Parents in Sport Podcast

In this episode, the parent of young Arsenal premier league footballer Myles Lewis-Skelly, Marcia Lewis, joins Gordon MacLelland to discuss sports parenting and how we can best navigate the journey from grassroots to professional football.

During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:

• Enjoying the journey as a family from development centre to young professional
• The importance of wider family structure and support on the journey
• Developing our own self-awareness and communication skills to help us navigate the journey effectively
• Exploring the information, we read and hear from different sources
• The healthy management of expectations, balance and boundaries
• The challenges of instant gratification
• Making healthy choices and recognising the potential consequences of our choices
• The importance of focussing on 'today' and not looking too far into the future
• The huge influence of parents and home in helping our young people fulfil their potential

Marcia Lewis is the founder and CEO of No1Fan.club, a platform dedicated to supporting families of young footballers. Inspired by her son Myles' journey as a professional footballer at Arsenal, Marcia recognised the unique challenges faced by families of talented youth players.

No1Fan.club was born out of her passion for creating a supportive community for these families, offering resources, advice, and a space to connect with others on similar journeys. With years of experience navigating the world of youth football, Marcia brings a wealth of knowledge on balancing family life, education, and the demands of elite sports. Her insights on supporting young footballers while maintaining a healthy family dynamic have made her a sought-after speaker and advisor in the football community.

As a devoted mother and advocate for youth footballers and their families, Marcia is committed to fostering an environment where talent can thrive with the right support system. Through No1Fan.club and her various speaking engagements, she continues to inspire and guide families on their own footballing journeys.

In this episode mindset/performance coach and former professional cricketer Lewis Hatchett joins Gordon MacLelland to discuss the positives and perils of perfectionism and what we should be looking out for in helping to support our young performers.

During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:

• Lewis' own personal battles with perfectionism throughout his career
• Why not all elements of perfectionism are bad when it comes to performance
• Spotting the signs of perfectionist tendencies in our young people
• Having the right and most realistic levels of expectation when it comes to performance
• The importance of allowing our young people to experience failure
• Helping our children focus predominantly on their regular process goals
• Working with our children to help them understand what their 'minimum, viable performance'(MVP) looks like
• Encouraging our children to use practice and training time efficiently
• Helping our children strive for excellencism rather than perfectionism

Lewis Hatchett is a Mindset and Mental Performance Coach, Former Professional Cricketer, MSc Student of Performance Psychology at Bangor University, Host of the Raising Your Game Podcast and Creator of the MindStrong Sport App.

In this 'Olympic Special' sports psychology consultant, speaker and author Chris Shambrook joins Gordon MacLelland to discuss the Olympic Games, High Performance and Supporting Young Athletes.

During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:

• Chris' reflections on his Olympic Journey supporting world class performers
• Life behind the scenes of high performing teams
• Being curious about the information we hear as sports parents
• Strategies for helping to support young high performers
• Recognising every child is different and ensuring co-collaboration with our children
• Helping our children intelligently define failure
• The dangers of 'Silver Bullets' of advice
• Personal highlights of the Olympics so far

Chris Shambrook is an accomplished speaker and author and as a sports psychologist worked over 5 Olympic Games with one of Team GB’s (Rowing) most successful sports.

He now uses this immense wealth of experience to support leaders and performers in the world of work.

Chris designs and quality assures 'PlanetK2' programmes and content, and his common-sense, personable approach has had such a positive impact on the people he has worked with.

He also has an Honorary Professorship from Staffordshire University and is the co-author of three books.

www.planet2.com www.theperformanceroom.co.uk

In this episode Dr.Alison Maitland and Jenna Ashford join Gordon MacLelland to discuss their book 'Drop the Struggle' and how understanding their approach of using 'Acceptance and Commitment Therapy' may help us as sporting parents to help support our young people to fulfil their potential both in and out of their sport.

During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:

• The writing of 'Drop the Struggle' and the motivations behind writing the book
• Not falling into the trap of a one size fits all approach for every child
• Helping our children understand that we cannot control our thoughts and feelings but we can control how we act and respond
• The danger of using phrases such as 'Don't cry, Don't be nervous'
• Using open questions and co-collaborating with our children around our role in supporting them
• Encouraging our children to share what they are thinking and feeling
• The importance of parental role modelling in sharing our own thoughts and feelings
• Being conscious of not labelling our children
• Creating our own narratives of success, failure and disappointment
• The inevitabilities of sport, accepting them ourselves, and helping our children learn to accept and work with them
• The power of being able to listen
• Helping our children acknowledge their emotion but then focus on the actions that follow

Dr Alison Maitland is an experienced Health Professions Council registered and BASES accredited Sport Psychologist. She has a PhD in elite sport and uses her expertise in human performance in a wide range of settings in sport and businesses around the world. Not only has she helped elite athletes achieve World Championship titles and Olympic success, but she has a love and proven track record of supporting athletes and coaches taking the first step along their sporting journey. She continues to combine her use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in a sports context, with running a business equipping women in FTSE 250 businesses to lead unapologetic lives.

