The Athlete Development Show: Recent Episodes
The Athlete Development Show
Nate Baker is a former pro football player, current coach, and the founder of The Developer’s Way coach education. Nate believes the best coaches, teachers, and leaders aren’t defined by weekend results. Instead, they are guided by something greater—the growth and development of their people.
In this conversation, Nate shares stories that show how early experiences in sport can shape whether kids stay in the game or walk away from it altogether. We also explore the bigger shifts in football in the U.S. where the focus has moved from joy and development toward signalling status, and what that means for the future of the game. At the heart of it all is Nate’s philosophy of being a lighthouse: steady, humble, and focused on guiding others. He opens up about his own journey of self-discovery and the responsibility coaches and parents share to create environments where young people can truly thrive.
This is a conversation about leadership, culture, and the infinite game of development.
Enjoy!
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Every week, I sit with young athletes and help them paint a clear picture of who they want to become. We close our eyes and imagine an exciting future. What does their best self look like? How does it feel? What are the words that define it? And what actions prove it true? It’s a powerful experience...
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Ellie Hulsebosch (@elliehulsebosch) is one of the most exciting young athletes on the international downhill mountain biking circuit riding for the legendary Santa Cruz Syndicate. But behind the results sheet is a story of rapid growth, powerful self-discovery, and an unwavering commitment to both performance and personal wellbeing.
In this conversation, Ellie opens up about her journey — from walking her very first DH race track in 2020 to standing on World Cup podiums in Europe just a few years later. She shares openly about a tough start to the circuit this year, and a cultural reset that is helping her bounce back to better performances. We also dive into some of Ellie’s mental game, including race-week routines, music playlists, journaling, and how she manages fear.
There’s so much to take from Ellie’s thoughtful reflections, and I am so stoked I got the chance to chat with her.
Enjoy!
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When a young child sits down to do a puzzle, they often begin by matching patterns. They notice colours and shapes that seem to go together and start forming....
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This episode is a rebroadcast of episode #25 of The Crafted Conversation with Marcus Sharrad.
Enjoy.
In this expansive conversation, Dr Craig Harrison invites us to rethink the purpose and practice of youth development. It’s not about designing perfect athletes, but about crafting safe, playful, expressive environments where young people can explore who they are, not just what they can do.
Marcus and Craig explore the ecological complexity of performance, the importance of letting go of control, and the centrality of coaching the person before the plan.
From storytelling and psychological safety to mentorship and emotional literacy, this episode is a masterclass in compassionate, curious leadership.
Key Concepts:
- Environments shape behaviour – Coaching doesn’t happen in a vacuum. We must understand the child’s world, not just their session.
- Performance is personal – Narrative identity, not outcome identity, should guide the athlete journey.
- Belonging matters as much as skill – Every athlete needs to feel safe to explore, question, and grow.
- Mentorship is not a programme — it’s a culture – It lives in every conversation, check-in, and reflective pause.
- Freedom and structure are not opposites – The best coaching holds both gently, in balance.
- Reflection over reaction – True development invites athletes to think, not just comply.
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Professor Holly Thorpe, a leading voice in the sociology of sport from the University of Waikato, is an action sports advocate and someone who’s spent years studying the social dynamics of movement and play.
In this episode, Holly shares her journey growing up in Gisborne’s tight-knit windsurfing and skateboarding community, where the learning came from peers, not coaches, and where the natural environment played as big a role as the people did. We discuss the idea of “stoke” — that deep sense of joy and freedom that lives at the heart of action sports — and explore how we might protect and promote that same feeling in more traditional sporting spaces.
We also dive into the challenges girls and women still face in these environments, the impact of family and community, and what happens when sports like snowboarding and skateboarding become Olympic disciplines.
Enjoy!
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Josh Wall is the Director of Performance and Athletic Wellbeing at Wycombe Abbey in the UK, and lead S&C coach for England Women’s Lacrosse. Josh brings a wealth of experience from across the school landscape — from boarding to day schools — and is currently completing a Doctorate in Professional Practice at Leeds Beckett University, where his research focuses on supporting student-athletes in independent girls’ schools.
In this episode, we explore Josh’s journey from football-mad Manchester United fan to a dynamic coach shaping youth athletic development. We dive into the principles behind his coaching philosophy, including the use of movement skill frameworks, strength progression, and educational tools like SOLO taxonomy. Josh also shares insights into designing gym environments that educate and inspire, the power of cultural architects in sport, and the balance needed to support the dual lives of student-athletes.
Enjoy!
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This is a rebroadcast of episode #2 of The Game Changer podcast, featuring Dr Craig Harrison.
"What does it really take for young athletes to succeed? In this episode of The Game Changer podcast, we sit down with Dr. Craig Harrison, expert in youth athlete development, founder of the Athlete Development Project, and host of The Athlete Development Show to challenge common beliefs about training, success, and the role of parents in sports.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Youth Athlete Development – The biggest misconceptions parents & coaches have.
- What Separates Elite Athletes – The key qualities needed for long-term success.
- The Parent’s Role in Sports – How to support without adding pressure.
- The Power of Environment – How the right setting shapes an athlete’s future.
- Goal Setting & Motivation – Habits that drive young athletes to achieve success.
Whether you're a parent, coach, or young athlete, this episode is packed with valuable insights and practical advice to help navigate the complex world of youth sports development."
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What if talent development wasn’t just about creating better athletes but better people?
In this conversation, I sit down with Barnaby Sargent Megicks, a researcher who spent weeks inside a cricket academy, not just watching but truly understanding what makes a talent system work. His focus isn’t just on performance but on how young athletes grow as people, how they balance their sport with school and life, and how the environments they’re in shape their future, both in and out of the game.
We dig into the tension between chasing peak performance and developing life skills, the power of relationships in coaching, and what it really takes to create a system that prepares athletes for success - not just on the field, but in life.
Barnaby’s insights are built on real experiences, deep research, and countless hours spent with young cricketers navigating the demands of elite sport.
Enjoy!
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On the show this week, Dave Wright rejoins me for another episode of The Curious Mind. Our conversation focuses on the skills you need to develop great young leaders.
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Suzie Muirhead is the creator of Raise My Game, a tool designed to help athletes and their coaches navigate performance planning, personal growth, and decision-making. Suzie’s journey—from New Zealand hockey player to mentor and innovator—has shaped her belief that true development starts with ownership, trust, and the right conversations.
Whether you're a coach, parent, or athlete, this episode is packed with insights to help you level up. Enjoy!
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There are two ways to affect learning and development. Direct contact with the individuals and teams in front of you, or by influencing the system of which they are part of. My guest on today’s show has spent time doing both, first as a youth team coach at Sydney Football Club and then as Academy Manager. His name is Nick Susko and he played a pivotal role in shaping one of the most successful talent development programs in Australian sport, with over 60 graduates signing professional contracts and dozens representing Australia at every level of the game.
In this conversation, we explore the evolving landscape of youth football, including how systems thinking revolutionised Nick’s coaching philosophy and transformed the way he nurtured talent.
Together, Nick and I dig deeper into:
- How collaboration with local schools reshaped player support networks at Sydney FC
- Building sustainable success through quality coaching practices
- Creating psychological safety within the academy environment
- The complexities and challenges of player selection
- Breaking away from traditional youth sport narratives
- Understanding the key elements that help players reach their potential
- The growing role of technology and AI in football development
- Finding balance in youth development
- Making the learning process both meaningful and enjoyable
I love the way Nick thinks about development and I’m super excited to share it with you.
Enjoy!
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In the ‘Best of’ collection for 2024, I’ve pulled together some of the most insightful moments from your favourite guests this year to help you revisit some powerful lessons.
In part two of this 3-part series, we hear from Head of Physical Development at West Ham United Football Academy, Dr David Johnson, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Queen Ethelburga’s School, Dr Ffion Thompson, and Lecturer in Strength and Conditioning at Cardiff Metropolitan University, Dr John Radnor.
All 3 guests can be heard in full in their respective episodes linked below:
- ADS 163 Dr David Johnson
- ADS 170 Dr Ffion Thompson
- ADS 174 Dr John Radnor
We kick off this anthology episode hearing from John about the holistic impact a great S&C coach can have on their athletes.
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In the Best Of 2024 collection, I’ve pulled together some of the most insightful moments from your favourite guests to help you revisit some powerful lessons.
In part one of this 3-part series, we hear from Founder of the Atua Matua, Dr Ihirangi Heke, People Developer, Rusty Earnshaw, and Performance Breakthrough Specialist, Dr Richard Young.
All 3 guests can be heard in full in their respective episodes linked below:
- ADS 163 Dr Ihirangi Heke
- ADS 170 Rusty Earnshaw
- ADS 174 Dr Richard Young
We kick off this anthology episode hearing from Richard about the powerful idea he calls the ‘busy middle’.
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At the age of 17, my guest on today’s show received advice from her ski coach that led to her drop out. Although well intended, is was advice lacking in awareness of female physiology.
Dr Julia Casadio is a sport physiologist and applied researcher with over 15 years of experience in elite sport. She has spent most of her career in the Performance Physiology team at High Performance Sport New Zealand.
Julia and I connected around her latest project, Her Strength, a science-based digital platform designed to educate on the unique needs of the young female athlete.
In this conversation, we learn all about Her Strength, including who’s it for, what it covers, and why Julia is so passionate about making an impact. We start off hearing about the lessons Julia is learning running her own business .
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I met Tara at the age of 14 when she first entered the sports hall at AUT Millennium to join our Athlete Development Program. Four years later she got a call from esteemed Canoe Racing New Zealand lead coach, Gordon Walker, inviting her to join the high performance world. Then, just two years after that, she teamed up with Dame Lisa Carrington, Alicia Hoskin and Olivia Brett to win gold in the woman’s K4 at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
This is Tara’s story.
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The evidence is clear. Stronger athletes move better, get injured less and stay engaged with sport for longer.
But what should strength training look like for children?
My guest today is Dr Ben Pullen, PhD in paediatric strength and conditioning and the founder of Young Athlete Training.
Ben’s work integrates the physical and psychological considerations of development to provide novel, engaging and individualised strength training to both child and teenage athletes.
In this conversation, we learn all about Ben’s approach, including the four pillars that underpin his work, his specific methodology and why it’s so powerful for children, how he periodises his challenge-based training, new science that shows how children learn, and much more. I’m a huge fan of Ben’s mission and I’m so stoked to share it with you.
Enjoy!
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My guest today is Associate Professor Ian Renshaw, teacher, coach, researcher, and voracious learner. Over 35 years working in higher education, Ian has advised sporting organisations at the community and high performance level, published over 190 research articles, written several books, and collaborated on projects all over the world.
In this conversation, we trace Ian’s fascinating journey from schoolboy in the UK to working and raising children in New Zealand and Australia. Ian shares stories of engagement, motivation, optimism and development to help us create better learning environments for the young people we serve.
Enjoy!
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My guest today is Dr Martin Buchheit, an esteemed author of over 250 scientific papers, 2 best-selling books, co-founder of the HIIT Science podcast, and over 20 years working in professional sports. Focusing on bridging the gap between sports science knowledge and its practical application, Martin has held roles at Paris Saint-Germain F.C., Olympique de Lyon, Lille OSC, Aspetar, Aspire Academy, and various other consultancies around the world.
In this wide-ranging conversation, we explore Martin’s educated perspective on development, including how he applies what he believes with his own kids. This is a conversation less about the science of development and more about philosophy. I loved it for how Martin distils a very complex world into what really matters for raising young people who know their worth and have the skills to go after what they want. Sit back and enjoy the wisdom of one of the best.
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This conversation is with Dr David Johnson, a physical development specialist with a deep understanding of growth and development. His research in injury prevention has shown what’s possible in football when the natural changes every young athlete experiences are accounted for. As the Head of Physical Development at West Ham United Football Academy and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bath, David continues to be a leader in this field.
Today, we explore David’s research, including the questions he asked, what he found and how he integrated his findings into practice. We discuss how you can measure growth regardless of the resource you have available, the 4 key risk factors of injury, and how you can effectively intervene to protect your athletes. We also discuss David’s current project where he’s taking the scientific process he learnt studying for his PhD and applying it to nutrition.
If you work with athletes navigating accreted growth and would like to know more about preventing physical injury, this conversation is a must-listen. Enjoy!
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Are you looking for deeper, more impactful development? The answer is strategic simplicity.
My guest today is Dr Richard Young, keynote speaker, author, and adviser to sports leaders, teams, and professionals around the world. He has won international gold medals in cycling, coached world champions, created medal-winning programmes for three countries, and has been described as a ‘world-class performance creator’.
Born in the UK, raised in Canada, and now living with his four children in Dunedin, New Zealand, Richard earned his PhD in engineering and medical science and has studied the key differences between what athletes and their teams do who win medals and those who don’t.
In this conversation, Richard shares his system for turning potential into performance, starting with an idea he calls the ‘busy middle’.
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On the show this week, Dave Wright rejoins me for another episode of The Curious Mind. Our conversation focuses on another successful season for Dave coaching the Westlake Boys 1st XI and how he managed huge playing loads, the need for individualising support, how to build trust, markers of fatigue, the rise of specialisation in the NZ sporting system and what this means for player development, how to coach for confidence over competence, and more.
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Enjoy!
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This conversation is with Assistant Professor in Sport Psychology at the University of Bern in Switzerland, Dr Noora Ronkainen. Noora’s work centres on meaningful experiences in sport, exercise and physical cultures.
