Cheltenham Town’s free-scoring midfielder Issac Hutchinson is actually a Bristol Rovers player. He’s on loan at Cheltenham and travels up the M5 for training. But at 25 this is the 7th club he’s played for as a professional footballer. In fact, Bristol took recalled him in January only to allow him to return to Cheltenham at the end of the month. 

Isaac’s others clubs thus far: Southend United, Derby County, Forest Green Rovers, Crawley Town and Walsall. 

Where he’s stayed for a while, Hutchinson has done well, but his story is typical of League and League 2 football - constant change and movement. 

In this conversation we talk about the challenge of a nomadic lifestyle, the lapsed friendships and the commitment required from Isaac’s partner who has followed him around the country. 

We also discuss the skill of gelling quickly with new teammates on and off the pitch.

Isaac was a big fan of Chelsea’s all-time leading scorer Frank Lampard growing up and we talk about the importance of repetitive practice to hone those runs and finishes from midfield. 

I enjoyed this. I hope you do too. Being a pro player sounds very glamorous. But I have huge admiration for these guys’ abilities to adapt to new environments amid such flux. 

Andy Brassington is in his 70s. But you’d never guess it. He came around to my house before Christmas for a coffee and a long chat. He left me feeling invigorated, hopeful and enthused. For what I’m trying to do with the podcast and with my Triple Tonic workouts, for sure. But, also just generally excited for life and reassured there are philanthropists like Andy who are out there trying to connect people. 

Andy’s a former cricketer. A wicketkeeper for a decade and a half at Gloucestershire. As it became clear a generational talent called Jack Russell had curtailed his playing opportunities, Brassy transitioned into a role as marketing manager at the club.

He went onto found his sports hospitality business Finders and Keepers in the late 90s and it’s still going strong: https://www.finderskeepersuk.com

Maybe from his sporting background, or his business experience or maybe just how he’s made, but Andy has a keen awareness of the importance of conversation and connection. And during the Covid pandemic he founded the charity Walkers and Talkers. These are FREE events - initially based at Gloucestershire County Cricket Club but now taking place across the country - which hosts talks from (unpaid) celebrities while encouraging people to talk and walk alongside each other. 

Again, I don’t know many people who could pull this all off at 21. Let alone 71. But Andy is an inspiring ball of energy. And his mission to connect people, reflected in his opinion that an email is only of value after a face-to-face conversation, or worst case a phone call, is powerful. At a time of increasing loneliness and technology-induced disconnection, this is an important public health message too. 

I hope you enjoy this. And maybe you’ll be moved to make a call off the back of it? 

To contact Andy, you can email: [email protected] 

Hi, Teddy here. I count myself as pretty fit and healthy - I think that's important to walk the walk as I work as a fitness professional. But for the first time recently I had a full blood panel done and felt a huge amount of relief to find that things are good under the bonnet: hormones, minerals, metabolism and more.

I visited GHS Clinics in Cheltenham and can offer you a 10% discount if you contact me - [email protected]

. I felt anxiety before but a surge of confidence afterwards. I would definitely recommend it for anyone in mid life like - whatever your fitness or lifestyle - just to get some clarity .

**********

Chief Sponsor: Bang & Olufsen Cheltenham: https://stores.bang-olufsen.com/en/united-kingdom/cheltenham/unit-15-the-courtyard-montpellier-street

Info on Sponsor Offerings: For 15% off Herring Shoes enter the code SPORTANDLIFE at checkout at - https://www.herringshoes.co.uk

For 30% off Cytoplan supplements for your first purchase at https://www.cytoplan.co.uk and a 10% discount ongoing: Check out the intro to the podcast.

James Golden is a fitness professional based in the Cotswolds. He's trained athletes and non athletes for decades.

But in this conversation he tells me that if someone is starting from scratch trying to get healthier adding movement into daily life could be the key - rather than say three trips to the gym per week.

In this conversation James gives concrete examples of how we can add steps and bodyweight resistance work into everyday activities.

We also discuss James' Elite Soccer Coaching company with kids camps lead by pro footballer Jordan Thomas coming up at half-term and Easter. https://www.elitesoccerstars.com

*********

Chief Sponsor: Bang & Olufsen Cheltenham: https://stores.bang-olufsen.com/en/united-kingdom/cheltenham/unit-15-the-courtyard-montpellier-street

Info on Sponsor Offerings: For 15% off Herring Shoes enter the code SPORTANDLIFE at checkout at - https://www.herringshoes.co.uk

For 30% off Cytoplan supplements for your first purchase at https://www.cytoplan.co.uk and a 10% discount ongoing: Check out the intro to the podcast.

