Joué
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I'm delighted to speak with Dr Alan McKay in this week's episode. Alan is an HCPC sport psychologist, researcher, and practitioner. He completed his PhD in sport psychology with the Football Association of Wales (FAW) and is currently working as a senior research assistant at the FAW Centre for Football Research, housed at the University of South Wales. In this role he helps to produce multidisciplinary, world-leading, applied performance science research to enhance the performance of Welsh athletes and organisations.
Alan also works within elite level sport at both Welsh Triathlon and in his own company Mindframe Performance, where he has supported athletes competing at both the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
In this episode Alan and I discuss behaviour-based approaches to mental toughness in sport.
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In this episode I'm joined by Dr Keith McShan and Dr Whitney Moore. We talk about coach-athlete relationships.
Keith is Assistant Professor of Kinesiology at Missouri State University. Before joining MSU, Keith was an active high school basketball and football coach in Canada. Keith has worked for organisations such as Football Canada, Duke University Men's Basketball Camp, and the Corporation of the City of Windsor.
Keith is an active member of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA) and The Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). Keith is the current faculty advisor for the Kinesiology Research and Career (KRC) Club.
Whitney is Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at East Carolina University. Prior to this, Whitney was an Assistant Professor at the University of North Texas and an Associate Professor at Wayne State University.
Whitney previously owned and was the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for MOORE Training. Her company focused on providing high-quality training for youth and adults.
In this episode we discuss a fascinating paper Keith and Whitney edited entitled "A systematic Review of the Coach-Athlete Relationship From the Coaches' Perspective".
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I'm delighted to speak with Dr Matthew Andrew this week. Matthew is a senior lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University. He previously lectured at Liverpool John Moores University in Expert Performance and Learning. Matthew is interested in skill acquisition and talent identification and development.
In this episode Matthew and I discuss a study he led which examined talent development in female soccer. The study examined developmental activities engaged in by professional female soccer players in England.
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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.
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I'm delighted to speak with Dr Derek Panchuk this week. Derek is a skill acquisition specialist with over 15 years experience working with coaches across sport, including: the NBA, G-League, a wide-range of National Sporting Organisations, regional and community level organisations, and clubs. Derek helps coaches and leaders build bridges between the science of learning and art of coaching so they can discover new ways to grow talent and build teams.
Derek completed his MSc in Motor Control and his PhD in Neuromotor Control at The University of Calgary. After completing his studies, Derek moved to Australia and was the first ever National Lead for skill acquisition at the Australian Institute of Sport. Here he worked closely with coaches to design individualised learning environments that aligned with their coaching philosophies and goals.
Derek now consults, working closely with coaches to transform how they coach and develop players. He uses an individualised approach to coach development grounded in the science of skill learning that helps coaches discover their strengths and uncover new opportunities so they can improve buy-in and have a big impact with their players.
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I'm delighted to speak with Dr Daniel Fortin-Guichard this week. Daniel works as a Postdoc fellow at the University of Toronto where he specialises in talent identification research through psychological characteristics.
Daniel received his PhD from Université Laval in psychology with a specialty in perceptual-cognitive skills in sports. In parallel with his thesis, Daniel worked with the Quebec Remparts hockey team as an advisor to the scouting staff. Each year, Daniel travelled the Province of Quebec and the Maritimes with the scouts to measure the players' psychological and perceptual-cognitive skills.
In this episode we discuss a paper that Daniel led which looked at the identification of "sleeping" talent using psychological characteristics.
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I'm excited to speak with Dr Mark Aoyagi this week. Mark is the Co-Director of the Master's programme in Sport and Performance Psychology and Professor in the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the University of Denver. He is also the founder of the Center for Performance Excellence.
Mark's areas of expertise include performance excellence, team effectiveness, and achieving meaning, satisfaction and fulfilment through sport, work, and life. He is a recognised sport psychology consultant and has worked with several professional and Olympic teams and athletes as well as NCAA athletic departments and developmental athletes. Mark is active in several professional organizations including the International Society for Sport Psychology, American Psychological Association (APA) and the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP).
In this episode Mark and I speak about theories of performance excellence.
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In this episode I'm joined by Dr Alison Maitland and Jenna Ashford to talk about their new book "Drop the Struggle: A Transformative Approach to Achieving Your Potential in Sport and Life".
Alison is a widely recognised and experienced HCPC registered and BASES accredited Sport Psychologist. She has a PhD in elite sport and uses her expertise in human performance in a wide range of settings in sport and businesses around the world. Alison has helped elite athletes achieve World Championship titles and Olympic success.
Jenna is a Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist and Performance Consultant, working with top athletes, CEO's at global companies and within sectors including education and healthcare. Jenna is also a passionate sportswoman and represented England Hockey and played in premier league teams all over the world.
