On the latest episode, we discuss the loan transition in football with Dr Sofie Kent. Sofie is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology and the perfect person to talk about this topic, having published her own research on coping with the loan transition in professional association football in 2022.

For young players at the beginning of their professional career, going out on loan is a likely option. For some, this transition be pretty daunting; a completely new environment, in a new place, with new demands. Sofie breaks her research down to help players, staff and organisations understand the demands of going out on loan and how it can best be managed to support the well-being and performance of the player.

Thank you to Sofie for coming on! Click below to learn more about Sofie and her research

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofie-kent-ba2a3289/

Talking Points

1. Intro and welcome to episode (00:00)

2. Sofie's journey in sport (3:58)

3. 'Mental strength' (14:18)

4. Psychologist in a football academy (19:50)

5. The loan transition in football (36:40)

6. Main stressors for athletes on loan (46:15)

7. Recommendations from research (51:30)

8. 'Loan' focused roles in football (59:00)

9. Closing thoughts (1:05:00)

On this episode, we draw from the expertise of the wonderful Dr Fleur - Michelle Coiffait. Fleur is a Clinical Psychologist working across the lifespan, meaning she works with young children all the way up to adults. Dr Coiffait specialises in supporting individuals with neurodivergence, such as ADHD and Autism. She has also worked as a Clinical Psychologist within a Premier League Academy, and supported several others in the sporting context, including athletes, coaches and Sport Psychologist's to better understand clinical issues in sport.

As Sport Psychologist's working with athletes, there are issues that arise that lie outside of our areas of expertise. That's why it is crucial that we understand the role of a Clinical Psychologist and how we can utilise their expertise to best support the athlete. On the episode we discuss what the input of a Clinical Psychologist looks like in a football academy, when Sport Psychologist's may look to refer on to clinical support why it's important to be interested in other areas of psychology, plus much more!

We hope that this episode helps our listeners to differentiate between the role of a Sport Psychologist and Clinical Psychologist and conveys the importance of seeking other input.

We're grateful to finally get Fleur on the pod. Thanks for coming on Fleur!

Connect with Fleur at the below links:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drfleurmichelle?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fmcoiffait/

Talking Points

1. Intro and Welcome to Episode (00:00)

2. Getting into Clinical Psychology (4:10)

3.. Supporting Young Players (21:25)

4. When to Refer to Clinical Psych (34:30)

5. Working with Sport Psychs (51:00)

6. Closing Thoughts (1:03:30)

On today's episode we have a deep conversation about the power of human emotion with Emotional Intelligence (EI) Coach Nick Atzeni.

It's obvious throughout this episode that Nick's philosophy and approach to practice aligns very much with ours. Nick's beliefs however stem from quite a different place. Coming from a business background, Nick has owned many of his own business at home in Italy, in Cameroon and London. He has worked with a vast range of high performance professionals, including entrepreneurs, landscapers, physiotherapists and of course, footballers and athletes!

Nick's supports individuals to increase their emotional intelligence. He breaks emotional intelligence down into 3 clear points and shows us how he considers these through reference to a real life case study.

Increasing self - awareness on the emotions you are experiencing can help you to make sense of them. This then gives you more control around how you respond to them, promoting the chances of positive behaviour change to improve quality of life and performance. We hope this is the episode that sparks curiosity in the emotions you experience!

Thank you to Nick for coming. We got a lot of from this epsiode.

Please leave us a review if you enjoyed.

Find out more about Nick:

Website: https://nickatzeni.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-atzeni-538990a7/

Talking Points

1. Intro and Welcome to episode (00:00)

2. Nick's Journey (3:52)

3. What is EI? (6:29)

4. Individual Differences in EI (11:30)

5. Supporting Athletes with EI (15:50)

6. Questionnaires to Develop EI (27:01)

7. Case Study (36:15)

8. The Struggle to Identify Emotions (52:00)

9. Closing Thoughts (1:05:40)

On our first episode of season 5 we bring you one of our strongest episodes to date, as we have our minds well and truly blown by ACT expert Trevor Jones.

As a professional golfer, Trevor is someone who has lived experience of the demands of elite sport as an athlete. Since a lightbulb moment in competition, Trevor has lived and breathed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in all areas of his life. Since then he has pursued a career as a Mental Performance Coach. Currently working under the AWARE Performance Group, Trev has shown thousands of people (including both of your co-hosts) the power of ACT, allowing them to be in contact with what matters most to them.

