Training Science Podcast

Dr Nick Winkelman, Irish Rugby’s athletic performance and science leader and former EXOS education director, explores what makes coaching truly effective. He discusses scaling coach education, building connected performance systems across Ireland’s provinces, integrating GPS and shared standards, and designing purposeful warm-ups. The conversation also dives into external cues, analogies, athlete-centered language, and why communication must adapt to the individual.

Dr Charlie Davids, a muscle physiologist, sports scientist, and competitive HYROX athlete, explores what separates faster racers. Topics include aerobic capacity, lactate threshold, critical speed, pacing, station technique, muscular endurance, and the strength needed to make stations submaximal. He also discusses blood-flow-restriction training, race-specific station-run sessions, periodization, and why CrossFit athletes may need more running.

Mattia Modonutti, an elite football performance leader who has worked with Real Madrid, Aspire Academy, the Italian Football Federation, and Inter Milan, discusses building better players and performance systems. Topics include leading multidisciplinary teams, developing staff, individualizing training loads, protecting long-term player development, profiling the whole athlete, training capacities beyond match demands, and applying evidence with practical experience.

Yannick Sondermann, a PhD researcher in endurance physiology, and Dr Lars Schwalm, a physician and exercise researcher, challenge fractional utilization’s status as a key performance determinant. They examine VO2max, movement economy, durability, thresholds, and training effects. The discussion also covers strength training, practical testing, RPE-guided plans, repeated benchmarks, and how AI could reshape endurance analysis.

Dr Ted Polglaze is an Australian sports scientist and physiologist whose career spans eight Olympic campaigns and numerous elite sports. He recalls the journey from VHS tapes and stopwatches to GPS tracking. Topics include metabolic and mechanical power, acceleration, direction, “erraticness,” missing time data, and why technology must be grounded in sporting reality.

Brad Culp, an endurance-sports journalist and author of The Norwegian Method, explores Norway’s high-volume, controlled-intensity approach to endurance training. He and Paul Laursen discuss double-threshold sessions, lactate monitoring, fat metabolism, and making easy training truly easy. They also dive into heat and altitude preparation, Christian Blummenfelt’s Olympic strategy, and Norway’s athlete-development culture.

Dr Jørgen Melau, a Norwegian paramedic and cold-water safety researcher, draws on rescue work and Norseman triathlon experience. He explores cold shock, rapid muscle failure, hypothermia, afterdrop, cardiac risks, and swimming-induced pulmonary edema. The conversation also examines wetsuit fit, preparation for extreme races, and how research is making endurance events safer.

Mollie Brewer, a sports scientist and computer science researcher at the University of Florida, explores the fast-changing world of athlete data. She discusses wearable technology, AI, data literacy, training-load management, and the risks of chasing metrics. The conversation also examines privacy, interface design, integrated athlete data, and how technology can support coaches without replacing human judgment.

Dr Ludwig Rappelt, exercise scientist and postdoc who studied Hyrox performance across seven seasons. He explains that running makes up nearly half the race time. Strength stations often separate stronger from weaker performances. They explore VO2max, VO2 kinetics, pacing, venue variability, and where training and research can still boost Hyrox outcomes.

What happens when you stop looking at performance through the lens of individual disciplines and start putting performance itself at the centre?Katie Slattery and Jamie Stanley unpack their Performance Centred Practice framework, developed from years of experience across the Australian high performance system. They explore how coaches, sport scientists, practitioners, and athletes can build a shared understanding of what performance actually requires, then connect those demands directly to training and decision making.The conversation covers shared mental models, productive disagreement within interdisciplinary teams, improving performance meetings, defining training quality beyond simple physical metrics, and creating better feedback loops between what happens in training and what ultimately matters in competition.Today’s speakers:Dr Martin Buchheit https://martin-buchheit.net/    Katie Slattery https://profiles.uts.edu.au/Katie.SlatteryJamie Stanley https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-stanley-a5a7265b/Athletica U https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLu7L8NU083obOOZnkl9qd1lxr5zfVKTkL&si=YkGXTSQsJcYBUPiD