Their book, "Drop the Struggle" is based on scientifically proven techniques from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and takes a radically new look at the mental side of reaching your potential in sport. It has been written for athletes, coaches and anyone wanting to achieve more and provides a practical kitbag of ways to succeed. It will teach you a sustainable way of dealing with difficult thoughts, managing your emotions and harnessing them to help you perform to the best of your ability.
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In this episode I'm joined by Dr James Munnik and Prof Leon Van Niekerk.
James is a Counselling Psychology Lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. James has worked with a number of athletes in his own private practice as a high performance mental coach in psychotherapy and counselling. He has special interests in sport/exercise psychology research and Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy (REBT) theory and practice.
Leon is a Professor of Psychology at University of Fort Hare in South Africa. He is a registered Counselling Psychologist and has his own psychology consultancy practice where he focuses on the provision of sport psychological services to individual athletes and teams.
Leon's research interests are in the psychological well-being of athletes. This includes topics such as the development of mental toughness, sport identity and life roles, burnout, stress and anxiety among athletes, the effectiveness of mindfulness during competition, mental health in sport and the psychological health benefits of exercise.
In this episode we discuss a paper entitled "Recommendations for Integrating Psychological Skills Training (PST) into Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy (REBT)" which was led by James and co-written by Dr Martin Turner and Leon.
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🌼Guess what, kiddos? 🐟🕳️ Our little friend Dandelion had an unexpected journey today!✨ From flying high to meeting some quirky river friends and getting help from Miss Rabbit and Grandma Mole, it was a day full of surprises!🐰 Stay tuned to hear more about how Dandelion found a cozy new home. 🌬️🏡
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Go search "Spotty Dinosaur's Cake Shop" on your apps, or wherever you tune in for more giggles galore! 🎧😄 Don't forget to tell your buddies, too! 🤝
🌟 Calling all little adventurers! 🌟
Join Mimi Crocodile and Hasty Rhino on their wacky quest to catch stars in our hilarious story. 🎙️✨
These mischievous stars just won't let our pals get ahold of them! From cake shop puddles to chestnut tree branches, Mimi and Hasty are in for a cosmic comedy show that will have you rolling with laughter! 🤣
Ready to giggle and gasp as Mimi and Hasty chase stars? Hit play and let the starry silliness begin! ⭐️✨ -
This August, we’re sending special bedtime wishes to 3 lucky listeners — and your name could be one of them! 🎉🌙
📝 How to join?
Simply leave any comment under any of our August episodes!
At the end of the month, we’ll pick 3 lucky listeners and give them a personal bedtime wish with their names in a special episode. 🛏️💫
So whether it’s a sweet dream wish, a fun emoji, or just a hello — every comment counts!
👉 Drop a comment, and maybe you’ll hear your name in a magical bedtime wish soon! ✨🎧 -
I'm delighted to speak with Ray Power in this episode. Ray is a coach developer and best-selling author of 10 soccer coaching books. He is also the Technical Director of the largest football academy in South Asia.
Ray has coached at every level of football, from youth at risk to elite youth internationals. He achieved his UEFA A Licence in 2012 and has worked in youth football development all over the world since, including with the FA, Sunderland AFC and Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP), the national sports institute of Bangladesh.
Ray's series of soccer coaching books combine to make him the best-selling football coaching author globally. Ray works with every level of coach through Ray Power Coach Education, offering webinars, 1:1 mentoring and football curriculum development.
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On this week's episode I speak to Dr Chris Mesagno. Chris is a sport psychologist, a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Victoria University, and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University.
Chris has over 20 years of research expertise in stress, anxiety, attention and concentration skills and has successfully developed theory-matched interventions to improve performance for highly anxious and "choking-susceptible" athletes. Chris also worked, and continues to work, with numerous athletes from a range of team and individual sports to enhance mental skills for better performance and mental health outcomes.
Chris maintains a robust academic research profile with more than 50 research articles and book chapters and has given various presentations at national and international conferences. This international research profile has been recognised with awards and keynote conference presentations within sport and exercise psychology.
In this episode we focus on a paper led by Dr Peter Gröpel and co-written by Chris entitled "Choking interventions in sports: A systematic review". The purpose of the paper is to provide an overview of studies that have tested interventions used to alleviate choking. The results of the paper may help athletes and coaches select and implement effective strategies and methods to improve performance under pressure.
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In this episode I'm joined by Dr Ella McLoughlin and Dr Rachel Arnold. We discuss a paper that was led by Ella which examines how stressors influence sport performers' health, well-being, and performance.
Ella is a Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Nottingham Trent University. Her research interests span the topics of lifetime stressor exposure, the enhancement of health, well-being, and performance, and psychophysiological responses to acute stressors among athletes.
