

The Sport Psych Show
Dan Abrahams
Join Sport Psychologist, Dan Abrahams, on The Sport Psych Show as he aims to demystify sport psychology for players, coaches and parents by speaking with some of the most influential people in sports performance today. Dan is on a mission to learn more about how sport psychology philosophies, tools and techniques positively impact participation, progression and performance in sport. He wants to learn more about how to drive participation – what motivational tools engage players and inspire people to play and stay in their sport. He wants to explore how players can progress quicker and more effectively – what is great practice and training? And how does learning in sport really happen? Finally, he wants to hear what his guests have to say about the psychology of performance – how do they think players can improve their ability to high perform consistently under pressure? Discover simple and practical tools and techniques by listening in to Dan’s conversations with elite competitors, sports coaches, sport scientists, and psychologists.
Episodes
Mentioned books

13 snips
Oct 10, 2022 • 1h 8min
#209 Peter Moores & Chris Marshall - Singing from the Same Song Sheet: Coaches and Sport Psychologists Working Together
I'm honoured to speak with Peter Moores and Chris Marshall in this episode. Peter is a former first-class cricketer who played for the England Cricket Team. Peter moved into coaching and was the head coach of the men's England cricket team twice. He was the performance director at the National Academy for England and has coached at three different county clubs: Sussex, Lancashire and now Head Coach at Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club. Chris has been a sport psychologist for 14 years starting out as a sport psychology intern at the English Institute of Sport (EIS) under the guidance of Dr Pete Lindsay and Dr Mark Bawden. Chris has worked as the sport psychologist for Olympic Table Tennis, Paralympic Table Tennis, GB Boxing, the English FA, and cricket. Chris now works as an independent sport psychologist, spending most of his time between Nottinghamshire CCC and Wasps Rugby Team. Peter and Chris have forged a fantastic relationship at Nottinghamshire CCC with sport psychology being fully integrated into the coaching practice. We discuss how Peter and Chris work together to create a psychologically informed environment that supports all players and staff.

Oct 3, 2022 • 1h 5min
#208 Dr Tom Mitchell - How to Build a Psychosocial Development Programme
I’m delighted to speak to Dr Tom Mitchell this week. Tom is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching at Leeds Beckett University. Tom’s research interest is in the lived experiences of youth and professional footballers and how organisational culture in professional football influences the development of their Identity. Tom has over 10 years of engagement with professional football. Recently, he has engaged in performance coaching activity within professional squads working with players and staff. Tom is also a grassroots coach. Tom and I discuss a brilliant paper he has published which he led along with other authors entitled ‘Fostering Psychosocial Characteristics Within an English Soccer Academy’. The aim of the paper is to present a real-life example of the design, delivery, and implementation of a theoretically informed psychosocial development programme for players within an academy soccer setting to include player workshops, coach delivery and ways to influence the environment.

Sep 26, 2022 • 1h 9min
#207 Steafan Deery & Dr Kyle Paradis - Exploring Leadership Styles
I'm delighted to speak with Steafan Deery and Dr Kyle Paradis in this episode. Steafan is completing his PhD on Leadership and Team Dynamics at Ulster University. He is also a PE lecturer at the School of Sport at Ulster University. Steafan's PhD examines coach leadership, particularly transformational leadership and social identity leadership. His interest in the theoretical underpinning of coaching stems from his years as a coach. Steafan previously spent 10 years coaching with the Irish Football Association. Kyle is an Assistant Professor lecturing in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Ulster University. His research interests include group dynamics and the social processes in sport groups and its influences on mental health outcomes. Kyle holds professional membership affiliations with the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA) and the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology (SCAPPS). We discuss different leadership styles in sport and in particular identity leadership and transformational leadership.

30 snips
Sep 19, 2022 • 1h 17min
#206 Prof Nicola Hodges & Dr Keith Lohse - The Difference Between Learning and Performing
In this episode I welcome back Professor Nicola Hodges. This time Nikki is joined by Dr Keith Lohse. Nikki is a Professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver in the School of Kinesiology. She runs the Motor Skills Laboratory at UBC where she studies the mechanisms of motor skill learning. Her research focuses on processes involved in watching, learning and predicting from others, and how practice should be best structured to bring about long-term enhancement of motor skills and high-level performance. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters and has consulted at a number of leading sporting organisations and governing bodies. Keith is Associate Professor of Physical Therapy and Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis. He received his PhD in cognitive psychology from the University of Colorado, before undertaking post doctoral studies in Nikki’s lab at UBC. Keith focuses on measurement, design, and analysis as they pertain to rehabilitation science and clinical practice. With rehabilitation being a complex, dynamic process with many interacting factors at physiological, psychological, and sociological levels, Keith specialises in analytical and predictive modelling techniques to help disentangle these problems and mechanistically explore the rehabilitation process. In this episode, we discuss a paper Nikki and Keith have co-authored titled: “An extended challenge-based framework for practice design in sports coaching” found here https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357785323_An_extended_challenge-based_framework_for_practice_design_in_sports_coaching which builds on the original challenge-point work published 20 years ago. Specifically, they emphasise the importance of the challenge-point framework as a model of motor learning, and expand this framework to apply to sports coaching (giving practical suggestions for coaches to use in their practice).

