I’m delighted to speak to Dr Matthew Schweickle in this week’s episode. Matt is a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Wollongong. Matt’s particular area of interest is clutch performances and the psychology of what is happening during clutch performances when people are performing well under pressure. We discuss in detail a fascinating paper that Matt wrote, along with Prof Christian Swann and Prof Stewart Vella which looks at objective and subjective performance indicators of clutch performances.

I’m delighted to welcome back licensed clinical psychologist and sport psychologist, Dr Scott Goldman in this episode. Scott started out at the University of Arizona where was one of the first embedded sport psychologists in an athletic department. He has since served as a clinical and performance psychologist for the University of Michigan and Saint Louis’ Athletic Departments. Scott also helped co-author the best practices for the NCAA and was part of their first mental health task force.   Scott has worked as sport psychologist for the Miami Dolphins and Detroit Lions NFL teams and NBA teams Washington Wizards, and currently the Golden State Warriors.   Scott has also developed a test called the AIQ which measures sport-specific intelligence that is used across all 5 major leagues in the US as well as in other countries around the world.

I speak with Dr Amy Whitehead and Jenny Coe in this episode. Amy is a Reader in Sport Psychology and Coaching and teaches across the Sport Coaching, Physical Education and Sport Psychology programmes at Liverpool John Moores University. Amy is a BPS accredited sport and exercise psychologist and has worked for organisations such as St. Helen’s RFC, British Cycling, the FA, Professional league and non-league football and European Tour Golfers.  Jenny is head of performance and well-being at West Ham United Women’s Team. Jenny has been involved with elite sport for most of her life, having played as a guard in basketball for Ireland and WIT Wildcats before joining UK Coaching in 2018, where she supported coaches across 13 high-performance Olympic sports on their respective journeys.  Jenny and Amy have edited the newly released ‘Myths of Sport Coaching’ and it’s this fascinating book that we discuss.  

I speak with Dr Oliver Runswick in this episode. Ollie is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Performance Psychology at King's College London. His research focuses on understanding and enhancing learning and performance in domains including sport, dance, education, and the military. Prior to joining King’s Ollie worked as a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology and Programme Co-ordinator at The University of Chichester and as an Evening Lecturer in ‘The Brain: Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience’ at Imperial College London. He has received a first-class BSc in Sport and Exercise Science from Swansea University, MSc in Human Movement Science from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, PGCHE from St Mary’s University, and PhD from Liverpool Hope University where he studied perceptual-motor skills based with St Mary’s University’s Expertise and Skill Acquisition Research Group.  

I’m delighted to speak with Dr Karen Howells and Holly Bradshaw in this episode. Karen is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Cardiff Metropolitan University. She is a Chartered Psychologist of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and a registered Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).  Karen regularly provides sport and performance psychology support to athletes from a wide range of individual and team sports competing at a variety of levels. Holly is the British record holder in pole vault and recent Olympic bronze medallist winner at the Tokyo Olympics. Holly is also a Sport Psychology MSc student at Loughborough University and has co-authored a new paper along with Karen and Mathijs Lucassen entitled “Abandoned to manage the post-Olympic blues: Olympians reflect on their experiences and the need for a change”. It’s this fascinating paper that we discuss.

I’m delighted to speak with Dr Jamie Taylor in this episode. Jamie is a senior coach developer at Grey Matters, a company specialising in performance enhancement and coaching development for individuals, sporting/cultural organisations and systems. Jamie is also Assistant Professor at Dublin City University. He works at The University of Edinburgh, and he coaches Performance Rugby at Loughborough University. We discuss in depth two fascinating papers Jamie has recently written about optimising talent development experience.

I’m delighted to welcome Dr Mustafa Sarkar back on the show. Mustafa is Associate Professor of Sport and Performance Psychology at Nottingham Trent University. His main area of research is on individual, team and organisational resilience in elite sport. Mustafa has a background in teaching and research with most of his research focusing on the psychology of sporting and performance excellence, specifically looking at resilience in high achievers in sport and business. Mustafa also works with coaches and organisations helping them to develop resilience in athletes and teams. We talk about a brilliant paper that Mustafa has contributed to which discusses psychological safety in sport.

I’m delighted to speak with Professor Laurence Alison and Dr Neil Shortland in this episode. Laurence is Chair of Forensic and Investigative Psychology at Liverpool University. He is a leader in forensic psychology, and specialises in the most difficult interactions imaginable: criminal interrogations. He advises and trains the police, security agencies, the FBI and the CIA on how to deal with extremely dangerous suspects. Neil is the Director of the Centre for Terrorism and Security Studies (CTSS) at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. CTSS leads and facilitates scientific research, education and training to help understand and respond to the evolution, convergence and complexity of domestic and foreign security challenges. Having spent over 20 years helping soldiers, police officers, doctors and other professionals in high-stakes environments make tough decisions when lives are on the line, Laurence and Neil have written the brilliant new book “Decision Time: How to make the choices your life depends on”. In the book they show us how those same decision-making techniques apply to everyday life. With tips, studies, interviews and observations from their training with police officers together with role-play scenarios, this book will help you identify and fight off the common enemies of good decision-making - inertia, procrastination and indecision - and empower you to make the choices that matter the most.

I speak to Dr Gillian Cook in this week’s episode. Gillian is a Lecturer in Sport and Performance Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University. She is a British Psychological Society (BPS) Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist, and a Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registered Practitioner Psychologist. She is the club sport psychologist at Dundee United Football Club, and has worked with teams and organisations including British Swimming, British Athletics, Birmingham City Football Club's Academy, Scottish Hockey, Loughborough Sport, Nike, the NHS, and BBC. Gillian teaches and supervises across the undergraduate, postgraduate, professional doctorate and PhD degree programmes. She is the Module Leader for Developmental Psychology and Individual Differences, as well as Developmental and Social Psychology. Her research interests include high performance leadership, and the psychology of performance excellence. Specifically, her research examines how effective leaders create the conditions for others to thrive and deliver optimal outcomes in high pressure environments.

In this episode, I’m delighted to be joined by Prof Peter Clough, Doug Strycharczyk and Dr John Perry who have come on to talk about the newly released 3rd edition of the brilliant book Developing Mental Toughness: Strategies to Improve Performance, Resilience and Wellbeing in Individuals and Organizations. Prof Peter Clough needs little introduction having helped develop the concept of mental toughness. Peter is a research professor interested in performance under pressure and performance enhancement, in particular Mental Toughness. Doug Strycharczyk is the founder and CEO of AQR International - the business that has taken the concept of Mental Toughness and introduced it to people all over the world through psychometric testing.   Dr John Perry is Head of Department of Psychology at Mary Immaculate College. He has served as Acting Dean of Arts and worked as a lecturer in UK university. His research interests initially developed from a sports background and are now applied more broadly. John has joined Peter and Doug to co-author the 3rd edition of Developing Mental Toughness.