Ella is a member of the Sport, Health, and Performance Enhancement (SHAPE) Research Centre. She has published in peer-reviewed journals in the area of stress, health, and performance and has presented her work at national and international conferences.
Rachel is the Academic Director (Doctoral) and a Reader in Sport and Performance Psychology at the University of Bath. Rachel is a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, registered Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council, accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist with the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Chartered Scientist with The Science Council, and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Rachel's research looks at how individuals and organisations can optimally manage stress to enable thriving, predominantly in sport but also in high pressure domains. She has published widely in leading peer-reviewed journals on the area of stress, performance, and well-being.
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I'm delighted to welcome back licensed clinical psychologist and sport psychologist, Dr Scott Goldman in this week's episode.
Scott started out at the University of Arizona where was one of the first embedded sport psychologists in an athletic department. He has since served as a clinical and performance psychologist for the University of Michigan and Saint Louis' Athletic Departments. Scott also helped co-author the best practices for the NCAA and was part of their first mental health task force.
Scott has worked as sport psychologist for the Miami Dolphins and Detroit Lions NFL teams and NBA teams Washington Wizards, and currently the Golden State Warriors.
Scott is also the owner/developer of a test called the The Athletic Intelligence Quotient (AIQ) which measures intelligence that is most relevant to athletic performance. The test is used across all 5 major leagues in the US as well as in other countries around the world.
Scott is heavily involved in the NFL Scouting Combine and we speak about the psychology involved in the selection process.
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I'm delighted to speak with Ben Franks in this episode. Ben is a people developer and Senior Lecturer in Applied Coaching Sciences at Oxford Brookes University. Ben has been at Oxford Brookes since 2021 after holding various teaching positions at The University Campus of Football Business and at Canterbury Christ Church University.
Ben also consults and coaches at a variety of organisations. He is Head of Youth and Junior Football at Sevenoaks Town FC.
His areas of expertise are Ecological Approaches to Perception, Action and Cognition, Non-Linear Pedagogy and Human Movement and Skill Development. Ben is currently undertaking a PhD.
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I'm delighted to speak with Jason Dorland this week. Jason is a former Olympic, Commonwealth Games and World Championship rower and rowing coach.
After his competitive career, Jason went on to enter the teaching profession, where he taught and coached high school for fifteen years. In ten years of coaching rowing, Jason's crews earned 12 international championship titles.
Jason now works with his wife, former Olympic, Commonwealth Games and World Championship middle and long-distance runner, Robyn Meagher. Their business, Your Mindset Coaching and Consulting, offers workshops, keynotes, and coaching to teams looking to better equip themselves to be their best selves and perform at their highest possible potential for longer.
Jason and I speak about his experiences as an Olympic athlete, what he learned from his competitive career, and how this shaped his coaching and consultancy practice.
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I'm delighted to speak with Mia KurtzFavero this week. Mia and I discuss a research paper she co-authored which explored the parent-coach dual role.
In the paper a number of parent-coaches were interviewed to examine how they perceived their dual role to influence their coaching effectiveness and to hear what strategies they used to remain effective.
Previous research looking into youth sport coaching indicates that a majority of coaches may also be a parent to an athlete on their team. While previous studies have also sought to understand how being a parent-coach might affect parents' relationships with their own child(ren), little work appears to explore how occupying this role might affect an individual's ability to remain effective as a coach. Findings from the paper indicated that parent-coaches have few formalised resources to aid them in navigating the issues associated with their challenging dual-role position. Given the number of parent-coaches in youth, more research needs to be done on this topic.
Mia has just completed her Master's degree in Sport Psychology. Her studies focused on coaching, specifically, helping coaches develop their inter and intra personal skills.
Mia is a coach of volleyball, coaching club teams and high school teams, as well as the provincial youth boy's volleyball team.
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I'm delighted to speak with Johnny Gorman this week. Johnny is a trainee clinical psychologist and former professional footballer.
We speak about the experiences of footballers who were released from clubs at a young age and the impact this had on them, a topic Johnny has recently published a paper on entitled "Inside the football factory: young players' reflections on being 'released'".
There is considerable research on senior players' mental health outcomes following retirement. However, less attention has been paid to the greater numbers of young players who are deselected each year. Growing research attests to their increased risk of psychological distress including anxiety and depression.
Every year, most young football players experience deselection and for some, this has profound consequences including drug addiction and even death. Yet little is known about these young hopefuls whose careers are abruptly cut short and who are released into a world they are ill-prepared for. This study brings a social psychological lens to examine how social identity processes underpin these consequences.
The paper's findings contribute to calls for deeper consideration and action around football club culture, and clubs' responsibility to player welfare, including when players are released.
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