In this episode I’m joined by Dr Alison Maitland and Jenna Ashford to talk about their new book “Drop the Struggle: A Transformative Approach to Achieving Your Potential in Sport and Life”.

Alison is a widely recognised and experienced HCPC 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. Alison has helped elite athletes achieve World Championship titles and Olympic success.

Jenna is a Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist and Performance Consultant, working with top athletes, CEO's at global companies and within sectors including education and healthcare. Jenna is also a passionate sportswoman and represented England Hockey and played in premier league teams all over the world.

Their book, “Drop the Struggle” is based on scientifically proven techniques from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and takes a radically new look at the mental side of reaching your potential in sport. It has been written for athletes, coaches and anyone wanting to achieve more and provides a practical kitbag of ways to succeed. It will teach you a sustainable way of dealing with difficult thoughts, managing your emotions and harnessing them to help you perform to the best of your ability.

In this episode I’m joined by Dr James Munnik and Prof Leon Van Niekerk.

James is a Counselling Psychology Lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. James has worked with a number of athletes in his own private practice as a high performance mental coach in psychotherapy and counselling. He has special interests in sport/exercise psychology research and Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy (REBT) theory and practice.

Leon is a Professor of Psychology at University of Fort Hare in South Africa. He is a registered Counselling Psychologist and has his own psychology consultancy practice where he focuses on the provision of sport psychological services to individual athletes and teams.

Leon’s research interests are in the psychological well-being of athletes. This includes topics such as the development of mental toughness, sport identity and life roles, burnout, stress and anxiety among athletes, the effectiveness of mindfulness during competition, mental health in sport and the psychological health benefits of exercise.

In this episode we discuss a paper entitled “Recommendations for Integrating Psychological Skills Training (PST) into Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy (REBT)” which was led by James and co-written by Dr Martin Turner and Leon.

On this week’s episode I speak to Dr Chris Mesagno. Chris is a sport psychologist, a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Victoria University, and a Research Fellow at the Institute for Health and Sport, Victoria University. 

Chris has over 20 years of research expertise in stress, anxiety, attention and concentration skills and has successfully developed theory-matched interventions to improve performance for highly anxious and “choking-susceptible” athletes. Chris also worked, and continues to work, with numerous athletes from a range of team and individual sports to enhance mental skills for better performance and mental health outcomes.

Chris maintains a robust academic research profile with more than 50 research articles and book chapters and has given various presentations at national and international conferences. This international research profile has been recognised with awards and keynote conference presentations within sport and exercise psychology.

In this episode we focus on a paper led by Dr Peter Gröpel and co-written by Chris entitled “Choking interventions in sports: A systematic review”. The purpose of the paper is to provide an overview of studies that have tested interventions used to alleviate choking. The results of the paper may help athletes and coaches select and implement effective strategies and methods to improve performance under pressure.

In this episode I’m joined by Dr Ella McLoughlin and Dr Rachel Arnold. We discuss a paper that was led by Ella which examines how stressors influence sport performers’ health, well-being, and performance.

Ella is a Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Nottingham Trent University. Her research interests span the topics of lifetime stressor exposure, the enhancement of health, well-being, and performance, and psychophysiological responses to acute stressors among athletes.

Ella is a member of the Sport, Health, and Performance Enhancement (SHAPE) Research Centre. She has published in peer-reviewed journals in the area of stress, health, and performance and has presented her work at national and international conferences.

Rachel is the Academic Director (Doctoral) and a Reader in Sport and Performance Psychology at the University of Bath. Rachel is a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, registered Practitioner Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council, accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist with the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences, Chartered Scientist with The Science Council, and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Rachel’s research looks at how individuals and organisations can optimally manage stress to enable thriving, predominantly in sport but also in high pressure domains. She has published widely in leading peer-reviewed journals on the area of stress, performance, and well-being.

I’m excited to speak with Dr Steve Ingham this week. Steve has spent his career immersed in high performance having provided support to over 1000 athletes, of which over 200 have achieved World or Olympic medal success, including some of the world’s greatest athletes such as Jessica Ennis-Hill, Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent. He also coached Kelly Sotherton to Olympic and World medal winning success. Steve worked at the British Olympic Association as the Sports Science Manager and then English Institute of Sport as the Head of Physiology and then Director of Science and Technical Development where he led a team of 200 scientists in support of Team GB and Paralympics GB. Steve is the host of the brilliant Supporting Champions podcast which explores aspects of human performance. He is also an author, having written the best-selling ‘How to Support a Champion: The art of applying science to the elite athlete’ and ‘The First Hurdle: A guide to searching, applying and interviewing for jobs in sports performance’. Steve is a motivational speaker and consultant on the topic of 'high performance teams', having spoken at Google, McLaren, Elastic, Samsung, Legal and General.

Steve and I discuss his journey as a sport scientist and leader, discussing the challenges he’s experienced along the way and the leadership processes he executed to help develop some of the world’s greatest athletes.

