Inform Performance

Episode 39:  Andy McDonald  chats to Dr Duncan French the Vice President of Performance at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas. Duncan is globally recognized as a leading expert in high-performance sport with over 20 years of experience working with elite professional and Olympic athletes. Duncan has previously enjoyed been the Director of Performance Sciences for the University of Notre Da...

Episode 38:  Andy McDonald  chats to Scott Epsley the Philadelphia 76ers Medical Director. Scott is an Australian Physiotherapist who has previously worked for Georgetown University, Medstar Sports Medicine and consulted to numerous sporting organisations including the Washington Wizards, Australian Womens Field Hockey and professional athletes across a wide range of sports including basketball, c...

Episode 37:  Andy McDonald chats to Pierre Barrieu a High Performance Expert at FIFA. As a performance practitioner Pierre has enjoyed spells at LA Galaxy, Swansea City, UAE Football Association and the USA National Team + plus more! Pierre has an extensive and varied background across multiple football leagues, national teams and environments and as a result provides the conversation with pragmat...

Episode 36:  Andy McDonald chats to Physiotherapy Consultant Gordon Bosworth . Gordon is Founder and Clinical Director of The Bosworth Clinic and has been involved in elite sport for most of his life. Specialising in performance therapy, Gordon has supported elite athletes and teams across multiple sports and notably was Physiotherapist to the British Bobsleigh and Bob-Skeleton Team, a member of t...

Episode 35:  Andy McDonald chats to Dr Jas Randhawa the Lead Performance Therapist at Altis . Jas is a Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine with a background in Strength & Conditioning who has previously worked at the Canadian Basketball team. In this episode Andy and Jas dig into what the Altis Performance Therapy philosophy and methodology is and discuss it in an injury context compared to the tradit...

Episode 34:  Andy McDonald chats to Tracy Axel  the Director of high performance analytics at USA surfing and manager of sports performance research and analytics at Mamba sports academy. In this episode with Tracy we’ll be discussing her role at USA surfing and unpackaged what professional surfing looks like from a sport science and performance analytics standpoint.    In this episode Andy and Tr...

Episode 33:  Andy McDonald chats to Strength & Conditioning Coach  Alex Natera. Alex is based at GWS Giants Football Club in Sydney as Senior Athletic Performance Specialist. Alex has a wealth of experience and has enjoyed previous roles at Aspire Academy in Qatar, South Australian Sports Institute, English Institute of Sport, St Mary’s University, and Crystal Palace Football club to name a few. I...

Episode 32:  Andy McDonald chats to Alex Wolf the co-founder of Wayfaring. Alex is a Performance Consultant, Strength & Conditioning Coach and also an experienced leader with a demonstrated history of working in the high performance. He has a wealth of experience of preparing athletes, staff and teams successfully for Olympic Games. He has previously been Head of Learning, head of strength of S&C...

Episode 31:  Andy McDonald hosts a discussion on achilles tendinopathy between Karin Silbernagel , Mark Young and Matt Tuttle .  Dr Dr Karin Grävare-Silbernagel is an Associate Professor at the Department of Physical Therapy, University of Delaware, Newark, USA. At University of Delaware she runs the tendon research lab together with her colleagues from mechanical and biomedical engineering.  Mark...

Episode 30:  Andy McDonald chats to Dr Meeta Singh . Dr Meeta Singh is a sleep doctor whose work and research focuses on “Coaching the sleep muscle” to help maximize performance in both individual athletes and sports teams. She is the Service chief of the sleep medicine, and section head and medical director at the Henry Fordsleep laboratory in Michigan. Dr Singh is board-certified by the American...

Episode 29:  Andy McDonald chats to  Dr Andy Barr a British Physiotherapist / Doctor of Physical Therapy. Andy is an established leader in the field of high performance and injury risk reduction with over 20 years of experience working in professional sports. He has held Director of Medicine and Performance roles with Bolton Wanderers F.C., Southampton F.C. and Manchester City F.C. in the EPL, New...

Episode 28:  Andy McDonald chats to  Dr Matt Taberner, a Sport Scientist, S&C and Rehab Coach who has enjoyed career spells at Aston Villa and Everton Football Club previously. Matt recently finished his PHD constructing a framework for return to sport in elite football. In this episode we’ll hear Matt explain his work and dive into the control chaos continuum framework he’s produced.    In this c...

