ISESA Podcast

Is clean eating always better for athletic performance? Are athletes particularly vulnerable to supplement marketing? And what does good performance nutrition support actually look like? In this episode of the ISESA Podcast, Bruce is joined by Laura Mahony, dietitian and performance nutrition consultant with extensive experience across Olympic sport, professional rugby and Gaelic games.

Picking up on a discussion from the 2026 ISESA Conference, Bruce and Laura explore how nutrition myths and wellness trends can influence athletes' dietary behaviours, sometimes with unintended consequences for their health and performance.They discuss the pressures that can make athletes susceptible to supplement marketing, the importance of evidence-based advice and the risks associated with supplement use, including anti-doping considerations.

The conversation then moves beyond nutritional recommendations to explore what effective performance nutrition support looks like in practice. Laura shares insights into building relationships with athletes, encouraging behaviour change, individualising advice and working within multidisciplinary performance teams. The episode finishes with practical takeaways for athletes, coaches and aspiring practitioners, including why consistency matters more than perfection, and why sometimes the most effective intervention is a small, sustainable change.

Laura's upcoming webinars:

23rd Nov 2026: SENG - GAA Performance Nutrition: Live Online Discussion

26th Nov 2026: Sport Ireland Institute - Fuelling the Female Athlete

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

02:20 Clean Eating, Sugar and Nutrition Myths

07:00 When Healthy Eating Undermines Performance

10:00 Changing Athletes' Beliefs and Behaviours

15:20 Athlete Vulnerability and Supplement Marketing

19:00 Supplement Decision-Making

20:30 Batch Testing and Anti-Doping Risks

25:00 Communicating Evidence and Countering Misinformation

29:40 What Performance Dietitians Actually Do

33:20 Multidisciplinary Teams and Individualised Support

39:50 Balancing Performance and Long-Term Health

42:15 Practical Advice for Athletes, Coaches and Practitioners

48:20 Upcoming Nutrition Webinars

50:40 Closing Reflections

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In this special episode of the ISESA Podcast, we remember Ciara Mageean, one of Ireland's greatest middle-distance runners. We reflect on her extraordinary sporting achievements, the person behind the performances, and the lasting impact she had on Irish sport.

Our deepest sympathies go to Ciara's family, friends and all who knew her.

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What does good coaching actually look like when working with children and young people?

In this episode, Bruce is joined by Patricia Jackman from the University of Lincoln to explore how psychology can help coaches create positive, engaging and developmentally appropriate environments for young athletes. Patricia is one of the researchers behind SÍOL na nÓige, a psychologically informed coaching framework developed in the context of Gaelic games, but with principles that can be applied across youth sport. They discuss why good youth coaching should extend beyond winning and performance, and explore practical ways coaches can support fun and enjoyment, motivation, autonomy, strong coach-player relationships, belonging, personal development and long-term participation. The conversation also gets very practical: how should a coach respond when a player is losing confidence? What do you do with a talented player who dominates a session? How should you respond after a heavy defeat? And what small changes could coaches make at their very next training session? A useful episode for coaches, parents, coach educators, sport scientists and anyone involved in youth sport.

Topics include:

- What good youth coaching should actually achieve

- The SÍOL na nÓige framework

- Why fun and challenge are not opposites

- Giving young athletes autonomy

- Building coach-player relationships through small interactions

- Creating intrinsic motivation and a mastery climate

- Belonging, playing time and inclusion

- Managing parents and wider club expectations

- Practical responses to common coaching situations

Patricia's central message is simple: psychologically informed coaching does not necessarily mean doing more — it means being more deliberate about the environment and interactions we create for young people.

Resources:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21520704.2024.2441849

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0613/1495965-gaa-underage-players-coaching-psychology/

https://www.gaa.ie/article/siol-na-noige-how-we-can-best-grow-our-young-gaelic-games-players

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction

01:06 What does good youth coaching look like?

08:42 What do great youth coaches do differently?

