‘Athletes’, ‘Talents’, and ‘Players’: Conceptual Distinctions and Considerations for Researchers and Practitioners We consider these terms across different sporting communities to highlight the importance of terminological clarity in sport research… 🗣️🌍📕 Sports Medicine ⤵️

What are the key motivations for kids playing sport in your club? Brief results from a survey with all children (via parents) in a local ⚽️ club. Useful as a discussion starter with coaches on philosophy, comparing coach-player motivations, link to research e.g., what is ‘fun’.

Delighted our article "Selection and re-selection throughout a national talent pathway: Exploring longitudinal relative age effects in Northern Ireland male soccer" has now been published! Available open-access here ⬇️ tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

3️⃣ In partnership with San Raffaele Rome Open University, Gabriele Morganti presented our work on birth advantages and relative age effects at the Italian national congress of sports and exercise science (SISMES) conference 🗣️🇮🇹

Relative Age Effects and Place of Early Development Constrain Male Youth Italian Swimmers’ Developmental Experiences is now available open-access here: 👇 mdpi.com/2075-4663/12/1… Sports #sportsmdpi Thanks to all the authors involved! 😊

New PhD Home 🏡 The Commonwealth Games lit up Birmingham in the summer of 2022 and now, one of the most iconic venues from the Games will become our latest specialist space as the Sports and Exercise Sciences labs move into the world-class Alexander Stadium 🏟️

I'm honoured and proud to be part of the RAYSD Lab at Birmingham City University directed and coordinated by Professor Adam L. Kelly, to have the possibility of working alongside a team of talented researchers specialised in researching #youthsport and #athletedevelopment

Very pleased to share our Birmingham City University Research for Athlete and Youth Sport Development (RAYSD) Lab Vision & Mission and Values & Principles… 🤩 We have some super exciting projects that are transforming youth sport settings - privileged to be working with such a fantastic team! 📸

Enjoyable day at the The Cricket Research Network conference ‘Cricket in 2035: What Could It Look Like?’ at the @ECB_Cricket National Cricket Performance Centre. I presented: ‘The Ethnic Profile of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) Girls’ Talent Pathways and Women’s Super League’ 🏏

Still can’t believe I had the incredible opportunity to present at the @ECB_Cricket Performance Centre 🏏 A huge thank you to England and Wales Cricket Board, Birmingham City University, Take Her Lead, The ACE Programme Charity, and SACA for funding my PhD and for trusting me with this research. Grateful for your support!

Thanks to Gennaro Boccia and Paolo R Brustio for the invitation to talk at the forthcoming seminar, Il Talento Sportivo: Fattori Determinanti e Best Practices - Sports Talent: Determinant Factors and Best Practices, organised by the CONI 🇮🇹

I like to call this the 📣 why should I care!? 📣 section, and it was oh so fun to write. A bit meta, a bit inception, a lot of dreaming and maybe some hope for a better future.

Fantastic times and exciting research activities ahead at Birmingham City University 😁

Fantastic day yesterday at the Nottingham Trent University research symposium on Talent Identification and Development: Opportunities and Challenges 🙌 Massive thanks to Fieke Rongen for organising the event and the invitation to discuss our recent TIDES Network and Birmingham City University #RAYSDLab work 👏