The Sport Psych Show

I’m delighted to speak with Sian Beilock in this episode. Sian is a cognitive scientist, with two PhD’s: one in Kinesiology and one in Cognitive Psychology. Sian is one of the world’s leading experts on the brain science behind ‘choking under pressure’ and the brain and body factors influencing all types of performance from public speaking to your golf swing.

In this podcast, Sian and I take a detailed look at what ‘choking’ is and why it happens.

In this episode I’m delighted to speak with Marketa Simova and Richard Simpson.

Marketa is a PhD researcher at Sheffield Hallam University. Marketa’s research explores the mental health and well-being of high-performance coaches. Her role involves wide literature searches and interviewing with subsequent data analysis. Marketa also supports teaching activities at Sheffield Hallam University, teaching on various well-being and research methodology-related modules.

Richard is a PhD candidate, an associate lecturer and a research assistant in sport and exercise psychology within the Carnegie School of Sport at Leeds Becket University. Richard is also an associate lecturer at The Open university. Richard’s doctoral research is centred around advancing theoretical, conceptual, methodological, and applied knowledge of psychological well-being in sport organizations.

We discuss all things well-being and talk about several studies Richard and Marketa have undertaken including their joint paper “In Pursuit of the ‘Good Life’: Concerns, Considerations, and Choices in the Exploration of Psychological Well-Being in Sport” (as yet unpublished).

I speak with Dr Julie Johnston and Joseph Stanford in this episode.

Julie is a Senior Lecturer in Sport & Exercise Psychology at Nottingham Trent University. Her research focuses on behavioural, social and environmental influences on children and adolescent psychosocial development, health and wellbeing. Both her PhD and current research has focused on developing an understanding of coach and parenting roles within sport and the impact of these roles on young athletes' psychosocial development, health and wellbeing.

Joseph is a PhD student at Nottingham Trent University, a Performance Swim Coach at University of Nottingham Sport and A squad coach at Nova Centurion - the elite performance programme for Nottinghamshire swimming and one of the UK's top swimming clubs. Joseph’s research focuses on what makes a successful athlete and how coaches and athletes work together to facilitate positive relationships.

Both Julie and joseph have a particular interest in swimming. Julie competed on the international swimming arena for Ireland and Northern Ireland for ten years, participating in three Commonwealth Games, three World Championships, three World University Games and a number of European Championships.

We discuss an upcoming paper that Julie led and was co-written by Joseph along with Dr Chris Saward, Dr Mustafa Sarkar, Prof Chris Harwood and Prof Daniel Gould entitled “How to help coaches meet the psychosocial skill needs of their Generation Z athletes: A season long investigation in swimming”.

I'm delighted to speak with Dr Matthew Scott, Prof Paul Holmes and Dr David Wright in this episode.

Matt is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of British Columbia in the School of Kinesiology. Matt investigates the effect of dyad practice - training with a partner - on motor learning. His interests are in combined (and independent) action observation and motor imagery, motor learning and motor control.

Paul is Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor in the Faculty of Health and Education at Manchester Metropolitan University and a Research Professor of Motor Cognition.

Paul’s research interests include motor cognition in human performance and movement rehabilitation where he has published widely on both subjects focusing on motor imagery and action observation mechanisms. Paul has worked as a sport psychologist in high performance sport for over 25 years.

David is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at Manchester Metropolitan University. His area of interest is in neurophysiological processes involved in various aspects of sport psychology. David’s research focuses on motor imagery using brain stimulation techniques.

Matt, Paul, David and I discuss a fascinating paper they have published alongside Dr Dave Smith and led by Matt which reviews PETTLEP imagery.

The PETTLEP model was first published by Paul and Professor Dave Collins 20 years ago as a framework to improve the delivery and outcome of motor imagery (MI) interventions. Drawing on research from neuroscience, cognitive-behavioural psychology, and sport psychology the model served as a set of guidelines for sport psychologists to consider when developing MI interventions and tailoring them to individual athlete needs. PETTLEP is an acronym for seven practical elements that sport psychologists could consider when developing MI interventions with athletes (Physical, Environment, Task, Timing, Learning, Emotion, and Perspective). In the 20 years since its publication, the PETTLEP model has become one of the most dominant models for structuring MI interventions in sport.

Please see a link to the paper here https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667239122000260?via%3Dihub

In this episode I’m delighted to speak with Dr Ross Wadey and Dr Melissa Day,

Ross is a Professor in Sport Psychology at St Mary’s University. Ross’s research is at the forefront of advancing knowledge in areas including psycho-social-cultural considerations in the prevention of, and recovery from, sport injury and multilevel learning following adversity in sport and beyond.

Ross is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society and a Full Member of the Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology. He sits on the Editorial Board for The Sport Psychology and Journal of Applied Sport Psychology.

Mel is a Reader in Qualitative Sport Psychology at University of Chichester and the programme coordinator for the BSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology. She teaches at undergraduate and postgraduate level and currently supervises PhD students. Mel’s main research area is stress and trauma in sport including vicarious trauma in sport through witnessing injury, and the potential that sport holds to foster post traumatic growth. Mel is BASES accredited and HCPC registered. She regularly reviews for a range of journals and is on the editorial board of Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health.

Ross, Mel and I discuss the psychology of injury and explore how the stories we have about ourselves can be a help or a hindrance.