Episodes
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I’m excited to speak with Dr Peter Sear in this episode. Peter is the founder of The Empathic Minds Organisation, a company working with coaches and leaders to help their teams and organisations achieve their needs and goals. Specifically assisting in areas such as increasing productivity; developing great leadership; developing cohesive teams; and improving communication.
Peter has a background in psychology and is interested in emotional environments within organisations and the influence of empathic leadership. He completed his PhD in Empathic Leadership of teams in sport. Peter has just released a book on this subject entitled “Empathic Leadership: Lessons from Elite Sport” drawing on his extensive research and experience incorporating the words of leaders of teams to help to explain how empathy can help leaders be successful in their work. And it’s this fantastic book we speak about.
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I’m delighted to speak with Dr Robin Taylor and 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 working on their Performance programmes. He also coaches academy rugby union at Midlands Central academy.
Robin is an Assistant Professor in Elite Performance at Dublin City University. His research is focused on talent development and he is particularly interested in the holistic role family can play in the development of sporting talent. Robin is a Performance Centre Head Coach within the England Hockey Player Pathway and has worked closely with a range of NGBs and sports organisation supporting player and coach development, and parental engagement.
We discuss a brilliant paper Robin and Jamie have written alongside Dr Michael Ashford and Dr Rosie Collins entitled “Contemporary pedagogy? The use of theory in practice: An evidence-informed perspective”.
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I’m delighted to welcome back Amy Price in this episode. Amy works as a coach developer for the FA working with coaches in the senior women’s professional game – women’s super league, women’s championship, first team and under 21’s. Prior to this, Amy was a lecturer at St Mary’s University, London in Physical and Sport Education and then Programme Director. Amy holds a Masters and DProf and is nearing completion of her PhD in game understanding within team sport.
We discuss a fascinating paper Amy has written alongside Prof Dave Collins entitled “Contributing to a Coaching Team’s Shared Mental Model of Player Game Understanding: An Intervention within High-Level Youth Soccer” which examines coaches’ views on levels of player understanding, checks the coherence of these views between the coaching team and provides coaching teams with tools to measure and build Shared Mental Models.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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’.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Martin Turner. Martin is a Reader in Psychology at The Manchester Metropolitan University specialising in human performance under pressure and adversity. Martin’s research also includes the use of a counselling framework called Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) to help athletes reduce their irrational beliefs that cause unhelpful emotions and maladaptive behaviours.
As a practitioner sport and exercise psychologist, Martin has worked with a number of professional athletes across a range of sports including football, cricket, rugby, cycling, archery, shooting, and equestrian.
Martin has a new book out entitled “The Rational Practitioner” which provides a comprehensive portrayal of REBT applied within sport and performance. In this episode we explore the book with a focus on how athletes and coaches can utilise and incorporate REBT into their practices.
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In this episode I speak with Bernadette Kellermann. Bernadette is a Performance Psychology PhD student at the University of Edinburgh researching the Multi-Action Plan (MAP) Model and transitions between mental states in performance. We discuss a paper Bernadette has written along with Dr Alan MacPherson, Prof Dave Collins and Dr Maurizio Bertollo about this subject.
The MAP Model is an action-focused, sport-specific intervention model that can be utilised to investigate and improve human performance. The Multi-Action Plan presents as an action-focused, sport-specific, mixed methods intervention model.
In addition to her performance psychology studies, Bernadette is a violinist, composer and tutor having graduated from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
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I speak with Dr Dale Whelehan in this episode. Dale is a Behaviour Scientist and Chartered Physiotherapist graduate from Trinity College, Dublin. His research focuses on the relationship between sleep and performance. He has interests in performance science, sleep science, positive psychology, behaviour change, medical education, higher education, and public health. His research is in the area of Surgical Performance in Trinity College Dublin with particular focus on the interplay between sleep, performance and clinical decision making in surgeons.
Dale completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Behaviour Sciences with particular focus on objectivity of performance, the influence of sleep deprivation and the opportunity for positive psychological approaches to optimise accessing states of thriving.
Dale and I review his research into fatigue and explore the impact it can have on the performance of coaches and competitors alike. We also discuss how to create balance to minimise the detrimental influences of fatigue.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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