The Ben Ryan Podcast

Tom Mitchell, Olympic Silver Medallist and England and Team GB Rugby Sevens Captain at both the Rio and Tokyo Olympic Games is this week's guest.

It really was a great conversation and having originally given Tom his international debut when I coached him with England, we had well over a decade of collective experiences to unravel and explore.

Recorded during a sunny walk through Richmond Park in South London, Tom talks about his return from the Tokyo Olympics and missing out on a medal after claiming silver in Rio five years earlier, Injuries, disappointments and more. We really get stuck into his leadership and the style he prefers both giving and receiving as well as tools he uses to stay present and be as authentic as he can, but we started with his views on mindfullness after he posted a series of stories about the subject on Instagram.

More About Tom Mitchell

England Rugby - https://www.englandrugby.com/england/sevens-men/squad/tom-mitchell

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/trmitchell/?hl=en

Twitter - https://twitter.com/tbobbymitchell?lang=en

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-mitchell-b43122a5/?originalSubdomain=uk

Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mitchell_(rugby_union,_born_1989)

Show Notes - benryan.co.uk/podcasts

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As a cricketer, Jeremy Snape achieved international honours with England as well as captaining county side Leicestershire, but it’s perhaps for his work in sports performance that he’s best known for these days. Post playing career Jeremy founded Sporting Edge, a company specialising in inspiring individuals, leaders and teams to deliver their best and this was the crux of the conversation when we met.

Jeremy was great company and his wealth of experience energised the conversation. We had a fascinating chat covering so many topics within performance, narrowing in on the mental side, through to the performance of teams, athletes and managing Mavericks, but we started by talking about selflessness and as the perfect example, a group called the ‘Rivonia 8’ the name given to those that were sentenced alongside Nelson Mandela, to serve a large part of their lives in prison on Robben Island.

More About Jeremy Snape

Website - https://www.sportingedge.com/team-jeremy-snape.html

Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Snape

Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/inside-the-mind-of-champions/id1498626216

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jeremy.snape/?hl=en

Twitter - https://twitter.com/thesportingedge?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremysnape/?originalSubdomain=uk

Show Notes - benryan.co.uk/podcasts

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Joe De Sena is a force of nature. I first became aware of Joe through podcasts like The Tim Ferris Show and Rich Roll and decided to reach out. Joe's story on those podcasts was one of starting out with very little and how a drive to change 100 million people’s lives pushed him on to found Spartan, which now has over 250 races in over forty two countries and with his recent acquisition of Tough Mudder, those stats are only going up.

We only scratch the surface in this episode around his early years and his pool cleaning business where his first clients were mob bosses and I’d advise you to check out the aforementioned podcasts for more details on that part of his life, but in this conversation we focus on mindset, different ways to train, breaking bad habits and even the reasons behind why he ran up Scottish glens with weights and a bag-piper trailing behind him!

We start though with with a story about Fiji and his first encounter with rugby, probably why one of the world’s busiest and energetic people agreed to have this fantastic chat.

More About Joe De Sena

Joe’s Website - https://joedesena.com/

Spartan Website - https://www.spartan.com/

Instagram - @realjoedesena

Twitter - @realjoedesena

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephdesena/

Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/spartan-up-a-spartan-race-for-the-mind/id952870930

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qec2tjde6s

10 Rules For Resilience Book - https://amzn.to/2VpNY9Z

Spartan Up Book - https://amzn.to/2VpeMXv

Spartan Fit Book - https://amzn.to/3fvsCif

The Spartan Way Book - https://amzn.to/3lJrjjR

Show Notes - benryan.co.uk/podcasts

Listen & Subscribe to The Ben Ryan Podcast:

Ben’s Website - http://benryan.co.uk/bio/

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As a heptathlete, Kelly Sotherton had huge success. A triple Olympic medalist, Commonwealth Games gold medalist and with European and world medals. But some of her medals came years and years after she actually competed as the result of some of her opponents failing drug tests retrospectively. We talk about that and her next chapters now, as a coach, as a team leader for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Kelly doesn’t hold back and I find that so refreshing. She says what she thinks and it comes from a place of wanting her sport to be in a better place and I think everyone listening to this will get some great nuggets to take away as well as just enjoy her humour, her storytelling and her wisdom. We start with Kelly telling me how she swapped her coach, bringing in the formidable dutch mentor Charles van Commenee a year before the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

More About Kelly Sotherton

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kellysotherton/?hl=en

Twitter - https://twitter.com/KellySotherton?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-sotherton-mbe-ba412433/?originalSubdomain=uk

Show Notes - benryan.co.uk/podcasts

Listen & Subscribe to The Ben Ryan Podcast:

Ben’s Website - http://benryan.co.uk/bio/

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-ben-ryan-podcast/id1553400216

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Former Fiji sevens captain and my great friend, Osea Kolinisau, or Oscar, as he is known in rugby, is this week's star guest.

Flag bearer for Fiji at the Rio Olympics, when Fiji won their countries first ever Olympic gold medal, he’s one of the most successful sevens players in the history of the game.

Our relationship was more than just coach and captain. He helped navigate me in my early days in the pacific and we relied on each other on and off the training field. We really dig into that relationship between coach and player and trust and belonging are wrapped up in all of that.

