
The Athlete Development Show
Dr Craig Harrison
Science and stories from the brightest minds across many disciplines to help youth athletes unlock personal performance & develop their sporting potential.
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Top 10 The Athlete Development Show Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best The Athlete Development Show episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to The Athlete Development Show for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite The Athlete Development Show episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

The Curious Mind #07 - Moments of Gratitude, Trips Abroad, Finding Joy, Negative Parent Behaviour, & more
The Athlete Development Show
06/18/23 • 70 min
Head of coaching at Birkenhead United FC in Auckland, New Zealand and Co-founder of Player Development Project, Dave Wright (@davewright07), rejoins me for another episode of The Curious Mind.
We discuss our experiences in youth sport over the past couple of months, including a recent trip Dave took to Tonga and what he learnt from it, the importance of joy and how to find it, and the continued rise in negative parent behaviour.
Enjoy!
Sign up for Craig's newsletter (Beyond the Game) at athletedevelopmentproject.com/newsletter
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Mike Hester on the Evolution of Rugby in New Zealand
The Athlete Development Show
05/23/23 • 74 min
"Fun is a fleeting moment. Joy is something that's enduring, something that brings you back."
Mike Hester works for New Zealand Rugby and is responsible for leading their approach to the evolution of the game at participation level. Prior to this role, Mike spent 28 years at the New Zealand Defence Force where he worked as a Career and Talent Manager.
Mike is also a former FIFA referee and has officiated at the highest level at pinnacles events across the world, including the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 and the FIFA World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
On the show today, Mike shares some of the skills required for a referee to be at their best in emotionally volatile sporting environments and why investing into early stage referees is so important for the game of rugby. We also talk about the shift NZ Rugby is making from a game-centred approach to one that is more participant-centred.
The work Mike is doing is challenging not only the foundations of New Zealand's national game but also the fabric of the culture it sits within.
Enjoy!
Sign up for Craig's newsletter (Beyond the Game) at athletedevelopmentproject.com/newsletter
Get Craig to speak at your club or school here.
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Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/
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Twitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrison

Kylie Cox on the Importance of a Healthy and Regular Menstrual Cycle
The Athlete Development Show
05/08/23 • 94 min
We all have times in our lives that change us. Watershed moments that force us into thinking differently. Kylie Cox had one of these very moments a few years ago while training for an Ironman World 70.3 Age Group Championship. Despite continuing to perform in training, a number a life stressors coincided with a heavy training load. She became concerned about how her health might impact her menstrual cycle and sought help.
Now, after exercising her own curiosity and earning a Master's degree focusing on energetic injuries, Kylie is passionate about helping young athletes and their families understand what it really means to stay healthy.
Kylie also works a the physiotherapist for Netball New Zealand's secondary school programme and recently developed the first national resource on female athletic health for NetballSmart.
We start the show hearing more about Kylie's story.
Enjoy!
Sign up for Craig's newsletter (Beyond the Game) at athletedevelopmentproject.com/newsletter
Get Craig to speak at your club or school here.
Connect with Craig:
Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/
Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrison
Twitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrison

James Leath on Improv Comedy, Mr Rogers, & Being More Childlike
The Athlete Development Show
03/05/23 • 67 min
James Leath (@jamesleath) has been coaching student-athletes for over 20 years. He has a master's degree in performance psychology and has worked with companies like IMG Academy, MINDBODY INC, and Under Armour. He currently works with EXOS Human Performance in the US.
James has a new book out, entitled "Team Building Activities for Athletes: How to master the art of building a successful team culture through intentional activities." I love the book and wanted to bring James on the pod to tell us all about it.
Click HERE to grab some of James' awesome activities for free!
Enjoy!
Sign up for Craig's newsletter (Beyond the Game) at athletedevelopmentproject.com/newsletter
Get Craig to speak at your club or school here.
Connect with Craig:
Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/
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Twitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrison

The Curious Mind #05 - Reflections on the Kiwi Summer Break
The Athlete Development Show
02/12/23 • 43 min
In this episode of the Curious Mind, Dave Wright, founder of Player Development Project, and I reflect on our summer break in Aotearoa, including how our emotions affect the experiences of our children and athletes.
We also dig into:
- Social status, the ego and the risk of adult intervention devoid of awareness;
- Praise versus affirmation;
- The monkey mind;
- The importance of role modelling;
- Getting comfortable with risk, and;
- Getting clear on the outcome we are looking for.
Enjoy!
Please submit your questions for our next Curious Mind by flicking Craig a message here.
Sign up for Craig's newsletter (Beyond the Game) at athletedevelopmentproject.com/newsletter
Get Craig to speak at your club or school here.
Connect with Craig:
Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/
Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrison
Twitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrison

