The Sport Psych Show

I’m delighted to speak with Dr Matt Hoffmann in this episode. Matt is Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at California State University, Fullerton. He is primarily interested in examining the nature and benefits of high-quality peer athlete mentoring relationships. Relatedly, he investigates how athletes exhibit effective leadership behaviours, including the ways in which leadership is often distributed among team members. Additional interests include the home (dis)advantage phenomenon (particularly in ice hockey), coaching in Masters athletics and the psychosocial experiences of Masters athletes.  Matt and I discuss a paper he wrote with Dr Jeemin Kim entitled ‘Personality, social status and willingness to mentor teammates among NCAA athletes’ which investigates why athletes are inclined to mentor teammates examining whether personality and social status predicted athletes’ willingness to provide mentorship.

I am delighted to welcome back Dr Andrew Abraham to the show this week. Andrew is Head of Department for Sport Coaching at Leeds Beckett University. He is a coach developer with an interest in how coaches do their job in relation to effectiveness, judgement, decision-making and talent development.   Andrew has most recently been involved in developing and delivering a Post Graduate Diploma in Coach Development to coach developers within The English Football Association.  Andrew's research and consultancy work is recognised across the world. The impact of this work is seen within the International Sport Coaching Degree Standards, co-produced with the International Council for Coaching Excellence, academics from universities across continents and practitioners from International Coaching Federations. We speak about Professional Judgement and Decision Making (PJDM) in coaching.

I’m delighted to welcome back Richard Nugent to the show. Richard is founder and MD of TwentyOne Leadership.  Over the past 20 years, Richard has worked with thousands of professionals in some of the biggest and best-known organisations in the world. He specialises in helping executive leaders and teams grow and change their strategic direction.  Richard also teaches leadership and culture modules on the League Managers Association (LMA) diploma in management for up-and-coming football managers. Richard is the best-selling author of several books and his latest ‘The Alignment Advantage’ is out in June.  We speak all things leadership and culture and Richard gives some brilliant real-world examples about culture, leadership and engagement that are applicable in sport, business and life.

In this episode I’m joined by Dr Shane Pill. Shane is one of Australia's leading coach educators and developers, and thought leaders in physical education. He is Associate Professor in Physical Education and Sport at Flinders University. Shane's research is in the fields of sport coaching and physical education curriculum and pedagogy, and education leadership. He has authored over 150 peer reviewed and scholarly articles. Shane is an experienced consultant and education provider to the sport and education industry, contributing to wellbeing, physical activity, sport and physical education work groups, committees and reference groups. Shane has worked with the Department of Education, Australian Sports Commission/Sport Australia, Tennis Australia, Cricket Australia, South Australian Cricket Association, Australian Football League, South Australian Football League, West Australian Football Commission, South Australian Certificate of Education Board, Rugby Australia, Lacrosse Australia, ACT Physical Activity Foundation, and Australian Rugby League.  Shane and I talk about his experiences as a coach and coach educator and we discuss games-based approaches to coaching and the ‘Spectrum of Teaching Styles’. 

I am delighted to be joined by Danielle Cormier and Dr Kent Kowalski in this week’s episode. We speak about self-compassion in sport. Danielle is a Doctoral Candidate at University of Saskatchewan, specialising in Sport Psychology. Danielle is passionate about encouraging athletes to build on their character strengths rather than focusing on their weaknesses. She is particularly interested in the application of positive psychology in sport, and the construct of grit and self-compassion in athletes competing at both elite and developmental levels. Kent is a Professor in the College of Kinesiology at the University of Saskatchewan. Kent’s research, teaching, and applied work is primarily in the area of sport, exercise, and health psychology. His main research focus currently is on exploring the role of self-compassion in the lives of athletes.  Kent is also an Assistant Coach with the University of Saskatchewan Men’s Soccer Team and a mental training consultant with the Saskatchewan Sports Science and Medicine Council. Danielle and Kent have co-authored a paper, along with colleagues, entitled ‘Self-compassion in sport: a scoping review’. The paper reviews the self-compassion in sport literature and provides further evidence of the potential benefits of self-compassion to sport participants.

In this episode I’m joined by Performance Coach, Aaron Walsh. Aaron’s primary focus areas are mental performance, leadership development and culture reviews. He is the current mental skills coach with Chiefs Rugby Club and Scotland Rugby, as well as helping develop mental performance programs for Harlequins and Texas Rangers. Before this, Aaron worked in MLB, NRL and with various national teams. He is also currently coaching multiple corporate leadership teams in creating and maintaining high-performance working environments. He is also a sought-after and highly regarded presenter. Aaron and I speak about mental skills and discuss his approach to incorporating mental skills into high performance environments.

In this episode, I’m joined by Barnaby Sargent Megicks. Barney is a PhD Student in Sport Coaching at Leeds Beckett University with ICOACHKIDS. His research focuses on talent and holistic development. Barney is a Loughborough University and University of Birmingham Graduate and a qualified PE teacher. He is also a hockey coach at Leeds Hockey Club and West Yorkshire. Barney and I discuss talent development environments (TDEs) and particularly focus on a paper that Barney led entitled ”Examining European Talent Development Environments: Athlete, Parent and Coach Perceptions”. We discuss the findings of the paper and elaborate on what coaches and leaders can take from the research. You can find the paper here:  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02640414.2023.2172800 

In this episode, I’m joined by Henrik Herrebroden. Henrik is a sport psychologist and PhD fellow at the University of Oslo. His area of interest is in mental effort and elite performance. We talk about a fascinating paper in which Henrik discusses the benefits of both external and internal focus of attention in motor learning and performance. In the paper Henrik analyses the idea that an external focus is superior to an internal focus, and argues that motor performers will benefit from instructional cues that guide attention toward task-relevant information, regardless of whether the cues are internal or external.  The paper is entitled “Motor Performers Need Task-relevant Information: Proposing an Alternative Mechanism for the Attentional Focus Effect” And you can find it here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00222895.2022.2122920

In this episode I welcome back Prof Chris Cushion, Prof Stephen Harvey and Dr Ed Cope to the show. Chris, Stephen and Ed bring their considerable coaching and academic knowledge to this episode to discuss different approaches to coaching. We do a deep dive on instructional approaches, discuss the confusion around instructional coaching and offer clarification to listeners. Chris is Professor of Coaching and Pedagogy and the Director of Sport Integration at Loughborough University and the Head of Coaching at England Netball. Chris has a range of research and teaching interests around the coaching process including coach education, coach behaviour and learning environments.  Stephen is Professor in Sport Pedagogy at Ohio University. His research is focused on teacher/coach pedagogy and practice and its influence on student/player learning. Stephen is the Coach Educator Developer at US Soccer Federation and the Head Coach at Ohio Soccer Club. Ed has been a lecturer in Sport Coaching for over a decade and is currently based at the prestigious Loughborough University. Ed has also worked in football, holding the role of Learning Design and Development Manager at the English Football Association where he was responsible for the design and development of their education courses.

Dr. Martin Turner, a psychology expert, discusses Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) in sports, emphasizing the importance of rational thinking, managing negative emotions for growth, and utilizing cognitive restructuring for high-performance mindset. The podcast explores the significance of rational and irrational beliefs, multiple identities beyond performance, and practical tools for athletes and coaches to enhance performance.