Jenna is a Chartered Sport & Exercise Psychologist. She has a broad range of experience working with athletes from many different sports, from elite level to school sport. She was part of the team of psychologists at the Football Association who developed the high performance culture within England Football teams. Aside from her work in sport, she is a performance consultant in business, an executive coach and has extensive experience coaching leaders across many different sectors.

In this episode Sport and Performance Psychologist in Elite Sport Rebecca Levett joins Gordon MacLelland to discuss supporting a healthy identity in our sporting children.

We all want our children to have the opportunity to explore various identities and learn that their sense of worth can come from different areas and that many skills and strengths are valued not just those associated with ‘achieving success’.

During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:

• Identity and how we define ourselves
• How our children's identity may influence their behaviour
• Not closing things down too early and allowing our children to experience lots of different things in their life
• Being conscious of what we praise and value as parents
• Helping our children have a 100% focus on their sport at the right time, but not the whole time
• Supporting the development of skills in our children that can then transfer into multiple domains
• The importance of parental role modelling particularly our interactions as parents around learning and disappointment
• Making sure our children know we 'love them' regardless of what they achieve
• How their social groups can influence their identity
• Does having an “on pitch” identity or persona mean being a different person?

Rebecca is a Sport and Performance Psychologist with a wealth of experience in elite sport. She runs a consultancy called Sporting Success and is currently working with GB hockey with the Women’s team, Harlequins Women’s rugby and Sussex Men’s Cricket. Prior to these roles Rebecca spent 4 years at the English Football Association as a Senior Psychologist: 3 years with the Men’s U21s team and 12 months with the Senior Women’s team, the Lionesses. 

In addition Rebecca has previously worked with the Women’s first Team at Manchester City, spent 6 years with Archery GB with the Paralympic Squad and 9 years with Surrey Country Cricket Club alongside consultancy work for the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Rebecca has a strong belief that sustainable high performance is underpinned by high levels of wellbeing and also that we are all performers in our own right whether on the pitch, in the boardroom or even at home! Rebecca’s experience enables her to blend scientific knowledge with realities of what it is like ‘pitch side’ to ensure solutions are practical and not just jargon! 

Rebecca is registered as a Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council and is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society.

In this episode Australian Institute of Sport Athlete Development Senior Lead Graham Turner joins Gordon MacLelland to discuss his latest book 'The Young Athlete's Perspective.'

This book features six stories told by young athletes about their talent development experiences in sport. Each young athlete tells a personal story. They describe their own individual set of circumstances and provide a personal perspective that has been shaped by living in contemporary times.

These unique stories are shared in the hope that they may support coaches and parents to better connect with the young athlete’s perspective. When considered together, these individual insights confirm the essence of the talent development experience, and they reveal what every parent and coach supporting and developing the young athlete needs to know.

During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:

• Understanding the mentality of young people
• Working closely to understand your own child (they are all different)
• The importance of hard work and making the most from the whole sporting experience
• Helping our children to trust themselves and find environments that allow them to thrive
• The importance of positive relationships between the key people around young people
• Creating an environment for genuine, authentic conversations
• Impression management and how information is perceived by all involved
• The importance of parental role-modelling and walking the walk

Graham works for the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) as Athlete Development Senior Lead, supporting National Sporting Organisations to establish world’s best High-Performance Pathways that identify, develop, and progress talented athletes to achieve medal winning performances.

 Graham's career in athlete development and talent pathways began in professional football at Wolverhampton Wanderers where he worked under former England National Coach Graham Taylor. He then went on to work for Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Crewe Alexandra, Leeds United and Bradford City. His subsequent experience includes research, design & implementation of National Strategy for Talent Development, (PE & Sport Strategy for Young People UK); design, delivery & evaluation of Coach Education, (Leeds Beckett University), Founder Member & Director on the Inaugural Board of the UK Strength & Conditioning Association; Coach & Athlete Development Consultant (Skill & Behaviour) for the Northern Territory Institute of Sport (AU) and National Elite Coaching Manager for Gymnastics Australia. Graham holds a PhD in Talent Development in Sport.

In this episode Michelin starred chef and sports parent Tom Kitchin joins Gordon MacLelland to discuss high performance and sports parenting. Tom has lived experience as a parent going through the football academy journey and it was great to discuss how his own working life in high performance has influenced his ongoing approach with his four children.

