Keith Davids
Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom
Keith Davids is currently Professor of Motor Learning at the Sport and Physical Activity Research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University, investigating skill acquisition, expertise and talent development in sport. Professor Davids is an applied scientist who has extensively researched into learning, development, performance and participation in sport, physical activity and exercise, studying elite to sub-elite and recreational levels of participants. His research is underpinned by the theoretical framework of Ecological Dynamics, examining the application of key concepts to learning design and practice organisation in sport and physical activity, especially in team games like association football and futsal.
He has over 30 years experience of teaching and conducting research with collaborators in UK, Portugal, France, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Finland, Norway and Sweden in related fields like Sports Science, Psychology, Behavioural Neuroscience, Physical Education and Human Movement Science. He has held positions of academic leadership in the UK (Manchester Metropolitan University), Finland (University of Jyvaskyla, Finnish Distinguished Professor), New Zealand (University of Otago), Australia (Queensland University of Technology) and Norway (2020-22: University of Trondheim, Visiting Research Professor).
His applied scientific research has been conducted in collaboration with international sports organisations and national Institutes of Sport in Australia (AIS), New Zealand (NZSI), and England (EIS), as well as KIHU (Finnish Olympic Research Committee) and PESTA (Physical Education and Sports Teachers Association, Singapore).
The evidence from this programme of work has led to the development of the constraints-based coaching approach, which has been adopted by many football clubs and associations across the world, exemplified by the English Football Association’s training programme for professional academy coaches, the Football Association Youth Award (FAYA) scheme. It is core principle #4 in the FAYA professional coach education programme: http://www.thefa.com/learning/courses/fa-advanced-youth-award