In this episode, we dive into the concept of existential learning. Noora defines the idea for us and shares some research highlighting how reflecting on setbacks in sport can lead to personal growth. We also discuss:
- The current pressures on young athletes
- The role of identity in sport;
- How technology can shape future aspirations;
- Gender differences in role models;
- Why young athletes leave sports; and
- The power of sport for learning about yourself, your values, and your relationships.
Enjoy!
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Today’s conversation is with Professor of Sport Coaching at the University of South Wales and Head of the Centre for Football Research in Wales, Brendan Cropley. Brendan is an esteemed scholar and has made a significant contribution to the Sport and Exercise Science, particularly in the area of psychology and coach education. He is also recognised worldwide as an expert in Reflective Practice and consults with a range of organisations across several industry sectors.
In this episode, we explore the power of aligning coaching values with the needs of developing children, focusing on more than just performance, including nurturing life skills. Brendan also shares his insights into effective coaching, reflective practices, and the integration of psychological development.
Check out Brendan's research we refer to in our conversation here.
If you enjoy the chat, please support the show by sharing it with your mates.
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Today’s conversation is with seasoned coach developer at the Magic Academy, Russell ‘Rusty’ Earnshaw. We explore all sorts on the show, from the subtle art of balancing authenticity with professionalism to the evolving role of psychology in sports. You’ll hear about the importance of showing up, the magic of playfulness in coaching, and even a few secret experiments designed to push the boundaries of what it means to be a great coach. If you’re curious about the intersection of personal growth, team dynamics, and the ever-changing landscape of sports, you’re going to love this one.
If you enjoy the chat, please support the show by sharing it with your mates.
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Dr John Radnor works in Wales at Cardiff Metropolitan University where he is a Lecturer in Strength and Conditioning, the Programme Lead for their Masters in Youth Athletic Development, and the Research and Innovation Lead for their Youth Physical Development Centre.
In 2023, John was awarded the Youth Strength and Conditioning Coach of the year award from the UKSCA. Over his 15 years as a coach, he has worked with many sports, including football, rugby, and rowing. John is currently using his research in talent identification and development to assist in the structures of academy pathways.
In this chat, we dig into John’s coaching philosophy, what he believes every youth strength and conditioning coach needs to know to deliver a developmentally appropriate experience, his current focus of research, and much more.
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Dr Suzanne Brown is a Clinical Psychologist and Emotional Fitness Consultant. With over 15 years of experience, including time as Lead Psychologist for Sunderland Football Club in the UK, she has pioneered a new way of working that bridges clinical psychology with elite performance.
Suzanne studied at the University of Birmingham, earning her undergrad and Master's degrees with top honours, and she completed her Doctorate at Coventry & Warwick University.
This episode is full of gold, including an inside look at Suzanne’s practice and how it has evolved over time, the complexities of developmental transitions, the need for attachment and autonomy in personal relationships, and the importance of free play and downtime for children to protect their natural curiosity.
Suzanne discusses the tension between individuality and conformity, particularly in the context of adolescence and sport. She also shares her experience of setting up a coach's resilience group at Sunderland AFC which provided a space for coaches to discuss their experiences and challenges.
And we discuss the role of storytelling in development, including the importance of exploring your own inner experiences and emotions to help your athletes reach their full potential.
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Dr John Alder (@JohnAlderWRU) is a development practitioner whose life mission is to help individuals, teams, and organisations flourish while promoting culture-driven leadership. He has worked with Professional, Olympic, and Paralympic sports on and across six continents, throughout the pathway, from regional development through to a World Cup and Olympic Games.
John is currently the Head of Player Development at the Welsh Rugby Union, responsible for cultivating a development rich environment for Wales’s most promising female and male rugby players on their journey from talented juniors to world class international performers.
In this conversation, we discuss how to manage change, the human side of development and performance, how best we can support leaders and coaches to develop inspired and inspiring people and build great teams, and much more.
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Dr Ffion Thompson is a post-doctoral researcher in youth athletic development at Leeds Beckett University in the UK, where she is module lead on the science of sport performance course, as well as a leader within the Centre of Child and Adolescent Physical Literacy. Ffion also serves as Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Queen Ethelburga’s School, Pathway Strength and Conditioning Coach at Leeds Rhinos Netball, and Women’s Head of Athletic and Physical Development at Wales Lacrosse.
Ffion's focus lies in holistic and dual career development, aiming to enhance experiences and opportunities for children and adolescents. In this conversation, Ffion shares some of her latest research looking at the academic, athletic, psychosocial and psychological impacts of being a sport school student-athlete, and how she is implementing the findings in her own work as a school strength and conditioning coach.
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On the show today, I’m speaking with Regional Coach Development Manager at New Zealand Cricket, Christian Thurston. In this conversation, Christian shares his story of successfully transitioning from a professional opera singer into coach development.
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On the show today, I’m speaking with Health and Physical Education Lecturer at Federation University in Victoria, Australia, Dr Riki Lindsay. Riki has a PhD in Human Movement Science from Victoria University, a Master’s degree in Sport and Exercise Science from Auckland University of Technology and he is currently working towards a second Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology.
In this conversation, Riki and I dig into his new paper all about skill learning, titled “The adaptable coach – a critical review of the practical implications for traditional and constraints-led approaches in sport coaching.”
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On the show today, I’m speaking with researcher and founder of the Atua Matua framework, Dr Ihirangi Heke. Ihi builds health, wellness and performance practices based on traditional environmental knowledge.
In this conversation, Ihi and I discuss the good ol’ days of PE school in Dunedin and the changes that have taken place since. Ihi shares some of his early experiences growing up in the great outdoors and what led to his work studying environmental science. We talk about genetic ways of knowing developed over multiple generations and how learning takes place from a Māori perspective. And we discuss how you can use an environmentally centred approach to development to take you past what you ever imagined was possible.
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On the Show today I'm speaking with Head of Performance Pathways Science at the National Youth Sports Institute in Singapore, Dr Matthew Wylde. Matthew has been within the Singapore high performance system for over 15 years, having held roles with the Singapore Sport Institute, Singapore Sports School and now with the National Youth Sports Institute. He holds a PhD from Bournemouth University, which explored the use of wearable technologies to reduce injury rates within a youth athlete population, and a MSc in Performance Analysis from Cardiff Metropolitan University.
In this episode, Matthew shares a fantastic new initiative at the Singapore Sports School. If you're after an example that exemplifies alignment between what we know from the science and what we do in practice, you're going to love this.
Enjoy!
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On the Show today I'm speaking with the man behind the Crusaders Rugby Academy, Aaron Webb. The programme operates in line with the New Zealand Rugby Union's six pillars of development - technical, tactical, physical, nutrition, mental skills and holistic life skills. Aaron shares how he goes about his work with a clear focus on developing young men with the skills to reach their goals in professional rugby and grow into excellent community citizens.
This is a conversation about the artistry of people development.
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Brian Shelley is Head of Football at Saint Kentigern College in Auckland where he coaches at the premier level and oversees the development pathways. He earned his UEFA A License with the English FA.
Prior to his coaching career, Brain played professional football in the UK where he competed for clubs in both the UEFA Cup and Champions League.
In this conversation we discuss school versus club football, Brian's coaching approach and the experiences that have led to it, how he thinks about building resilience, growing the game in New Zealand, and much more.
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Head of coaching at Birkenhead United FC in Auckland, New Zealand and Co-founder of Player Development Project, Dave Wright (@davewright07), rejoins me for another episode of The Curious Mind.
We discuss our experiences in youth sport over the past couple of months, including using street football as a development tool and why Dave loves it as a format, accounting for skill variability in our athletes, planning for all-round development, designing cultures of learning, and much more.
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Tim Brazier (@coach_brazier) has been coaching in high performance sport for over 15 years. After earning a Master's degree from the University of Otago, Tim took up a lecturing role at Otago Polytechnic for two years. He went on to coach at Triathlon New Zealand for 7 years and attended two Olympic Games. Tim now coaches at Fitter, a New Zealand based triathlon coaching business offering highly personalised, professional coaching to a wide range of athletes. He also works for Snow Sports New Zealand as a physiologist.
In this conversation we discuss the power of the supportive relationships, developing resilience, creating filters to makes sense of information, micro-dosing of reflection, dealing with increasing expectation in sport, how Tim thinks about balance, the problem with fun, and much more.
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This is a rebroadcast of episode 162 of Athletes Authority ON AIR podcast, featuring Dr Craig Harrison.
"Craig gives us a breakdown of his coaching background, why he chose to work in the youth space over other areas of physical development, how his diverse background set him up for success, how he implements mental skills or the "unseen" side of training into his programming, how environment and parenting plays a massive role in the success of an athlete plus a whole lot more."
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Jordi Taylor (@coach_jorditaylor) is a Senior Strength and Conditioning Coach at Athletes Authority, a strength and conditioning gym for athletes in Sydney and Melbourne, in Australia. Jordi also heads up Media & Partnerships at Athlete Authority and hosts their ON AIR Podcast.
In this conversation, Jordi takes us inside Athletes Authority's Emerging Athlete Programme, a service specifically designed for young athletes. I really enjoyed hearing from Jordi and his no filter approach to sharing what they do and how they do it. There's plenty of gold in this one so stay tuned to hear from one of the best.
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Head of coaching at Birkenhead United FC in Auckland, New Zealand and Co-founder of Player Development Project, Dave Wright (@davewright07), rejoins me for another episode of The Curious Mind.
We discuss our experiences in youth sport over the past couple of months, including how Dave goes about creating team culture, the pros and cons of tournament play, the essential ingredients in coach development, and much more.
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Dr Sarah Chantler is a registered dietician and performance nutritionist. Originally from South Africa, Sarah is now based at Leeds Beckett University in the UK where she is a senior lecturer and applied practitioner. Sarah's fascinating work highlights why we should prioritise teaching food skills over food knowledge to the adolescent athlete. We dig into this idea during the episode and Sarah gives some great examples to use with your athletes.
We also discuss the role of the coach in nutrition, how age should impact what we focus on and the value of snacking as a starting point for younger kids, how the sporting system can influence poor nutrition, appetite and the challenges that come with higher training loads, the power of role modelling in nutrition, social media, and why we should all be having more conversations about food.
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"Grass was a luxury, if you saw grass, you'd go and roll in it."
My conversation today is with Royston Dsouza. Hailing from India, where he spend much of his childhood playing football on the streets of Mumbai, Royston is now based in Auckland, Aotearoa, where he works as a movement skill coach and as a football coach. Royston played top level club football in India for five years before quitting and making the move to New Zealand to study.
In this conversation, I chat with Royston about his joyful childhood, including his wide range of movement experiences and playing sport based on the season. Roy describes the difference between football in New Zealand compared to India and what led to his decision to quit the game he loved. We also chat about Roy's approach to developing movement skill and how he aims to keep kids in sport.
You can check out Roy and his awesome work @Roystondsouza on instagram.
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This conversation is with Austin Einhorn and Dr Jeff Moreno, recorded live in Santa Cruz, California.
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On the show this week, I'm speaking with Pathways Manager and A-League Women's Assistant Coach at Melbourne Victory Football Club, Gareth Turnbull.
Gareth has been full time in football since 2008, beginning his career as a Football Development Manager for Coastal Spirit Football Club in Christchurch, and moving on to New Zealand Football where he served as the High Performance Athlete Development Manager, Head Coach of the National U17 and U20 Woman's programmes, and the Football Ferns Assistant Coach.
I love Gareth's perspective not only on football development, but on life. And in this conversation, we dig into all of it. If you see sport as a way to develop joyful, intrinsically driven, all-round young people who just so happen to also be great at sport, you're going to love this conversation.
Big thanks to Garth for taking some time out on his holiday back home in New Zealand to sit down with me for a yarn.
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It's an absolute pleasure to bring Golf New Zealand's National Coach, Jay Carter, on the show. Jay and I met not long ago when he reached out to ask me on his fantastic podcast, Talking Performance. We had a great conversation and barely scratched the surface on some topics I wanted to talk more about.
So, here we are. While Jay and I spend our days in different sports and with athletes at different stages of development, we share a lot in common. Most significantly, the common goal to help young athletes lead themselves.
Jay and I cover a lot in this conversation, including solving problems over learning techniques, identifying potential rather than performance, creating talent systems, play versus practice, what happened when Jay literally froze on the tee back in his playing days, thinking out loud to build awareness, slowing down to speed up, and much more.
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Head of coaching at Birkenhead United FC in Auckland, New Zealand and Co-founder of Player Development Project, Dave Wright (@davewright07), rejoins me for another episode of The Curious Mind.
We discuss our experiences in youth sport over the past couple of months, including a recent trip Dave took to Tonga and what he learnt from it, the importance of joy and how to find it, and the continued rise in negative parent behaviour.
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"Fun is a fleeting moment. Joy is something that's enduring, something that brings you back."
Mike Hester works for New Zealand Rugby and is responsible for leading their approach to the evolution of the game at participation level. Prior to this role, Mike spent 28 years at the New Zealand Defence Force where he worked as a Career and Talent Manager.
Mike is also a former FIFA referee and has officiated at the highest level at pinnacles events across the world, including the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 and the FIFA World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
On the show today, Mike shares some of the skills required for a referee to be at their best in emotionally volatile sporting environments and why investing into early stage referees is so important for the game of rugby. We also talk about the shift NZ Rugby is making from a game-centred approach to one that is more participant-centred.
The work Mike is doing is challenging not only the foundations of New Zealand's national game but also the fabric of the culture it sits within.