During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:

• The realities and complexities of being a sport parent
• Keeping as balanced as possible in our approach throughout the ups and downs of the journey
• The importance of parental role modelling in shaping key character traits in our young people
• Using the big challenges and moments to help fire drive, desire and determination
• The art of picking the right time to have the best conversations with our children
• Adapting and changing our approach as our children get older
• The similarities between high performance sport and high performance restaurants
• The importance of helping to instil the right attitude and discipline and being honest with our children
• Building confidence in our young people
• The vital role of nutrition in fuelling our young people to help them achieve their best

Tom Kitchin opened his first restaurant The Kitchin, on Edinburgh’s Leith waterfront in June 2006. The Kitchin was awarded an acclaimed Michelin Star just six months after opening - an accolade that has been retained now every year since. The award-winning restaurant has been consistently voted one the UK’s best restaurants since its opening whilst Tom and his wife Michaela were also named ‘UK Restauranteurs of the Year’ in 2019 at the prestigious UK Restaurant Awards.
Tom has become a well-known face on television, having appeared on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen, UKTV Food’s Market Kitchen, in BBC2’s successful series and BBC2’s Remarkable Places to Eat.
Tom has, on many occasions, joined some of the UK’s most renowned chefs on the MasterChef Final
Chef’s Table panel as a judge.

In this episode author and sports parent Catherine Baker joins Gordon MacLelland to discuss being a sports parent and the complexities of the role based on her experiences of parenting three sporting children, one of whom is currently involved in professional rugby.

During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:

• The realities of being a sports parent
• Learning on the job and navigating the role of a sports parent
• Thinking about our communication, our language and the messages we give our children
• Reinforcing hard work and effort
• Working alongside our own children's goals and motivations
• The importance of connection
• The challenge of navigating our children being injured or not being selected
• Passing the baton to our teenage children and giving them a greater agency over the experience
• Picking the moments to have important conversations with our teenagers
• The lessons we can apply from Catherine's book 'Staying the Distance'

Author, coach, and Keynote Speaker Catherine is relentless on the benefits of sport and movement. Catherine is a parent of three boys, all of whom have played sport at a high level. Through her business Sport and Beyond she has had the privilege of working with many elite athletes, elite coaches, and senior leaders across sport and business, with a focus on mindset and leadership. 

She is also a non-executive Director on various Boards, including the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust. Catherine's debut book, Staying the Distance: The Lessons From Sport That Business Leaders Have Been Missing, published by Bloomsbury Business, came out on 20th March 2023.

In this episode author and founder of 'The Changing the Game Project' joins Gordon MacLelland to discuss being a champion teammate, what that actually means and how we as parents can support our children to fulfil this role.

During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:

• The importance of being a teammate in life, not just in sport
• How we all need to learn to connect, compete and lead
• Making the choice to be a 'Champion Teammate'
• Recognising the strengths and weaknesses of yourself and those around you
• 'What can I give' as opposed to 'what can I get' in a society that promotes the latter
• The challenges of technology in developing key character traits in young people
• The importance of real connection and face to face conversations
• Positive team dynamics and creating environments for this to flourish
• Being the parent and the adult in the room particularly during times of adversity

John O'Sullivan is the Founder of the Changing the Game Project and Host of the Way of Champions Podcast. He is the author of three #1 Bestselling books on parenting, coaching and team culture, and consults with sporting organisations across the globe including US Soccer, USOPC, USA Swimming, US Ski and Snowboard, Ireland Rugby, Australian Rugby League, the PGA, and numerous other schools, clubs and sporting organisations. A former collegiate and professional soccer player and a coach for three decades, his work has been featured by CNN, Outside Magazine, the Boston Globe, and his 2014 TED talk on "Changing the Game in Youth Sports" been viewed nearly 500,000 times. 

In The Champion Teammate, Jerry Lynch and John O’Sullivan share wisdom accrued from decades of consultation with well over 100 conference, national, and world championship teams and dozens of Hall of Fame coaches; interviews with hundreds of athletes, coaches, and leadership experts on their Way of Champions Podcast; and hundreds of workshops on being an exceptional teammate, leader, coach, and parent.

In this episode Motivational Interviewing expert and trainer and sports parent Orla Adams joins Gordon MacLelland to discuss 'Motivational Interviewing' and how it can help us as sports parents enhance the quality of conversations and navigate some of the difficult moments we face with our young people around their sporting experience.

During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:

• 'Motivational Interviewing' and its place in sports parenting and the world of sport
• The importance of identifying strengths, skills and abilities in our young people
• Creating space for our children to share their perspectives and points of view
• How we can become more self-aware of the moments and approach we take to have the most impactful conversations
• How instilling a fear of failure, focussing on weaknesses and making comparisons may have such negative connotations
• Tips and strategies for setting up the most difficult conversations that we can't avoid with our children
• How using scaling techniques may help us communicate effectively with our children whilst encouraging self-evaluation
• The importance of being able to listen well and what does that actually mean?

Orla  Adams is the Dietetic Lead for Maternal Weight Management in Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and she divides her time between this and delivering Motivational Interviewing (MI) training across the UK to various disciplines.  

Orla attended her first MI workshop in 2006, became a member of MINT (Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers) in 2011, and gained MINT certification as an MI Trainer in 2023.  Orla is originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland and lives in Cardiff with her husband and two sons.  

She is a sports parent and has been finding value in how MI has been helpful in some of the more challenging conversations.