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Andrew (Jack) Russell has worked in the sport of AFL for close to 3 decades and has been the High Performance Manager for the likes of Port Adeliade FC, Hawthorn FC and Carlton FC. During his time, he has won 6 premiership titles and is consider by many to be the best in the game when it comes to setting up and delivering a high performance environment in professional sport. Amidst his recent transition away from a stellar career in the AFL, this is a rare, honest and revealing long form conversation where we deep dive into all thing’s high performance sport and chat about how he has been able to successfully coach elite performers for over 600 games on the football field to now coaching the top echelon of elite performers across various fields.

Highlights from the episode…

• After observing and working alongside the likes of Cathy Freeman, “Oarsome Foursome” rowing team, Cadel Evans early in his career at the VIS, this inspired him to give up his own athletic pursuits to forward his career as a coach. 
• How Jack was trusted to run his own AFL high performance program at the young age of 24 with the Port Adeliade FC. 
• The strategies he used to build players fitness and robustness at Port Adeliade and then going on to win the club's first AFL premiership.
• “At a time when I was most experienced, I found myself being the most conservative than I’ve ever been”. Naivety and taking risk and how this may be the missing piece to a successful program.
• “You have to be brave enough to make a good decision at the chance of a bad outcome”. Decision making and whether the outcome always justify the means?
• Deciding availability of post injured players. Jack shares how his team decided, actioned and evaluated these decisions.
• In the past 3 decades how have you found you've needed to change the way you communicate to staff and players?
• A never heard before story of how and why, Jack left the success of Port Adeliade FC to move to Melb. including having an unexpected knock at the door by Alastair Clarkson, Jason Dunstall and Damien Hardwick in the early hours of the morning. 
• How Jack and his wife (Leigh) have been able to forge a strong family network all while both being at the pinnacle of their respective fields.
• Is there a risk of practitioners becoming far too specialised early in their career rather than exploring a breadth and diverse base of knowledge before specialising?
• Tim Gabbett describes “Moderators” that influence how an athlete responds to load (Age, Strength, Injury history, Training history, Aerobic/anaerobic capacity. Could psychology be the missing moderator?
• What should High Performance Managers be evaluated for, are wins and losses a fair assessment of their performance?
• How Jack is now taking what he’s learnt coaching high performers in sport to now coaching high performers across various fields through the concept of “Neurophysiology”. 

People mentioned:

• Mark McGrath: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-mcgrath-43912837/?originalSubdomain=au
• Anthony Hogan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-hogan-19272569/?originalSubdomain=au
• Matt Whitaker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-whitaker/

Andrew Russell contact details:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elitehumans/
• Website Russell Performance Co: https://www.russellperformance.co/meetandrew

Host: Luis Resa

Contact me on:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luis-resa-a975196b/
• Email: [email protected]

Thanks for listening and please leave a review. If you would like more information on anything mentioned in this episode simply send me an email.