This week’s Pacey Performance Podcast sees Rob speak to Leigh Egger, Head of Performance at Feyenoord Rotterdam in the Dutch Eredivisie. Leigh was formerly a semi-professional footballer in Australia, which has given him insight and empathy into both the emotional and physical side of playing.

Leigh discusses his time at Feyenoord, including how he has been influenced by Frans Bosch, John Pryor and Stijn Vandenbroucke. He goes in depth into the effective rehab framework the club’s coaches have been working on, including how to improve agility, speed and strength in footballers.

To learn some of Leigh’s excellent coaching practices for yourself, hit the play button now to learn what Feyenoord have been up to – and avoid some costly errors coaches often encounter.

On this week’s podcast:

• Why playing experience can be invaluable to coaches

Leigh can be found on Twitter @LeighEgger

This week’s Pacey Performance Podcast sees Rob joined by Matt Allen, the Head of Academy Physical Development at Tottenham Hotspur. After initially working his way up as a student intern, he shares how he managed to bridge the gap between student life and a professional sports environment.

Matt shares some excellent knowledge about how to coach young athletes, including the techniques and drills that can turn a promising young footballer into a world beater, and the emotional intelligence to deal with both precocious young talent and demanding parents.

To learn more about his experiences at the top of the football pyramid with Spurs, the training sessions that will push young athletes to excel, and advice for younger coaches wanting to get into football, hit the play button now.

This week’s podcast topics:

• How Matt’s internship bridged the gap between student and professional life

On this week’s Pacey Performance Podcast, Rob speaks to Martin Buchheit and George Perry. Martin is well-known in sports science for his work as Head of Performance Intelligence Research at Kitman Labs and as ex Head of Performance at Paris Saint Germain. George is a sports performance specialist, businessman and writer from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Together, they have co-authored EGOals - a comprehensive guide to the impact and importance of the human ego in sport, including self-confidence and portraying a positive image as an influencer in an often-competitive industry. Martin and George share inside information into what they’ve found working with both coaches and athletes with a big ego.

Of course, it is possible for this to tip into arrogance – a dangerous trait in the world of sport. Luckily Martin and George are on hand to advise on how to balance confidence and humility and remain grounded as a coach. Listen to this week’s podcast to learn all this and much more.

This week’s topics:

• The book Martin and George are working on, and why it’s “the book they wish they had at the start of their career”

On this week’s Pacey Performance Podcast, Rob speaks to Joseph Coyne; a man with a huge CV and an even bigger bank of strength and conditioning knowledge to draw from. Joseph has been Performance Director with the UFC Performance Institute in Shanghai and was previously employed by the Chinese Olympic Committee as a Performance Manager. This is in addition to coaching with the Chinese Track and Field Association, Surfing Australia, and working at a school as director of athletics and athletic development.

As you can imagine, Joseph has expertise to share – which is exactly what he does on this week’s podcast when it comes to plyometrics, jump training, and how to customise your training based on the build of your athletes and the sport they’re training for. This includes co-ordinating jumps to maintain that all-important intensity but avoid needless injury, including subjective load monitoring and RSI.

Joseph also speaks about what it was like to coach with the UFC in China – a world away from his background in track and field and personal love for rugby. To gain this superb insight into plyometrics, jumps training and subjective load monitoring from a coach who’s seen it all, hit play on the Pacey Performance Podcast now!

This week’s topics:

• The story behind UFC in China

There’s double the expertise on this week’s Pacey Performance Podcast as Rob is joined by Jonas Dodoo and Alan Murdoch. Jonas is Director of Speedworks Training and Head Coach at Loughborough University, whilst Alan is Head Coach at Speedworks and until recently was Strength and Conditioning Coach at Bath Rugby.

On the podcast, they discuss what first led to them working together and the skills and techniques they’ve learned during the course of their professional partnership. This includes how they’ve pooled their collective knowledge by linking the often separate coaching worlds of rehabilitation and speed.

There are also some excellent deep dives into exercise selection, shin roll, ACL rehab, and why they actively avoid bad psychology in any group of athletes they coach. This week’s podcast is the place to get up to speed with what Jonas and Alan are achieving - and how it could influence your own coaching regime in the near future.