Sep 5, 2022 • 1h 12min
#205 Michael Passaportis & Dr Daniel Brown - Creating Environments for Thriving
I speak with Michael Passaportis and Dr Daniel Brown in this episode. Michael is a lecturer at the University of Sussex in Sport and Exercise Psychology. He is also completing his doctoral research at the University of Portsmouth. Michael’s research is centred on exploring the interconnectivity of human excellence and well-being within multidimensional organisational systems, with a specific focus on the psychosocial factors that influence thriving within elite sport organisations. Michael’s research interests are influenced by his past experiences of competing in professional rugby. Dan is a senior lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the University of Portsmouth and leads the undergraduate programme in Sport and Exercise Psychology there. He is a Chartered Psychologist of the British Psychological Society and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Dan’s research centres on the psychology of human excellence and well-being (thriving). Specifically, his focuses on understanding and facilitating thriving in humans, athlete transitions and developmental experiences, and the development and assessment of interventions used in sport and performance psychology. Dan also supervises doctoral students at Portsmouth University, Michael being one of those students. Michael and Dan have co-written a paper with others which is about creating environments for thriving which examines the environmental factors that facilitate athlete thriving. You can access the paper here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1469029222001157?via%3Dihub

Aug 29, 2022 • 1h 8min
#204 Dr Leisha Strachan - Promoting Positive Youth Development
I’m delighted to speak to Dr Leisha Strachan this week. Leisha is a Professor and is serving as Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management at the University of Manitoba. Leisha’s research is focused on positive youth development through sport and she is interested in exploring positive coaching behaviours and parent involvement. Along with Dr Dany MacDonald and Dr Jean Côté, Leisha began Project SCORE, an online resource for coaches and parents to learn about the 4 Cs in sport (competence, confidence, connection, and character) and how the Cs could be incorporated to promote positive youth sport spaces. Leisha is interested in cultural relevancy within the field of positive youth development and has recently completed a SSHRC-funded grant that explored the Cs through the voices of Indigenous youth. Leisha is a former national team member in the sport of baton twirling, earning 2 bronze medals at the World Championships. She has been coaching in the sport for the past 26 years and is a judge and choreographer in baton, working with athletes across Canada, Scotland, England, and Australia.

Aug 22, 2022 • 54min
#203 Dr Emma Mosley - Using Heart Rate Variability in Sport
I’m delighted to speak to Dr Emma Mosley this week. Emma is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Psychology in the Department of Sport Science and Performance at Solent University, Southampton. Emma completed her BSc in Sport Psychology and Coaching Sciences and went on to complete her PhD at Bournemouth University. Emma is an active researcher within psychophysiology and sport performance, with a particular specialism in heart rate variability. She is a member of the mind-body connections research group at Solent. Emma is also a Chartered Scientist (CSci) and a BASES Accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist. Emma has co-written a paper with Dr Sylvain Laborde entitled “A scoping review of heart rate variability in sport and exercise psychology” which aimed to provide a scoping review of the use of heart rate variability (HRV) within Sport and Exercise Psychology.

Aug 1, 2022 • 1h 8min
#202 Prof Andrew Lane - Measuring the Effectiveness of Psychological Skills
This week I’m delighted to speak to Prof Andrew Lane. Andy is a BASES accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist, a Chartered Sport Psychologist registered with the HCPC, and a Professor at the University of Wolverhampton. Andy completed his undergraduate, Masters degree and PhD before becoming a lecturer at Brunel University. He then moved to the University of Wolverhampton where he progressed from Senior Lecturer to Associate Dean. Andy is responsible for developing and implementing a research strategy for staff and doctoral students. Andy and I discuss a study that he led in conjunction with BBC Lab UK. The study, which had in excess of 40,000 participants, examined the effects psychological skills training has on the experience of emotion under pressure and competitive performance. We talk through the psychological techniques utilised in the study (imagery, self-talk, and if-then planning), and assess the effectiveness of these techniques when delivered online. You can find the study here https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00413/full

Jul 25, 2022 • 59min
#201 Prof Elaine Fox - Harnessing the Power of Mental Agility
I’m delighted to speak to Prof Elaine Fox this week. Elaine is the Head of School of Psychology at the University of Adelaide. Prior to that Elaine was at The University of Oxford for 12 years where, up until very recently, she ran a research lab and team. Elaine’s background is in cognitive psychology. More recently she has undertaken research around emotion, specifically how we react to different situations, as well as in mental health research. She is also director of her company Oxford Elite Performance which she co-founded with her husband to utilise scientific research in psychology and cognitive science in order to optimise high performance in sport, the military, and business. Drawing on her 25 years of scientific research, Elaine has just released her brilliant new book “Switchcraft: Harnessing the Power of Mental Agility to Transform Your Life” in which she shares her step-by-step guide to what she calls ‘Switchcraft’: the set of skills we need to navigate a complex and uncertain world. In her work coaching top athletes, military leaders and business professionals, she has seen that it’s the people who know how and when to switch between different approaches – people who have an agile mind – who achieve the best performance.

Jul 18, 2022 • 1h 2min
#200 Trevor Whyte - Leading a Team During Covid: Sport Psychology Techniques in Action
Something a bit different for this 200th episode of The Sport Psych Show. This week I speak to Trevor Whyte. Trevor has worked in hospitals as a Respiratory Therapist since 2006 having spent time on the frontline, on various projects and in leadership. Dealing with airway management and critical care taught him the importance of high functioning teams for good outcomes. At the beginning of the pandemic Trevor was tasked with leading a team to set up and operate a mass testing site for COVID-19, quickly finding traction with his team. Trevor was given the opportunity to become an early mass vaccine site which delivered almost 170,000 vaccines. To manage the rapidly changing information and challenging conditions, Trevor worked to build a team mindset and framework that allowed the team to work in safe uncertainty and meet their goals under great pressure. Trevor has played and coached soccer and has been able to translate his experience in sports to help his healthcare teams find success in challenging and ever-changing conditions, such as a pandemic.