The Athlete Development Show

“What we identified was that is was the relatively younger players and later-maturing individuals who were actually more successful at getting League Super appearances.”  

- Professor Kevin Till

In this episode, I chat with Kevin Till, a Professor in the Carnegie School of Sport at Leeds Beckett University.

His expertise lies in athletic development, strength and conditioning, coaching and sport science.

In our conversation, Kevin shares stories and insight from his PhD and coaching work in youth rugby league and union, including how relative age and biological maturation influences talent identification and development.

We also discuss:

• The physical and psycho-social impacts of youth sports programmes;
• Why late-maturing may have an advantage when it comes to making the elite-level of performance;
• The RAMPAGE programme Kevin developed to help community coaches better plan sessions to improve engagement and athletic development;
• Kevin's childhood and his passion for rugby;
• The need for programmes in youth sport that develop the whole-person in sport and what they could look like; and
• Mixing performance with participation.

Please say hello to Kevin on Twitter @ktconditioning

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Kia ora!

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This conversation in with Chris Juneau, a Qualified Physiotherapist and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) who has worked with athletes from junior to the professional level.

Chris is currently completing a Masters of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Science at AUT University in Auckland, New Zealand.

You can find Chris @Chris_Juneau3 on Twitter or at 'In Good Hands Physiotherapy' in Browns Bay.

In this conversation, Chris and I talk specifically about managing injuries in youth baseball, including why kids are getting hurt and what needs to happen both to reduce the risks and for successful rehabilitation.

We also discuss:

• Why he moved from the US to study in New Zealand;
• Chris's thoughts on current healthcare literacy and why a move to empowering athletes to take more responsibility is important for better outcomes;
• Using scaffolding to enhance learning with youth athletes;
• Showing empathy;
• The merging of the physiotherapy and strength & conditioning industries;
• The role of parents when their kids get hurt;
• The physics of baseball pitching and why strength matters when it comes to preventing injury;
• The problem with over-scheduling in youth sport;
• How movement diversification reduces risk; and
• Why fun must stay a big part of the injury rehabilitation process for kids.

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

Thanks so much for listening!

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This conversation is with Dr Joe Eisenmann, a translator of scientific knowledge working ‘in the trenches’ with youth athletes and their coaches every day.  

He is also a scholar in paediatric sports science.  

Joe has a diverse skill set that includes exercise physiology, human growth and maturation, epidemiology, talent identification, data science and strength and conditioning. 

Now a visiting Professor of Leeds Beckett University in the UK, Joe completed his doctoral research at Michigan State University in the US and his Master's degree at Northern Arizona. 

In this episode, we discuss the ins and outs of knowledge translation and why Joe believes is it so important. 

Joe has spent time in LTAD environments across the world and I wanted to really understand what it takes to deliver a quality experience.  

We also discuss:

• COVID-19, unstructured play, and the future of coaching in youth sport;
• Motivation and mentorship;
• The importance of excellent leadership for creating change;
• What led to Joe falling in love with science;
• Why every youth coach needs to understand growth and maturation;
• The ‘living lab’;
• Joe’s advice for up and coming practitioners; and
• The comment made by one of Joe’s best friends and how it changed his life.

You can find Joe on Twitter @Joe_Eisenmann 

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

Thanks so much for listening!

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“Everyone is a hero in life, everyone's got a story to tell, everyone's had to face and overcome adversity. And on that basis, being kind just seems like an obvious thing to do.” 

This conversation in with Chris Bullen, a leader in coach development at High Performance Sport New Zealand.

Chris has been working in education and sport for 45 years.

In that time, he's provided education for coaches across a wide range of team and individual sports, coached Badminton at the highest level, and taught in a number of schools, including time in the East End of London in the 1970's.

In this conversation, Chris and I go deep into the art of coaching, including;

• Being kind and showing empathy;
• The importance of authenticity in Chris' work;
• How to provide meaningful coach development experiences;
• Testing assumptions;
• Being a purposeful (grand)parent;
• Changing the sporting culture in schools;
• The coach-athlete relationship and the importance of establishing a connection;
• Living your values;
• Being mindful about your behaviours;
• Talent development and how we can spend our time, money and effort wisely;
• The subtly of asking great questions;
• Why change is so hard; and
• The value of attention in a highly distracted world.

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

Thanks so much for listening!

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This conversation is with Dr Micheál Cahill, Vice President of Performance and Sport Science at Athlete Training and Health in the US.

He is also an expert in athletic development.

Originally from Ireland, Micheál has spent time working with hundreds of athletes across a broad range of sports from amateur to professional level.

His doctoral research examines the development of sprinting speed in youth athletes.

In this episode, we discuss the 8-18 year-old programme Micheál founded at ATH.

I wanted to really understand the overall approach they take to developing young athletes, the way they assess progress, and how they think about integrating research into practice.

We also discuss:

• Growing up in Ireland
• The impact of a great coach
• Work ethic
• Creativity
• Obstacles courses and climbing walls
• Speed training
• Growth and maturation
• Strength training
• Parenting

You can find Micheál on Twitter @MCahillPhD.

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

Thanks so much for listening!

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“We’re looking at long-term athlete development, and that requires a lot of patience, coaching and structure to the programme where performance isn’t the end goal. But equally, they also need to cope, if given the opportunity, with first team training, or even playing.” On the show today, I chat with Lead Academy Strength & Conditioning […]

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“If you focus on what’s important to you and your standards, then that’s really the only thing that should matter… finding your own path and how you do it, I think is just so important.” On the show today I chat with international cricketer, Sophie Devine. Sophie made her first class debut for Wellington at […]

The post Ep 78- Sophie Devine – Passion, purpose and playing cricket for New Zealand appeared first on AUT Millennium News.

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“I have a kid who could be a pretty good athlete, but if he gets a 97 on a test, his parents ride him because he didn’t get 100… to the point that he’s so completely stressed that we spend a lot of our time doing things that help him change his mindset, so that […]

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“Relationships are the biggest thing for me. Building relationships and rapport with students is going to create a much more joyful experience for them than probably anything else I can do in my class.” On the show today, I chat with P.E. teacher and PhD student, Peter Verdin. Peter is currently employed as a ‘movement […]

The post EP 76- Peter Verdin – Movement Engineering appeared first on AUT Millennium News.

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ADS 075: Austin Einhorn – Movement Banking “Almost every session, whether the client I’m with is 13 or 36, or if they’re a high school athlete who doesn’t want to play in college or they’re a professional athlete, I start with… ‘Hey, what do you want to do today?'” On the show today, I chat […]

The post Ep 75 – Austin Einhorn – Movement Banking appeared first on AUT Millennium News.

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