For a 10% discount with GHS Cheltenham Clinics’ Health Checks - https://ghsclinics.health, contact me: [email protected] 

I’m half-Welsh. My dad hails from cwmbran. And so presenting on Sky Sports News as Wales wound their way in magical fashion to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 is a treasured memory. A special summer - counterbalanced by the fact that I’m half-English and Wayne’s Rooney’s Three Lions were dumped out by Iceland in ignominious fashion. Ouch. That still hurts. 

But it was also a special time for the country Wales knocked out in the last-16 stage: Northern Ireland. It was their first and only, to date, time at The European Championship. 

Paul Gilmour was a firsthand bystander to the squad’s exploits in qualifying and then in the tournament itself in France. He was the dedicated team reporter for Sky Sports News. 

It would have been a memorable assignment for any football person. But particularly poignant for Paul who hails from Northern Ireland. He wasn’t born when his country qualified for the 1958 and 1982 World Cups. He was barely born when they made the World Cup in Mexico in 86. 

But in 2016 he was front and centre to cover a joyous time for his country. The team won only one of four games played in the tournament but made indelible memories, particularly the cacophonous singing of ‘Will Grigg is on fire!” Even though Grigg didn't get on the pitch during Euro 2016! 

It’s a classic old school soccer story. But a very human one too. Hope you enjoy!

Go well and keep moving, 

Teddy

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Partner Details 

Chief Sponsor: Bang & Olufsen Cheltenham: https://stores.bang-olufsen.com/en/united-kingdom/cheltenham/unit-15-the-courtyard-montpellier-street

Info on Sponsor Offerings: For 15% off Herring Shoes enter the code SPORTANDLIFE at checkout at - 

https://www.herringshoes.co.uk

For 30% off Cytoplan supplements for your first purchase at https://www.cytoplan.co.uk and a 10% discount ongoing: Check out the intro to the podcast.

For a 10% discount with GHS Cheltenham Clinics’ Health Checks - https://ghsclinics.health, contact me: [email protected] 

Dr Mark Draper ( my dad) is a GP in Gloucestershire and a micro-nutritionist who has run courses for other doctors and medical professionals focussed on the vitamins and minerals we need to be healthy.

Here he explains how his interest and passion for vitamins and minerals was sparked when working as a doctor in the Turks and Caicos islands - he and his colleagues found huge improvements in the island children's health after iron tablets were handed out at schools.

Dad has helped design ingredient for show partner Cytoplan's early range of multivitamins and is the reason I've been taking their supplements since boyhood.

In this conversation we discuss:

*)Why we need to supplement

*) Iron

* Vitamin D

* Selenium and Zinc

* Women's mineral and vitamin requirements

* Men's mineral and vitamin requirements

* Vegan diet

* Vegetarian diet

I hope this is useful. Feedback appreciated.

Go well and keep moving,

Teddy

***********************

Partner Details

Chief Sponsor: Bang & Olufsen Cheltenham: https://stores.bang-olufsen.com/en/united-kingdom/cheltenham/unit-15-the-courtyard-montpellier-street

Info on Sponsor Offerings: For 15% off Herring Shoes enter the code SPORTANDLIFE at checkout at - https://www.herringshoes.co.uk

For 30% off Cytoplan supplements for your first purchase at https://www.cytoplan.co.uk and a 10% discount ongoing: Check out the intro to the podcast.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t really struggle to do health-related things like exercising and eating vegetables.

But I’ve founding sleeping well on a regular basis to be a bit of a challenge.

Shift work as a sports broadcaster - 2am get-ups in the same week as 2am bedtimes - hasn’t helped.

But fundamentally sleeping is the anti-do: relaxation isn’t something you can force through with discipline or the ability to form behavioural habits.

And the more you think or worry about sleep - or document it with technology - the harder it can seem to actually relax enough to nod off.

We now live in a world where we’re being bombarded with information about how important sleep is to our short-term daily performance and chances of long-term good health. This can be anxiety-inducing and counterproductive to sleep!

In this context, I found restorative sleep coach Holly Hannigan-Mills’ approach to helping people get good kip very refreshing and very useful. Holly has been helping people sleep for nearly 10 years.

Taking away that jeopardy and sense of doom seems to be key and adopting a general acceptance that we won’t always get a good night’s sleep - but we’ll be all right - is a cathartic attitude shift.

The conversation also includes some very practical tips about how to create a restful feeling in the evening - including getting daylight in the morning. Plus we do talk about how to navigate sleep patterns when you’re doing variable shift patterns.