Today we cover athletic identity, something that we've spoken about loads on the podcast. This season, we wanted to cover it slightly differently than we have before. This episode is experiential in nature and to get the most out of it we'd encourage you (if possible) to engage in all the exercises and prompts that Trevor offers, as we did!

We are delighted with this episode and extremely thankful to Trevor for coming on and doing his thing - he's pretty good at it after all.

Please let us know what you think of this episode and give us 5 stars if you enjoyed it.

Trevor is currently writing a book on the yips, keep up to date with this and much more on his socials:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-jones-036857110/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trevorjones_aware?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

1. Intro and Welcome to Episode (00:00)

2. Trevor's Lightbulb Moment (7:45)

3. Pairing Identity with Performance (25:20)

4. Perspective Taking and Identity (32:00)

5. Persona or 'Mask' (46:35)

6. Donut SAC Exercise (56:00)

7. Values (1:13:00)

8. Closing thoughts (1:20:00)

SEASON 5 COMING MONDAY 19TH MAY

The Young Player Wellbeing Podcast is back!!

It's been a while, we are sorry we left you. We've been working hard behind the scenes to bring you another season of your favourite sport psychology podcast.

This season we are going to be focusing on 'hot topics' in the world of sport and well-being. These are topics that we find come up most often on the podcast, but also in our work with players, coaches and parents. No spoilers here, listen to this trailer to find out what these topics might be.

After 70+ episodes our confidence in recording these episodes has grown, which is why this season we've moved to a slightly more conversational way of recording. After all, you've got to be psychologically flexible to deal with whatever shows up.

Join us for season 5 of The Young Player Wellbeing Podcast. We hope you enjoy!

On this episode we pick the brains of Dr James Newman. James is a senior lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Sheffield Hallam University. He is also a HCPC registered Sport and Exercise Psychologist and Associate Fellow and Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society (BPS).

James’ area of expertise is bullying, banter and whistleblowing in elite sport, having conducted several research projects on this across various sports. One sport James has focused a lot on is football. Working in academy football, we (Brad and Toni) have first-hand experience of the ‘bullying and banter’ culture. Rolling back the years, we’ve even been part of environments as athletes, where bullying and banter takes place. 

Join us as we discuss the fine line between bullying and banter in the sporting environment, whist offering up some solutions that organisations and those in positions power can consider to ensure that this balance is managed effectively.

Thanks to James for coming on!

Talking Points

1. Intro and welcome to episode (00:00)

2. James’ journey in sport (3:52)

3. Being captivated with research (9:14)

4. Working with the media (14:23)

5. ‘Bullying and banter’ in sport (18:29)

6. Systemic changes that address bullying and banter (28:53)

7. Organisational changes (38:14)

8. Should we punish bullies? (49:25)

9. Applied work vs research (58:08)

10. Closing thoughts (1:02:35)

Connect with James on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-newman-14610050/

Visit here for more information around his research publishings: https://www.shu.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-profiles/james-newman#firstSection

On this episode we speak to Neil - Addington - Lefringhausen. A man who has plenty of experience integrating psychology in Scottish Football, spending 4.5 years as the academy psychologist at Celtic FC. As psychologists working in Scottish football, we take the opportunity to learn from Neil's experiences and consider the implications for our work but also for others supporting young athletes.

Working as a sport psychologist in any team environment can be daunting. We're thankful to Neil for being open on the challenges he experienced but also offering solutions. This includes discussion around fitting in to the environment as a psychologist, 'undercover' psychology with U9's, using ACT in academy football, the importance of coach buy - in and much more.

Currently, Neil works as a Sport Psychologist at the Scottish Institute of Sport, supporting athletes at an individual and team level across various sports. We also discuss this role and draw out the key differences and skills required compared to his time at Celtic.

Thanks to Neil for coming on!

Connect with Neil on LinkedIn:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-addington-lefringhausen-28907b61/

Talking Points

1. Intro and welcome to episode (00:00)

2. Neil's journey in sport (3:20)

3. Academy psychologist at Celtic FC (10:25)

4. Immersed in the environment as a psych (20:22)

5. Engaging U9's - U18's (27:02)

6. Challenges with coach education (33:28)

7. Using ACT 'in the moment' (45:45)

8. Support wellbeing of players and staff (55:12)

9. Psychology in player development plans (1:04:13)

10. Sport Psychologist at the SIS (1:13:59)

11. Closing thoughts (1:18:08)

On our latest episode we speak to the brilliant Marketa Simova. Marketa is a Performance Lifestyle Practitioner at the UK Sport Institute. As part of her role, Marketa supports the wellbeing of Olympic level athletes in swimming and diving, most of whom competed at Paris 2024. We spoke to Marketa fresh off the back of the games (3 days to be exact) to deepen our understanding of performance lifestyle and the detail of support that is put in place to support the wellbeing of Olympians.

