I am joined by Dr. Mark Williams - a professor at the University of Utah and author of the book "The Best: How Elite Athletes Are Made". In his book, Dr. Williams outlines a variety of factors that shape elite athletes and influence their development. Some of those influences we discussed on the podcast are: the environment in which athletes are born and develop, unorganized sports and their impact on skill development, early specializations and its advantages/disadvantages, and much more!

You can find Dr. Williams' book here: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1529304350?pf_rd_r=DCX639A125BW831CY9JB&pf_rd_p=05326fd5-c43e-4948-99b1-a65b129fdd73&pd_rd_r=240e6b85-a425-4436-85dc-9b41859b042c&pd_rd_w=KTqtD&pd_rd_wg=VWZHo&ref_=pd_gw_unk

Episode #24 - The Best: How Elite Athletes Are Made by Lou Farah

Many of us have experienced “being in the zone”, where we are fully immersed in work and our productivity is maximized. The psychological state is known as “Flow”, and my guest today explains how flow works, what psychological/neurochemical mechanisms drive it, how we can achieve it and sustain it. All that and more with Matt Comand, a high performance coach and a former sport psychology professor.

What kinds of passion are there? Can it potentially be harmful? How can a coach create a passionate environment for their athletes? And how can we find passion in our own daily lives.

All that and more with the world’s leading expert on motivational processes, Dr. Robert Vallerand. He is a professor of psychology at the University of Quebec, and the director of the Research Laboratory on Social Behavior. Dr. Vallerand has authored numerous papers and books, including the following:

The psychology of passion: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0199777608/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_x_UuYUFbNJAJNRZ

Passion for Work: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/passion-for-work-9780190648626?cc=ca&lang=en&#

You can find Dr. Vallerand’s website at: https://www.lrcs.uqam.ca/en/home/

I am joined by Dr. Matthew Porteus from Stanford University and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to talk about what gene doping is and how it works, what kind of genes might be desirable for athletes to have, do we currently have the technology to do gene doping, and what challenges/dangers could gene doping have on an athlete’s health. Enjoy!

Follow me on Twitter @LouFarah and Instagram @Lou.Farah

I am joined by Dr. Richard Bailey, a professor and researcher in sport science and physical education, to talk about pseudoscience in sport and the many myths and misconceptions in this area: the 10,000 hour “rule”, neurolinguistics programing, the claim that we only use 10% of our brain, the claim that we need to drink 8 glasses of water a day, and so many more. We also talk about ways in which we can distinguish between real evidence and pseudoscience so that we don’t fall for false claims. Hope you enjoy this one!

You can follow Dr. Richard Bailey on Twitter @DrDickB and follow me @LouFarah

What are the different types of leadership that exist in sports? What personality traits are associated with being a good leader? What behaviors do good leaders exhibit? And, is leadership something you're born with or something you develop over time? All that and more with Dr. Todd Loughead, a leadership expert and sport psychologist from the University of Windsor.

Check out Dr. Loughead's lab to find out more about his work: https://www.uwindsor.ca/kinesiology/344/sports-psychology

Follow Dr. Loughead on Twitter @ToddLoughead

Follow me on Twitter @LouFarah and on Instagram @Lou.Farah

I'm joined by one of the world's leading experts in the area of choking under pressure: Dr. Chris Mesagno from Federation University in Australia. We talk about the psychological mechanisms/causes of choking, strategies used to combat it, the relationship between handedness and choking, and much more!

I am joined by Dr. Christoph Siebenmann from the Institute of Mountain Emergency Medicine to talk about altitude training and the debate surrounding this area. Does Altitude training really work like many athletes/coaches believe? What doesn't add up about this training method that makes some scientists skeptical? What are the drawbacks of altitude training, and do they outweigh the benefits?

Dr. Mark Otten takes us through the psychology of clutch performance in sports: what state of mind is the athlete in? What needs to fall in place for a clutch play to happen? How does a clutch athlete differ in his response to performance anxiety than a non-clutch athlete? And what personality traits do those athletes have that others don’t?

All that and more on this fun episode of the Fandom Science Podcast. Enjoy! And don’t forget to subscribe :)