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The Sport Psych Show — Amateur
The Sport Psych Show

Join Sport Psychologist, Dan Abrahams, on The Sport Psych Show as he aims to demystify sport psychology for players, coaches and parents by speaking with some of the most influential people in sports performance today. Dan is on a mission to learn more about how sport psychology philosophies, tools and techniques positively impact participation, progression and performance in sport. He wants to learn more about how to drive participation – what motivational tools engage players and inspire people to play and stay in their sport. He wants to explore how players can progress quicker and more effectively – what is great practice and training? And how does learning in sport really happen? Finally, he wants to hear what his guests have to say about the psychology of performance – how do they think players can improve their ability to high perform consistently under pressure? Discover simple and practical tools and techniques by listening in to Dan’s conversations with elite competitors, sports coaches, sport scientists, and psychologists.

Latest Episodes:

#189 Dr Desmond McEwan - Why Teamwork Breaks Down (and Ways to Fix it) May 02, 2022

Show notes

I speak to Dr Desmond McEwan in this week's episode. Desi is a Chartered Psychologist and Assistant Professor at the University of Bath. His research examines the psychology of human health and performance and he has a particular interest in teamwork, group dynamics, team effectiveness, psychological safety, goal setting, and behaviour change.

Desi has written a fascinating paper along with Kaitlin Crawford entitled "Why does teamwork execution breakdown? Experiences of university team sport athletes". We take a deep dive into the paper and discuss the novel findings from the study which extend current knowledge of teamwork and group dysfunction in sport and provide directions for future research on teamwork breakdowns. We also discuss the potential applied implications for coaches and other team leaders related to these findings.

You can find the article here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359073208_Why_does_teamwork_execution_breakdown_Experiences_of_university_team_sport_athletes

#188 Ross Ensor – Implementing a Game Sense Approach Apr 25, 2022

Show notes

I'm delighted to speak to coach, researcher and educator, Ross Ensor in this week's episode. Ross is a PhD researcher in Sports Coaching at Loughborough University. He has experience with grassroots, semi-professional, national and county squads, and as a Foundation Phase coach at Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (where he also worked in the pre-academy and the development centre).

Ross is passionate about creating positive learning environments to support multidisciplinary player development and has a particular interest in games-based approaches to coaching.

We discuss an article he has written about using a game-sense approach to coaching.

#187 Dr Trish Jackman & Rebecca Hawkins - Exploring Motivation: Setting the Right Goals Apr 18, 2022

Show notes

I speak with Dr Trish Jackman and Rebecca Hawkins in this episode. Both Trish and Rebecca are Senior Lecturers in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the University of Lincoln.

Trish's research focuses on optimal experiences in sport and exercise. This work seeks to understand the positive, rewarding experiences that athletes and exercisers have during sport and physical activity to understand how these experiences can be promoted.

Rebecca studies part-time for her PhD alongside her role as a lecturer. Her research is focused on the role of goal setting in physical activity promotion.

We discuss a number of Trish and Rebecca's research papers that cluster around themes such as flow and clutch states, performance under pressure, goal setting, and self-regulation.

You can check out their profiles and papers here:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Patricia-Jackman

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rebecca-Hawkins-8

#186 Dr Brandon Orr - Directing Attention and Being Task-Focused Apr 11, 2022

Show notes

I speak to Dr Brandon Orr in this week's episode. Brandon is a Sport and Performance Psychology Specialist with 20 years' experience coaching, educating, and training individuals and teams in executive-corporate entities, sport and performance domains and Special Operations personnel.

Brandon integrates evidence-based strategies for applied psychology for the purpose of facilitating resilience, optimising sustained high performance, as well as assessment and selection of personnel for leadership aptitude, job fit, personality screening, and talent assessment, acquisition, and development.

Brandon trained under Dr Rick McGuire at The University of Missouri before becoming Director of Sport Psychology at the University of Missouri.

He currently works as Lead Cognitive Performance Specialist for the United States Special Operations Command.

#185 Dr Jerry Lynch - The Way of the Champion Apr 04, 2022

Show notes

I'm delighted to speak to performance, leadership and coaching expert, Dr Jerry Lynch in this week's episode. Jerry has been coaching for an incredible 58 years. Jerry helps people of all ages and abilities in all arenas of performance to develop the qualities of courage, integrity, fearlessness, tenacity, patience, persistence in order to overcome mental and emotional blocks. Using a rather unconventional approach, by combining Eastern Thought, Native American Tradition and western psychology, Jerry helps individuals and teams to create confidence, mental toughness, inspiration and empowerment for competitive events and to better navigate the unchartered waters of life.

Jerry has worked with athletes and teams at universities such as The University of North Carolina, Duke, Maryland, Oregon State, Stanford, Harvard, Middlebury, Syracuse, UConn, Washington, Iowa, New Mexico and more.

