Dr Gavin Lawrence

Senior Lecturer in Sport & Exercise Science

Affiliations

School of Psychology & Sport Science

Contact info

Room 207, School of Psychology and Sport Science Exercise, George Building

Email: g.p.lawrence@bangor.ac.uk

Tel: 01248388283

Bio:

I am a senior lecturer conducting Sport and Exercise Science research within the Institue of the Psychology of Elite Performance. This aspect of Performance Psychology research resides in effective coaching, performance development and expertise. I am particularly interested in investigating how we can accelerate the journey to expertise via adopting a multidisaplinary approach to understading the performer. Throughout this research, I work with high profile Sports Organisations e.g., UK Sport, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Weightlifting Wales, England Athletics and UK Deaf Sport.

Research

I am a member of the Institute for the Psychology of Elite Performance. My Main interests are two fold: Motor Control and Learning, with a particular focus on target directed aiming; Effective coaching practices, performance expertise and talent development. The primary aspect the latter interest is to better understand expertise development and ways to accelerate individuals towards expert performance. Be this through behavioural or Psychological practices. I also

My interests reside in ascertaining how practice structure and processes influence our understanding of effective coaching and talent development. For example; the stress-performance relationship and how anxiety related choking can be prevented together with how the training environment can be structured to optimally achieve this; what are the discriminating factors between those who obtain and those who don’t obtain expertise and super elite status; the influence of virtual reality use and its transfer to real life; focus of attention during novice and expert performance; and optimal ways to structure practice to accelerate learning.

I have secured external funding for this Sport and Exercise Science research for the multidisciplinary Pathway2Podium project, the England and Wales Cricket Board, and Weightlifting Wales amongst others. These projects take a multidisciplinary approach to understanding talent development.

Contact Info

Room 207, School of Psychology and Sport Science Exercise, George Building

Email: g.p.lawrence@bangor.ac.uk

Tel: 01248388283

Bio:

Grant Awards and Projects

Dates	Award Holder (s)	Funding Body	Title	Value
April 2019	Lawrence G.P (PI), and Jones, B.	ESRC	Identification of game changers in cricketers; evidenced based insights to enhance the development of the next generation	£9727
April 2019	Lawrence G.P (PI)	ESRC	40 years of Sport Science at Bangor; a showcase event.	£8500
Oct 2018	Gottwald V.M, Lawrence G.P., & Khan, M.A	ESRC DTP – UK Deaf Sport and England Athletics	Enhancing equality in sport: informing the development of a standardised starting system for deaf athletes	£32,215.00
Oct 2017	Lawrence G.P., (PI) & Hardy, L	UK Sport	This is a PhD studentship award that forms three-quarters of a larger research project titled: A prospective study of the developmental biographies of Great British Pathway athletes.	£202,785.00
Aug 2017	Lawrence G.P., (PI) & Hardy, L.	England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)	Investigation of the development pathways of England’s elite Spin Bowlers	£5155.00
Apr 2017	Hardy, L & Lawrence, G.P (C-PI)	ESRC (DTP) – UK Sport	A prospective study of the developmental biographies of Great British Pathway athletes.	£64,430.00
Apr 2016	Lawrence, G.P. (PI), & Gottwald, V.M.	European Social Fund; Knowledge Economy Skill Scholarship II (KESS II); Welsh Weightlifting	PhD research programme designed to investigate the Talent Identification of Weightlifting.	£48,537.00
Sep 2015	Lawrence, G.P. (PI), & Oliver, S.O.	European Social Fund; Knowledge Economy Skill Scholarship II (KESS II): Surf Snowdonia	MRes research programme designed to investigate effective skill acquisition interventions within inland surfing facilities.	£15,233.00
Apr 2014	Lawrence, G.P (PI), & Roberts, R.	European Social Fund; Access to Masters (ATM): SurfLines	4 separate research project ATMs to Investigate the effects of contextual interference in the learning of outdoor activity skills	£63,325.00
Mar 2014	Hardy, L., & Lawrence, G.P. (C-PI)	England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)	4 year PhD research programme designed to investigate the practice and training histories of elite and super elite cricketers	£79,199.00
Jun 2013	Lawrence, G.P. (PI)	European Social Fund; Access to Masters (ATM): MENCAP	3 separate ATMs to investigate the effects of contextual interference in the Down syndrome population	£47,120.00
Jun 2012	Lawrence, G.P. (PI) & Hardy, J.T.	European Social Fund; Access to Masters (ATM): MENCAP	4 separate research project ATMs investigate the effects of varying foci of attention in the acquisition and learning of motor skill in the Down syndrome population.	£63,325.00
Nov 2011	Lawrence, G.P. (PI), & Hayes, A.	European Social Fund; Access to Masters (ATM): MENCAP	to investigate the barriers to sports club participation for individuals with learning disabilities; 2) to investigate the effects of performance pressure on the motor control of individuals with Down syndrome.	£21,782.00
Aug 2011	Smeeton, N., Ford, P., Lawrence, G.P. (CI), Jackson, R., & Williams, M.A.	BASES and ICSEMIS	Successful pre-Olympic symposium. Anticipation in Sport	£1,500.00
Apr 2011	Laing, S.L., & Lawrence, G.P (C-PI).	‘Polar’ Electro Oy Professorintie, 5, 90440 Kempele, Finland	Research program focused on whether psychomotor speed tracks increases in training stress similarly to orthostatic heart rate profiles, R-R interval heart rate variability and blood parameters	£21,733.00
Nov 2010	John, N., Lawrence, G.P. (CI), & S. Watt	European Social Fund; Knowledge Economy Skill Scholarship: Rugby Innovations	PhD: An Advanced Virtual Environment for Rugby Skills Training	£59,469.00
Nov 2009	Lawrence, G.P. (PI), & Khan, M.A.	European Social Fund; Knowledge Economy Skill Scholarship: MENCAP	PhD: Enhancing the motor skills of individuals with a learning disability; increasing functional independence.	£58,963.00