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Dane Baker is a Performance Dietitian who has worked extensively with New Zealand's elite athletes and organisations over the past 15 years, including the Chiefs, Blues, Black Ferns 7s, NZ Hockey and NZ Swimming. He was also the NZ team dietitian for the Rio Olympics and Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Dane is an active researcher in the field of RED-s, a lecturer at the University of Otago and has a leadership role as part of WHISPA, a specialist group dedicated to optimising female health and performance at High performance Sport New Zealand. He also leads the nutrition provision for the HPSNZ core knowledge coach education program.
In this wide ranging conversation, Dane and I discuss how to properly fuel a developing athlete's performance, fad diets and the influence they are having on our kids, Dane's love of fishing, and the dangers of low energy availability in sport. We start the show hearing about Dane's formative years growing up playing golf in West Auckland.
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We all have times in our lives that change us. Watershed moments that force us into thinking differently. Kylie Cox had one of these very moments a few years ago while training for an Ironman World 70.3 Age Group Championship. Despite continuing to perform in training, a number a life stressors coincided with a heavy training load. She became concerned about how her health might impact her menstrual cycle and sought help.
Now, after exercising her own curiosity and earning a Master's degree focusing on energetic injuries, Kylie is passionate about helping young athletes and their families understand what it really means to stay healthy.
Kylie also works a the physiotherapist for Netball New Zealand's secondary school programme and recently developed the first national resource on female athletic health for NetballSmart.
We start the show hearing more about Kylie's story.
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My conversation this week is with Mark Upton and Ken Willner.
Mark is passionate about supporting people's WayFinding endeavours by facilitating the emergence of new connections, new capacities, and meaningful stories and refections as we journey together. He has a particular interest in helping people find their way in sport. You can find Mark's work @ myfastestmile.com
Ken Willner is a sports photographer passionate about keeping children in sport. Through collaboration with international and local professionals, Ken provides a fresh approach to helping young people flourish in sports. You can find Ken's work @ yellowforyelling.com
On the show today, Mark and Ken share their Game Hubs idea. Game Hubs are local community spaces that promote freedom, creativity, collaboration and competition through games. They embrace the voices and choices of young people, are low cost, and rather than coaching, call for adults to just facilitate play.
We start our conversation hearing from Ken and his thoughts on the intensity of emotion parents bring to sport.
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Today on the show , I'm winding the clock back to May 2020 when I sat down with my good friend Samuel McKenzie.
In 2019, Sam completed his Master's degree at AUT University focusing on 1st XV rugby players' perceptions of their coaching environment. Sam's research findings have had a huge impact on the way I think about environments for developing skilled, creative and resilient athletes and so, heading into the winter season, I thought I'd share our conversation again.
Sam now works as a coach developer in the talent pathway for the AFL. We pick the conversation up hearing Sam talk about how experiencing some of the darker side of sport drives the work that he loves today.
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This week's conversation is with Zane Winslade.
Zane is the owner of Flow Sport Mental Performance Coaching, and works with athletes from youth to the elite level across multiple codes. Zane has a a Bachelor’s degree in Sports and Leisure Studies, a Graduate Diploma in Teaching and a Master’s degree in Sport Psychology from John F Kennedy University.
On the show today , Zane shares how he works with young people to help them manage their mind and perform as their best self. We also discuss the 3 key principles Zane founded his Mental Toughness Journal for young athletes on.
We start the episode talking about how Zane approaches his own mental game at Brazilian Jujitsu.
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Head of coaching at Birkenhead United FC in Auckland, New Zealand and Co-founder of Player Development Project, Dave Wright (@davewright07), rejoins me for another episode of The Curious Mind.
How much is too much? In this conversation, we dig into training load. We discuss what load is, where it comes from, how it changes across developmental stages, the danger of doing too much, and how to start thinking about managing it.
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Living a life in balance is about finding flow. It's about capitalising on all of the things that make you a better person without one of them taking over the flow.
My guest on today's show is Reed Maltbie, and he's a master at helping athletes find flow.
With a Master’s degree in sports psychology and early childhood development and 30 years of professional coaching experience, Reed has dedicated his life to creating the very best environments for athletes of all ages to achieve peak performance, on and off the sports field.
Reed has worked with a variety of sports organisations including the Gaelic Games Association, England Sevens, Soccer Shots, Sport New Zealand, Player Development Project, US Sailing, Soccer Canada, and PGA of Canada.
His latest book, The Spartan Mindset, due out in April 2023, Reed focuses on the impact of language on performance. It is a must-read for anyone who strives to be a more effective and supportive communicator in the classroom, on the sports field, at the office, and beyond.
We begin this conversation talking about the power of emotional fitness and how Reed goes about developing it.
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When we value how movement helps us grow, we see invitations to move everywhere we look.
In this conversation, I'm bringing two very special people together to share their efforts to change the movement culture inside primary schools in New Zealand.
The first is Celia Fleck. For the past 3 and a half years, Celia has been working on a joint government initiative between Te Whatu Ora, the Ministry of Education, and Sport NZ called Healthy Active Learning. The goal of the initiative is to improve wellbeing outcomes for tamariki with a strong focus on using physical activity, and healthy food and drink as the vehicles to achieve it. Celia leads the recruitment and professional development of a workforce of over 100 people who are carrying out this mahi. Prior to working in the Sport Sector, Celia was a Secondary Health and PE teacher for 19 years, and a Health and PE Curriculum facilitator for 4 years. She has a Bachelor of Physical Education from Otago University.
Joining Celia on the show today is Daniel Cooke. Dan and I have become very good friend over the past 5 years and he found he way through his PhD in movement skill learning inside a primary school in Auckland. Dan is an A-Licence football coach and has worked with players and coaches across three continents in grassroots and professional settings. He is now working with FIFA as a Talent Coach with a mission to give every talent a chance.
We start the conversation discussing why Celia and Dan are so passionate about movement and children.
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There are two types of people in the world - managers, and leaders. Managers work hard to maintain the status quo that their jobs and reputations were built on. They seek comfort in the certainty of the way things have always been done. Leaders, on the other hand, seek change. They imagine a better world, and are driven to create it.
My guest on today's show is, without doubt, a leader. His name is Dr James Vaughan and he is an UEFA A licensed football coach and coach developer. James' work, which challenges old ways of skill development, calls for cultural change on and off the football pitch. Practically speaking, Jame views football as an emergent feature of the sociocultural ecology, with sociocultural constraints influencing playing style and creative development.
In this wide-ranging conversation, Jame shares his journey from getting cut at age 16 from a football centre of excellence in the UK, to moving with his family to the other side of the world, to earning a PhD in Sports Coaching from the University of Queensland, to now, living and coaching in Sweden.
We pick the story up talking about how James thinks about making important change.
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James Leath (@jamesleath) has been coaching student-athletes for over 20 years. He has a master's degree in performance psychology and has worked with companies like IMG Academy, MINDBODY INC, and Under Armour. He currently works with EXOS Human Performance in the US.
James has a new book out, entitled "Team Building Activities for Athletes: How to master the art of building a successful team culture through intentional activities." I love the book and wanted to bring James on the pod to tell us all about it.
Click HERE to grab some of James' awesome activities for free!
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On the show today, I'm winding the clock back to December 2021 to when I sat down with Professor Arne Güllich.
Arne is a sports scientist and researcher at Technical University of Kaiserslautern, in Germany. He's published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, including his latest paper "What Makes a Champion? Early Multidisciplinary Practice, Not Early Specialization, Predicts World-Class Performance", and has coached across multiple levels in sport for number of years.
In this conversation, Arne and I discuss his research findings on talent development, coaching, how to develop motivated, self-determined young people, and much more.
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Today I'm stoked to welcome Dr Balin Cupples, head of performance at the One NZ Warriors.
What I love about Balin's story, and why I brought him on the show, is the insight he brings at the intersection between science and practice.
Balin has a strong academic background, having earned a Bachelor of Education, a Master of Education, and not long ago a PhD from the University of Sydney. But he also grew up playing the game and made a handful of NRL appearances for the Wests Tigers Rugby League Club in his early twenties.
In this conversation, Balin shares his PhD research findings, which investigated what successful talent development environments look like in schools.
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In this episode of the Curious Mind, Dave Wright, founder of Player Development Project, and I reflect on our summer break in Aotearoa, including how our emotions affect the experiences of our children and athletes.
We also dig into:
- Social status, the ego and the risk of adult intervention devoid of awareness;
- Praise versus affirmation;
- The monkey mind;
- The importance of role modelling;
- Getting comfortable with risk, and;
- Getting clear on the outcome we are looking for.
Enjoy!
Please submit your questions for our next Curious Mind by flicking Craig a message here.
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This week, I'm excited to be talking with Young People's Lead at Athletics New Zealand , Fiona Maisey. It's a relatively new role for the organisation, yet super important considering 82% of registered participants in the sport are under the age of 18. Fiona brings a diverse background to the position, including many years practising as a nurse, parenting 4 boys, and a passion for music. We dig into all of this on the show.
We also talk about Fiona's efforts to create young people friendly environments, including the importance of finding your tribe, why time is such a valuable resource for building meaningful relationships, retaining teenagers in the sport, avoiding athlete entitlement, what fun really looks like for young people, learning how to lose, the importance of gratitude, coaching the person, and much more.
I've always loved athletics. There's something about how it tests the fundamentals of human physiology - speed, power, endurance - that really appeals to me. So I'm really excited to bring Fiona on the show to share with us her thoughts on development and where the sport of athletics is headed in the future.
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Ben Old (@_oldie8) played his football in Auckland as a kid before moving to Wellington as a 16 year old to join the Wellington Phoenix. After 3 years playing for the Academy he signed a deal to play professionally for the first team and made his debut as a substitute in the team's 3–0 win over Western United. Ben went on to make 25 first team appearances in his maiden season, starting 12 of them.
Ben also represented New Zealand at the 2019 U-17 World Cup in Brazil and was a travelling reserve for the OlyWhites team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. I first met Ben when he joined AD, the Athlete Development programme I was leading at AUT Millennium in Auckland. He was just 9 years old at the time.
In this conversation, we cover a wide range of topics including how Ben handles the pressure of playing in front of 35,000 fans and where this skill came from, the importance of disciplined practice and how Ben learnt to work hard, and being a child golf prodigy. Ben also talks about his recent hernia operation and what he has learnt about his body as a result of it, and we go deep into some of Ben's core beliefs, including his perfectionistic streak and how he has learnt to challenge it.
Ben's reflective nature and level of awareness at such a young age is inspiring and is bound to serve him well in his career. You'll notice a real willingness to be vulnerable in the conversation, which I love and I think we can all learn from.
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On the show today, I'm winding the clock back a couple of years to when I sat down with Dr Katie Cunningham to talk about joy. Dr Katie Cunningham is an Associate Professor of Literacy and English Education at Manhattanville College and the author of "Start With Joy: Designing Literacy Learning for Student Happiness".
In her book, Katie describes 7 pillars at the heart of joyful literacy experiences - connection, choice, challenge, play, story, discovery and movement. I love how each pillar transfers beautifully to athlete development, and the idea of "starting with joy" continues to have a big impact on my work.
Enjoy!
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Welcome to episode #04 of The Curious Mind, our new format of The Athlete Development Show released monthly where Craig sits down with co-founder of Player Development Project and coach Dave Wright to discuss your questions.
Please submit your questions for future episodes by flicking Craig a message here.
On the show today, Dave and Craig cover a bunch of questions including how to foster your child's inner drive, or whether in fact your should even worry about it, how to decide what development programme you should sign your kids up to for healthy development, whether or not young athletes should lift weights, how much running is too much for a 9 year old, and much more.
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What really is talent? And how do we measure it?
My guest on today's show suggests we are a long way off answering either of these questions with any certainty and so we should stop trying. Instead, we should focus on designing sporting environments that support every young learner.
Dr. Joe Baker (@bakerjyorku) is Professor and Director of the Lifespan Performance Laboratory at York University, Canada.
His research considers the varying influences on optimal human development, ranging from issues affecting athlete development and skill acquisition to barriers and facilitators of optimal aging.
Joe works with high performance sports teams and organizations around the world in their quest for international success.
In this episode we dig into Joe's latest book "The Tyranny of Talent: How it compels and limits athlete achievement… and why you should ignore it."
We also chat about common human biases and how they affect coaching, the problem with splitting development into participation and performance pathways, first principles of athlete development, why collaboration in research is so important, combating early specialisation, and much more.
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The traditional definition of a coach is someone who gives instruction to help an athlete or direct team strategy. The problem with this definition, however, is that it can result in a one-way flow of information - from coach to athlete - which doesn't necessarily line up with how young people learn.
On the show today, I chat with coach developer and researcher, Rob Mason (@rob_mason12). Rob holds a PhD in Education and a Masters of Teaching from the University of Melbourne. He currently works as the Coach Development Manager at Port Adelaide Football Club in Australia. Rob frequently presents to organisations on game day communication, feedback and coaching science and writes about his work here.
In this conversation, Rob shares how a coach can deliver feedback in ways that best support the learning and all-round development of their athletes.
We also discuss:
- The huge influence Rob's dad has had on his coaching;
- Rob's love for books;
- Being a career procrastinator;
- The importance of earning credibility from your athletes and how to do it;
- Using an action research approach to improve your coaching;
- Why what you say in your feedback is not always the same as what is heard; and
- More.
I love Rob's reflective nature and clarity of thought, as well as how willing he is to really assess the impact of his work. Please enjoy the show.
Kia ora!
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The Wellington Phoenix is the only professional football club in New Zealand. Today on the show we explore the academy system in charge of developing their elite players of tomorrow.
To better understand the club's processes - and how they get the balance right between striving for success and looking after the young people at the heart of it - I sat down with Phoenix Academy Director, Paul Temple (@paultemplecoach).