Jerry has conducted countless seminars and workshops talking about what it takes to be a champion. He is also the author of 15 books, including his upcoming book Everyday Champion Wisdom (out soon).

#184 Dr Karen Treisman MBE - How to be More Trauma, Adversity and Culturally Informed Mar 28, 2022

Show notes

I'm delighted to speak to Dr Karen Treisman MBE in this week's episode. Karen is an award winning, highly specialised clinical psychologist and trauma specialist.

Karen is the founder of Safe Hands and Thinking Minds which supports organisations to help them become more trauma, adversity and culturally informed at a language, policy, culture, and practice level. This work focuses on creating meaningful and multi-layered cultural and paradigm shift across whole systems.

Karen is the best-selling author of 10 books and is a TEDx speaker on the power of relationships and viewing behaviour as communication.

Karen and I discuss how organisations and individuals can be more trauma, adversity and culturally informed.

#183 Dr Stephen Harvey - Teaching Games for Understanding Mar 21, 2022

Show notes

I'm delighted to speak to Dr Stephen Harvey in this week's episode. Stephen is Professor in Sport Pedagogy at Ohio University. His research is focused on teacher/coach pedagogy and practice and its influence on student/player learning.

Stephen is a former junior international field hockey coach and currently works with organisations such as USA field hockey and the United States Olympic Committee in a coach development and education role. He has successfully completed international coach educator/developer qualification and was previously a coach educator with England Hockey.

Stephen is an experienced licensed soccer and badminton coach. In 2016 he was honoured as a Research Fellow by the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) America due to his extensive contributions to research in both physical education and sports coaching.

Stephen is particularly interested in game-based approaches to teaching and coaching. And it's this topic that forms the basis of our discussion in this episode.

#182 Christian Swann – The Intricacies of Goal Setting Mar 14, 2022

Show notes

I'm delighted to speak to Christian Swann in this week's episode. Christian is Associate Professor in Psychology at Southern Cross University, Australia.

Christian's research areas are in goal setting, mental health, and the psychology of exceptional performance.

We discuss a research article that Christian has written alongside a number of authors which aims to critically examine the use of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timebound) goals for physical activity promotion.

The paper recognises that SMART is a highly prominent strategy for setting physical activity goals. And, while it is intuitive, and its practical value has been recognised, the scientific underpinnings of the SMART acronym are less clear. Therefore, the paper's aim is to narratively review and critically examine the scientific underpinnings of the SMART acronym and its application in physical activity promotion. Specifically, the review suggests that the SMART acronym: is not based on scientific theory; is not consistent with empirical evidence; does not consider what type of goal is set; is not applied consistently; is lacking detailed guidance; has redundancy in its criteria; is not being used as originally intended; and has a risk of potentially harmful effects. These issues are likely leading to sub-optimal outcomes, confusion, and inconsistency. Recommendations are provided to guide the field towards better practice and, ultimately, more effective goal setting interventions to help individuals become physically active.

Read the article here https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17437199.2021.2023608

#181 Dr Colum Cronin – Care in Sport Coaching Mar 07, 2022

Show notes

I'm delighted to speak to Dr Colum Cronin in this episode. Colum is Senior Lecturer in Physical Education and Sport Coaching at Liverpool John Moores University. Colum's research concerns youth sport coaching, coach education and coaching in community contexts.

Colum has worked with a number of sporting organisations such as the Football Association and UK Coaching. He is an associate editor of the academic journal Sports Coaching Review and is co-author of the book 'Care in Sport Coaching' along with Kathleen Armour. And it's this brilliant book we discuss in this episode.

#180 Prof Kristoffer Henriksen – Being 'All In': 6 Ways To Help Athletes Succeed Feb 28, 2022

Show notes

I'm delighted to speak to Prof Kristoffer Henriksen in this week's episode. Kristoffer is Head of the Learning and Talent in Sport Research Unit at the University of Southern Denmark. He is also a sport psychologist for Team Denmark – an organisation that works to provide Danish athletes with the best possible frameworks and conditions for them to live out their potential and perform at the highest international level.

We discuss Kristoffer's approach to working with athletes as well as a fantastic paper he wrote along with Gregory Diment and Carsten Hvid Larsen entitled 'Team Denmark's Sport Psychology Professional Philosophy 2.0'.

The purpose of the article is to discuss Team Denmark's professional philosophy; including: (1) the vision for the team; (2) basic beliefs and values; (3) the psychological theories that interventions are based upon; (4) Team Denmark's Sports Psychological model which describes the content and focus of the team's work; and (5) the concrete psychological services that delivered. High quality service requires coherence across all five levels of the philosophy.

Read the paper here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339167625_Team_Denmark's_Sport_Psychology_Professional_Philosophy_20

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