Other

Invited presentations/workshops:

1. Sport Wales Skill Acquisition workshop to Perfromance Directors and Practitioners. Welsh Institute of Sport, June 2017

2. Sport Wales Anxiety and Perfromance workshop to coaches. Welsh Institue of Sports, June

3. Welsh Rugby Union (WRU). A series of four separte Skill Acquisition workshops on instruction, practice structure, pressured perfromance, and feedback delivery. Presented to Elite coaching staff at the National Centre of Excellence, October through December 2016.

4. Training with anxiety; the story so far. Midcareer Researcher lecture delivered at the Expertise and Skill Acquisition Network (ESAN). Sheffield institute of Sport (EIS) April, 2015.

5. Welsh Yachting Associations annual Big Weekend for elite and squad coaches. ‘Effective coaching; the role of practice structure in obtaining expertise.’ Plas Menai Centre of Excellence for Sailing (February 2014).

6. Discussion panelist at the Expertise and Skill Acquisition Network. ‘Skill Acquisition interventions’ – Biz Price (GB performance director for synchronised swimming). English Institute of Sport (High Performance Centre) Bisham Abbey. April 2013.

7. Health and Well Being public lecture series part funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (hefcw) and The National Leadership and Innovation Agency for Healthcare. Title: ‘Performance pressure is like chocolate: some people can devour as much as they want without any negatives whilst others suffer at the mere mention of the word!’. Venue Cymru, Llandudno, November 2012.

8. International Convention on Science, Education and Medicine in Sport (ICSEMIS). Pre Olympic symposium ‘Elite performance: Anticipation skill in Olympic sports: advances in theory and practice’. Glasgow, July 2012

9. Expertise and Skill Acquisition Network (ESAN). ‘The positive effects of practicing with anxiety.’ Loughborough, April 2011.

10. Ninewells Hospital and Medical Centre, Dundee. Workshop delivered to health professionals focusing on applying Motor Control and Learning research within the rehabilitation and medical settings. November 2008.

Overview

I am a member of the Institute for the Psychology of Elite Performance. My Main interests of Sport and Exercise Science research centre on the performance psychology of effective coaching practices, performance expertise and talent development. The primary aspect this research is to better understand expertise development and ways to accelerate individuals towards expert performance. Be this through behavioural or Psychological practices.

Teaching and Supervision

Module Leader:

JXH1050 Level 4 Scientific Enquiry

JXH1056 Level 4 Talent Identification and Development

JXH4213 Level 7 Talent Development

JXH4105 Level 7 Accelerating Expertise

Other teaching and supervision roles:

BSc 2nd year Project Proposal

BSc 3rd year Research Project

BSc 3rd year Dissertation

MSc Supervised Experience

MSc Research Project Proposal

MSc Research Project

Education / academic qualifications

2012 - Professional , Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
2005 - PhD , The planning and execution of target directed movement (psycho-motor control) , Bangor University (2001 - 2004)
2000 - BSc , Sports Science 1st Class , Bangor University (1997 - 2000)