11:15 Introducing SÍOL na nÓige

17:39 Fun, challenge and avoiding overcoaching

23:20 Autonomy and player voice

29:06 Building strong coach-player relationships

36:26 Motivation: being your best, not the best

39:53 Belonging and inclusion

42:57 Playing time and participation

45:37 Parents, clubs and the wider environment

48:47 Practical coaching scenarios

55:25 One change for your next training session

57:24 Closing thoughts

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Image and performance enhancing drug use is changing rapidly and it is no longer confined to elite sport or competitive bodybuilding. In today's, Bruce speaks with Dr David Nolan about his new research examining iPED use in Ireland. They discuss what people are taking, why they are taking it, the growing prominence of peptides, the influence of GLP-1 drugs and testosterone replacement therapy, and the increasingly blurred line between treatment, enhancement and aesthetics. The conversation also explores health monitoring, the limits of blood testing, barriers to engaging with healthcare professionals, the challenges of coming off iPEDs, and why this is not exclusively a male issue. David’s study provides an important first snapshot of a poorly characterised area of health and performance in Ireland, with plans to repeat the research over time and build a clearer picture of how the landscape is evolving.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:15 The Enhanced Games and the changing PED landscape

05:00 What are iPEDs – and who is using them?

08:45 The first Irish iPED study

13:15 What are people taking?

18:15 Peptides, GLP-1s and the changing drug landscape

29:15 Testosterone replacement therapy and enhancement

33:45 Health monitoring, harm reduction and healthcare

39:00 Coming off iPEDs: exit strategies and identity

46:45 Women and the changing iPED population

50:10 Who actually identifies as an iPED user?

53:50 Where does the research go next?

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Childhood cancer survival continues to improve, but what happens after treatment ends?

In this final episode of the Summer Series, Bruce travels to Navan to meet Cillian Maguire, his mum Tracey-Ann, and researcher Jenny Fitzpatrick to discuss the CHAMPS programme - an innovative exercise intervention supporting young people after childhood cancer treatment.

Together they explore recovery beyond the hospital, the challenges of fatigue and returning to everyday life, and the growing role of exercise oncology in improving health and quality of life.

A powerful conversation about resilience, recovery and how exercise can help people reclaim their lives.

This episode forms part of the ISESA Podcast Summer Series: Exercise Beyond Sport - three conversations exploring the growing role of sport and exercise science within healthcare.

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Few areas of healthcare have changed as rapidly over the past three years as obesity medicine.

With medications such as semaglutide and tirzepatide transforming the conversation around obesity, Bruce revisits this insightful discussion with Professor Donal O'Shea and dietitian Aoife Hearne.

Rather than focusing solely on medication, this episode explores the biology of obesity, the importance of compassion in clinical practice, and why understanding obesity as a chronic disease changes how we think about prevention, treatment and long-term support.

The treatments may have evolved, but the need for evidence-based, person-centred care has not.

This episode forms part of the ISESA Podcast Summer Series: Exercise Beyond Sport - three conversations exploring the growing role of sport and exercise science within healthcare.

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When this conversation was first recorded in 2023, structured exercise programmes for people living with long-term health conditions were only beginning to gain momentum. Today, the role of exercise professionals within healthcare has never been more important.

In this episode, Bruce is joined by Annalouise Muldoon and Marie O'Connor, who shares her remarkable journey of recovering from an atypical stroke. Together they explore how structured exercise can help people regain confidence, independence and quality of life long after they leave hospital.

As Ireland continues to develop new educational pathways for exercise professionals working in healthcare, this conversation feels more relevant than ever.

This episode forms part of the ISESA Podcast Summer Series: Exercise Beyond Sport - three conversations exploring the growing role of sport and exercise science within healthcare.

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Over the next few weeks, we're revisiting three episodes from the first season of the ISESA Podcast that have become even more relevant today than when they were originally recorded.

Together, these episodes explore how sport and exercise science is increasingly moving beyond performance and into healthcare—helping people regain independence after stroke, supporting people living with obesity, and improving quality of life after childhood cancer.

Whether you're discovering these conversations for the first time or listening back with fresh ears, I hope they offer a new perspective on the evolving role of exercise professionals within healthcare.

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Irish Rugby's Will Connors explains how he uses AI, Machine Learning and Biomechanics to decode tackle safety.

In this episode of the ISESA Podcast, Bruce Wardrop sits down with Irish international rugby player and sport science researcher, Will Connors.

Widely regarded as one of the most effective tacklers on the pitch thanks to his mastery of the "chop tackle," Will operates at the exact intersection of elite athletic performance and cutting-edge science. After nine highly successful years with Leinster, Will discusses his upcoming move to Connacht, reuniting with Head Coach Stuart Lancaster, and the tactical evolutions he hopes to bring out West. Beyond the pitch, Will is a PhD researcher at Trinity College Dublin. We dive into his fascinating work using computer science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to map the biomechanics of the tackle. Will explains the massive challenge of teaching an algorithm to identify safe tackle execution amidst the chaos of a professional match, and how this data can ultimately be used to improve player welfare and reduce concussion risks.

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