Paul Temple is an UEFA A license coach and has been working in football for over 20 years. In addition to leading the Academy at the Phoenix, he also works for New Zealand Football as the Men's U20 Assistant National Team Coach.
I've known Paul since we met as part of the New Zealand U17 Women's Team staff back in 2011. I love the way he thinks about development, both from a strategic point of view, and how he rolls it out on the grass in practice. In this conversation, I wanted to understand Paul's core values - both personally and as a professional - and how he uses them to drive behaviour. I think this comes through very clearly.
We also talk about the importance of a growth mindset, the intersection between the ex-pro and the career coach and how Paul brings the two together, how they recruit young players at the Phoenix, the key ingredients for successful long-term player development, Ted Lasso, and much more.
I really enjoyed this conversation and am stoked to bring it to you.
Kia ora!
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This week on the show, I sit down with my good friend, Dave Wright.
Dave is head of coaching at Birkenhead United FC in Auckland, New Zealand and Co-founder of Player Development Project, the world's largest online football coach education platform.
Dave and I often catch up to talk coaching, kids and athlete development, so we thought why not record our conversation and share it with you. And if you like it, we'll keep doing it!
Kia ora!
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Stephen Cobley is an Associate Professor in motor control, skill acquisition, and sport and exercise psychology at The University of Sydney.
He earned his Bachelor's degree at Loughborough University, his Master's degree at Queen's University in Canada, and his PhD at Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK.
Steve's research examines developmental factors that constrain learning, development, and performance across sport, educational, and workplace settings.
In this episode, Steve and I discuss some fascinating work his team is doing in swimming looking at the effect of biological maturation on performance.
Kia ora!
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Nick Webb (@nick_webby) is a strength and conditioning and performance specialist.
Over the last 15 years, Nick has worked for the NZ Warriors, NZ Cricket, the Indian Cricket Team, and more recently, Pakistan Cricket.
In 2011, Nick earned a Master of Health Science with First Class Honours from AUT University and he is currently studying towards a Master of Business Administration at Massey University.
In this conversation, Nick starts by sharing one of his early experiences that had a profound impact on who he has become today.
Kia ora!
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After experiencing a magic moment playing golf when everything seemed to click and his performance excelled, my guest in this episode began a research journey into psychological states of peak performance.
You may have heard athletes talk about being 'in the zone'. It's a time when you're so engrossed in the task at hand that you lose track of time, become supremely confident, and nothing can stop you from putting out your best performance. You just need to 'let it happen'. Heck, you've probably, at some point, even experienced it yourself.
The scientific term for this feeling is called 'flow', and my guest on the show today, Associate Professor Christian Swann (@cswannpsych), studies it.
But it turns out there's another mind state that can also induce peak performance. It's called 'clutch', and is much more about 'making it happen'. Clutch is also an idea Christian studies.
In this conversation, Christian describes exactly what flow and clutch are, and how you can help your athlete get into them.
You can check out Christian's research here.
Kia ora!
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We all need to feel like we belong to something. And in a world that is, right now, full of more uncertainty and struggle than ever, nothing is more important.
This conversation is with performance coach, speaker and international number #1 bestselling author, Owen Eastwood.
Owen works with high performing groups in sport and business, including the English Football team, the South African cricket team and the New Zealand All Blacks, to build environments where everyone can be the best version of themselves.
In his new book, Belonging, Owen weaves together insights from homo sapiens' evolutionary story and ancestral wisdom with experiences from his own work in elite contemporary environments. He draws on the idea of Whakapapa to maximise a team's performance and enhance everybody's moment in the sun.
I love how Owen expresses his ideas on Belonging so eloquently and I think you will, too.
Kia ora!
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Andy Milne (@carmelhealth) is a teacher, creator, TEDx Speaker and father of two young boys. Originally from England, Andy taught physical education in London for 12 years before moving to America in 2008, where he now teaches Kinetic Wellness and Health at New Trier High School, just north of Chicago.
Andy received his BA (hons) in Sports & Recreation at Staffordshire University and his Post Graduate Certificate in Education at Exeter University. In 2017 he earned the award for the National Health Teacher of the Year.
In this conversation, Andy and I discuss what it means to be creative, the skills of health, why relationships are so important, developing empathy, the power of community, and much more.
Kia ora!
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Erin Bowerman (@dancestrentgh_nz) is a movement specialist working in dance. She holds a Masters Degree from AUT University, where she carried out her research at the Australian Ballet School in conjunction with High Performance Sport New Zealand looking at the risk factors for overuse injuries in elite adolescent ballet dancers.
Erin works as a strength coach for the New Zealand Dance Company and the New Zealand Youth Ballet Company. From 2016-2018, she was based in London where she coached at the Royal Ballet School White Lodge and the National Centre for Circus Arts.
In this conversation, Erin shares her story of personal dancing failure to transformation in dancer development. Please enjoy the show. Kia ora!
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James Mortimer (@jamesmortimernz) is a former national hurdles and sprint athlete, having represented New Zealand at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia.
James now coaches a group of some of our fastest athletes, including Zoe Hobbs, who recently ran 11.08 seconds at the Athletics World Championships in the US to set a new New Zealand record. He also works at Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland where he manages day to day operations of a portfolio of sports from Year 7-13 level.
As James puts it, "speed kills", and in this conversation, he shares his approach to developing it.
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Coach, writer, educator, pioneer in skill acquisition and deliciously inquisitive guy Austin Einhorn (@apiros.team) rejoins me for another episode of The Curious Mind.
In this one we discuss being a reflective coach, building rapport with your athletes, important questions to develop your awareness, parenting, Austins new course and much, much more.
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps us keep producing the show. We also love hearing your feedback!
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Tom Willmott (@tomwillmott) is the head coach of the park and pipe program at Snow Sports New Zealand. Tom leads a team of coaches that looks after ~20 athletes from the very elite, including winter olympic gold medalists Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Nico Porteous, to 11 and 12 year olds in the national development programme.
Tom is a former snowboard competitor and national champion, has a Professional Doctorate in Elite Performance, a Master’s degree in Physical Education and a Bachelor’s degree in Sports Coaching.
In this episode we discuss:
- Tom's deep connection with the mountains;
- The feeling of 'flow' and why Tom loves to chase it;
- Month long summer holidays camping and traveling though Europe as a kid;
- Coaching and studying all over the world;
- The evolution of snowboarding;
- How to coach risk-taking;
- Designing learning environment to optimise progression;
- The School of Shred
- Tom's reflective practice; and
- More.
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On the show today I chat with Jamie Salter (@jay_salter). Jamie is a researcher and senior lecturer in sport science and Injury at York St John University where he delivers theory and practical based sessions to undergraduate and postgraduate students in the areas of injury prevention, rehabilitation and strength and conditioning.
Jamie is also an accredited Strength and Conditioning coach and Sport Scientist and has worked in physical preparation roles with youth and adult athletes at Barnsley FC, Middlesbrough FC, York City Knights RLFC and GB Goalball.
Jamie's PhD, which dig into in our conversation, investigated how biological maturation impacts responses to training load and injury in adolescent football.
We also cover:
- Developing rapport;
- Jamie's coaching and teaching philosophy;
- Development versus performance;
- Balance;
- The problems with too much structure;
- And much more.
Please enjoy the show.
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
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On the show today I chat with Shaun Matthews, Community Coaching Advisor at Harbour Sport.
We dig into:
- The importance of a coaching philosophy;
- What Shaun has learnt about talent;
- Coaching mindset;
- Developing self-reliant learners;
- Balance;
- And much more.
Please enjoy the show.
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
Sign up for Craig's free weekly newsletter by scrolling down. It's full of research-backed, practical ideas for helping youth athletes defend against injury, overtraining and burning out.
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Youth sport coaches are undervalued.
In this conversation, Dr Vince Minjares (@PlayerLearning) tells us why and how we can go about changing it.
Vince leads game and coach development at Harbour Basketball, on the North Shore of Auckland, and holds a PhD in Coaching and Pedagogy.
Please enjoy the show.
Kia ora!
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
Sign up for Craig's free weekly newsletter by scrolling down. It's full of research-backed, practical ideas for helping youth athletes defend against injury, overtraining and burning out.
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Feedback is not just about what is said but what is heard.
In this conversation, Jamie Taylor (@JTGreyMatterUK) tells us more.
Jamie is a senior coach developer at Grey Matters, an evidence-based organisation that consults across a wide range of sports to raise their game. Prior to this, Jamie coached at Leicester Tigers for 7 years, developed coaches at the English Institute of Sport and taught school children.
Jamie holds a PhD in Coaching Science and professional qualifications in teaching, coaching and mentoring. His research interests are coaching, talent development and coach development and he shares his insights at conferences across the world.
In this conversation, Jamie and I discuss his latest research on feedback and how to use it to enhance the way your athletes learn.
Please enjoy the show.
Kia ora!
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
Sign up for Craig's free weekly newsletter by scrolling down. It's full of research-backed, practical ideas for helping youth athletes defend against injury, overtraining and burning out.
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Professor Arne Güllich is a sports scientist and researcher at Technical University of Kaiserslautern, in Germany. He's published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, including his latest paper "What Makes a Champion? Early Multidisciplinary Practice, Not Early Specialization, Predicts World-Class Performance", and has coached across multiple levels in sport for number of years.
In this conversation, Arne and I discuss his latest research findings on talent development, coaching, how to develop motivated, self-determined young people, and much more.
Please enjoy the show.
Kia ora!
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
Sign up for Craig's free weekly newsletter by scrolling down. It's full of research-backed, practical ideas for helping youth athletes defend against injury, overtraining and burning out.
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We all know the benefits of sporting success.
But what happens when it all goes wrong?
Kimberly Carducci grew up engrossed in sport and started breaking records in the pool as a 6-year-old. Winning felt good and Kim quickly wanted more of it.
As a D1 swimmer in the US, Kim was a 4-time State Champion, 4-time Scholastic All-American, 4-time All-State Selection and an 8-time All-American honoree.
But after retiring from the sport that she'd dedicated her life to, Kim had a moment of outrage on a tennis court that forced her to carefully reevaluate her life.
Kim's new book, The I of the Tiger: Athlete Identity and Remedying Sport's Greatest Conflicts, tells a tale of overcoming severe depression after leaving the sport that she loved. It also describes the journey Kim went on to heal and how she's come to realise that what gets you success in sport can be harmful in normal life.
Now, Kim's mission is to help other athletes to do the same.
This is Kim's story.
Kia ora!
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
Sign up for Craig's free weekly newsletter by scrolling down. It's full of research-backed, practical ideas for helping youth athletes defend against injury, overtraining and burning out.
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Kathryn Berkett - Raising Resilience
On the show today is neuroscience educator, Kathryn Berkett.
Kathryn delivers information about the brain to a variety of groups including teachers, parents, mental health professionals, corporates and, more recently, sports organisations.
Kathryn has her Masters in Educational Psychology, is a certified Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics practitioner and a TEDx presenter.
She also co-hosts the podcast "I've got questions" with Pio Terei about all things neuroscience.
This was a super cool discussion with lots of insight that I think you're gonna love.
This is Kathryn's story.
Kia ora!
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
Sign up for Craig's free weekly newsletter by scrolling down. It's full of research-backed, practical ideas for helping youth athletes defend against injury, overtraining and burning out.
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Des Ryan - Strong Young Gunners
Des is the Director of Coaching and Performance at Setanta College - a provider of online Strength & Conditioning and Athletic Development education.
Prior to this, Des spent 8 years at Arsenal Football where he led the Sports Medicine and Athletic Development department for the club's Academy.
Des cut his strength and conditioning teeth working with Irish rugby.
In this conversation, Des shares all that he has come to understand about getting the best out of himself and the young people he works with.
This is Des's story.
Kia ora!
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
Sign up for Craig's free weekly newsletter by scrolling down. It's full of research-backed, practical ideas for helping youth athletes defend against injury, overtraining and burning out.
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Courtney McGregor - What Adversity Can Teach Us
At 12:41 pm on Tuesday 22nd of February 2011, a major earthquake hit Christchurch killing 185 people.
Located 6.7 kilometres south-east of the city centre, the shake caused widespread damage across Christchurch, changing life as people knew it.
Artistic gymnast Courtney McGregor (@_courtneymcgregor_), was 12 at the time.
Courtney remembers the earthquake being a pivotal moment in her sporting journey.
It shaped the way she approached her gymnastics. How she took on a challenge. And dealt with fear.
At just 17 years old, Courtney represented New Zealand at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
She was the youngest member of the New Zealand Olympic Team.
Courtney went on to an athletic scholarship at Boise State University in the US, where she studied mathematics and philosophy and in 2019 won the all-around competition in the Mountain West Conference.
When I spoke to her, Courtney was back home in Christchurch, not long retired, and in the process of applying for medical school.
This is Courtney's story.
Kia ora!
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
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Jay Thooft - Mindset Matters
Today we hear from a coach of the mind, Jay Thooft (@trainwithperc).
Jay is dedicated to providing developing athletes with the tools necessary to elevate their mental game and perform in the face of stress, pressure, and adversity. Currently, he oversees the mental performance training for 16 organisations in the Greater Denver area in the US and impacts approximately 5000 athletes, performers, executives, business owners, parents, and coaches every year.
Prior to this, Jay spent several years at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs where he worked with some of the world's best athletes.
In this conversation, Jay shares his 3-part philosophy to training the mind, where pressure comes from and how to handle it, how he works with parents, the myth of mental toughness, and much more.
You can check Jay out on his website www.trainwithperc.com or on his awesome YouTube channel.
