My Top 5s of 2015 – PE, Youth Sport and Education

Lists have a deep appeal to me. They provide information that is categorised, analysed and quantified. This makes for, in my opinion, a much more enjoyable reading experience at times. Lists can help to overcome what is known as the “paradox of choice”. The more information we have at our disposal and therefore have to process, the worse we tend to feel emotionally. It has been observed that when the amount of conscious cognitive workload is reduced, the better we actually feel! This is because the faster we can decide on something, for example what we are going to read, the happier we may become. So here are a few recommendation lists for Physical Education, Youth Sport and Education. Hopefully you might find something new to add to your own lists for 2016.

Tweeters. These Tweeters are generous with their time, share thought provoking articles and ask challenging questions. They have influenced my thinking over the course of the last year.

Physical Education	Youth Sport	Education
Shane Pill	Stuart Armstrong	Laura McInerney
Tom Brush	Si Naiby	Mark Healy
Sue Whatman	Mark Upton	Mario Lopez
Sarah Gietschier-Hartman	Coach Reed	Harry Fletcher Wood
Nick Hill	Al Smith	Dawn Cox

Bloggers. These bloggers consistently write posts that educate, elucidate and agitate my thinking. Their posts have spun my head so I must reaffirm or change the path that I am on to find balance once again.

Physical Education	Youth Sport	Education
Mike Prior at the PE Circle	Anne Josephson at Jag Gym	Andy Tharby at Reflecting English
Mel Hamada at Mel Hamada.com	Sean D’Arcy at Right Back on the Bench	Ruth Powley at Love Learning Ideas
Vicky Goodyear at PE and Sport Vlog	Keith Lyons at Clyde Street	Pedro De Bruyckere at The Economy of Meaning
Robert Shaw at Physical Literacy	Mark O’Sullivan at FootBlogBall	Nancy Gedge at Not So Ordinary Diary
Dr Justin O’Connor at Health Physical Education	Get Sport IQ at Get Sport IQ	Marc Smith at Psychology in Education

Books. I spent so much time in 2014 reading blogs that I almost stopped reading books altogether. The books below are part of a resurgence of reading in my life. Some I have read for the first time, others I have revisited after some time apart, however all have had leverage on my approach this year.

Physical Education	Youth Sport	Education
Non-Linear Pedagogy in Skill Acquisition by Chow et al	Sacred Hoops by Phil Jackson	The Organised Mind by Daniel Levitin
Advances in Rugby Coaching by Light et al	You Havent taught until they have learned by Swen Nater	Making Every lesson count by Shaun Allison and Andy Tharby
Game Sense by Richard Light	Coaching Skills Handbook by Jenny Rogers	Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
Physical Literacy through the life course by Margret Whitehead	5 Dysfunctions of a team by Patrick Lencioni	How we learn by Benedict Carey
Physical Education Futures by David Kirk	Athlete Centred Coaching by Lynn Kidman	This much I know about love over fear by John Tomsett

Blog Posts. These are simply blog posts that have resonated with me. I have shared them with my partner, my department or colleagues at school. They have initiated conversations, either with myself or with others, which can be a starting place for change.

Physical Education	Youth Sport	Education
Sharing our Failures by Mel Hamada	9 reasons it is hard to let kids fail (and how a butterfly can help) by Anne Josephson	Ethos, Logos and Pathos: three ways to become a teacher again by Andy Tharby
Simple, Complicated and Complex by Shane Pill	Why Do Game-Sense Coaches Get It So Wrong When They Could Be Getting It So Right? by Dan Cottrell	Be a Man by Nancy Gedge
The Gamification of PE by Lee Andersen	Why are we talking about winning or losing when we should be talking about learning? by Mark O’Sullivan	The McNamara Fallacy and the Problem with Numbers in Education by Carl Hendrick
What is at the heart of PE? by Dr Justin O’Connor	Our Game by Keith Lyons	Learning to be homeless by Laura McInerney
More than the distance. STAD in Athletics by Vicky Goodyear	Dear Coaches: Throw Away Your 1000 Drills by Todd Beane	Anything Works by Dr Richard Farrow