The Athlete Development Show

"One of the most awkward parts of my sessions is when I say to parents, I’d like you just to turn to one another and practice what you’re going to say to your kids when you get the email saying they’re dropped... because parents don’t want to think about that moment."

This conversation is with Richard Shorter (@nonperfectdad), a conversation architect and non-perfect dad. Richard works with various sports across the UK in professional academy systems, national sporting organisations and schools to help coaches, parents and athletes work more effectively together.

Richard has honours degrees in community and youth studies and theology and has worked with youth in various roles for churches and government agencies.

In this conversation, Richard and I discuss the importance of setting clear family values, building self-awareness, the benefits of investing in yourself for your kids, the importance of good mentorship, and much more.

We also discuss:

• The best questions to ask your kids to support their sporting journey;
• Why learning to control your own emotions on the sideline is crucial and how to do it;
• Why kids need rhythms and routines in life to escape pressure;
• Letting your child set the agenda for conversations;
• The 'adultification' of youth sport;
• Why Richard thinks living vicariously through your kids is a myth;
• The risk of trying too hard to shape your child’s character;
• The need to be more patience with development;
• The benefits of practising important parenting conversations before you have them;
• Nature versus nurture in character development;
• Why home should act as a harbour from an unrelenting sporting environment; and
• Richard’s top advice for every sports parent.

Please enjoy!

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Richard Cheetham (@twowheelprof) is a Senior Fellow in Sports Coaching at the University of Winchester. Before that, he spent three years teaching and coaching in New Zealand. 

Richard was awarded an MBE for his work in Community Education and Sport. He has a strong reputation for creative thinking and innovation within coach education and development and has spent time inside many sporting organisations including Saracens RFC Academy, Fulham Football Club, and more recently, British Triathlon. His research focuses on a holistic approach to coaching.

Is this episode, Richard talks about the 3 years he spent in New Zealand, failure, projection, the art of effective communication, relinquishing the ego, writing pre-mortems, creating healthy partnerships with your athletes, and the challenges of teaching online. 

Please enjoy!

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favourite podcast platform.

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This conversation is with Anna Frost, a mum, a coach, a mentor and a professional mountain, trail and ultra runner, who has raced all over the world.

Since starting out in 2004, Anna has assembled a long list of running achievements, including winning Hardrock, a 100-mile race across the Colorado mountains in the US, two years in a row.

In this conversation, Annas shares her journey from growing up as a small-town girl in Dunedin, New Zealand, to being one of the best ultra-distance runners in the world.

Please say hello to Anna on Instagram here.

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe using your favourite podcast app. I’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps to share the show with more people.

Kia ora!

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This conversation is with Dr Matt Whalan, a partner at Figtree Physiotherapy in the Wollongong area in Australia.

You can find Matt on Twitter @figtreephysio.

Matt also holds a number of practical roles, including Medical and High-performance Manager for the Wollongong Wolves FC and Physiotherapist for the Football Federation of Australia (FFA) National Teams Unit.

Matt earned his PhD in 2020, focused on injury prevention in football, and holds a Masters in Physiotherapy.

In this conversation, Matt and I discuss what he likes to call 'athlete availability'.

Also:

• A different take on reducing injuries in youth sport;
• The importance of psychology when dealing with injury;
• Why Matt spends time framing roles and responsibilities within a team environment;
• Replacing the term 'injury prevention' with better alternatives;
• Using research to create change;
• The missing piece in reducing injuries in youth sport;
• Matt's childhood and playing representative sport;
• Helping youth athletes make difficult decisions;
• Communicating effectively across multiple sporting environments;
• How to help young athletes tolerate training load better during periods of accelerated growth;
• Levelling the playing field for girls to reduce injury;
• Why developing movement skill in kids is so important;
• The importance of delivering a message effectively; and
• Matt's advice for aspiring young athletes.

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe using your favourite podcast app. I’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps to share the show with more people.

Kia ora!

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This conversation is with Dr Katie Cunningham, an Associate Professor of Literacy and English Education at Manhattanville College where she teaches literacy methods, teacher research, and children’s literature courses.

Katie is the author of "Start With Joy: Designing Literacy Learning for Student Happiness" and "Story: Still the Heart of Literacy Learning." She is the co-author of "Literacy Leadership in Changing Schools" as well as "The Classroom Bookshelf", a weekly School Library Journal blog dedicated to children’s and young adult literature.

In this conversation, Katie describes the 7 pillars at the heart of joyful literacy experiences - connection, choice, challenge, play, story, discovery and movement - and we chat about how each pillar transfers beautifully to athlete development.

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe using your favourite podcast app. I’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps to share the show with more people.

Kia ora!

