Barnaby is a Lecturer in Sports Coaching in the Department of Sport and Physical Activity, with a research focus on youth sport and talent development. He is a qualified hockey coach and has worked across adult, university, talent and youth club settings in the South and North of England. He sits on the GB Hockey Coaches Advisory Group. Barnaby is also a qualified Physical Education teacher. 

Barnaby’s research centres on the context of talent development. He is particularly interested in the intersection (tensions) of performance and personal development outcomes within talent development environments. This work leads him to focus on the life skills and mental health of youth athletes. Barnaby conceptualised a model of holistic talent development from his PhD that included data from a large number of talent development pathways across Europe with a focus on athlete, parent and practitioner samples. As a pragmatic researcher, he draws upon a wide range of theories and methods to inform his work. His most significant project to date was an ethnography with a professional cricket club in the UK.

Barnaby’s experience in knowledge-exchange has included projects with the International Olympic Committee, European Commission, FIFA, UK Coaching, BASES and GB Hockey. Much of this work has involved the development of coach education resources for online courses, integrating novel research. Prior to Edge Hill University, Barnaby completed his PhD at Leeds Beckett University in conjunction with ICOACHKIDS – a coach education body and global movement affiliated with the International Council for Coaching Excellence. In this role, Barnaby developed coach education content shared across a global network of coaches, organised conferences, hosted expert speakers, and supported international collaborations with organisations including NIKE, Royal Belgium Football Association, NOC*NSF, and Sport Ireland.