Kerry MacDonald PhD

Big facts guy. Views expressed are my own & rarely proofread, sorry 🇨🇦

[Kerry MacDonald PhD @Kerryjmac]

Organizations with great "Culture", simply have a clear purpose, aligned standards of behaviour, and a leadership team that understands their role. Great coaches are then accountable officers of the essential standards & principles that we see play out within their teams.

[Rod Whiteley @RodWhiteley]

Lovely summary of the evidence available for the different recovery methods & mechanisms available from @ShonaHalson
Unfortunately social media is making the top of this pyramid the most popular despite the lack of evidence
V. diff effects of acute v long term use

[Kerry MacDonald PhD @Kerryjmac]

A great study and good evidence to be considering maturation within talent id/development pathways.

[Sian Allen @DrSianAllen]

If you're working in talent development, considering maturation seems pretty important!

Interesting results here from 20 yrs of NHL data👇

Only 19% of successful juniors (U16 national team) were early maturing.

Whereas 40% successful adults (NHL players) were early maturing.

[Kerry MacDonald PhD @Kerryjmac]

@highest_octane @DrSianAllen Start at 7, specialize at 15

[Kerry MacDonald PhD @Kerryjmac]

Great post by @DrSianAllen. Important for volleyball clubs these days to realize that we are a late specialization sport. Don’t force kids to choose at younger levels.

[Sian Allen @DrSianAllen]

What age do world-class athletes start their sport & what age do they specialize in it?

Data from 2838 athletes suggests 5 types of sports:

1️⃣ early specialization
2️⃣ intermediate start & specialization
3️⃣ late specialization
4️⃣ late start
5️⃣ late start & specialization

[Kerry MacDonald PhD @Kerryjmac]

“it is difficult to accept that the best learning road is slow, and that doing poorly now is essential for better performance later. It is so deeply counterintuitive that it fools the learners themselves” - David Epstein

[Kerry MacDonald PhD @Kerryjmac]

A reliable way of making people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition because familiarity is not easily distinguished from the truth.

[Howard Luks MD @hjluks]

Living longer/better doesn’t require a complicated routine.
-don’t smoke
- don’t drink more than 5/week
- move
- move more
- keep moving
- push and pull heavy things
- sleep
- have friends
- find something that motivates you to get out of bed in the morning.
- eat food that you prepare. Ignore most of the nutritional noise online.
- maintain a normal blood pressure
- maintain a normal ApoB
- maintain a normal A1c
- don’t like cold plunges.. good, avoid them. Don’t buy the nonsense.
- if you don’t start w the above, then the supplements you take are irrelevant.
- are you optimizing the above? No? Then rapa isn’t going to do much either.
- tracking your sleep? Maybe that’s making your sleep worse.
- feel better when you see a high “recovery” score? Feel worse if you don’t? Yep… ignore these black box algorithm scores. They’re nonsense.
Simple strategies work.
Longevity Simplified ;-)

https://t.co/85lq4pyIFT

[Kerry MacDonald PhD @Kerryjmac]

Pops strikes again. This is why I love this guy: https://t.co/9ZdRqSbKR4

[Sian Allen @DrSianAllen]

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication".

[Kerry MacDonald PhD @Kerryjmac]

@TrackCoachMJR @stevemagness Thanks for insight. I find this very interesting. Is there a country that is doing it right?

[Kerry MacDonald PhD @Kerryjmac]

@TrackCoachMJR @stevemagness Perhaps, although from my experience in Canada, working for a NSO is rarely the ticket to riches (excluding Hockey Canada perhaps). The decisions I see being made are frequently about how to maximize performance with limited resources. Because ⬆️🥇 = ⬆️💰 from OTP

[Kerry MacDonald PhD @Kerryjmac]

@hubermanlab stock value is plummeting in my books due to stuff like this. Cherry picking bad research to fit a narrative, or worse, trusting the authors statements without looking at the actual methods and results. #BeBetter

[Stuart Ritchie @StuartJRitchie]

-Sample size: 49
-p-values: 0.045, 0.052, 0.029, 0.032 (i.e. prima facie p-hacking)
-Scientific value: very little
-Number of views on Twitter regardless: 3,000,000

Doesn’t this Huberman guy have any standards for the stuff he promotes to his huge audience?

(via @alexabelson9)

[Kerry MacDonald PhD @Kerryjmac]

“We are prone to overestimate how much we understand about the world and to underestimate the role of chance in events. Overconfidence is fed by the illusory certainty of hindsight.” - Daniel Kahneman.

[Kerry MacDonald PhD @Kerryjmac]

@bittencourt_nfn Congrats Natalia!

[Job Fransen @JobFran3]

I worked with @Dan_Cottrell at @RugbyCoachWeek to outline a clear distinction for coaches between sessions aimed improving performance and those aimed at improving learning, and when each type of session could be useful. You can find it here: https://t.co/pHrToou9RZ 1/2

[Kerry MacDonald PhD @Kerryjmac]

@andyhayher Just a bunch of children that are more concerned with popularity than actually helping people.

[Kerry MacDonald PhD @Kerryjmac]

@ShakeyWaits If they (coaches) haven’t learnt (of a better way to develop motor skills), then we (as coach educators) haven’t taught. It is on us to provide better evidence, clearer language or more context specific examples. We carry the burden to create change.

[Kerry MacDonald PhD @Kerryjmac]

Turned out as well as I thought it might, sadly: https://t.co/7ruEpsvevV

[Kerry MacDonald PhD @Kerryjmac]

I'm a massive @SteveNash fan but IMO not even a 2x MVP should be trying to fill their "coaching itch" as an NBA head coach. Playing experience is an accelerant but not a hall pass. I take lots of flight but I'm no pilot. Respect the craft.
https://t.co/Z0qYkqoglL