Episode 27:  Andy McDonald chats with Dr Phil Wagner the Founder & CEO of Sparta Science. Phil is a a Physician and a Strength Coach who received his medical degree from USC focused on biomechanics. Phil’s passion for protecting athlete health and longevity through injury resilience coupled with his medically-oriented human performance mindset inspired him to found Sparta Science, a movement techn...

Episode 26:  Andy McDonald catches up with  Pete McKnight the Hintsa Performance Director of Coaching & Sports Science. Pete has also been a Strength & Conditioning Coach in elite sport and human performance for almost two decades, working across multiple organisations including the French Ski Federation, Leicester CCC, England & Wales Cricket, UK Athletics, The English Institute of Sport and he w...

Episode 25:   Andy McDonald speaks to Dan Howells the Houston Astros Head S&C Coordinator. Dan is a British S&C coach that has transitioned from the English Institute of sport, England Rugby Sevens to Major League Baseball. With these transitions in mind in this episode with Dan we discuss his move to baseball and how he structured the thought processes for developing and managing a strength & con...

Episode 24: Andy McDonald  chats to Dr Matt Tuttle a Physical Therapist working at NBA team the Denver Nuggets as Lead Sport Scientist / Physical Therapist. We spoke to Matt in episode 11 about pain science and the realities of managing pain within an elite athletic population.  In this second episode with Matt we discuss The relationship between single vs multipart athletes in the NBA and 3 key i...

Episode 23:  Andy McDonald speaks to Per Lundstam the Director Of Performance at Redbull. Per previously enjoyed roles at both the US Ski & Snowboard association and the Swedish Ski Federation perviously. In this episode Andy and Per discuss:   Redbull High Performance Program  Redbulls performance values and ‘pillars’  The process for Redbull athletes to access performance services  Program devel...

Episode 22:  Andy McDonald speaks to Tom Batchelor  the Head of Sport Science at Harlequins Rugby.   In this episode Andy and Tom discuss:  Tom’s background Working within the City in Equity Derivatives   Surrey Sports Park - Internship  Harlequins  GPS In Rugby: Benefits and weaknesses of GPS in Rugby Overlaying technical and tactical information on top of physical data How Harlequins define and...

Episode 21: Andy McDonald speaks to Matt Jordan PHD CSCS, Strength Coach & Director of Sports Science at the Canadian Sports Institute, Calgary. Over his career, Matt was the personal strength coach to 30 World and Olympic medalists, and has worked with elite athletes in many sports including speed skating, cross country skiing, alpine skiing, snowboarding, biathlon, hockey, football, volleyball a...

Episode 20: I speak to Mike Reinold  the co-founder and president of Champion Physical Therapy and Performance , a PT and performance training facility just outside Boston. He is also currently the Senior Medical Advisor for the Chicago White Sox and the Director of Baseball Performance at Northeastern University, where he has been instrumental in the restructuring and building of the high perform...

Episode 19: I speak to Dr Ebonie Rio a Sports Physiotherapist who consults at The Victorian Institute of Sport, who is also a Senior Research Fellow at La Trobe University completing her Phd in tendon pain. Ebonies current research focuses on combining neuroscience with rehabilitation to bring innovative approaches to pain rehabilitation. In this conversation Ebonie brings us up-to-date on the fun...

Episode 18: I speak to Dr Heather Linden the Director of Physical Therapy for the UFC. Heather is a Doctor of Physical Therapy with a background working for the USA Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs before heading up PT for the UFC at the Las Vegas Performance Institute. In this episode we'll discuss her professional role and approach to athlete care, rehab / return-to-fighting and the value o...

Episode 17: I speak to Dr Fergus Connolly a sports performance expert, consultant, speaker and author. Fergus has worked in professional football, rugby, the NFL, NBA and with elite military units to name a few. In this episode we dive deep into his philosophies around data collection, interpretation and meaning as well as how he strategically guides teams to identify performance problems and solu...

Episode 16: Host Andy McDonald speaks to Dr Sherylle Calder to receive a unique insight into her expertise assessing & coaching visual performance skills. Dr Calder has worked with both England & South Africa towards Rugby World Cup victory, The All Blacks, The Miami Dolphins, Formula-1 driver Valtteri Bottas and Golfer Ernie Els to name a few! In this episode we'll discuss Dr Calder's approach to...

Episode 15: I speak to Dr. Christopher Dodson, M.D a board certified Sports Medicine surgeon and an Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Thomas Jefferson University. He serves as Head Team Physician for the Philadelphia 76ers and is Head Orthopaedic Surgeon for the Philadelphia Eagles. In this episode we discuss his role as a surgeon/physician in pro sports, Injury trends, ACL and Shoulde...