Professor Joe Baker on The Tyranny of Talent
The Athlete Development Show
12/08/22 • 73 min
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What really is talent? And how do we measure it?
My guest on today's show suggests we are a long way off answering either of these questions with any certainty and so we should stop trying. Instead, we should focus on designing sporting environments that support every young learner.
Dr. Joe Baker (@bakerjyorku) is Professor and Director of the Lifespan Performance Laboratory at York University, Canada.
His research considers the varying influences on optimal human development, ranging from issues affecting athlete development and skill acquisition to barriers and facilitators of optimal aging.
Joe works with high performance sports teams and organizations around the world in their quest for international success.
In this episode we dig into Joe's latest book "The Tyranny of Talent: How it compels and limits athlete achievement... and why you should ignore it."
We also chat about common human biases and how they affect coaching, the problem with splitting development into participation and performance pathways, first principles of athlete development, why collaboration in research is so important, combating early specialisation, and much more.
Enjoy!
Connect with Craig:
Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/
Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrison
Twitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrison

Stephen Cobley on Culture, Forward Looking Development, and Where Swimming Performance Really Comes From
The Athlete Development Show
11/09/22 • 72 min
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Stephen Cobley is an Associate Professor in motor control, skill acquisition, and sport and exercise psychology at The University of Sydney.
He earned his Bachelor's degree at Loughborough University, his Master's degree at Queen's University in Canada, and his PhD at Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK.
Steve's research examines developmental factors that constrain learning, development, and performance across sport, educational, and workplace settings.
In this episode, Steve and I discuss some fascinating work his team is doing in swimming looking at the effect of biological maturation on performance.
Kia ora!
Connect with Craig:
Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/
Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrison
Twitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrison

Erin Bowerman on Learning from Failure, Challenging Entrenched Beliefs, and Developing Strong Young Dancers
The Athlete Development Show
09/23/22 • 72 min
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Erin Bowerman (@dancestrength_nz) is a movement specialist working in dance. She holds a Masters Degree from AUT University, where she carried out her research at the Australian Ballet School in conjunction with High Performance Sport New Zealand looking at the risk factors for overuse injuries in elite adolescent ballet dancers.
Erin works as a strength coach for the New Zealand Dance Company and the New Zealand Youth Ballet Company. From 2016-2018, she was based in London where she coached at the Royal Ballet School White Lodge and the National Centre for Circus Arts.
In this conversation, Erin shares her story of personal dancing failure to transformation in dancer development. Please enjoy the show. Kia ora!
Connect with Craig:
Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/
Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrison
Twitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrison

Jamie Salter on Managing Growth-Related Injuries
The Athlete Development Show
06/28/22 • 76 min
Jamie Salter (@jay_salter) is a researcher and senior lecturer in sport science and Injury at York St John University where he delivers theory and practical based sessions to undergraduate and postgraduate students in the areas of injury prevention, rehabilitation and strength and conditioning.
Jamie is also an accredited Strength and Conditioning coach and Sport Scientist and has worked in physical preparation roles with youth and adult athletes at Barnsley FC, Middlesbrough FC, York City Knights RLFC and GB Goalball.
Jamie's PhD, which dig into in our conversation, investigated how biological maturation impacts responses to training load and injury in adolescent football.
We also cover:
- Developing rapport;
- Jamie's coaching and teaching philosophy;
- Development versus performance;
- Balance;
- The problems with too much structure;
- And much more.
Please enjoy the show.
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Jay Carter on Talent, Skilled Golfers, and Helping Young Athletes Lead Themselves
The Athlete Development Show
06/26/23 • 90 min
It's an absolute pleasure to bring Golf New Zealand's National Coach, Jay Carter, on the show. Jay and I met not long ago when he reached out to ask me on his fantastic podcast, Talking Performance. We had a great conversation and barely scratched the surface on some topics I wanted to talk more about.
So, here we are. While Jay and I spend our days in different sports and with athletes at different stages of development, we share a lot in common. Most significantly, the common goal to help young athletes lead themselves.
Jay and I cover a lot in this conversation, including solving problems over learning techniques, identifying potential rather than performance, creating talent systems, play versus practice, what happened when Jay literally froze on the tee back in his playing days, thinking out loud to build awareness, slowing down to speed up, and much more.
Enjoy!
Sign up for Craig's newsletter (Beyond the Game) at athletedevelopmentproject.com/newsletter
Get Craig to speak at your club or school here.
Connect with Craig:
Instagram: instagram.com/drcraigharrison/
Facebook: facebook.com/drcraigharrison
Twitter: twitter.com/drcraigharrison
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FAQ
How many episodes does The Athlete Development Show have?
The Athlete Development Show currently has 178 episodes available.
What topics does The Athlete Development Show cover?
The podcast is about Learning, Health & Fitness, Movement, Athlete, Youth, Medicine, Podcasts, Sport, Education, Sports and Coaching.
What is the most popular episode on The Athlete Development Show?
The episode title 'Dr Riki Lindsay on Skill Learning, Fatherhood,The Adaptable Coach, and Much More' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on The Athlete Development Show?
The average episode length on The Athlete Development Show is 68 minutes.
How often are episodes of The Athlete Development Show released?
Episodes of The Athlete Development Show are typically released every 9 days, 22 hours.
When was the first episode of The Athlete Development Show?
The first episode of The Athlete Development Show was released on Jan 17, 2017.
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