In this episode I speak with Dr Kieran File. Kieran is Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics at University of Warwick. Kieran’s main interest is in language use in high performance sporting contexts. Kieran is also director of Reactive Sports Media which offers research informed media training and advice for professional sports players, sporting body executives and broadcast interviewers about how they can use language to achieve a variety of goals when speaking in the media. Kieran has written a fascinating book entitled “How Language Shapes Relationships in Professional Sports Teams” which examines the role that coach and athlete language plays in shaping relationships. The book looks at how every day, authentic language patterns used by coaches, captains and players influence these relationships and how they can mediate factors such as power and threat and teamwork.

This week I’m delighted to speak to Lindsey Hamilton. Lindsey is Head of Mental Conditioning at IMG Academy where she leads, develops, and facilitates a team of 12 mental conditioning coaches that oversees the mental skills development of over 1,100 student-athletes across eight sports. She also leads the IMG Institute through developing and delivering high performance mindset training to executive level business professionals and corporate teams interested in optimising leadership and enhancing organisational excellence. Along with a number of other authors, Lindsey presented a panel at the Association for Applied Psychology (AASP) annual conference in October 2022 discussing “The Failures That Guided Us: Sharing Vulnerabilities in Ascending to the Elite Level”. The panellists demonstrated vulnerability by sharing some of the failures they experienced as they worked their way to and within the elite level. Lindsey and I discuss how athletes and coaches can navigate and accept failure as a part of the sporting experience.

I am delighted to be joined by Dr Mike Ashford and Dr Loel Collins in this episode. Both Mike and Loel lecture at Edinburgh University. Loel is the Programme Director for MSc Performance Coaching and Development and Mike lectures in Sports Coaching and Performance. They are also both coach developers at Grey Matters, a company specialising in performance enhancement and coaching development for individuals, sporting/cultural organisations and systems. And they’ve written a paper along with Prof Dave Collins and Dr Jamie Taylor called “It depends coaching – The most fundamental, simple and complex principle or a mere copout?”. In this paper, the authors set out the arguments for Professional Judgement and Decision-Making (PJDM - the scientific representation of it depends coaching) as a genuine construct in coaching and, therefore, coach development. They do this through a critical consideration of three “pillars” or core constructs of PJDM. Namely, the concept of nested planning, the nature and use of knowledge in coaching, and the expression of expertise in coaching utilising a PJDM approach.

In this week’s episode I’m delighted to be joined by Kevin Smith, Dr Con Burns and Dr Ed Coughlan. We discuss a new paper Kevin, Con, Ed, and a number of other authors have written entitled “How to coach: A review of theoretical approaches for the development of a novel coach education framework”. The article reviews literature relating to theoretical constructs of a novel coach education framework developed by the Irish Rugby Football Union. The three constructs included are: self-determination theory (SDT), explicit learning theories (ELT) and implicit learning theories (ILT). We take a deep dive into the paper and examine the roles of SDT, ELT and ILT in coaching and discuss how they can be combined to enhance coaching practice.

In this episode I speak with chartered occupational psychologist, Sarah Broadhead. Sarah is Director and founder of Broadhead Performance which aims to give individuals and organisations in sport and business the insight, skills and support they need to perform and thrive. She has worked in a range of sports including GB Taekwondo, British Swimming, GB Canoeing, Archery GB, UK Athletics and GB Triathlon. Sarah was part of the Director team that created Chimp Management with Professor Steve Peters, shaping the vision of the company. In this episode we discuss Sarah’s fantastic new book “Perform & Thrive: A Sportsperson’s Guide to Mental Health and Wellbeing” which examines how sportspeople keep on top of wellbeing and the mental side in both sporting performances and life overall. Taking a deep dive into the elements that really count, and identify what can be done - practically - to provide sportspeople with the best possible chance of success. Filled with real-world examples, findings from the latest research, plus life stories from top athletes, this book - for athletes and coaches - is a must-read for nurturing people who wish to perform and thrive.

I speak with Blaine McKenna in this episode. Blaine is a UEFA A soccer coach, former academy director and author. Having completed his Masters is Sport Psychology, Blaine started to incorporate mental skills into his coaching curriculum and has taken his brand of coaching all over the globe from Kuwait to Thailand. Taken from his experiences coaching abroad, Blaine has written a fascinating new book “Coaching Abroad” which gives brilliant insight into the ins and outs of coaching abroad. We particularly focus on coaching people from different cultures and backgrounds and Blaine shares some fantastic tips he's picked up from his many years of coaching abroad.

