VALDCAST

What’s really changed in high performance over the last 20 years?

In this episode of VALDCAST, Mark Fitzgerald shares lessons from decades in elite sport — from early days with minimal data to today’s tech-driven environments.

He dives into:

• Why coaching intuition still matters (and how tech should support it)
• Managing athlete relationships and “owning the room”
• Making better decisions with both objective and subjective data
• Building trust so athletes actually buy in
• Why your real value as a coach goes far beyond programming

This conversation is a must-watch for coaches, practitioners and sports scientists looking to evolve with the industry, without losing what matters most.

In this episode of #VALDCAST, host Dylan sits down with Jess Ellis — founder of Rehab Code and former NBA health and performance director — to challenge some of the most common assumptions in modern rehab.

From structure and function in elite athletes, jump testing and pathomechanics, Jess discusses the topics in rehab and performance that many often shy away from. 

In this conversation, Jess reflects on mentorship, the dangers of rigid systems and how clinicians can avoid getting trapped in their own schools of thought. If you’re navigating return-to-play decisions, blending rehab with performance or trying to sharpen your clinical reasoning, this episode is for you."

In this episode of #VALDCAST, our host Ryan sits down with Dr. Marc Lewis — Director of Applied Sports Science for the Houston Texans and co‑founder of the Sport Science Network — to unpack what it really takes to build and run a high-performance system in the NFL.

Shaped by his military background, Marc shares how systems based thinking underpins everything from in‑season decision‑making to long‑term performance strategy in the NFL. Together they explore how to manage the chaos of a season, individualise care across vastly different positional demands and build monitoring systems that athletes actually buy into.

The conversation dives deep into jump and isometric focused test selection, how to interpret meaningful change (beyond asymmetry percentages), why CMJ's remain the cornerstone of in‑season monitoring and how both objective and subjective data must be tied directly to intervention. Marc also outlines his four‑construct athlete monitoring framework — a scalable system that works at any level, with any resources. 

If you’re a practitioner looking to build better systems, improve athlete compliance and turn data into meaningful action, this episode is for you.

In this BONUS episode of VALDCAST, Ryan sits down with physio, biomechanist and researcher Dr. Chris Bramah to explore how practitioners can better profile and prepare athletes for HYROX.

Chris breaks down the unique demands of the sport, highlighting why running remains the central performance driver and how factors like plantar flexor strength, tendon stiffness and reactive qualities underpin performance and recovery between stations. He shares practical insights into profiling the HYROX athlete, focusing on the often overlooked qualities that separate good performers from great ones.

The conversation also explores injury risk reduction and building robust athletes, alongside a deep dive into Chris’ Sprint Mechanics Assessment Score (SMAS) and its real-world applications to date.

A practical, insight-driven episode focused on identifying the “big rocks” that truly move performance forward.

In this episode of VALDCAST, our host Ryan sits down with biomechanist and Griffith University researcher, Tyler Collings, to break down one of the most common and most misunderstood topics in sports technology: validity and reliability.

Tyler explains what these terms actually mean in practice, why they’re often confused and how human variability, testing protocols and “gold standards” influence the data practitioners rely on every day. The conversation unpacks common misconceptions in validation research, how to interpret reliability and validity papers and what practitioners should really be looking for when assessing performance and rehab technology.

They also dive into Tyler’s work validating field-based tools like force plates and strength testing devices, the importance of transparency in research and how laboratory findings translate into real-world performance and rehab settings.

In this episode of VALDCAST, Dylan sits down with physical therapist and Impact Sports Physical Therapy founder Bobby Esbrandt to unpack what it really means to assess, treat and develop athletes beyond a single metric.

 Bobby shares why relying solely on the countermovement jump can leave critical gaps in decision-making, and how building a complete athlete profile — spanning strength, power, rate of force development and reactive qualities — leads to better outcomes, particularly in post-op and ACL rehabilitation. The conversation also explores integrating technology into clinical practice, maintaining continuity of care across multiple clinics and balancing business growth with hands-on clinical excellence.

If you’re a physio, S&C coach or clinician looking to move past surface-level testing, improve athlete buy-in and deliver higher-quality, data-informed rehab, this episode is for you.

In this episode of VALDCAST, Ryan sits down with Taylor Evernden, coach and Co-Founder of ORKA Performance, to explore what truly effective return-to-performance looks like when rehab, performance and people are fully aligned.

Taylor shares how ORKA has built a collaborative model that moves athletes seamlessly from acute rehab into performance — balancing objective data, subjective feedback and the human side of coaching. The conversation spans RTP evolution, criteria-based transitions, communication breakdowns and how technology like force plates and strength testing fits across the entire athlete journey.

They also dive into scaling a performance business, building culture across multiple locations, onboarding staff and why relationships, trust and critical thinking still matter more than any tool.

If you’re a physio, S&C coach or clinic owner interested in RTP pathways, integrated care models, performance testing, or scaling without losing culture, this episode is for you.

In this episode of VALDCAST, Dylan sits down with physical therapist at New York City Football Club, Hannah Marchant, to unpack one of the most challenging cases in knee rehabilitation: medial patellofemoral ligament (MPFL) reconstruction, recurrent patellar instability and complex cartilage lesions in a Division I-bound football athlete.

Hannah walks us through the full journey — from baseline testing and load management to force plate assessments, athlete decision-making, asymmetry debates and what happens when setbacks hit. She shares how she blended evidence, technology, surgical constraints and clinical reasoning to guide her ultimate return-to-sport decision.

If you’re a physio, S&C coach or clinician navigating post-op knees, complex cases or high-performance environments, this conversation on practical problem-solving and data-informed rehab is for you. 

In this episode of the VALDCAST, our host Ryan sits down with the co-founder of ForceDecks Dr. Daniel Cohen — sports scientist, researcher and long-time leader in force plate methodology. Together they unpack one of the most important (and misunderstood) areas in athlete assessment: what force plate data actually means.

Dan breaks down the insights behind VALD's 2024-25 Premier League Report, including which CMJ metrics truly discriminate elite from sub-elite, why “fatigue monitoring” misses the point and how practitioners can think more clearly about profiling vs monitoring — all through the lens of real-world data.

He also dives into asymmetry (and why the 10% rule doesn’t cut it), the rise of single-leg jumps and the one thing every practitioner must master before worrying about metrics: data hygiene.

In this episode of VALDCAST, our host Dylan sits down with Physiotherapist and ORKA Performance Co-Founder Travis Gaudet to unpack what meaningful technology integration looks like at a company level. 

Travis breaks down the growth of ORKA’s clinical and educational arms and explains how technology became a central driver in that evolution. 

We cover: 

✅ How to create cohesion in testing processes across multiple clinics

✅ How data can open conversations with patients during rehabilitation

✅ What defines a ‘mid-stage’ ACL athlete

✅ The need for criteria to inform transitions between stages during rehabilitation

With extensive experience using VALD systems, Travis blends advanced assessment and intervention tools with a sharp coaching eye, allowing him to capture better information and guide athletes more effectively through ACL rehabilitation. 

Whether you're a coach, physio, sports scientist or an athlete obsessed with improvement, this conversation gives you practical examples that dive deeper than a single metric or test, and inform what data can do to transform your practice.