I’m delighted to speak with Dr Phil Kearney in this week’s episode. Phil is one of the world's leading skill acquisition specialists. He is Interim Course Director of the Masters and Applied Sports Coaching course at the University of Limerick. Phil completed his PhD at the University of Limerick, exploring the application of skill acquisition principles to children’s learning of fundamental movement skills. He subsequently taught at the University of Chichester, England, where he was programme coordinator for the BSc Sport Science and Coaching, before returning to Ireland. A Fellow of the Higher Education Authority, Phil is passionate about skill acquisition, and inspiring the next generation of sport scientists and coaches to apply the core principles of skill acquisition in the development of athletes. Phil is also co-founder of Movement and Skill Acquisition Ireland.

Phil and I speak about what skill is and how it can be developed through session design and coach behaviour.

I am delighted to speak with Dr Ellie Gennings in this episode. Ellie is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching based in the Department of Sport and Event Management at Bournemouth University. Ellie is interested in children's wellbeing, children’s rights and safe sport.

Ellie completed her PhD in 2022 in which she measured children’s wellbeing developing a wellbeing scale.

In this episode we discuss a fantastic paper Ellie led on entitled “A critical examination of children’s well-being and well-becoming in a professional youth football academy”.

I’m delighted to speak with Dr Peter Schneider in this week’s episode. Peter is an expert in high performance environments and transitions. He was most recently the mental performance coach at RB Leipzig helping them to win 2 DFB Cups and 1 Supercup.

Peter’s focus is to help create talent development environments in which athletes, coaches, and parents are provided with the necessary information that leads to success at the professional level.

Peter’s area of expertise includes talent-development environments, transition into professional sport, group processes, coach-athlete relationships, and mindfulness in soccer.

In this episode Peter and I discuss a range of psychological topics and Peter shares his experiences working with RB Leipzig in the German Bundesliga.

I’m joined by Jeremy Holt in this episode. Jeremy is an author, leadership team coach, trainer and mentor with three and a half decades of experience applying psychology to real-world teams in business, sport, and public service.

Jeremy’s work with teams focuses on identity - the glue that binds people together and drives performance. As a Chartered Occupational Psychologist, Jeremy supports leadership teams and boards to create shared identity, clarity and cohesion, so that accountability flows naturally and performance becomes sustainable. Whether in the boardroom or on the training ground, Jeremy helps leaders build teams that are not just effective, but proud of who they are together.

We speak about Jeremy’s new book “For the Love of the Game: How to coach identity, belonging and performance in sport”. The book has been written for grassroots and youth sport coaches who care about the people in the shirts as much as the results on the scoreboard. Drawing on years of experience and grounded in social identity research, Jeremy introduces the TRIBE protocol– a practical and powerful method for building a team identity that fuels belonging, commitment and high performance.

I am delighted to welcome back high-performance coach Dr Ian Peek in this episode. Ian works with clients to improve performance and well-being, helping them achieve their goals whether that’s transitioning to a new level of achievement or maintaining their position at the top of their sport or industry.

Ian is a PGA Master Professional - the highest educational level in The PGA - which recognises PGA Members who make a significant effort to improve themselves as golf professionals and maintain the highest degree of excellence for themselves and their operations.

In this episode Ian shares his 35+ years’ experience as a high-performance coach working with clients with both performance and well-being in mind.

I’m delighted to speak with Ray Power in this episode. Ray is a coach developer and best-selling author of 10 soccer coaching books. He is also the Technical Director of the largest football academy in South Asia.

Ray has coached at every level of football, from youth at risk to elite youth internationals. He achieved his UEFA A Licence in 2012 and has worked in youth football development all over the world since, including with the FA, Sunderland AFC and Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP), the national sports institute of Bangladesh.

Ray’s series of soccer coaching books combine to make him the best-selling football coaching author globally. Ray works with every level of coach through Ray Power Coach Education, offering webinars, 1:1 mentoring and football curriculum development.

I’m delighted to speak with Prof Mike Wilson in this episode. Mike has over 16 years of dedicated expertise in the mental health field. Serving as both a professor and mental performance coach, Mike has collaborated with international governments, leading international bodies like the United Nations and the World Bank, law enforcement agencies, and a diverse range of global sports organisations. Their impactful work includes championing mental health as a human right, providing psychological capacity building for refugees and lower-income communities, facilitating essential support through hygiene distributions for marginalised groups, engaging in post-war peace-building via sports initiatives, and advancing community development through potable water projects.

Mike shares his knowledge and experiences as a sport psychologist touching on areas such as growth mindset, challenge and threat states, resilience and explanatory styles.

I’m delighted to speak with Ben Franks in this episode. Ben is a people developer and Senior Lecturer in Applied Coaching Sciences at Oxford Brookes University. Ben has been at Oxford Brookes since 2021 after holding various teaching positions at The University Campus of Football Business and at Canterbury Christ Church University.

Ben also consults and coaches at a variety of organisations. He is Head of Youth and Junior Football at Sevenoaks Town FC.

His areas of expertise are Ecological Approaches to Perception, Action and Cognition, Non-Linear Pedagogy and Human Movement and Skill Development. Ben is currently undertaking a PhD.