Rate My Professor Stephen Cobley

Stephen Cobley is a Professor in Sport & Exercise Psychology & Motor Control & Learning in the Discipline of Exercise & Sport Science within the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. He obtained his BSc (Hons) from Loughborough University, MA from Queen's University in Canada, and PhD from Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK. Cobley's research specializations include sports science and exercise, motor control, sport and exercise psychology, exercise physiology, and industrial and organisational psychology including human factors. His work focuses on athlete development, skill acquisition, relative age effects, talent identification and development, biological maturation influences on performance, coaching motivational climates, and performance trajectories in youth and elite sports.

Cobley's contributions have garnered over 13,600 citations according to Google Scholar, underscoring his influence in the field. Key publications encompass the seminal meta-analytical review 'Annual age-grouping and athlete development: a meta-analytical review of relative age effects in sport' (Sports Medicine, 2009), co-editorship of the 'Routledge Handbook of Talent Identification and Development in Sport' (2017), 'Are youth sport talent identification and development systems necessary and healthy?' (Sports Medicine, 2018), 'Removing relative age effects from youth swimming: The development and testing of corrective adjustment procedures' (Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 2019), and recent articles such as 'Why do Some Respond and Develop more from Coaching than Others? A Systematic Review of Coachability and Its Constituent Components' (Sports Medicine, 2025), ''Train less and still similarly improve?' Maturational growth is more influential than training engagement on performance indices development in volleyball' (Journal of Sports Sciences, 2025), and 'The effect of a coach motivational micro-climate intervention in swimming: a mixed-method evaluation' (Frontiers in Psychology, 2026). He supports research collaborations, mentoring, industry projects, and supervision at the University of Sydney, aligning with UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being.