There is a bit of a blur around the difference between performance lifestyle and sport psychology. On the episode we sought Marketa's knowledge and experience to explore this in more detail. In doing so, we get a border picture of how an MDT operates in a high performance context. Other highlights include Marketa sharing the implications of her PhD research and the consequences of a toxic performance environment.

This acts as the second episode of season 4 that was recorded in the Leeds Trinity University podcast studio. Thanks to LTU as always for having us down and to Marketa for chatting with us.

Find out more about Marketa via the following links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marketa-simova-592438184/

Talking Points

1. Intro and welcome to episode (00:00)

2. Marketa's journey in sport (3:51)

3. The difference between performance lifestyle and sport psychology (11:03)

4. Mini case study (25:15)

5. 6 pillars of support as a PL (37:18)

6. Toxicity from media in sport (43:22)

7. Wellbeing of high performance coaches (45:49)

8. Toxic performance environments (52:49)

9. Closing thoughts (1:15:12)

On this episode we speak to the inspiration that is David Smith MBE. Without chatting to David, you'll likely know him as an athlete and for his triumphant gold medal win at the London 2012 Paralympic games in para - rowing. Chat or listen to him and you'll quickly learn he is so much more. David's story is massively influenced by his life changing health challenges. In 2009, in a routine check, a tumour was discovered growing in David's spinal cord.

At the point of recording David has went through 7 spinal surgeries. He was forced to retire from competitive sport in 2016 when he was paralysed from the neck down during surgery. He has faced death more than most human beings and experienced massive physical and mental changes to who he was once as an athlete. On numerous occasions he could've thrown towel in, but David finds himself in round 14 of the fight and going nowhere.

On this episode David shares various experiences and skills that reveal how he has coped with his challenges. This includes seeking support in the form of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and living this in his day - to - day life. It involves drawing on psychological skills taught from sport (e.g. resilience, discipline) and importantly surrounding himself with the people that matter most to him. On a rollercoaster of a journey, David now finds himself on the Young Player Wellbeing Podcast - inspiring us and hopefully all of our listeners.

Thank you David.

David's details below. Please connect with him!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidsmithmbe/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-smith-mbe-108a0719/

Talking Points

1. Intro and welcome to episode (00:00)

2. David's unique intro (4:38)

3. David's journey in sport (11:46)

4. Emergency surgery and it's impact (26:09)

5. Sport as an escape (46:47)

6. A conveyor belt of athletes (58:53)

7. Closing thoughts (1:19:12)

On today's episode we pick the brains of the brilliant Gordon MacLelland. Gordon is the CEO and founder of 'Working with Parents in Sport', and the parent to sporty kids of his own, making him the perfect guest to address a topic we've been keen to explore for a while. 

In sport, it can be quick to overlook parents as we are so focused on supporting the athletes. There might also be a bit of anxiousness around working with parents, but the importance of parents in sport can't be overstated. Without them, sport simply can't happen. 

The roles and responsibilities of the sporting parent are stressful; driving hours to training / matches, buying kit and paying fees, the car ride home, balancing priorities. If we want to have a positive influence on young athletes, then we need to support parents with the issues they face, which undoubtedly has a knock on effect.

We discuss the pros and cons of running social media accounts for child athletes, the car ride home, shifting culture to influence parent support, an athlete centred approach to supporting parents, how Gordon manages being a sporting parent himself + much more.

We hope our discussion with Gordon is useful for parents and provides them with information that helps them to support their child in sport. We also hope that it provides a different perspective for working with parents in sport for coaches and support staff.

Visit Gordon's website to learn more and access his services: https://www.parentsinsport.co.uk/author/wwpisadm01/

Follow WWPIS on Twitter: https://x.com/_WWPIS

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/workingwithparentsinsport?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/@wwpis

Connect with Gordon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gordon-maclelland-0bb4b0143/?originalSubdomain=uk

Talking Points

1. Intro and welcome to episode (00:00)

2. Gordon's experience in sport growing up (4:07)

3. Personal experiences influencing career path (6:36)

4. 'The Athletic Triangle' (15:28)

5. Common areas of parent support (28:32)

6. Parents running social media account for kids (43:48)

7. Success stories (53:44)

8. Being a sporting parent himself (59:58)

9. Closing thoughts (1:08:52)