The Sport Psych Show

I’m delighted to speak to Dr Alex Auerbach in this week’s episode. Alex is the Director of Wellness and Development for the Toronto Raptors, where he is responsible for all things mental health, mental performance and off-court development for players and staff. He joined the Raptors after serving as the Director of Clinical and Sport Psychology for the University of Arizona. Alex has worked with NCAA Division-I schools in the Pac-12, ACC, Big 12, and Conference USA, where his work has included serving as the performance consultant for a Conference USA bowl-winning football team, ACC championship team, and student-athletes who continued in professional sport and/or the Olympic games. He earned his doctoral degree in counselling psychology with a specialisation in Sport and Performance Psychology from the University of North Texas.

I’m delighted to speak with Dr Marina Harris and Shameema Yousuf in this episode. Marina recently graduated with her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Nevada. She also has a Master's degree in Kinesiology and Health with an emphasis in sport psychology from Miami University. She also spends part of her time in the University of North Carolina Athletics Department, working with athletes to improve their mental wellness and sport performance. Shameema is a HCPC registered sport psychologist, registered clinical mental health counsellor and is a member of APA, AASP, and BASES. Shameema has a private practice working with youth athletes all the way up to elite athletes. We discuss a fantastic paper Marina recently wrote entitled “Simone Biles and Team USA Redefine Mental Toughness - The true definition of mental grit and what we can learn from it” which Shameema provided her expert opinion on.  

I speak to Jonny McMurtry in this week’s episode. Jonny has been involved in high performance age grade rugby programmes across Australia for over 10 years. He is currently completing research in conjunction with University of QLD and Rugby Australia, looking at age grade players’ engagement and understanding what motivates, engages and drives players' participation. Jonny’s background and passion is understanding people’s motivation and helping them achieve what they are striving to accomplish in sport and work environments. We speak about Jonny’s findings from his fascinating research project.

I’m so excited to speak to Geir Jordet in this week’s episode. Geir is Professor of Sport Psychology with a specialisation in football (soccer) and coaching at Norwegian School of Sport Sciences. Geir conducts research on the psychology of football - with an emphasis on visual perception, effective learning, performing under pressure, and psychology applied to elite level football. His work has been published in leading sport science and psychology journals such as Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, Journal of Sports Sciences, British Journal of Sports Medicine, and British Journal of Psychology, as well as in major media outlets - BBC World, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, El Pais and Spiegel. Geir and I speak about building habits, scanning, penalty kicks and the 2020 Euro’s.

In this episode I’m delighted to have Laurence Halsted back on the show. Laurence is a 2-time Olympian for the British Fencing team and director of mentoring for The True Athlete Project (TAP) as well as a consultant on TAPs various programs. TAP works across disciplines to design mindful training techniques that engage sport as a powerful tool for self-mastery and increased overall awareness. The practical, athlete-centred approach to changing the culture of sport aims to improve performance, nurture mental wellbeing, and cultivate a more compassionate world.​ In this episode, Laurence takes us though his brilliant new book Becoming a True Athlete: A Practical Philosophy for Flourishing Through Sport (due out 20th Aug 2021). The book draws on a combination of ancient wisdom and modern psychology, The True Athlete Philosophy explores how athletes can harness their lived experience of sport to contribute to a healthy, meaningful and fulfilled life and be of greater benefit to their community.

I’m delighted to welcome back Dr Noel Brick on this week’s episode. This time, Noel is joined by Scott Douglas. Noel is a Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Ulster University. He has a Masters in Sport and Exercise Psychology and a PhD in Attentional Focus and Psychological Strategies in Endurance Activity. Scott is a writer and editor in fitness and health and has written 15 books. And it’s his latest book, written alongside Noel, that we speak about in this episode. The Genius of Athletes: What World-Class Competitors Know That Can Change Your Life combines cutting-edge science, illustrative stories from the world's top endurance athletes and practical instruction. Elite endurance athletes - including runners, cyclists, and swimmers - know that success hinges as much on how they use their minds as on how well they've trained their bodies. Long before race day, they've developed a rich arsenal of cognitive strategies that they incorporate into their long-term training regimens to unlock peak performance, from effective goal-setting and ingenious habit forming techniques to developing resilience and increasing self-belief. And now a growing body of evidence is showing that these strategies can help the rest of us achieve whatever we set our minds to in sport and life. The Genius of Athletes arms us with proven tools for reaching high and meeting our goals - whether it's running a marathon or any other personal or professional challenge.