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“The way that the lessons were set up, they were very much around the sharing and the conversation of ideas. So, if I look back now, it was almost like a campfire conversation you would have, you know, when you think about the learning that was shared, before we ever went to formal learning... The things that I fondly remember were those types of sessions of conversation, learning together, working out, failing together.” - Dusty Miller

This conversation in with Dusty Miller, a Performance Mentor at the English Institute of Sport. Dusty also works for England Rugby as a coach developer and spent 26 years in the Royal Navy.

You can say hello to Dusty on Twitter here.

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe using your favourite podcast app. I’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps to share the show with more people.

Kia ora!

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This conversation is with Dr Andrew Hill, a Professor in Sports Psychology at York St John University in the UK.

Andy's main areas of interest are the consequences of perfectionism (an achievement-related personality trait) for athletes, exercisers, and youth sport participants.

Andy holds a PhD in the area and has published in leading journals in sport and exercise psychology, health and general psychology.

In this episode, Andy talks about the rise of perfectionism over the last 25 years, exactly what it is (and what it's not), as well as some of his research and how it is being applied in the real world.

We also cover:

• Helicopter parenting and the inadvertent consequences;
• Measuring perfectionism and the 'perfectionistic climate';
• The relationship between perfectionism and resiliency;
• The role of the coach and the importance of unconditional acceptance;
• The influence of parental behaviour (and genetics) on child perfectionism;
• Andy's view on being a dad and why he's so careful using the word perfect;
• Why there is nothing inherently good about sport and what this means for participation;
• How Andy got involved in sport psychology and studying perfectionism;
• What can be learned from the sports field and applied to other domains and challenging  life circumstances;
• Why being perfectionistic is best studied at the environment level rather than the individual level; and
• The three myths of perfectionism that need addressing.

You can email Andy on [email protected] or say hello to him on Twitter here.

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe using your favourite podcast app. I’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps to share the show with more people.

Kia ora!

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This conversation is with Sam McKenzie, Coaching Content and Learning Lead at the AFL.

Prior to this, Sam was the Junior Coach Development Manager at Auckland Rugby.

In 2019, Sam completed his Master's degree at AUT University focusing on 1st XV rugby players' perceptions of their coaching environment.

In this conversation, Sam provides his well-informed thoughts on the recent media attention (https://bit.ly/3d0Dkde) surrounding the 'commercialisation' of schoolboy rugby in New Zealand.

Find out more about Sam here.

Watch the episode here.

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This conversation in with Michael Jennings, Director of Healthy Body at Athlos Education, where he provides virtual and on-site professional development and support for physical educators.

He is also a certified strength and conditioning specialist.

With a Master’s Degree in both secondary education and exercise physiology, Michael specialises in physical literacy, long term athletic development and the holistic education of all students.

In this conversation, Mike shares his thoughts on what physical education should be for, the value of P.E. in the uncertain times we're living in, his framework for developing students across a wide range of ages, and the big problem we face when we focus our attention on physical fitness.

We also discuss:

• The magic of a holistic learning experience and why we should celebrate the less obvious moments more;
• How our past experiences colour what we believe in today;
• The importance of understanding cognitive development;
• Coaching students with different skills and abilities using the constraints-led approach;
• How Mike thinks about assessing movement;
• Why foundational movement skills are important for more than just organised sport;
• Building quality relationships with kids to increase motivation;
• Barriers to creating trust and why it’s important to walk the talk; and
• Mike’s ultimate vision for P.E. in 5 years time.

You can say hello to Mike on Twitter here.

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe using your favourite podcast app. I’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps to share the show with more people.

Kia ora!

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This conversation in with Dr Paul Read, an accredited strength and conditioning coach and clinical researcher at a specialised Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital in Qatar.

His expertise lies in the assessment strategies of lower limb neuromuscular control and injury risk factors.

Paul has worked with youth, professional and international athletes in a range of sports including football, athletics, fencing and mixed martial arts.

He's also authored numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed papers and presented at conferences across the globe.

In this conversation, Paul provides great insight into the influence of maturation on injury risk factors in youth, the importance of individualised training for optimal development and why you should consider movement variability in your programme prescription.

We also discuss:

• Why plyometric training pre-puberty is a good idea;
• How to integrate movement screening into training and why a more critical approach is required;
• Paul's advice for coaching movement with young athletes of various maturation;
• Playing Academy level football in the UK;
• Paul's love of movement;
• The long-lasting effects of an injury on the way an athlete moves;
• The difficult questions of measuring movement variability and how Paul is starting to tackle it;
• Chaos versus structure in the training environment;
• The importance of working from a set of principles;
• Significant mentors in Paul's research and coaching journey;
• Why getting rid of the term 'injury prevention' might be a good idea; and
• Using technology to enhance your coaching.

You can say hello to Paul on Twitter here.

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe using your favourite podcast app. I’d also encourage you to head over to iTunes and give the show a rating as it helps to share the show with more people.

Kia ora!

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Support the show