Topics discussed:

• How Jonas and Alan first started working together

On this week’s Pacey Performance Podcast, we speak to Ed Gannon, Head of Strength and Conditioning at the Buffalo Sabres in the NHL. Despite having been at the Sabres for 6 years, Ed’s background is in Rugby Union in the UK. We discuss what led to him making that massive move, the challenges he faced, and the differences and similarities between the two very different worlds of coaching Rugby Union and ice hockey.

Ed also describes the training protocol he undertakes to mitigate for the natural effects of fatigue despite players undergoing a busy playing calendar - including the ideal schedule, a whole host of isometric exercise options and the data to look out for.

If you want to hear from an expert with the inside information to help you and your athletes increase their fitness, reduce injuries (especially to the hip and groin), analyse data to gain a practical solution and ultimately maximise performance, then this week’s talk with Ed Gannon is not to be missed.

Topics discussed this week:

• What leads to a rugby coach moving to the USA

Dr. Keith Baar is the Head of the Functional Molecular Biology Laboratory (FMBLab) at the University of California Davis. On this week’s Pacey Performance Podcast, we discuss how the musculoskeletal system functions including how diet and physical activity affect muscle growth, and how tendons and ligaments respond to the stresses of exercise

Dr. Keith’s teachings are absolutely invaluable for both coaches, sports scientists and athletes alike as he tells us why injury rates are still on the rise despite coaches knowing more about the human body than ever before, and how to specifically avoid injuring tendons and ligaments whilst still developing muscle growth.

As a bonus, he also gives us some excellent nutritional tips. Don’t miss out on all this expert advice gained from a career dedicated to learning just what it is that gives the very best athletes that slight advantage over their rivals.

Topics:

• What inspired him to get into sports science

On this week’s Pacey Performance Podcast, Rob speaks to performance science consultant Jo Clubb about how she went from starting out in her dream job as an intern at Chelsea FC in the Premier League, to eventually working in the NHL with the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres. Jo also discusses what she calls her ‘sliding doors’ moment – when she got the opportunity to move to the US and work in ice hockey followed by American football. Through this, we talk about how opportunities can arise via the power of networking in a close-knit industry, and what younger people in the industry can do to grow their profile.

A running theme throughout this episode is how training and sports science isn’t always about the techniques, drills and exercises a coach introduces to a new team, but how a cultural fit can make the difference through connecting with athletes on a personal level. Through her own website and as a contributor to Sports Discovery, a resource dedicated to knowledge sharing of sports professionals, there can’t be many more in the industry with this level of expertise in collaboration and emotional intelligence.

We also talk about the importance of subjective monitoring and why it should be the cornerstone of any load monitoring system.

Topics:

• Being an intern at Chelsea FC

Jo can be found on Twitter @JoClubbSportSci

Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following on Twitter @strengthofsci or visiting strengthofscience.com.

Enjoy

PP

This week’s Pacey Performance Podcast sees me speak to Rugby Australia’s Senior Strength & Conditioning Coach, John Pryor, who has worked with the Wallabies, the Japanese national Rugby Union team and holds a master’s degree in health science. With his background in track and field and combat sports, John has an incredibly wide-ranging knowledge about strength and conditioning, contextual strength and coordination training.

John explains his background and his influences, which include Warren Young and Charles Poliquin, Vern Gambetta, Eddie Jones and Vern Gambetta. He also talks about his time working with Eddie Jones in Japan, and the point of difference for coaches who are taken seriously and seen as authentic by athletes and employers alike.

This makes this week’s podcast a must-listen for any coach wanting to learn what catches people’s attention, the basics of Frans Bosch's methodologies, and how there’s no substitute for experience in strength and conditioning training.

Topics:

• The difference in mentality between Rugby League and Rugby Union

In this episode of the Pacey Performance Podcast, I am speaking to Head of National Talent ID & Senior S&C Coach at Aspire Academy, James Baker. This is the second part to a two-part episode with James so if you haven't checked out part 1, make sure you do so. In this episode James gives us some incredible insight into two case studies. They highlight how essential the monitoring of growth and maturation is in young athletes. We also dive into moving athletes from a developmental programme into a performance programme where winning is the aim.

In this episode, we discussed...

• Talent identification - finding the best athletes in Qatar

James can be found on Twitter @jamesbaker_8

Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following on Twitter @strengthofsci or visiting strengthofscience.com.

Enjoy

PP