In this episode I welcome back Prof Mark Williams. Mark is one of the world’s leading authorities in sports performance. This time, Mark is joined by Prof Nicola Hodges. Nikki is a Professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver in the School of Kinesiology. It is at UBC that Nikki runs the Motor Skills Laboratory 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 (particularly in sport). She has been involved in sport-consulting and she has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters. Mark and Nikki have just released the 3rd edition of a book they edited entitled Skill Acquisition in Sport: Research, Theory and Practice. This edition has 40 new authors and 10 new chapters. And it’s this book that we discuss in detail.

I have the pleasure of being joined by Dr Paul McCarthy and Zoe Moffat in this episode. Paul is Programme Director of the Taught Doctorate in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University and has his own private practice supporting athletes and coaches in a range of sports, particularly in golf & football. Zoe is in her final year as a DPsych student and is a trainee Sport and Exercise Psychologist at Glasgow Caledonian University. Zoe is also a tennis player and tennis coach. Zoe and Paul, along with Dr Bryan McCann, have written a research paper which reports a brief attribution-retraining (AR) intervention with youth tennis players. Athletes were struggling to maintain emotional control, resulting in problematic on-court behaviour (e.g., racket throwing). The intervention used a Think Aloud protocol and AR. Evaluation suggested that AR and Think Aloud interventions can improve athletes’ emotional control and attribution capabilities, and, in turn, their behaviour. The case seeks to present a novel approach to working with youth athletes, highlighting the importance of practitioner adaptability. 

I’m excited to be speaking with Christian Jarrett in this episode. A cognitive neuroscientist by training, Christian is Deputy Editor of Psyche, a global digital magazine that explores all aspects of the human condition. Christian has written about psychology and neuroscience for publications across the world, including BBC Future, WIRED, New York magazine, New Scientist, GQ Italia and The Guardian. He was the founding editor and creator of the British Psychological Society's Research Digest, presenter of their PsychCrunch podcast, and an award-winning journalist on The Psychologist magazine. His books include The Rough Guide to Psychology and Great Myths of The Brain.  Christian also has a new book out entitled Be Who You Want: Unlocking the Science of Personality Change which argues that contrary to the old adage, not only can leopards change their spots, they can swap them for stripes, and they can do so to their own advantage. In psychological terms, although our initial personality type is moulded by a combination of genetic influences and early experiences, it is not fixed. It's malleable, voluntary even. This book will tell the story of how our personalities are formed and gives us the tools to shape them in the ways which we desire and which will benefit us most. Drawing on the latest psychological theories and methods, interviews with leading experts, as well as personal anecdote, Christian Jarrett shows us that we can shape ourselves in ways that make our lives better.

I’m excited to be speaking with Ian Leslie in this episode. Ian is a writer, speaker, and author of acclaimed books on human behaviour. He also writes about psychology, culture, technology and business for the New Statesman, the Economist, the Guardian and the Financial Times. Ian and I discuss his fascinating new book Conflicted: Why Arguments Are Tearing Us Apart and How They Can Bring Us Together which draws essential lessons on how to disagree well from world-class experts: interrogators, hostage negotiators, divorce mediators, diplomats and addiction counsellors. It tells inspiring stories of productive disagreements and combines them with fascinating insights from the science of human communication. Whether it's at work, at home, or in public, confronting our differences is the only way to make the most of them. Conflicted is about how to do that successfully.