In early 2014, I spent several months working in the Institute for Sport, Exercise and Active Living at Australia’s Victoria University. I met ISEAL researchers including Professor David Bishop, Professor Damian Farrow, and Professor Glenn McConnell. Their research led me to examine findings on deliberate practice, elite performance, and expertise acquisition.
More recently, I’ve begun working with Victoria University researchers on business development activities to develop new research ventures. Helen Hawkes in today’s Australian Financial Review suggests that the best training for such business development are adventure challenges which provide flow experiences (with a nod to Polish-American psychologist Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi). From digital detoxes and goal-setting to mental toughness and resilience Hawkes’ interviewees espouse the kind of immersive experiences that ISEAL researchers — and proprietary traders I have dialogued with — also value.
For me, Victoria University’s killer app is how elite performance can be applied beyond competitive sport to other knowledge domains. For an example see Professor Damian Farrow’s co-edited Routledge Handbook of Sport Expertise (New York: Routledge, 2015).