The Sport Psych Show

I’m delighted to speak with Ben Freakley this week. Ben is a highly skilled and experienced sport psychology professional, helping athletes, coaches, and teams to achieve peak performance and reach their goals. Ben is also the founder of Ready.Set.Resilient. Ben has coached individuals, athletes, teams, soldiers, and businesses on the psychology of performance, leadership, team dynamics, and well-being for nearly 20 years. Along the way, Ben has been a NCAA Division I men’s soccer coach, mental performance coach for special operations forces, Head of Mental Performance for the Toronto Blue Jays and he now works in the MLS and USL. Ben holds master’s degrees in Sport Psychology and Sport Management from Georgia Southern University where he was an NCAA Division I athlete. He has a doctoral degree in Sport and Performance Psychology with an emphasis in Clinical Mental Health Counselling. Ben is a Certified Mental Performance Coach (CMPC) and member of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP).  I talk to Ben about his experiences as both a coach and a sport psychology professional and we discuss the factors inherent in high performance coaching environments. 

I’m delighted to speak with Matthew Layton this week. Matt is head of youth development phase at Swansea City Football Club. He manages the multidisciplinary staff departments and the players within the youth development phase to support and coordinate their pathway throughout the programme into the professional development phase. Matt and I discuss a brilliant paper he co-wrote with Dr Jamie Taylor and Prof Dave Collins about the measurement, tracking and development practices of academies. The paper is available here https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02640414.2023.2289758 

I’m delighted to speak with Dr Sam Thrower this week. Sam is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Oxford Brookes University. His main research interests lie in the area of youth sport and specifically the psychosocial development of young athletes. He is particularly interested in topics such as parenting in sport, sport-confidence, motivational climates, stress and coping, and anti-doping in sport. Sam’s research in these areas has been published in a range of leading international journals including: ‘Psychology of Sport & Exercise’, ‘Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise & Health’, ‘Sport, Exercise & Performance Psychology’, ‘Journal of Applied Sport Psychology’ and 'Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology'. His current research focuses on parent-child interactions and the development, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based sport parent education programmes. In this episode we discuss a paper Sam led about enhancing wellbeing, long-term development, and performance in youth sport.

Dr. Shakiba Moghadam discusses mental health literacy, athlete mental health, experiences of women athletes in male-dominated sports, human rights violations in sports, and the experiences of marginalized communities. Other topics include the speaker's personal journey in boxing, breaking stigmas around women's boxing, mental health literacy in women rugby players, and barriers to help-seeking behavior.

This week I’m delighted to speak to Dr Charlie Corsby, Prof Robyn Jones and Dr Andy Lane. Charlie is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Charlie holds a UEFA ‘A’ Licence coaching qualification. Alongside his academic responsibilities, Charlie is the Head Coach for Cardiff Met FC BUCS1 programme.​ The focus of Charlie’s research relate to the everyday complexities and affairs of coaches, particularly relating to ‘influence’ and ‘control’ within the coaching context. Robyn is Professor of Sport and Social Theory and a former Associate Dean of Research at Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK. Robyn’s research area comprises a critical sociology of coaching in respect of examining the relational nature of the work, and how practitioners manage the power-ridden dilemmas that arise. The purpose is to generate critical insight into an important part of cultural life, namely that of sports participation, and how that complex experience is framed by coaches Andy is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching at Cardiff Metropolitan University. He is currently the Programme Director for the BSc Sport Coaching Undergraduate degree and teaches across undergraduate and post graduate programmes. Andrew also currently supervises a number of post graduate students within coaching and coach education and is a member of the Schools Social Science ethics committee. We discuss a paper co-written by Charlie, Robyn and Andy entitled “Contending with vulnerability and uncertainty: what coaches say about coaching”.

I’m delighted to speak with Prof Chris Harwood this week. Chris is the Director of the Sport, Health and Performance Enhancement (SHAPE) Research Centre at Nottingham Trent University (NTU). He is a Professor of Sport Psychology at NTU where his research focuses on the psychosocial aspects of athlete development, wellbeing and performance including the roles of the coach, parents, and the wider social and organisational environment. Chris is particularly focused on the integration of psychological principles into youth sport settings and his applied research is characterised by working with the support system around young people. Chris is also prominent in the area of professional development, supervision and training of sport psychologists in the UK and international systems.  We speak about Chris’s research over the past 30 years, focusing on Achievement Goal Theory, Reflection-in-Action, and the 5 C’s: Commitment, Communication, Concentration, Control, and Confidence.

I am delighted to welcome back Dr Ian Peek in this episode. Ian has been a golf coach for 35 years. He is currently consulting with the Swiss Golf Federation supporting the coaches at national and regional level and supporting parents at some of the leading juniors in the country.   Ian helps his clients achieve their goals whether that’s transitioning to a new level of achievement or maintaining their position at the top of their sport or industry. Ian is also a PGA Master Professional - the highest educational level in The PGA - which recognises PGA Members who make a significant effort to improve themselves as golf professionals and maintain the highest degree of excellence for themselves and their operations. In this episode Ian and I discuss the mental health challenges that professional sport competitors face when competing at the very highest level of their game. 

In this episode I’m delighted to welcome back Prof Mark Williams and Prof Nicola Hodges to speak about skill acquisition in sport. Mark Williams is a Senior Research Scientist at The Institute of Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC)- a not-for-profit research institute of the Florida University System and is affiliated with several Florida universities. Mark was previously at the University of Utah, where he was professor and chairman of the Department of Health, Kinesiology, and Recreation. Mark has held various senior leadership positions Liverpool John Moores University, University of Sydney and Brunel University, London. Mark’s research interests focus on the neural and psychological mechanisms underpinning the acquisition and development of expertise. He has published almost 300 journal articles in peer-reviewed outlets in numerous fields including exercise and sports science 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.

Dr Daniel Fortin-Guichard, a psychologist specializing in talent identification research in sports, discusses the identification of 'sleeping' talent using psychological characteristics. They explore the role of self-regulation, attachment, and grit in talent identification, and the challenges of scouting young athletes. The concept of sleeping talent and the importance of psychological skills in talent development are also highlighted. The episode concludes with a discussion on current research projects and future episodes.

Dr. Keith McShan, an Assistant Professor at Missouri State University with a coaching background, and Dr. Whitney Moore, a former strength and conditioning coach now at East Carolina University, delve into the pivotal coach-athlete relationship. They explore research on achievement goal theory and its role in athlete motivation. The conversation highlights the importance of trust, flexibility, and meaningful connections in coaching, emphasizing that a supportive environment leads to improved performance and well-being for both athletes and coaches.