I met Holly when undertaking the Second Prime health assessment at GHS Clinics - https://ghsclinics.health/services/sleep-programme/ - and she also has her own private practice: https://hmcoaching.uk

Follow Holly on Instagram for more advice: https://www.instagram.com/_hm.coaching

**************************************

Chief Sponsor: Bang & Olufsen Cheltenham: https://stores.bang-olufsen.com/en/united-kingdom/cheltenham/unit-15-the-courtyard-montpellier-street

Info on Sponsor Offerings: For 15% off Herring Shoes enter the code SPORTANDLIFE at checkout at -

https://www.herringshoes.co.uk

For 30% off Cytoplan supplements for your first purchase at https://www.cytoplan.co.uk and a 10% discount ongoing: Check out the intro to the podcast.

If you’re into fitness in Cheltenham, you’re very likely to have come across Katie Brighton-Jones who trains people all over the town in various gyms, pools and fitness locations. I’ve often seen her out jogging in my local stomping ground of Leckhampton too.

Katie is a all around font of fitness knowledge, but has two big specialities - working with people training for triathlons helping women experiencing peri menopause and the menopause stay fit.

So, an ideal person to ask about running. Running (or initially jogging or just shuffling) is a great starting point for people looking to get moving and carries huge physiological and psychological upsides.

But it can come with concerns over joint pain, injury etc.Katie is herself working her way back to running after a knee issue so great to pick her brains on a variety of running themes:

1) Is Running good for us?

2) What surface should we run on?

3) How does running on the ground compare to the treadmill?

4) What are the mental benefits of running (particularly, running outdoors)?

5) Footwear - how important and what type of shoe should we look at? Do we need different shoes for different surfaces/seasons of the year?

6) How do we avoid joint pain and/or injury?

Follow Katie: https://www.instagram.com/kbj_fitness/?hl=en

Hope this is useful. Let me know if it is.

Go well and keep moving,

Teddy

*********

Chief Sponsor: Bang & Olufsen Cheltenham: https://stores.bang-olufsen.com/en/united-kingdom/cheltenham/unit-15-the-courtyard-montpellier-street

Info on Sponsor Offerings: For 15% off Herring Shoes enter the code SPORTANDLIFE at checkout at -

https://www.herringshoes.co.uk

For 30% off Cytoplan supplements for your first purchase at https://www.cytoplan.co.uk and a 10% discount ongoing: Check out the intro to the podcast.

Dr Ran Crooke is co-founder and COO of WellFounded, an international practice changing the face of health and performance medicine for purpose-driven change-makers.

Ran, who lives in Cheltenham, was once a local Gloucestershire GP before taking his experience in elite sports and sports medicine to setup WellFounded with his co-founders, ex-paratrooper Dr Andy Crockett, and expedition medic, Dr Jack Kreindler.

I met Ran in 2019 when I was hosting and he was a guest speaker at The Cheltenham Well-being Festival.

This conversation looks at the fundamentals of health and human performance with special focus on the merits of resistance training and creatine.

**********

Chief Sponsor: Bang & Olufsen Cheltenham: https://stores.bang-olufsen.com/en/united-kingdom/cheltenham/unit-15-the-courtyard-montpellier-street

Info on Sponsor Offerings: For 15% off Herring Shoes enter the code SPORTANDLIFE at checkout at - https://www.herringshoes.co.uk

For 30% off Cytoplan supplements for your first purchase at https://www.cytoplan.co.uk and a 10% discount ongoing: Check out the intro to the podcast.

I think for those of us who played a lot of football growing up, there is always a part of us that wonders... could I have made it if I’d tried harder, had more lucky breaks, backed myself more? 

Jordan Thomas is evidence that even in age when pro club’s academies cast scouting nets far and wide across the country, it’s possible for a talented kid to be overlooked - but then to make it pro anyway. 

Jordan signed his first full-time pro contract last year, at Cheltenham at the age of 23. 

We discuss Jordan’s journey through non league and the upcoming coaching camps he’s putting on with Elite Soccer Stars in North Leigh, Oxfordshire: 

https://www.elitesoccerstars.com

*****

Chief Sponsor: Bang & Olufsen Cheltenham: https://stores.bang-olufsen.com/en/united-kingdom/cheltenham/unit-15-the-courtyard-montpellier-street

Info on Sponsor Offerings: For 15% off Herring Shoes enter the code SPORTANDLIFE at checkout at - 

https://www.herringshoes.co.uk

For 30% off Cytoplan supplements for your first purchase at https://www.cytoplan.co.uk and a 10% discount ongoing: Check out the intro to the podcast.