This week I’m delighted to speak to Prof Joe Baker. Joe is the Head of the Lifespan Performance Laboratory in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science, at York University, Canada. Previously Joe has held visiting researcher/professor positions in the Carnegie Research Institute at Leeds Metropolitan University UK, Victoria University, Australia, the Australian Institute of Sport and the Institute of Sport Science at Westflische Wilhelms-Universitat Münster in Germany. Joe’s research focuses on optimal human development, largely to understand how someone gets to, and stays at, the highest levels of performance. His previous research in this area has considered various psychosocial and environmental factors influencing athletic skill development across a range of sports. Joe is the Past President of the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology and the author/editor of 5 journal special issues and more than 300 peer reviewed articles, commentaries, position statements and 14 books. And it’s his latest book ‘The Tyranny of Talent: How it compels and limits athletic achievement… and why you should ignore it’ that is the topic of this podcast. The book explores the elements that affect people's likelihood of success, starting with a thorough discussion of what 'talent' is, why both nature and nurture are critical factors, and why this distinction no longer matters. For many coaches, parents, and athletes, misunderstandings about ‘talent’ continue to constrain how they think about their long-term development and achievement.

This week I’m delighted to speak to Dr Nicky Keay. Nicky is an Exercise Endocrinologist and an Honorary Clinical Lecturer in Medicine at University College London. Previously, Nicky was a Research Fellow in the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences at Durham University. Nicky is a member of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Medicine and she conducts clinical research in sports/dance endocrinology which has resulted in a range of research publications and awards. Nicky’s aim is to redefine optimal health and fitness for the individual helping them to: improve general health and fitness or athletic performance, prevent injury, or rehabilitate after injury or illness. Nicky helps individuals achieve their goals by bringing together her areas of expertise. We discuss Nicky’s fascinating new book “Hormones, Health and Human Potential: A guide to understanding your hormones to optimise your health and performance”.

I speak with Dr Julie Johnston and Joseph Stanford in this episode. Julie is a Senior Lecturer in Sport & Exercise Psychology at Nottingham Trent University. Her research focuses on behavioural, social and environmental influences on children and adolescent psychosocial development, health and wellbeing. Both her PhD and current research has focused on developing an understanding of coach and parenting roles within sport and the impact of these roles on young athletes' psychosocial development, health and wellbeing. Joseph is a PhD student at Nottingham Trent University, a Performance Swim Coach at University of Nottingham Sport and A squad coach at Nova Centurion - the elite performance programme for Nottinghamshire swimming and one of the UK's top swimming clubs. Joseph’s research focuses on what makes a successful athlete and how coaches and athletes work together to facilitate positive relationships. Both Julie and joseph have a particular interest in swimming. Julie competed on the international swimming arena for Ireland and Northern Ireland for ten years, participating in three Commonwealth Games, three World Championships, three World University Games and a number of European Championships. We discuss an upcoming paper that Julie led and was co-written by Joseph along with Dr Chris Saward, Dr Mustafa Sarkar, Prof Chris Harwood and Prof Daniel Gould entitled “How to help coaches meet the psychosocial skill needs of their Generation Z athletes: A season long investigation in swimming”.

This week I’m delighted to speak to Martin Erikstad. Martin is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Agder in Norway. His areas of interest are coaching, transformational leadership, talent development and youth sport. Martin played soccer to an elite level in Norway before moving into an academic career. Martin completed his Masters and PhD in talent development in football at the University of Adger. He also spent several months at Queens University in Canada studying under Jean Côté. After completing his PhD he worked as an Associate Professor at Nord University.   Martin has also led and co-authored a paper along with Prof Bjørn Tore Johansen, Marius Johnsen, Prof Tommy Haugen and Jean Côté entitled “As Many as Possible for as Long as Possible: A Case Study of a Soccer Team that Fosters Multiple Outcomes”. The study examines the Norwegian soccer club, Bryne FC and how it successfully fosters player participation and engagement in the game for the long term regardless of their athletic potential or motivation.   You can find the study here https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349966854_As_Many_as_Possible_for_as_Long_as_Possible-A_Case_Study_of_a_Soccer_Team_That_Fosters_Multiple_Outcomes