#211 Adam Commens - Developing High-Performance Environments to Help Athletes Flourish

10/24/22 • 59 min

This week I’m delighted to speak to Adam Commens. Adam is the High Performance Director of the Belgium Hockey Federation. Adam is a former player himself, having represented the Australian Men’s National Field Hockey Team at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000, where they won a bronze medal. After his playing days, Adam moved into various coaching roles. He coached the Belgium National Team, leading them to the Beijing Olympics and was the head coach of the Australian women's national field hockey team, coaching them to the London and Rio Olympic Games.

Since 2016 Adam has been in the role of High Performance Director at the Belgium Hockey Federation. This has been a hugely successful period for the Red Lions, winning at the World Champions, the European Champions, and taking Olympic Gold in 2020.

Adam and I speak about what it takes to develop a high performance environment to help athletes flourish and how to incorporate psychology into coaching sessions.

Adam and I speak about what it takes to develop a high performance environment to help athletes flourish and how to incorporate psychology into coaching sessions.

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#210 Marketa Simova & Richard Simpson - Well-Being: One Size Does Not Fit All

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).

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#212 Dr Matthew Scott, Prof Paul Holmes & Dr David Wright - Exploring the use of Motor Imagery in Sport

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