fascinating discussion about how ecological psychology reconceptualises memory. Rather than viewing memory as stored representations in the brain, Andrew introduces a radical embodied approach where remembering is an active process of reassembling ourselves into the dynamical systems we once were. Drawing on Robin Wilford and Mike Anderson's recent paper on radical embodied memory, he challenges us to think about memory not as a noun but as a verb - not as something we have, but as something we do. Three Key Takeaways: Memory isn't stored, it's reconstructed: The traditional view of encoding, storage, and retrieval misses the point. What remains stable over time isn't a representation tucked away in your brain, but your capacity to become the kind of brain-body-environment system that can manifest that behaviour again. You don't retrieve a memory - you reassemble yourself into something capable of doing what you did before. The entire system remembers, not just the brain: Skilled behaviour emerges from the coupling of brain, body, and environment working together as a dynamical system. When you learn to hit a softball or walk on ice, you're not just changing your brain - you're reorganising your entire perception-action system. This is why muscle memory is misleading language; the remembering happens in the whole assembled system, not in isolated parts. Learning changes what you are, not what you know: Every experience reshapes you as a dynamical system, adding new capabilities to your state space. When you learn a new skill, you become an entirely different kind of system - one that can now do this new thing as well as all your previous capabilities. This explains why confidence knocks can be so disruptive: they don't block access to a stored memory, they reshape your dynamic in ways that make you literally unable to reassemble into the system that could perform that skill. Join The Guild of Ecological Explorers to explore these ideas further and connect with a community of practitioners thinking differently about coaching and development. Head to www.thetalentequation.co.uk and click the 'join a learning group' button. Link to Andrew's Blog post on the paper https://psychsciencenotes.blogspot.com/2025/11/radical-embodied-memory-wilford.html Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-talent-equation-podcast--2186775/support (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-talent-equation-podcast--2186775/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss). Ready to explore these ideas further? Join The Guild of Ecological Explorers – a community of practitioners committed to deepening their understanding of ecological dynamics and constraints-led approaches. Head to www.thetalentequation.co.uk (http://www.thetalentequation.co.uk) and click the 'Join a Learning Group' button to become part of this transformative conversation

Inside a recent episode

"The coaching police knocked at my door — and I'm glad they did" - a conversation with Simon Harling

Published 22 Mar 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] When I'm in that moment, time stands still. It's like flow for me. And I just go into this world and I crave those environments. But the problem is I can't always replicate them. It's almost like they happen by chance. And that's when I'm at my best as well. Because when I'm not at my best is when I'm disengaged. If I'm an answer giver, because I find myself in an environment where a group needs solutions now and the modality is, right, I'm just going to tell you what to do. Why? We're up against it. We need to do that. That's when I'm at my worst. And how do I avoid being in that space? How can I not be in that space? […]

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.6 / 5

58 ratings

Spotify

4.9 / 5

25 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 57 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

77

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

95

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Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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