The Athlete Development Show

Dr John Alder (@JohnAlderWRU) is a development practitioner whose life mission is to help individuals, teams, and organisations flourish while promoting culture-driven leadership. He has worked with Professional, Olympic, and Paralympic sports on and across six continents, throughout the pathway, from regional development through to a World Cup and Olympic Games. John is currently the Head of Player Development at the Welsh Rugby Union, responsible for cultivating a development rich environment for Wales’s most promising female and male rugby players on their journey from talented juniors to world class international performers. In this conversation, we discuss how to manage change, the human side of development and performance, how best we can support leaders and coaches to develop inspired and inspiring people and build great teams, and much more. Enjoy!Sign up for Craig's newsletter (Beyond the Game) at athletedevelopmentproject.com/newsletterGet Craig to speak at your club or school here. Connect with Craig:Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrisonTwitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrisonSupport the show

Dr Ffion Thompson is a post-doctoral researcher in youth athletic development at Leeds Beckett University in the UK, where she is module lead on the science of sport performance course, as well as a leader within the Centre of Child and Adolescent Physical Literacy. Ffion also serves as Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Queen Ethelburga’s School, Pathway Strength and Conditioning Coach at Leeds Rhinos Netball, and Women’s Head of Athletic and Physical Development at Wales Lacrosse. Ffion's focus lies in holistic and dual career development, aiming to enhance experiences and opportunities for children and adolescents. In this conversation, Ffion shares some of her latest research looking at the academic, athletic, psychosocial and psychological impacts of being a sport school student-athlete, and how she is implementing the findings in her own work as a school strength and conditioning coach.  Enjoy!Sign up for Craig's newsletter (Beyond the Game) at athletedevelopmentproject.com/newsletterGet Craig to speak at your club or school here. Connect with Craig:Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrisonTwitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrisonSupport the show

On the show today, I’m speaking with Regional Coach Development Manager at New Zealand Cricket, Christian Thurston.  In this conversation, Christian shares his story of successfully transitioning from a professional opera singer into coach development. Enjoy!Sign up for Craig's newsletter (Beyond the Game) at athletedevelopmentproject.com/newsletterGet Craig to speak at your club or school here. Connect with Craig:Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrisonTwitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrisonSupport the show

On the show today, I’m speaking with Health and Physical Education Lecturer at Federation University in Victoria, Australia, Dr Riki Lindsay. Riki has a PhD in Human Movement Science from Victoria University, a Master’s degree in Sport and Exercise Science from Auckland University of Technology and he is currently working towards a second Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology.  In this conversation, Riki and I dig into his new paper all about skill learning, titled “The adaptable coach – a critical review of the practical implications for traditional and constraints-led approaches in sport coaching.”Enjoy!Sign up for Craig's newsletter (Beyond the Game) at athletedevelopmentproject.com/newsletterGet Craig to speak at your club or school here. Connect with Craig:Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrisonTwitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrisonSupport the show

On the show today, I’m speaking with researcher and founder of the Atua Matua framework, Dr Ihirangi Heke. Ihi builds health, wellness and performance practices based on traditional environmental knowledge. In this conversation, Ihi and I discuss the good ol’ days of PE school in Dunedin and the changes that have taken place since. Ihi shares some of his early experiences growing up in the great outdoors and what led to his work studying environmental science. We talk about genetic ways of knowing developed over multiple generations and how learning takes place from a Māori perspective. And we discuss how you can use an environmentally centred approach to development to take you past what you ever imagined was possible. Enjoy!Sign up for Craig's newsletter (Beyond the Game) at athletedevelopmentproject.com/newsletterGet Craig to speak at your club or school here. Connect with Craig:Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrisonTwitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrisonSupport the show

On the Show today I'm speaking with  Head of Performance Pathways Science at the National Youth Sports Institute in Singapore, Dr Matthew Wylde. Matthew has been within the Singapore high performance system for over 15 years, having held roles with the Singapore Sport Institute, Singapore Sports School and now with the National Youth Sports Institute. He holds a PhD from Bournemouth University, which explored the use of wearable technologies to reduce injury rates within a youth athlete population, and a MSc in Performance Analysis from Cardiff Metropolitan University.In this episode, Matthew shares a fantastic new initiative at the Singapore Sports School. If you're after an example that exemplifies alignment between what we know from the science and what we do in practice, you're going to love this. Enjoy!Sign up for Craig's newsletter (Beyond the Game) at athletedevelopmentproject.com/newsletterGet Craig to speak at your club or school here. Connect with Craig:Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrisonTwitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrisonSupport the show

On the Show today I'm speaking with the man behind the Crusaders Rugby Academy, Aaron Webb. The programme operates in line with the New Zealand Rugby Union's six pillars of development - technical, tactical, physical, nutrition, mental skills and holistic life skills. Aaron shares how he goes about his work with a clear focus on developing young men with the skills to reach their goals in professional rugby and grow into excellent community citizens. This is a conversation about the artistry of people development. Enjoy!Sign up for Craig's newsletter (Beyond the Game) at athletedevelopmentproject.com/newsletterGet Craig to speak at your club or school here. Connect with Craig:Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrisonTwitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrisonSupport the show

Brian Shelley is Head of Football at Saint Kentigern College in Auckland where he coaches at the premier level and oversees the development pathways. He earned his UEFA A License with the English FA. Prior to his coaching career, Brain played professional football in the UK where he competed for clubs in both the UEFA Cup and Champions League.  In this conversation we discuss school versus club football, Brian's coaching approach and the experiences that have led to it, how he thinks about building resilience, growing the game in New Zealand, and much more.   Enjoy!Sign up for Craig's newsletter (Beyond the Game) at athletedevelopmentproject.com/newsletterGet Craig to speak at your club or school here. Connect with Craig:Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrisonTwitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrisonSupport the show

Head of coaching at Birkenhead United FC in Auckland, New Zealand and Co-founder of Player Development Project, Dave Wright (@davewright07), rejoins me for another episode of The Curious Mind.We discuss our experiences in youth sport over the past couple of months, including using street football as a development tool and why Dave loves it as a format, accounting for skill variability in our athletes, planning for all-round development, designing cultures of learning,  and much more. Enjoy!Sign up for Craig's newsletter (Beyond the Game) at athletedevelopmentproject.com/newsletterGet Craig to speak at your club or school here. Connect with Craig:Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrisonTwitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrisonSupport the show

Tim Brazier (@coach_brazier) has been coaching in high performance sport for over 15 years. After earning a Master's degree from the University of Otago, Tim took up a lecturing role at Otago Polytechnic for two years.  He went on to coach at Triathlon New Zealand for 7 years and attended two Olympic Games. Tim now coaches at Fitter, a New Zealand based triathlon coaching business offering highly personalised, professional coaching to a wide range of athletes. He also works for Snow Sports New Zealand as a physiologist.  In this conversation we discuss the power of the supportive relationships, developing resilience, creating filters to makes sense of information, micro-dosing of reflection, dealing with increasing expectation in sport, how Tim thinks about balance, the problem with fun, and much more.    Enjoy!Sign up for Craig's newsletter (Beyond the Game) at athletedevelopmentproject.com/newsletterGet Craig to speak at your club or school here. Connect with Craig:Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrisonTwitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrisonSupport the show