Joe Baker

Faculty & School/Dept.

Faculty of Health - School of Kinesiology & Health Science

Degrees

PhD - 2003
Queen's University
Kingston

Selected Publications

1.       Baker, J., Cobley, S., Schorer, J. & Wattie, N. (2017). The Routledge handbook of talent identification and athlete development. London: Routledge.

2.       Baker, J. & Farrow, D. (2015). The Routledge handbook of sport expertise. London: Routledge.

3.       Johnston, K., Farah, L., Ghuman, H., & Baker, J. (2022). To draft or not to draft? A systematic review of North American sports’ entry draft. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 32, 4-17.

4.       Mosher, A., Fraser-Thomas, J., Till, K., & Baker, J. (2022). Revisiting early sport specialization: What’s the problem? Sports Health, 14, 13-19.

5.       Dehghansai, N., Pinder, R., & Baker, J. (2021). Pathways in Paralympic sport: An in-depth analysis of athletes’ developmental trajectories and training histories. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly. Advance online publication.  

6.       Lath, F., Faber, I., Koopman, T. Baker, J & Schorer, J. (2021). Focusing on the coach’s eye - Towards a working model of coach decision-making in talent selection. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 56, 102011.

7.       Wilson, S., Young, B., Hoar, S., & Baker, J. (2021). Further evidence for the validity of a survey for self-regulated learning in sport practice. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 56, 101975.

8.       Young, B.W., Eccles, D., Williams, A.M., & Baker, J. (2021). K. Anders Ericsson, deliberate practice and sport: Contributions, collaborations and controversies. Journal of Expertise, 4, 169-189.

9.       Baker, J., Wilson, S., Johnston, K., Koenigsberg, A., de Vegt, S. & Wattie, N. (2020). Talent research in sport 1990-2018: A scoping review. Frontiers in Psychology: Performance Science, 11, 607710

10.      Baker, J., Mosher, A., & Fraser-Thomas, J. (2021). Is it too early to condemn early sport specialization? British Journal of Sports Medicine, 55, 179-180.

Affiliations

Association for Psychological Science
Member

Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology
Member

International Society for Sport Psychology
Member

North American Society for Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity
Member

Service/Community Activities

Canadian Paralympic Committee
Advisor

Canadian Sport Institute Ontario
Skill Acquisition Advisor

Wheelchair Basketball Canada
Asvisor

Awards

Paper of the Year - Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly - 2017

International Award of Excellence - Journal of Sport and Soceity - 2011

Visiting Professorship - University of Muenster, Germany - 2011

President - Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology - 2008

Visiting Research Fellow - Leeds Metropolitan University - 2006

Visiting Scholar - Australian Institute of Sport - 2007

Franklin Henry Young Scientist Award - 2000

Supervision

Currently available to supervise graduate students: No

Currently taking on work-study students, Graduate Assistants or Volunteers: No

Available to supervise undergraduate thesis projects: No

Current Research

My research focuses on understanding sport skill development, primarily in two main areas.  The first considers the diverse factors influencing athlete skill development.  Currently, I am examining the development and maintenance of skilled performance in a range of able-bodied and Paralympic sports.  For this research I work with leading athlete develoment systems around the world to advance our understanding of how someone gets to, and stays at, the highest levels of performance.

The second area focuses on notions of 'talent'. Despite the prominence of this word in public discourse, we don't have a good understanding of what this word means and/or how it affects the way we deliver sport programming. Our research in this area concentrates on improving decisions made in talent identification and seleciton settings. This involves working with leaders in high performance and professional sport to understand the efficiency and effectiveness of various approaches/models to talent evaluation and development.