Towards the end of our conversation you’ll hear Sonny, Oscar’s young son in the background, which re-inforced what we had spoken about earlier in the podcast about the importance of family and we begin in a similar vein with Osea telling me how a crucial moment happened early in career that really defined everything that followed.

More About Osea Kolinisau

Olympic website - https://olympics.com/en/athletes/osea-kolinisau

Instagram - @osea_kolinisau

Twitter - @oseakolinisau

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/osea.kolinisau.5

Show Notes - benryan.co.uk/podcasts

Listen & Subscribe to The Ben Ryan Podcast:

Ben’s Website - http://benryan.co.uk/bio/

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-ben-ryan-podcast/id1553400216

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Owen Eastwood is a performance consultant who’s book ‘Belonging’ I devoured recently. Topping the charts in his native New Zealand, it’s crammed full of story-telling and take-home messages. I would read a few pages, then reflect on my own work and career and drift off into thought and feelings. It’s such a good read.

Owen has worked with some of the very best teams and organisations both in the UK and abroad. Of Maori descent, that’s also a driver that’s fuelled his thinking around purpose, leadership, role models, success and much more. For the last five years he’s been a consultant to Gareth Southgate’s England team as well as recently consulting with the new Premiership Rugby Champions, Harlequins and thee are stories about those teams as well as many more examples along the way.

I drove across to his offices in the Cotswolds really excited for the conversation I was going to have. The book gave me plenty of starting points, but also through conversations we've had previously, I knew this would be a really rich and thought provoking chat. As the title of his book, we started our chat around belonging, something that he wraps a lot of his work around.

More About Owen Eastwood:

Book - https://amzn.to/2UsY7SM

Twitter - https://twitter.com/oweneastwood?lang=en

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/owen-eastwood-4867a39/?originalSubdomain=uk

Show Notes - benryan.co.uk/podcasts

Listen & Subscribe to The Ben Ryan Podcast:

Ben’s Website - http://benryan.co.uk/bio/

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-ben-ryan-podcast/id1553400216

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3iUL1eLA7HFKt5gxO7Uf4j?si=oN9YN6uFRSSGbO6kR01ONQ

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Ex-International Rower Cath Bishop won World Titles and has been to three Olympics including the 2004 games in Athens where she won a silver, but results are not what she would like to be judged or defined by. In fact, just starting her introduction as “ex-international rower” already wrongly labels what she is about. In her terrific book, The Long Win, Cath looks at winning from a longer term view and this conversation opens up many questions around what really defines success.

Cath’s three C’s of Clarity, Constant Learning and Connection form some of the framework around our chat, but also her experiences as an athlete in a high performance programme and in her career as a diplomat, working in conflict affected parts of the world.

Is it all about coming first, winning that gold, delivering that tournament title or should we be putting far more emphasis and understanding around the longer term? We chatted in Cath’s garden on a beautiful blue-skied day and opened it all up with Cath posing me the first question around re-framing a gold medal.

More About Cath Bishop

Website - https://cathbishop.com/

Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Long-Win-search-better-succeed-ebook/dp/B08FH7S4BQ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=The+long+Win&qid=1626189580&sr=8-1

Twitter - @thecathbishop

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cath-bishop-a0029847/?originalSubdomain=uk

Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Bishop_(rower)

Show Notes - benryan.co.uk/podcasts

Listen & Subscribe to The Ben Ryan Podcast:

Ben’s Website - http://benryan.co.uk/bio/

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-ben-ryan-podcast/id1553400216

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Series 2 kicks off with Olympian and former world champion athlete, Liz McColgan.

Liz had a glittering career in athletics on both the track, in the 10,000m and the road, in the marathon. On top of world titles, she’s also a double olympian, double commonwealth champion and multiple marathon winner. In fact her story around her debut marathon, coming straight off a track season with no Marathon training to go out and win the New York marathon is a must listen coming up.

From her early days growing up and the hurdles she overcame to succeed, to her coaching herself in her crowning achievements and training in a sauna in Scotland is all on its way! We also talk drug use in sport and the grey areas around technology creeping in as well. She is now a coach to others, including her daughter Eilish, a world class athlete too and on her way to the Tokyo Olympics as we speak.

It’s a great listen and we start with her own origin story and those first experiences of competitive running.

More about Liz McColgan:

Twitter - https://twitter.com/Lizmccolgan?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lizmccolgan/?hl=en

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-mccolgan-0364b321/

Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz_McColgan

Show notes - https://benryan.co.uk/podcast/

Listen & Subscribe to The Ben Ryan Podcast:

Ben’s Website - http://benryan.co.uk/bio/

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-ben-ryan-podcast/id1553400216

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3iUL1eLA7HFKt5gxO7Uf4j?si=oN9YN6uFRSSGbO6kR01ONQ

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Listen & Subscribe to The Ben Ryan Podcast:

Ben’s Website - http://benryan.co.uk/bio/

Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-ben-ryan-podcast/id1553400216

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As part of their discussion, which will be aired in full as part of series 2 of the Ben Ryan Podcast, Ben sat down with former heptathlete Kelly Sotherton and the chat soon turned to athletes relationship with the press and in particular, thoughts after Naomi Osaka withdrew from Roland Garros citing mental health issues and the pressure of dealing with press conferences after matches.