Jay and I also discuss:
- The young athlete who first got him excited about working with youth;
- The importance of developing self-awareness;
- Over-investment, and the problem that arises when a child attaches too much of their identity to their sport;
- The importance of taking value-driven actions in the face of emotion;
- The best advice Jay ever received;
- Integrating the mental side of sport into the experience; and
- Much more.
Download Jay's free guide for better mental preparation at www.trainwithperc.com/freeguide
Kia ora!
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
Sign up for Craig's free weekly newsletter by scrolling down. It's full of research-backed, practical ideas for helping youth athletes defend against injury, overtraining and burning out.
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Brooke Neal - Finding BalanceBrooke was an independent and stubborn kid growing up. She knew what she wanted and was highly driven to go out and get it.
Chasing her dream of elite sporting success, Brooke first made the New Zealand Blacks Sticks as a 19-year-old.
But it wasn't what she expected.
Instead of fame and fortune, it was a massive struggle. She was training harder than ever before and yet her performance was getting worse.
Something had to change.
Over the next 10 years of her life, 176 games, one Olympics and a Commonwealth gold medal, Brooke went on a quest to calm down her 'itch' to be forever chasing things down. To find a sense of calm. To anchor herself to what's important. To find balance.
Now, Brooke is teaching young female athletes to do the same.
In this conversation, Brooke shares her strongly held belief that when you take care of your hauora, your sporting performance will prosper
Brooke and I also talk about:
- Where her motivation comes from;
- The importance of doing less in a busy, outcome-orientated world;
- Why ever young athlete needs a reflective practice;
- FOPO (fear of missing out) disorder;
- The greatest gift her parents ever gave her;
- The information-rich world we're living in and why it's overwhelming our young athletes;
- Setting boundaries on social media;
- Finding her Balance - Brooke's signature course;
- The power of the community; and
- Much, much more.
This is Brooke's story.
Kia ora
Craig
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
Sign up for Craig's free weekly newsletter by scrolling down. It's full of research-backed, practical ideas for helping youth athletes defend against injury, overtraining and burning out.
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Train Smarter, Not Harder
Today's conversation is with double Olympian, Anna Simcic.
Anna represented NZ at two Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games where she won a gold and two silver medals in the backstroke. She was consistently ranked in the top 10 in the world and in 1992 when she set a short-course world record.
Anna now works for High Performance Sport NZ as an Athlete Life Advisor. She believes in a values and strengths-based approach to her work, full of energy, compassion and good humour.
Kia ora,
Craig
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
Sign up for Craig's free weekly newsletter by scrolling down. It's full of research-backed, practical ideas for helping youth athletes defend against injury, overtraining and burning out.
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Connection is Key
On the show today I chat with former international cricketer, Andrew Ellis. Andrew played first-class cricket for Canterbury from 2003 until 2020 and represented his country in both the One Day and Twenty20 formats of the game.
Andrew is now a dad of two young children and works for High-Performance Sport New Zealand as the manager of the Christchurch region.
In this conversation, Andrew and I discuss age and stage appropriate coaching, finding the courage the take risks, connection and why Andrew believes it is the starting point for everything great, the struggle between a thirst for training volume to get better and doing too much, battling the inner critic, and much more.
This is Andrew's story.
Kia ora,
Craig
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
Sign up for Craig's free weekly newsletter by scrolling down. It's full of research-backed, practical ideas for helping youth athletes defend against injury, overtraining and burning out.
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Tennis Fit
Howard Green (@HGreenTennisFit) is a strength and conditioning coach working in tennis. He coordinates the sports science and medicine team at Bolton Arena International Tennis Academy and works privately with many up and coming and elite players, including Ana Ivanovic.
Prior to his work in sport, Howard was a Commando in the Royal Marines. After completing his basic training just out of school, the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre happened and changed the world. Howard went on to complete tours of Iraq and Afghanistan over a space of six years that left him burnt out and suffering from PTSD.
This is Howard's story.
Kia ora,
Craig
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
Sign up for Craig's free weekly newsletter by scrolling down. It's full of research-backed, practical ideas for helping youth athletes defend against injury, overtraining and burning out.
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Talent Is Not Objective
Dr Alex Roberts (@AlexHRoberts) teaches at La Trobe University in Australia and conducts research focusing on skill acquisition, talent identification and the science of coaching.
In this conversation, Alex and I discuss her childhood growing up as a high-achieving Aussie, her journey as an athlete in the NCAA system and her fascinating PhD research that sheds new light on the role of the coach in talent identification, selection and development.
Kia ora!
Craig
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
Sign up for Craig's free weekly newsletter by visiting www.athletedevelopmentproject.com. It's full of research-backed, practical ideas for helping youth athletes defend against injury, overtraining and burning out.
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Movement is LifeAaron (@movement_yoda) works at Apiros, a movement culture based in Santa Cruz, California, where he connects with athletes from developmental level to the professional.
Aaron graduated from the University of California Davis with a degree in Genetics before going on to earn a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Azusa Pacific University. He then did a 9-month residency program in Vallejo California, specialising in Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF). Aaron taught residents and worked with people suffering from neurological insults, including stroke, traumatic brain and spinal cord injury as a faculty member for 5 years.
In 2015, Aaron began working in the orthopaedic and athletic setting and expanded his skills to include Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilisation (DNS) and the Anat Baniel Method.
In this conversation, Aaron talks about his unique approach to movement, what has led to it, and how he goes about helping his athletes to reach their maximum potential.
Kia ora!
Craig
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
Sign up for Craig's free weekly newsletter by visiting www.athletedevelopmentproject.com. It's full of research-backed, practical ideas for helping youth athletes defend against injury, overtraining and burning out.
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Using Science to Help People
Daniel Greenwood (@DanielGreenw00d) is a scientist.
He spends his days with athletes, coaches and other service providers solving interesting problems in sport.
Dan started his sport science journey in Sydney as an undergraduate student. After earning his degree he moved to Canberra to complete postgraduate study at the Australian Institute of Sport. Next, Dan broadened his horizon with a job in Singapore at the Sports Council. Studying towards a PhD came next, as well as a role at the Queensland Academy of Sport. He then moved back to Canberra to take the position of Senior Skill Acquisition Scientist. Today, Dan Directs the Human Performance Centre at the University of Memphis.
This is the story of Dan's quest to be the best scientist he can be. It's also about how he uses science to help people.
I love the way Dan thinks and how he pushes past what's normal to get to the important.
If you like to live outside the box a little, you're going to love this conversation.
Kia ora!
Craig
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
Sign up for Craig's free weekly newsletter by scrolling down. It's full of research-backed, practical ideas for helping youth athletes defend against injury, overtraining and burning out.
Follow Craig:
Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/
Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrison
Twitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrison
Reflections on the first 99 Shows
Wow! 100 Epidoses! It's been awesome!
Today, with the help of my good friend Dan Cooke (@cooke_dm), I take a look back on what I've learnt from the first 99 shows.
A massive THANK YOU to you all for sticking with me and I look forward to sharing many more episodes with you. If you have any burning questions you'd like tackled on future shows or guests you'd really like to hear from, please flick me an email to let me know - craig@athletedevelopmentproject.com
Kia ora!
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
Sign up for Craig's free weekly newsletter here. It's full of research-backed, practical ideas for helping youth athletes defend against injury, overtraining and burning out.
Follow Craig:
Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/
Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrison
Twitter: twitter.com/drcraigharriso
Ben Pullen - Using Strength-Based Activities to Empower ChildrenBen Pullen (bpullen_coach) is a PhD student in Paediatric Strength and Conditioning in the Youth Physical Development Centre at Cardiff Metropolitan University. His research investigates the effect of Strength and Conditioning in Physical Education on the athletic motor skill competencies and psychological constructs of school children.
Check out his latest peer-reviewed paper here.
Ben also owns a private training facility in the UK where he uses strength-based activities to empower children.
Kia ora!
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 60 seconds and really helps me keep producing the show. I also love hearing your feedback!
Sign up for Craig's free weekly newsletter here. It's full of research-backed, practical ideas for helping youth athletes defend against injury, overtraining and burning out.
Follow Craig:
Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/
Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrison
Twitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrison
My kōrero today is with Mike Schofield (@rotationalperf).
Mike grew up on a farm in Castlepoint, half an hour out of Masterton on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. He was raised by working-class parents who held fairly typical rural beliefs - you know, be courteous, respect your elders, work hard.
Mike loved sport and spent his formative years playing golf. And a lot of it. By his late-teens Mike was good. But, in the words of his then coach, he was told: "you're too small and will never hit the ball far enough to be elite."
This is the story of how those comments changed Mike and dramatically shaped the way he has conducted his life ever since.
Mike tells of how he started to look for answers in places that he'd never thought to look before. He talks about his journey into weightlifting, sport science and postgraduate research. But most importantly, Mike tells of how being told what to do as a young athlete created a disdain for old-school learning pedagogies now as an adult.
Mike is a coach for HPSNZ. The people he works with like to throw things really fast, and really far. His job, as he describes it, is to help them stay true to who they are. As an athlete. And as a human.
Please enjoy the show.
Kia ora!
"Locking back now, when I was younger I had an ability that my body couldn’t cope with. I had the ability to express a lot of force and speed and I was physically not able to cope with it. Also, technically I wasn’t that great when I was younger." - Chris Donaldson
This is a story of the relentless pursuit of excellence.
It's also about empathy, and why in sport, you don't get anywhere without it.
I met Chris Donaldson on the red rubber of the Caledonian, Dunedin’s athletic track, in 2000. He had what all of us in the training group so desperately wanted. Speed. And plenty of it.
But more than that, he was the ultimate professional. On a perpetual search for the “the ultimate race, when everything comes together and produces something magical”, finding his best meant everything to Chris. It was inspiring.
I also enjoyed his humour. Chris never took himself too seriously, which from what I learnt, helps to offset the rigorous demands of professional sport.
Chris made his name on the track and represented his country at two Olympic Games. In 1998, he ran 10.17 seconds over 100 m in Kuala Lumpur – the second-fastest time in NZ history.
He is also an optimist. As he explains in our chat, every race was a chance at success. Rarely thinking about the consequence of loss, Chris lit up every time he got to compete – especially against the best in the world.
This is a conversation about how his positivity came to be. It’s about going all-in on a passion, what it really takes to pursue your best, and the empathy needed from your support network along the way.
But it’s also a conversation about change.
Just before the 200 Olympic Games commenced, Chris went down with an Achilles tendon injury that, despite being in the best shape of his life, ended his sprinting career and stopped him short of realising his dreams.
And so out of nowhere, the hard road out of sport began. Chris talks openly about where he looked, and what he found.
Chris oozes energy - you can hear it in his voice. This is a great conversation with a man who gives his all to what he loves.
Kia ora!
Craig
Today's conversation is something different.
In episode 75 of the show, I spoke with Austin Einhorn, founder of Apiros, a movement culture out of Santa Cruz in California. Austin works with a range of youth and professional athletes within the US and around the world. In that conversation, we dug into designing training environment for better movement outcomes, the future of sport and performance training, his forthcoming book (which is not far away) and much more.
Since then, Austin and I have developed a close friendship and now regularly talk about our work and life in general. He's one of the guys I go to with the questions I'm struggling with
And so we thought we'd see how it goes sharing some of our conversations with you.
We're calling it the "Curious Mind."
First up we dig into cultivating curiosity, social media, the law of entropy, skill versus fitness, Austin's vision for his life's work, coaching the squat, influencing change, and much more.
Kia ora!
Nothing beats time spent practising to develop a skill. Getting better requires doing the work. But practice doesn't go the distance unless it's self-motivated.
Inner drive is crucial to realising potential - I've seen it play out countless times in aspiring athletes.
And there's no better example than David Gerrard - a man who swam for NZ at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Growing up, David would strap his togs to the handlebars, throw his towel around his neck and bike his way the few blocks to the Mt Eden pool. His mum and dad never woke him up at 5 am to get him to the pool. He knew what he had to do to get better. And if he wasn't prepared to it, that was his problem.
David's internal drive to get better not only served him well in his athletics but in a long and illustrious career in medicine.
David worked a the University of Otago for 35 years and became a Professor in 2014. He retired two years later and was granted the title of Emeritus Professor.
He has also held a number of highly distinguished sport administration roles including Chef de Mission at the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games and 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, Medical Commissioner to eight Summer Olympic Games, Chairman of Drug Free Sport NZ, a member of World Rugby’s Anti Doping Advisory Committee, Chair of the World Anti-Doping Agency Therapeutic Use Exemption Committee and President of Swimming NZ.
In 2007, David was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Today he shares his inspirational story, dropping pearls of wisdom along the way.
This is a conversation about the type of motivation that breeds success, and where it comes from.
It's also a conversation about fairness in sport. And in life. Inspired early in life by Ludwig Gutmann - founder of the Paralympic Games - David learnt the importance of equitable environments. His life's work in sports medicine and the use of therapeutic drugs to level the playing field in sport is clear evidence of that.
But more than anything else, this is a conversation about values. Raised by working-class parents in the 1950s, David grew up learning the importance of knowing where you come from and the power of unconditional familial support.
David is a thoughtful and kind man and I love this conversation.
To read more and listen click here.
Craig -
"One of the most awkward parts of my sessions is when I say to parents, I’d like you just to turn to one another and practice what you’re going to say to your kids when you get the email saying they’re dropped... because parents don’t want to think about that moment."
This conversation is with Richard Shorter (@nonperfectdad), a conversation architect and non-perfect dad. Richard works with various sports across the UK in professional academy systems, national sporting organisations and schools to help coaches, parents and athletes work more effectively together.
