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Greg King is the head of physical performance and health for Yokohama F. Marinos who compete in the top tier of football in Japan. Greg has a fascinating story having worked with the Western Sydney Wanderers Youth team, securing a role with Port Adelaide (AFL), moving to Adelaide United (A-League) as High-Performance Manager and then being personally selected by current Tottenham Hotspurs head coach and former Socceroos head coach Ange Postecoglou to be his physical performance coach for the Yokohama F. Marinos (J-League). Enjoy listening to Greg’s journey from working as a PE teacher for 10 years, to choosing to move into one of the most volatile and competitive industries, to now living out one of his lifelong dreams of working in high performance sport.  

Highlights from the episode…

• Starting as a PE teacher, Greg sought after amateur coaching roles which began his passion for physical performance.
• Greg gave up 10 years of teaching to work in sport and how he balanced working, studying his masters and finding his feet in the sports industry. 
• Greg took a gamble and moved from Sydney to Adelaide for a part time role with Port Adelaide’s second team for only $20,000/season merely for the chance of making it full time in sport. 
• After 1 year at the club, Greg shares the moment he was offered a full time role with the club and the feeling he felt knowing all the hard work and sacrifice had paid off. 
• Greg secured his next opportunity as now a head of high performance for Adelaide Utd. (A-League) and went on to win a championship with the club. 
• On a day off in a café, Greg shares how he received a phone call out of the blue asking if he would be interested in joining Ange Postecoglou in Japan. 
• Now married and a father of 2 kids, Greg and I discuss what things he had to consider when transition into a new role and a new country. 
• Having worked side by side with Ange, Greg provides an insight into what it’s like working directly with Australia’s most successful football coach. 
• Greg has kept an “Evernote” file of lessons he has learnt from people he’s met in his journey and shares some of these. 
• Greg vulnerably shares how he eventually experienced burnout which led to him leaving Japan and moving back to Sydney. 
• 2 years since leaving professional sport, Greg was unexpectedly called by Yokohama F. Marinos where he went back and now has won a second league title with head coach Kevin Muscat. 
• Greg finally shares a new project which takes all the experience and knowledge he has acquired in his career to help other coaches and athletes improve their approach to high performance.  

People mentioned: 

• Darren Burgess: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-burgess-a1580628/?originalSubdomain=au
• Ange Postecoglou: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ange_Postecoglou
• Adam Waterson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwaterson8

 
Greg King contact details:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-king-91785746/
• The Athletic Development Project - https://theathleticdevelopmentproject.com/
• ADP contact email - [email protected]
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/adp_athletic/

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.