To fill in the industry survey that Steve discusses in the episode please click here: https://www.supportingchampions.co.uk/skills/

I’m joined by Dr Jon Rhodes in this episode. Jon is an Associate Lecturer in Motivational Psychology and Sport Psychology at the University of Plymouth. Jon is also a Chartered Cognitive Psychologist and is co-developer of Functional Imagery Training (FIT) which is a unique approach to behaviour change that uses mental imagery to motivate change. FIT teaches people new ways of thinking about their immediate future to help them stay motivated as they achieve each small step towards their goal.

Jon has written about FIT in his new book “The Choice Point: The Scientifically Proven Method for Achieving Your Goals” co-written with Joanna Grover. The book describes how FIT can help us lengthen our Choice Point: that moment when we say to ourselves, 'Am I going to make the healthy decision, or am I going to choose to take an action that I know will undermine my success?'. Merging mindfulness, motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioural therapy into a user-friendly model, The Choice Point grants us control of the decisions that define us.

I’m delighted to speak to Dr Carla Edwards in this week’s episode. Carla is a psychiatrist whose practice focuses on the treatment of mental illness and psychological struggles in athletes.  

Carla completed her Bachelor of Science and Masters’ degrees in Chemistry at Mount Allison University. While completing her degrees, she also competed on their varsity volleyball team, accumulating such awards as Conference Rookie of the Year and First Team All Star for each of her five years of competition. She was inducted into the Newfoundland and Labrador Sport Hall of Fame in 2015. Carla obtained her medical degree at Memorial University of Newfoundland before completing a psychiatry residency at McMaster University. She has been an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at McMaster University since 2005. 

Carla is President at the International Society for Sports Psychiatry which aims to carry the science and practice of psychiatry to the athletic community, so that all people may enjoy the benefits of healthy participation in sports. The Society develops the field of sports psychiatry and advocates for mental health and wellness in sports.

Carla also holds leadership positions with the Canadian Academy of Sports and Exercise Medicine, Student Athlete Mental Health Initiative, and U SPORTS. Additionally, Carla is involved with the Safe Sport International Athlete Working Group, the Canadian Football League mental health program and the NCAA Mental Health Advisory Group.

Drawing from her extensive experience working with athletes Carla has written a paper entitled “Athlete Maltreatment in Sport” which we discuss in detail.

You can find the paper here: https://www.sportsmed.theclinics.com/article/S0278-5919(23)00068-6/fulltext

I’m delighted to speak to licensed clinical and sport psychologist, Dr Mitch Greene in this week’s episode. Mitch is Adjunct Instructor in Temple University’s College of Public Health. He completed his PhD in clinical psychology and worked in family therapy before moving into sport psychology. He is now the sport psychology consultant to several athletic departments, endurance coaches and national race series. 

Mitch has written a fantastic book from his time both as a sport psychologist and an athlete himself entitled “Courage over Confidence: Managing Mind Chatter and Winning the Mental Game”. In the book, Mitch explodes one of the field’s most common and malicious myths - that confidence is a prerequisite for athletic success. Stating that the evidence shows that most athletes find it nearly impossible to sustain positive thinking when their minds are riddled with mind chatter - that unwelcome, doom and gloom self-conversation that crops up in high-stakes competitions. Chatter-filled athletes will excel in practice but struggle to perform on game day and they will fear the stakes of losing despite having trained to compete at their best. The clear instructions in Courage over Confidence provide guidance for managing mind chatter and a method for “joining forces” with that negative voice rather than battling it. With courage over confidence, good players can learn to become great competitors.

I’m delighted to speak to Dr Billy Low in this week’s episode. Billy is Assistant Professor at the School of Sport and Exercise at Heriot-Watt University. Billy completed his PhD at the University of Essex on the topic of pressure training.

We take a deep dive into pressure training and discuss a fascinating paper Billy led on the subject along with Dr Mike Stoker, Prof Joanne Butt and Prof Ian Maynard entitled “Pressure Training: From Research to Applied Practice”. The purpose of the paper is to guide coaches and sport psychology practitioners in conducting pressure training at both elite and lower levels of sport.

The paper includes steps for conducting pressure training effectively. Based on research and applied practice, the recommendations address how to create pressure and how to establish training environments that are conducive to pressure training. Each recommendation describes a principle that can guide practitioners and coaches as they tailor pressure training to specific sports and levels of competition.

In this episode I’m joined by Dr Brendan SueSee and Dr Shane Pill. We continue the conversation on the spectrum of teaching styles from episode 232.

Shane is one of Australia's leading coach educators and developers, and thought leaders in physical education. He is Associate Professor in Physical Education and Sport at Flinders University. Shane's research is in the fields of sport coaching and physical education curriculum and pedagogy, and education leadership. He has authored over 150 peer reviewed and scholarly articles.

Brendan is a senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education at University of Southern Queensland. His interests are in the Spectrum of Teaching Styles and Physical Education Pedagogy. Prior to lecturing, Brendan was a high school physical education teacher for over 20 years.

Brendan and Shane take us through the Spectrum of Teaching Styles and break each one down as it applies to sports coaches – a topic they have written about in the brilliant book they have co-written called The Spectrum of Sport Coaching Styles.