Richard has honours degrees in community and youth studies and theology and has worked with youth in various roles for churches and government agencies.
In this conversation, Richard and I discuss the importance of setting clear family values, building self-awareness, the benefits of investing in yourself for your kids, the importance of good mentorship, and much more.
We also discuss:
- The best questions to ask your kids to support their sporting journey;
- Why learning to control your own emotions on the sideline is crucial and how to do it;
- Why kids need rhythms and routines in life to escape pressure;
- Letting your child set the agenda for conversations;
- The 'adultification' of youth sport;
- Why Richard thinks living vicariously through your kids is a myth;
- The risk of trying too hard to shape your child’s character;
- The need to be more patience with development;
- The benefits of practising important parenting conversations before you have them;
- Nature versus nurture in character development;
- Why home should act as a harbour from an unrelenting sporting environment; and
- Richard’s top advice for every sports parent.
Please enjoy!
Richard Cheetham (@twowheelprof) is a Senior Fellow in Sports Coaching at the University of Winchester. Before that, he spent three years teaching and coaching in New Zealand.
Richard was awarded an MBE for his work in Community Education and Sport. He has a strong reputation for creative thinking and innovation within coach education and development and has spent time inside many sporting organisations including Saracens RFC Academy, Fulham Football Club, and more recently, British Triathlon. His research focuses on a holistic approach to coaching.
Is this episode, Richard talks about the 3 years he spent in New Zealand, failure, projection, the art of effective communication, relinquishing the ego, writing pre-mortems, creating healthy partnerships with your athletes, and the challenges of teaching online.
Please enjoy!
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favourite podcast platform.
This conversation is with Anna Frost, a mum, a coach, a mentor and a professional mountain, trail and ultra runner, who has raced all over the world.
Since starting out in 2004, Anna has assembled a long list of running achievements, including winning Hardrock, a 100-mile race across the Colorado mountains in the US, two years in a row.
In this conversation, Annas shares her journey from growing up as a small-town girl in Dunedin, New Zealand, to being one of the best ultra-distance runners in the world.
Please say hello to Anna on Instagram here.
If you enjoy the show, please subscribe using your favourite podcast app. I’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps to share the show with more people.
Kia ora!
This conversation is with Dr Matt Whalan, a partner at Figtree Physiotherapy in the Wollongong area in Australia.
You can find Matt on Twitter @figtreephysio.
Matt also holds a number of practical roles, including Medical and High-performance Manager for the Wollongong Wolves FC and Physiotherapist for the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) National Teams Unit.
Matt earned his PhD in 2020, focused on injury prevention in football, and holds a Masters in Physiotherapy.
In this conversation, Matt and I discuss what he likes to call 'athlete availability'.
Also:
- A different take on reducing injuries in youth sport;
- The importance of psychology when dealing with injury;
- Why Matt spends time framing roles and responsibilities within a team environment;
- Replacing the term 'injury prevention' with better alternatives;
- Using research to create change;
- The missing piece in reducing injuries in youth sport;
- Matt's childhood and playing representative sport;
- Helping youth athletes make difficult decisions;
- Communicating effectively across multiple sporting environments;
- How to help young athletes tolerate training load better during periods of accelerated growth;
- Levelling the playing field for girls to reduce injury;
- Why developing movement skill in kids is so important;
- The importance of delivering a message effectively; and
- Matt's advice for aspiring young athletes.
If you enjoy the show, please subscribe using your favourite podcast app. I’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps to share the show with more people.
Kia ora!
This conversation is with Dr Katie Cunningham, an Associate Professor of Literacy and English Education at Manhattanville College where she teaches literacy methods, teacher research, and children’s literature courses.
Katie is the author of "Start With Joy: Designing Literacy Learning for Student Happiness" and "Story: Still the Heart of Literacy Learning." She is the co-author of "Literacy Leadership in Changing Schools" as well as "The Classroom Bookshelf", a weekly School Library Journal blog dedicated to children’s and young adult literature.
In this conversation, Katie describes the 7 pillars at the heart of joyful literacy experiences - connection, choice, challenge, play, story, discovery and movement - and we chat about how each pillar transfers beautifully to athlete development.
If you enjoy the show, please subscribe using your favourite podcast app. I’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps to share the show with more people.
Kia ora!
“The way that the lessons were set up, they were very much around the sharing and the conversation of ideas. So, if I look back now, it was almost like a campfire conversation you would have, you know, when you think about the learning that was shared, before we ever went to formal learning... The things that I fondly remember were those types of sessions of conversation, learning together, working out, failing together.” - Dusty Miller
This conversation in with Dusty Miller, a Performance Mentor at the English Institute of Sport. Dusty also works for England Rugby as a coach developer and spent 26 years in the Royal Navy.
You can say hello to Dusty on Twitter here.
If you enjoy the show, please subscribe using your favourite podcast app. I’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps to share the show with more people.
Kia ora!
This conversation is with Dr Andrew Hill, a Professor in Sports Psychology at York St John University in the UK.
Andy's main areas of interest are the consequences of perfectionism (an achievement-related personality trait) for athletes, exercisers, and youth sport participants.
Andy holds a PhD in the area and has published in leading journals in sport and exercise psychology, health and general psychology.
In this episode, Andy talks about the rise of perfectionism over the last 25 years, exactly what it is (and what it's not), as well as some of his research and how it is being applied in the real world.
We also cover:
- Helicopter parenting and the inadvertent consequences;
- Measuring perfectionism and the 'perfectionistic climate';
- The relationship between perfectionism and resiliency;
- The role of the coach and the importance of unconditional acceptance;
- The influence of parental behaviour (and genetics) on child perfectionism;
- Andy's view on being a dad and why he's so careful using the word perfect;
- Why there is nothing inherently good about sport and what this means for participation;
- How Andy got involved in sport psychology and studying perfectionism;
- What can be learned from the sports field and applied to other domains and challenging life circumstances;
- Why being perfectionistic is best studied at the environment level rather than the individual level; and
- The three myths of perfectionism that need addressing.
You can email Andy on a.hill@yorksj.ac.uk or say hello to him on Twitter here.
If you enjoy the show, please subscribe using your favourite podcast app. I’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps to share the show with more people.
Kia ora!
This conversation is with Sam McKenzie, Coaching Content and Learning Lead at the AFL.
Prior to this, Sam was the Junior Coach Development Manager at Auckland Rugby.
In 2019, Sam completed his Master's degree at AUT University focusing on 1st XV rugby players' perceptions of their coaching environment.
In this conversation, Sam provides his well-informed thoughts on the recent media attention (https://bit.ly/3d0Dkde) surrounding the 'commercialisation' of schoolboy rugby in New Zealand.
Find out more about Sam here.
Watch the episode here.
This conversation in with Michael Jennings, Director of Healthy Body at Athlos Education, where he provides virtual and on-site professional development and support for physical educators.
He is also a certified strength and conditioning specialist.
With a Master’s Degree in both secondary education and exercise physiology, Michael specialises in physical literacy, long term athletic development and the holistic education of all students.
In this conversation, Mike shares his thoughts on what physical education should be for, the value of P.E. in the uncertain times we're living in, his framework for developing students across a wide range of ages, and the big problem we face when we focus our attention on physical fitness.
We also discuss:
- The magic of a holistic learning experience and why we should celebrate the less obvious moments more;
- How our past experiences colour what we believe in today;
- The importance of understanding cognitive development;
- Coaching students with different skills and abilities using the constraints-led approach;
- How Mike thinks about assessing movement;
- Why foundational movement skills are important for more than just organised sport;
- Building quality relationships with kids to increase motivation;
- Barriers to creating trust and why it’s important to walk the talk; and
- Mike’s ultimate vision for P.E. in 5 years time.
You can say hello to Mike on Twitter here.
If you enjoy the show, please subscribe using your favourite podcast app. I’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps to share the show with more people.
Kia ora!
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
This conversation in with Dr Paul Read, an accredited strength and conditioning coach and clinical researcher at a specialised Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital in Qatar.
His expertise lies in the assessment strategies of lower limb neuromuscular control and injury risk factors.
Paul has worked with youth, professional and international athletes in a range of sports including football, athletics, fencing and mixed martial arts.
He's also authored numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed papers and presented at conferences across the globe.
In this conversation, Paul provides great insight into the influence of maturation on injury risk factors in youth, the importance of individualised training for optimal development and why you should consider movement variability in your programme prescription.
We also discuss:
- Why plyometric training pre-puberty is a good idea;
- How to integrate movement screening into training and why a more critical approach is required;
- Paul's advice for coaching movement with young athletes of various maturation;
- Playing Academy level football in the UK;
- Paul's love of movement;
- The long-lasting effects of an injury on the way an athlete moves;
- The difficult questions of measuring movement variability and how Paul is starting to tackle it;
- Chaos versus structure in the training environment;
- The importance of working from a set of principles;
- Significant mentors in Paul's research and coaching journey;
- Why getting rid of the term 'injury prevention' might be a good idea; and
- Using technology to enhance your coaching.
You can say hello to Paul on Twitter here.
If you enjoy the show, please subscribe using your favourite podcast app. I’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps to share the show with more people.
Kia ora!
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
“What we identified was that is was the relatively younger players and later-maturing individuals who were actually more successful at getting League Super appearances.”
- Professor Kevin Till
In this episode, I chat with Kevin Till, a Professor in the Carnegie School of Sport at Leeds Beckett University.
His expertise lies in athletic development, strength and conditioning, coaching and sport science.
In our conversation, Kevin shares stories and insight from his PhD and coaching work in youth rugby league and union, including how relative age and biological maturation influences talent identification and development.
We also discuss:
- The physical and psycho-social impacts of youth sports programmes;
- Why late-maturing may have an advantage when it comes to making the elite-level of performance;
- The RAMPAGE programme Kevin developed to help community coaches better plan sessions to improve engagement and athletic development;
- Kevin's childhood and his passion for rugby;
- The need for programmes in youth sport that develop the whole-person in sport and what they could look like; and
- Mixing performance with participation.
Please say hello to Kevin on Twitter @ktconditioning
If you enjoy the show, please subscribe to your favourite podcast listening app.
I’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps more people to hear the show.
Kia ora!
This conversation in with Chris Juneau, a Qualified Physiotherapist and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) who has worked with athletes from junior to the professional level.
Chris is currently completing a Masters of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Science at AUT University in Auckland, New Zealand.
You can find Chris @Chris_Juneau3 on Twitter or at 'In Good Hands Physiotherapy' in Browns Bay.
In this conversation, Chris and I talk specifically about managing injuries in youth baseball, including why kids are getting hurt and what needs to happen both to reduce the risks and for successful rehabilitation.
We also discuss:
- Why he moved from the US to study in New Zealand;
- Chris's thoughts on current healthcare literacy and why a move to empowering athletes to take more responsibility is important for better outcomes;
- Using scaffolding to enhance learning with youth athletes;
- Showing empathy;
- The merging of the physiotherapy and strength & conditioning industries;
- The role of parents when their kids get hurt;
- The physics of baseball pitching and why strength matters when it comes to preventing injury;
- The problem with over-scheduling in youth sport;
- How movement diversification reduces risk; and
- Why fun must stay a big part of the injury rehabilitation process for kids.
If you enjoy the show, please subscribe with your favourite podcast app. We’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps us to share the show with more people.
Thanks so much for listening!
This conversation is with Dr Joe Eisenmann, a translator of scientific knowledge working ‘in the trenches’ with youth athletes and their coaches every day.
He is also a scholar in paediatric sports science.
Joe has a diverse skill set that includes exercise physiology, human growth and maturation, epidemiology, talent identification, data science and strength and conditioning.
Now a visiting Professor of Leeds Beckett University in the UK, Joe completed his doctoral research at Michigan State University in the US and his Master's degree at Northern Arizona.
In this episode, we discuss the ins and outs of knowledge translation and why Joe believes is it so important.
Joe has spent time in LTAD environments across the world and I wanted to really understand what it takes to deliver a quality experience.
We also discuss:
- COVID-19, unstructured play, and the future of coaching in youth sport;
- Motivation and mentorship;
- The importance of excellent leadership for creating change;
- What led to Joe falling in love with science;
- Why every youth coach needs to understand growth and maturation;
- The ‘living lab’;
- Joe’s advice for up and coming practitioners; and
- The comment made by one of Joe’s best friends and how it changed his life.
You can find Joe on Twitter @Joe_Eisenmann
If you enjoy the show, please subscribe with your favourite podcast app. We’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps us to share the show with more people.
Thanks so much for listening!
“Everyone is a hero in life, everyone's got a story to tell, everyone's had to face and overcome adversity. And on that basis, being kind just seems like an obvious thing to do.”This conversation in with Chris Bullen, a leader in coach development at High Performance Sport New Zealand.
Chris has been working in education and sport for 45 years.
In that time, he's provided education for coaches across a wide range of team and individual sports, coached Badminton at the highest level, and taught in a number of schools, including time in the East End of London in the 1970's.
In this conversation, Chris and I go deep into the art of coaching, including;
- Being kind and showing empathy;
- The importance of authenticity in Chris' work;
- How to provide meaningful coach development experiences;
- Testing assumptions;
- Being a purposeful (grand)parent;
- Changing the sporting culture in schools;
- The coach-athlete relationship and the importance of establishing a connection;
- Living your values;
- Being mindful about your behaviours;
- Talent development and how we can spend our time, money and effort wisely;
- The subtly of asking great questions;
- Why change is so hard; and
- The value of attention in a highly distracted world.
If you enjoy the show, please subscribe with your favourite podcast app. We’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps us to share the show with more people.
Thanks so much for listening!
