The Adaptable Athlete Podcast What Happens When Coaching Philosophies Collide? | SMSC 2026 Preview
Feb 25, 2026
Shawn Myszka, co-founder of Emergence and advisor to NFL athletes, previews SMSC 2026 with a focus on debate-style clashes around coaching philosophy. He outlines the “Challenge Point” theme, explains why intellectual sparring matters, and teases debates plus hands-on practicals across MMA, baseball, team sports, and Olympic prep.
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Idea Battle Testing Beats Echo Chambers
- SMSC aims for idea battle-testing, not purely adversarial debate; outcomes help attendees battle-test concepts across sports.
- Shawn expects emergence and self-organization as practitioners share diverse experiences.
Practice Like An Athlete To Learn Coaching Methods
- Join practicals that let attendees act as athletes to experience constraint manipulation firsthand.
- Shawn and Tyler Yerby will run a hands-on session where participants problem-solve like NFL, college, or high school players.
MMA Practicals Built From Ecological Research
- Shawn described assembling an MMA-focused practical led by Scott Sievright and Adam Singer using a prior ecological approach paper as a foundation.
- The session will replicate mixed martial arts constraints across scales to show ecological application.