This conversation is with Dr Micheál Cahill, Vice President of Performance and Sport Science at Athlete Training and Health in the US.
He is also an expert in athletic development.
Originally from Ireland, Micheál has spent time working with hundreds of athletes across a broad range of sports from amateur to professional level.
His doctoral research examines the development of sprinting speed in youth athletes.
In this episode, we discuss the 8-18 year-old programme Micheál founded at ATH.
I wanted to really understand the overall approach they take to developing young athletes, the way they assess progress, and how they think about integrating research into practice.
We also discuss:
- Growing up in Ireland
- The impact of a great coach
- Work ethic
- Creativity
- Obstacles courses and climbing walls
- Speed training
- Growth and maturation
- Strength training
- Parenting
You can find Micheál on Twitter @MCahillPhD.
If you enjoy the show, please subscribe with your favourite podcast app. We’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps us to share the show with more people.
Thanks so much for listening!
“We’re looking at long-term athlete development, and that requires a lot of patience, coaching and structure to the programme where performance isn’t the end goal. But equally, they also need to cope, if given the opportunity, with first team training, or even playing.” On the show today, I chat with Lead Academy Strength & Conditioning […]
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“If you focus on what’s important to you and your standards, then that’s really the only thing that should matter… finding your own path and how you do it, I think is just so important.” On the show today I chat with international cricketer, Sophie Devine. Sophie made her first class debut for Wellington at […]
The post Ep 78- Sophie Devine – Passion, purpose and playing cricket for New Zealand appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“I have a kid who could be a pretty good athlete, but if he gets a 97 on a test, his parents ride him because he didn’t get 100… to the point that he’s so completely stressed that we spend a lot of our time doing things that help him change his mindset, so that […]
The post Ep 77- Rick Howard – Professor and Expert Youth Fitness Coach appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“Relationships are the biggest thing for me. Building relationships and rapport with students is going to create a much more joyful experience for them than probably anything else I can do in my class.” On the show today, I chat with P.E. teacher and PhD student, Peter Verdin. Peter is currently employed as a ‘movement […]
The post EP 76- Peter Verdin – Movement Engineering appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
ADS 075: Austin Einhorn – Movement Banking “Almost every session, whether the client I’m with is 13 or 36, or if they’re a high school athlete who doesn’t want to play in college or they’re a professional athlete, I start with… ‘Hey, what do you want to do today?'” On the show today, I chat […]
The post Ep 75 – Austin Einhorn – Movement Banking appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
ADS 074: Dan Exeter – Early specialisation, the modern day sports parent, and formalising informality. On the show today, I chat with Sport and Exercise Physician and father of two, Dan Exeter. Dan is based at Axis Sports Medicine on the North Shore in Auckland, where he specialises in injury prevention and rehabilitation of athletes […]
The post Ep 74 -Dan Exeter – Early specialisation, the modern day sports parent, and formalising informality appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“I think I learnt from quite a young age that I was able to really become more reflective and make more sense of the world at times if I just found my own space, and took an opportunity each day to just be alone for a bit.” On the show today, I chat with endurance […]
The post Ep 73- Dougal Allan- Dreaming big, the art of reflection, and becoming the Coast to Coast champion appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower. ” On the show today, I chat with sport psychologist and researcher, Dr Mustafa Sarkar. Mustafa works at Nottingham Trent University in the UK where he is a senior lecturer and researcher, focusing on the psychology of sporting excellence […]
The post EP 72- Mustafa Sarkar – How to create psychological resilience appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“You can rely on talent up until a certain time, whatever talent is, but it’s not going to make you the best in the world. Even though in my late teenage years I had a good amount of support behind me, I didn’t understand what I had to be doing and how to utilise that […]
The post EP 71- Tim Driesen – High Performance Athlete Development Leader at Athletics New Zealand appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“If you not keeping them around because your training sux, or you’re not a good guy to hang out with, then you don’t get the opportunity to have everything that you know happen.” On the show today, I chat with Matt Hunter, Director of Youth Sports Performance at Athletic Lab in North Carolina, US. Matt […]
The post EP 70 – Matt Hunter – Director of Youth Sports Performance at Athletic Lab appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“Movement is truly the vehicle to teach the principles, to engage with others in joyful ways, to then problem solve and transfer that to make communities stronger.” In this episode, Dr Amanda Stanec, writer, physical educator, and advocate for social justice, talks us through the inspiring work she is doing to promote physical literacy and […]
The post EP 69 – Amanda Stanec – Finding Joy in Physical Activity & Sport appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“As coaches, what we do is create environments that draw people’s attention to the things they need to consider, that will help them be better.” In this episode, Nick Levett, coach developer, blogger and critical thinker, walks us through how he works with coaches to deliver better outcomes for youth athletes. Additionally, he talks about […]
The post EP 68 – Nick Levett– Becoming a More Aware Youth Coach appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
Today on the show I’m joined by José Figueira. José is currently the head coach and director of football at Team Wellington FC, where in 2017 he led the team to a New Zealand Football Championship at his first attempt. Under José, Team Wellington also won the 2018 OFC Champions League, qualifying for their first […]
The post EP 67 – José Figueira – Head Coach of the New Zealand U17 Men appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
Today on the show I’m joined by Greg Nicol. Greg has been the Athlete Pathway Manager for Hockey New Zealand for the past 12 years, where he headed up talent selection and development at the U18, U21 and Development levels across both genders in the game. Over this time, Greg has also coached in the […]
The post EP 66 – Greg Nicol – Talent Development in New Zealand Hockey appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
Today on the show I’m joined by Dave Wright (@davewright07). Dave is a football coach with 17 years’ of experience in England, Australia and New Zealand with players at all levels. After leaving New Zealand in his early 20’s, Dave coached in Australia with Football New South Wales and Football Victoria. He then spent five […]
The post EP 65 – Dave Wright – Insights from Coaching Youth Football Across the World appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
Today on the show I’m joined by Jo Kember, the Leader of Learning at Whangaparaoa School, on the peninsula 30 minutes north of Auckland. Jo coordinates the curriculum, mangers learning and develops collaborative practice amongst staff at her school. Prior to this, Jo Spent time teaching in Kindergartens in Hong Kong and Korea, as well […]
The post EP 64 – Jo Kember – Developing Movement Skill in Primary School Education appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
Today on the show I’m joined by Will Roberts (@w_roberts6) and Danny Newcombe (@dannynewcombe). Will and Danny spend considerable time thinking about how best to develop physical literacy for kids. What I love about this is that not only are they doing the research, they are testing their ideas through a programme called Boing Kids […]
The post EP 63 – Will Roberts and Danny Newcombe – Physical Literacy, Constraints, and the Boing Programme for Kids. appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“The excitement I get as coach far exceeds what I get as an athlete. To help others push their boundaries and overcome obstacles is truly a privilege.” Richie Patterson (@pattersonrichie) is one of New Zealand’s all time strongest men. He’s represented his country at 3 Olympic Games and 4 Commonwealth Games, including earning a silver […]
The post EP 62 – Richie Patterson – Where Strength Comes from appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
Todd Beane (@_ToddBeane) is Founder of TOVO, an educational approach dedicated to improving the cognition, competence and character of young footballers. TOVO runs a live-in training Academy in Barcelona, Spain, as well as offering learning opportunities around the globe . Todd graduated from Dartmouth College in 1986 with a bachelors in English Literature, and when […]
The post EP 61 – Todd Beane – The TOVO Approach to Maximising Talent appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
Jeremy Frisch (@JeremyFrisch) is the owner and director of Achieve Performance Training in Clinton, Massachusetts in the US. Here he works with a range of kids and adults to improve their levels of fitness and promote lifelong freedom of movement. Prior to owning his own facility, Jeremy was a assistant strength and conditioning coach at […]
The post EP 60 – Jeremy Frisch – Promoting Freedom of Movement and Having Fun appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
ADS 059: Simon Brundish – Move Like a Superhero My guest on the show today is Simon Brundish (@SimonBrundish). Simon is the founder of StrengthLab Superheroes, an interactive curriculum for fundamental movement skill development that reaches over 50K primary aged kids across the world. Simon’s background in strength and conditioning, working mainly with football […]
The post EP 59 – Simon Brundish – Move Like a Superhero appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
My guest on the show today is Dr Harry Bowles (@HBowles124), a lecturer in Physical Education at Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales. Harry is a versatile scholar with a broad range of teaching and research interests, including identity, transition in sport and over the life-course, and sport and exercise culture. The past 8 years of […]
The post EP 58 – Dr Harry Bowles – Do I Really Want To Play Professional Cricket? appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
My guest on the show today is a legend in New Zealand sport, Rob Waddell. Rob is a 3-time Olympic Games rower, a yachtsman, a black belt in Judo, a businessman, and a dedicated husband and father of 3. Rob won gold in the single sculls at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and holds the second […]
The post EP 57 – Rob Waddell – From Child to Champion appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
My guest on the show today is James Baker. James is an Accredited Strength & Conditioning Coach with the UK Strength & Conditioning Association and a fully qualified Physical Education Teacher. At present, James works as a Strength & Conditioning Coach and Sport Science Lead at the Aspire Academy in Doha, Qatar. Prior to this, […]
The post EP 56 – James Baker – Strength and Conditioning in Schools appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
My guest on the show today is Dr Shane Pill. Shane is an Associate Professor in Education at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. Here, Shane researchers and lectures in curriculum studies, PE and sport pedagogy. Before academia, Shane spend 19 years teaching physical education in secondary schools. Shane is author of four resource books […]
The post EP 55 – Shane Pill – Accidental Academia and the Games Sense Approach appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“You can’t make excuses. You had to wake up every morning to train. You had to eat the right foods and make sure you were hydrated. Those were the things that dad always instilled in us, and to not let anyone stand in the way.” My guest on the show today is one of New […]
The post EP 54 – Maria Folau – Positive Parenting, Learning to Shoot, and her Love for Netball appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
It’s a pleasure to introduce two guests on the show today. The first, is Dr Doug Gleddie (@doug_gleddie), Associate Professor of Elementary Physical Education at the University of Alberta, in Canada. Doug is a qualitative researcher, has 22 years’ experience of teaching behind him, and has worked with a wide variety of people and organisations […]
The post EP 53 – Doug Gleddie and Lauren Sulz – Play, School Sport, and Finding Joy in Movement appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
My guest on the show today is Jayne Dunbar (@dunbar_jayne). Jayne is the Careers and Pathways Project Leader at Hobsonville Point Secondary School, in Auckland. Prior to this, Jayne was a Physical Education and Health Teacher at Papakura High School in South Auckland. As part of her role at the school, Jayne led a Sport […]
The post EP 52 – Jayne Dunbar – Sport as a Vehicle for Change in Education appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
My guest on the show today is Dr Brooke Macnamara (@BrookeMacnamara). Brooke is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Case Western Reserve University where her research crosses multiple levels of investigation from high-level studies of complex human performance to lower-level investigations of working memory processes. She has a Master’s degree from […]
The post EP 51 – Dr Brooke Macnamara – Developing Expertise in Sports appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
My guest on the show today is Nathan Parnham (@nathan_parnham). Nathan is the conditioning and rehabilitation coach and the head of athletic development at the Parramatta Eels Rugby League Club in the NRL. Prior to working with the Eels, Nathan spent 5 and a half years as the strength and conditioning manager at Newington College […]
The post EP 50 – Nathan Parnham – Coaching Kids in the Gym appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“Right from the start mum has always felt that cooking good food for us is something she could do to make a big difference… and it has.” My guests on the show today are Sam (@sammysawce) and Ben (@benodeaa) O’Dea, New Zealand’s top beach volleyball team, and fresh off a bronze medal at the 2018 […]
The post EP 49 – Sam & Ben O’Dea – NZ’s Beach Volleyball Brothers appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“It’s about becoming a young person who’s aware of themselves and the world and starting to think about what they do with that.” My guest on the show today is Paul Tupou-Vea (@paultupz). Paul is an expert in youth wellbeing and currently leads the personal and social curriculum at Dilworth School’s Rural Campus in South […]
The post EP 48 – Paul Tupou-Vea – Leadership and Wellbeing for Youth appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“It’s not about winning, it’s about pursuing something, it’s about working hard and mastering your craft.” My guest on the show is Warrick Wood (@warrickwood). Warrick is a Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Massey University in Auckland, in New Zealand, where he has been for nearly 5 years. Warrick completed his undergraduate […]
The post EP 47 – Warrick Wood – Self-Determinations Theory and the Winter Olympic Games appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
My guest on the show today describes himself as “a self-motivated person, living in one of the world’s most amazing place, doing what I love”. His name is Braden Currie (@BradenCurrie) and he’s one of New Zealand’s best endurance athletes. Braden has a list of podium finished a mile long, most recently winning the 2018 […]
The post EP 46 – Braden Currie – Hard Work, Developing Confidence, and Growing Up On a Farm appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
My guest on the show today is a former sport scientist who now works with software tools and technology to help Strength and Conditioning Coaches, Nutritionists, and Performance Analysists in high performance sport environments do a better job. His name is John Lythe (@athletefitness) and he’s a Performance Systems Manager at High Performance Sport New […]
The post EP 45 – John Lythe – Dealing with Failure, Monitoring Workload, and Being a Dad appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
ADS 0044: Tania Cassidy, PhD –Sport Pedagogy, Remaining Curious, and Staying in Touch with Your Community My guest on the show today believes that sports coaching is as much about good teaching and relationships as it is about expertise in sport skills and tactics. Her name is Dr Tania Cassidy and she’s an Associate Professor […]
The post EP 44 – Tania Cassidy – Sport Pedagogy, Remaining Curious, and Staying in Touch with Your Community appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
My guest on the show today is Jamie Tout (@JamieTout). Jamie is the Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Black Ferns, New Zealand’s senior women’s rugby team, who for the first time in history won the team of the year award the 2017 Wold Rugby Awards. Jamie is also the Sport Performance Director for VX […]
The post EP 43 – Jamie Tout – Fitter, Faster, Stronger Women Rugby Players and How Data Can Inform Better Practice appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“Kids get to train alongside, be close to, connect with, these high performing athletes, world class, world champions in many cases, and it just becomes normal”. My guest on the show today is an award-winning professor in the department of kinesiology at California State University at Fresno. His name is Dr. Wade Gilbert, he holds […]
The post EP 42 – Wade Gilbert, PhD – Small Towns, Environmental Engineering, and Developing Better Coaches appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“Balance is key. You need time to regenerate, and reflect. And part of balance is about having fun. Are you still enjoying it when you turn up to training? Are you still excited to play?” This conversation is with César Meylan (@MeylanCesar), Strength and Conditioning Coach at the Canadian Sports Institute Pacific, and Head […]
The post EP 41 – Cesar Meylan – Cross-disciplinary development, Talent identification and Quantity versus Quality appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“Growing up as a youngster, going onto the field, there were a couple of things my dad would always say, work hard today son, and be humble.” This conversation is with Keven Mealamu, one of the best All Blacks of all time. Keven made his international rugby debut in 2002 against Wales at the Millennium […]
The post EP 40 – Keven Mealamu – Growing up in Tokoroa, How to Keep Motivated and Finding Your Passion appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“One thing I love about skate culture is the desire to constantly progress. There’s a cataloguing of tricks, and therefore a recognition of growth at the time. And it’s the videographer’s role is to document that progression.” Today’s conversation is with Ty Hollett (@tyhollett). Ty believes that youth learn best when they pursue their own […]
The post EP 39 – Ty Hollett, Ph.D. – Skateboarding Culture and Developing Youth Athletes appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“Knowledge is power. If parents have knowledge of what their kids are trying to achieve, they have a much better opportunity to support them.” Today’s conversation is with Camilla Knight (@cjknight). Camilla is an Associate Professor in Sports Science at the University of Swansea in the UK. Her research interests include understanding and enhancing the […]
The post EP 38 – Camilla Knight, Ph.D. – Developing Confidence, Managing Stress, and Parental Involvement in Youth Sport appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“What I’ve learnt as a parent, and as a coach, is that my role is to teach them to work it out. Because I’m not hitting, or out there in the field, they have to work it out themselves” This conversation is with World Hall of Fame Softball player Eddie Kohlhase. Eddie joined the New […]
The post EP 37 – Eddie Kohlhase, MNZM – Humility, The Art of Coaching, and Parenting Teenage Athletes appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“The child is running the race, but it’s the parent’s job to make sure they stay on the track.” Today on the show I’m chatting with Dr Adam Price (@adamprice21) out of New Jersey in the United States. Adam is a licensed psychologist with over 20 years of experience working with children and teens. He […]
The post EP 36 – Adam Price, Ph.D. – The Unmotivated Teenage Boy and What Parents and Coaches Can Do to Help appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“It’s not about how sore you become, or about how hard you’ve pushed yourself into a hole, it’s about the value you’ve added to enable yourself to be a better athlete tomorrow” – Nic Gill My guest on the show today is Nic Gill (@nigill_health_and_performance). He is the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the […]
The post EP 35 – Nicolas Gill, Ph.D. – Coaching the All Blacks, Quality Nutrition, and the Importance of Loving What You Do appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
“You learn a lot more from the teacher you love than the teacher you’re scared of.” – Nathan Wallis Nathan Wallis is a gifted educator of brain development and internationally recognised speaker. Formally a lecturer at the University of Canterbury and presenter for Brainwave, Nathan has a brilliant knack for facilitating the application of neuroscience […]
The post EP 34 – Nathan Wallis – Harnessing the Human Stress Response, Strength-based Feedback and Developing Athlete Rapport appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
Today’s conversation is with David Niethe. Dave helps many of New Zealand’s best athletes get the mental edge over their competition, including Lydia Ko, Alex “the chief” Pledger, and Olympic Weightlifter Tracy Lambreches. Dave also works with aspiring youth athletes and their parents to help them be the best they can be. On the show […]
The post EP 33 – David Niethe – School Yard Bullying, Dreaming Big, and Optimising Mental Performance appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
Matt Scorringe first represented New Zealand in Surfing in Bali at the age of 14. He went on to represent New Zealand in his respected age divisions every year until the age the 20 before stepping down from international competition to focus on travelling the world as a sponsored free surfer for Billabong. Now, Matt […]
The post EP 32 – Matt Scorringe – Professional Surfing, Coaching Kids, and Surviving Cancer appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
My guest on the show today is Dr. Jeff Moreno, a true movement enthusiast and one of the most interesting guys I know when it comes to developing it. After leaving school at the age of 16, Jeff studied Kinesiology went on to receive a Doctor of Physical Therapy from the University of Southern California. […]
The post EP 31 – Jeff Moreno , Ph.D. – Opportunity, Choice, and the Power of Moving Well appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
My guest on the show today grew up in West Auckland watching action movies and playing footy on the front lawn with his brothers. He went on to a play Super Rugby for the Chiefs and Crusaders, attained one cap for All Blacks against the Aussies, and had a long stint playing club rugby in […]
The post EP 30 – Kevin Senio – Developing Discipline, Parental Pressure, and Playing for the All Blacks appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
My guest on the show today needs little introduction. Her name is Dame Valerie Adams, and she’s one of the best athletes New Zealand has ever seen. Val’s sporting accomplishments are unparalleled. She’s a two-time Olympic and three-time Commonwealth champion and currently holds the New Zealand, Oceanian, Commonwealth and equal World Championship shot put records. […]
The post EP 29 – Dame Valerie Adams – The Makings of a Two-Time Olympic Champion appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
ADS 0028: Hugo Inglis – The Ultimate Competitor Playing sport on the world stage requires a huge work ethic, incredible skill, and a dogged determination to never give up in the heat of competition. My guest on the show today has these qualities in spades. His name is Hugo Inglis, he’s 25 years old, […]
The post EP 28 – Hugo Inglis – The Ultimate Competitor appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
My guest on today’s show is an aspiring star of her game. Her name is Michaela Sokolich-Beatson and she’s a starting defender for the Northern Mystics Netball Team in the ANZ Premiership Competition. Michaela grew up on the Whangaparaoa peninsula, 45 minutes north of Auckland City, where she attended the local College and played representative […]
The post EP 27 – Michaela Sokolich-Beatson – From Netball Hater to Star Performer appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
ADS 0026: The Fat Professor, Grant Schofield – Nutrition for Youth Athletes My guest on the show today believes that children thrive on a diet based in evolutionary biology and not that of the modern-day food supply. His name is Grant Schofield and he’s a Professor of Public Health at AUT University, as well as […]
The post EP 26 – The Fat Professor, Grant Schofield – Nutrition for Youth Athletes appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
My guest on the show today believes that learning is complex, and that to be your best, you need to explore, protect and embrace such complexity. His name is Mark Upton (@uppy01), and he’s been playing, studying and coaching sport, and sports people, all of his life. Mark started his coaching journey with young tennis […]
The post EP 25 – Mark Upton appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
Dr Adam Storey (@agstorey) is the Sports Science Manager and Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Blues Super Rugby Team.
Adam and I have a few years of history together and I’ve watched with interest as he’s gone from gym instructor to master strength coach, working with some of New Zealand’s best youth and elite athletes.
We cover a lot on the show today, including growing up in a sports mad nation, the Olympic Games, academic study, lessons from the weight room, rugby in New Zealand, and much more.
Adam got his start in Olympic Weightlifting and gained many years of experience coaching lifters ranging from 9-year-old novices to Olympic level performers. He later served as the lead strength and conditioning coach for Athletics New Zealand, where he was heavily involved in the Olympic Campaigns of Valarie Adams. Now, Adam leads the sports science programme at the Blues Super Rugby franchise as well as assisting in the gym to develop bigger, faster, stronger players.
In 2012, Adam earned his PhD in Exercise Physiology and now holds a fellowship position with Sports Performance Research Institute New Zealand, a role which involves supervising research projects in the fields of strength & conditioning and exercise physiology for Masters and PhD students at AUT University.
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
Connect with Adam via:
Auckland University of Technology
The post EP 24 – Adam Storey – Olympic Weightlifting, Super Rugby, and Being a Dad appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
Parents play a major part in every young athlete’s story. So much in fact that the type of support they provide can make or break their child’s sporting experience. However, despite their best intensions, many parents dedicate very little time to being a better sporting parent. My guest on the show today had spent many […]
The post EP 23 – Simon Walters – Parents in Youth Sport appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
If you’ve read Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, you’ll know that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an expert. Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. More recent research shows that you can reach an expert level in some disciplines with much less practice, while in others you can practice as much as you […]
The post EP 22 – Dr Jean Côté – Play vs Practice, Sampling vs Specialisation and Transformational Leadership appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
The show today is about two things: netball, and netball injury. And when it comes to netball and injury, one person comes to mind. Her name is Sharon Kearney, and she’s been working with injured netballers for over 25 years. Shaz began her journey in Netball with the Otago team in 1992, toured with the […]
The post EP 21 – Sharon Kearney – Netball and Injury appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
My guest on the show today believes that the what we experience as a child and the people we hang out the most has a huge effect on what we believe and the people we become as adults, which significantly influences the way we parent and coach. His name is Dr Martin Toms, he’s a […]
The post EP 20 – Martin Toms – It’s Not About You but Those You Coach appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
ADS 0019: Fiona Mather – What we can learn from the horse racing industry My guest of the show today is Fiona Mather (@FifiMather). Fiona leads the physiotherapy and rehabilitation team at High Performance Sport New Zealand in Auckland, where she works with elite athletes across many different codes. Scottish born, Fiona was head of […]
The post EP 19 – Fiona Mather – What we can learn from the horse racing industry appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
Three and a half years ago my guest on today’s show wrote an article online called “More important than talent”. It struck a chord, inspiring a community of adults looking for a different way to coach and raise their kids. His name is John O’Sullivan and he’s the founder of Changing the Game Project, and […]
The post EP 18 – John O’Sullivan appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
Youth sport is more physically demanding that ever before. It’s not uncommon for an athlete to spend 20 hours a week training and competing, or for a child a young as six to compete for a spot on a representative team. Sadly, this increased involvement in sport is resulting in more injury. My guest on […]
The post EP 17 – Dr Chris Hanna – Bone Growth, Overuse Injury and Managing Athlete Load appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
Instead of typical gym routines that isolate individual muscles – like biceps curls, knee extensions, and bench press – functional training favours exercises that get you on your feet and replicate the multidirectional, full-body motion of sports. My guest on the show today is considered the founding father of such training. His name is Vern […]
The post EP 16 – Vern Gambetta – Functional Movement and the Essential Ingredients for Coaching Kids appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
Originally from a small town in Northern Ireland, my guest today now resides in sunny Adelaide, on the south coast of Australia. Dr Ian McKeown, more commonly known as “Mackers”, heads up athletic development at the Port Adelaide Football Club where he balances the complex interaction of injury prevention, long term athlete development, athletic performance […]
The post EP 15 – Ian McKeown, PhD – Coaching Essentials, Movement Development, and Growing Up in Northern Ireland appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
ADS 0014: Stacy Sims, PhD – Physiology of the Female Athlete, Menstruation, and Developing Confidence in Youth In an age when no topic appears taboo, menstruation remains unspeakable in the world of sport and exercise. But that’s exactly what my quest today argues needs to change. Her name is Dr Stacy Sims, and she’s an […]
The post EP 14 – Stacy Sims – Physiology of the Female Athlete, Menstruation, and Developing Confidence in Youth appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
ADS 014: Adrian Blincoe – Developing Talent, the Role of the Parent, and being an Olympian In July 2008, Adrian Blincoe (@BlincoeA) ran New Zealand’s best ever time for the 5000 meters. His record still stands today. My name is Dr Craig Harrison, and this is the #AthleteDevelopmentShow. This episode is part two of a […]
The post EP 13 PART 2 – Adrian Blincoe appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
On the 18 August 2016, Sam McEntee stepped up to start in heat 1 of the 5000 meters at the Summer Olympics games. He was 24. Interestingly, he didn’t’ start taking his running seriously until he was 18, and left high school. My name is Dr Craig Harrison, and this is the Athlete Development Show. […]
The post EP 13 PART 1 – Sam McEntee appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
Today I’m talking with Vincent Minjares. He’s a youth basketball coach, as well as a PhD student at AUT University investigating athlete learning and development through sport. And in my opinion, one of the most interesting guys in the business. On the show, we cover all sorts, from what Vince thinks youth sport is for, […]
The post EP 12 – Vince Minjares appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
My guest on the show this week is Grey Myer (@gregmyer11). Greg is Director of Research at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles, gained more than 10,00 citations, and is having a significant impact on the practice of training children and young athletes. Greg is one of the most […]
The post PODCAST: EP 11 – Dr Gregory Myer appeared first on AUT Millennium News.
Kia Ora people, and thanks so much for tuning in to the Athlete Development Show…. a show all about the youth athlete, and their sporting quest. On the show, I pick the brains of athletes, coaches, parents, medical experts, and researchers, to name just a few, to gain insight, bust common myths, and reveal some […]
The post EP 10 – Dr Sean Cumming appeared first on AUT Millennium News.