Leaders Performance Podcast

“The greatest gains in S&C can be made in how you make yourself an integral part of the team,” says Johnny Parkes. “You have to be out there with the team on a daily basis, you have to have those soft skills – I actually call them essential skills – we have to recognise that we have to make ourselves completely valuable to the team.” Johnny, who was recently appointed Associate Head Coach of t...

“You can watch the room change from that lived experience approach,” says Marc Williams, a programme facilitator at gambling harm minimization consultancy EPIC Risk Management. Marc, a former professional footballer who suffered the consequences of gambling harm, will speak to athletes and teams with a view to educating and informing them about the pitfalls and trigger associated with gambling har...

Emily Hall enjoys building relationships with athletes as it enables her to better support them and, from time to time, when necessary, call them out. “You have to be able to read your athletes and know your athletes,” says the Strength & Conditioning Coach, who works with various women’s teams at Queensland Rugby League, including the U19s. “[You need to] have those relationships with your at...

When Conor McGoldrick joined John Portch for this Keiser Podcast, he spoke of learning from other disciplines and how that happens in both an unstructured and structured way. The Head of Strength & Conditioning at Red Bull’s Athlete Performance Center in Salzburg is describing the learning opportunity provided by the interdisciplinary work that goes on around the organisation’s 850-plus athlet...

Joe Rogowski has seen the NBA from all sides. He spent two years as an S&C at the Orlando Magic, a further six years as Director of Science & Research at the Houston Rockets, before spending almost nine years at the National Basketball Players Association [NBPA]. Since 2022, he has served as Chief Medical Director of the National Basketball Retired Players Association [NBRPA], a non-profit...

“Serial winning coaches don’t just want to get ahead – they want to stay ahead,” Professor Cliff Mallett tells the Leaders Performance Podcast. “But they know that staying ahead means having healthy relationships of mutual trust and care with the people that they work with.” Cliff and his colleague Sergio Lara-Bercial join Henry Breckenridge and John Portch for this episode to discuss their new bo...

Collier Madaleno recalls the story of a defensive lineman that had put on weight during the pandemic when college football was brought to a halt. “He used that next year to really focus on nutrition,” she tells Joe and John. “[He] got down and dropped his body fat percentage by 7%, lost 45lbs [20.4kg], and he was a first-round draft pick. “He just did such a good job at buying in and it made him a...

The rise of Toulouse FC has been both fast and meticulously planned. Le Téfécé were Ligue 2 champions in 2022 and, last season, won the Coupe de France – their first major trophy in 66 years. Toulouse also finished 13th in their first season back in Ligue 1 – well clear of the relegation zone. Not that Damien Comolli, the club’s President since 2020, is resting on this laurels. “Everyone said ‘wel...

“When a club as big as Racing come to you and say ‘we want you, there is no plan B, you’re our No 1 man’ then it helps persuade you”. Stuart Lancaster, the new Director of Rugby at Racing 92, agreed to join the Parisian club last September while enjoying his seventh season as Senior Coach at Leinster. It meant a fresh challenge for the man who also coached England at the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Says...

“With technology now, we’re starting to understand movement in a way that we didn’t really understand before,” Keke Lyles tells Joe Lemire and John Portch. The Director of Performance at Uplift Labs was on the pod to discuss how the company’s AI can reduce injury risk in athletes. There is no better candidate to delve into injury prevention and mitigation than the man often credited with saving St...

Mark Gannon, the CEO of UK Coaching, feels that it is about time that coaches were perceived as people too. UK Coaching is an association that connects and supports approximately 180,000 coaches from grassroots to elite level through its UK Coaching Club. “Coaching is all about the right environment,” he tells the Leaders Performance Podcast. “So we’ve got psychologists, nutritionists, that sort o...

“When I took over the Head Physician job at the New England Patriots, I saw a very unique opportunity to provide medical leadership at the next level,” says Dr Matthew Provencher. “Fortunately, we had a great coach in Bill Belichick, great ownership in the Krafts, Jonathan and Robert, and I really talked to them around the facility about providing a competitive medical advantage and how we would d...

“Student-athletes in the United States are four times more likely than the average college student to have a gambling problem.” It’s a startling revelation from Mike Huber, an advisor with our Partners at EPIC Risk Management, on this Gambling Harm Prevention edition of the Leaders Performance Podcast. “Taking it a step further,” he continues, “we ask the question in our sessions ‘why do you think...

Scott Hann recalls the euphoria and the relief of watching his charge, the artist gymnastics gold medallist Max Whitlock, claim two golds and a bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics. “Then, all of a sudden, you get home and you’re hoovering the floor in your living room and it just hit me. What was it all for? What’s happened?” he tells the Leaders Performance Podcast. Whitlock, who won a further gold a...

"The conversation has grown," says MT Eisner, "but curiouser and curiouser: has the conversation grown because I'm in that circle or has the conversation genuinely grown?" The US Applied Performance Specialist Manager at Kitman Labs would like to think it's the latter. "Within Kitman, we talk about it consistently, within the other organisations that we’re helping [we ask] ‘how can we assist with...

Daniel Guzman believes that genetics plus training equals performance. “Our genetics are just a code that says ‘here’s how your genetics express here whether that’s cardiovascular or it’s cellular or it’s your body composition or whatever it might be and here’s how we need to influence your environment’,” he tells Joe Lemire and John Portch on the People Behind the Tech Podcast. “‘Environment’ bei...

As Lorena Torres Ronda explains, there is a big difference between say the NBA and international tournament play in basketball. She has experienced both, including a spell as Performance Director at the Philadelphia 76ers and, most recently, as Performance Coordinator at the Spanish Basketball Federation, a role she has held for two years. Lorena is also a Performance Advisor for the Leaders Perfo...

“My staff is, by far, way more educated, smarter than me. They all have these niches that they’re really good at,” says Brandon McDaniel. “When I need to be able to understand something, when I need to be able to communicate something, when I need to be able to have that conversation with our front office or coaching staff, whoever that might be, they’re the ones that I’m going to in order to get...

“I’ve spent a lot of time in professional sports and often been one, if not the only female, in those particular organisations,” says Matti Clements, the Acting Director of the Australian Institute of Sport.   Her observation is all too common in such a male-dominated industry with certain roles, such as psychology, often presumed to be a more natural fit for a female practitioner than, say, a str...

“I often talk about the difference between fixing broken and creating awesome,” Rachel Vickery tells the Leaders Performance Podcast. The performance coach, who guides and supports high performers to excel, lead and thrive in high pressure and high stakes environments, is discussing the importance of preparing athletes for the high pressure scenarios they face in competition. “You don’t need a ‘ge...

High performers in both sport and business tend to overcomplicate things, on the other hand, they cannot just assume they can go it alone. Dan Lawrence, the Head of Performance at Matchroom Boxing, watched his former boxer, the now-retired George Groves, learned this in real time. “Yes, he had a team. He had myself, a conditioning coach, we had his head coach at the time,” Lawrence tells the Leade...

“Innovation isn’t about what we know; and defining it would be challenging everything we know,” says Ben Williams. “One thing I do believe is: to harvest a culture of innovation we need human engagement and we need collaboration.” Williams, who serves as the Ineos Grenadiers cycling team’s Integrated Performance Lead and the Ineos Britannia sailing team’s Head of Human Performance, is our very spe...

“The most important thing when stepping up from being an individual contributor to being responsible in a management position is that it’s not about you any more,” Max Lankheit, the San Jose Earthquakes’ Director of High Performance, tells EPP’s Founding Partner Dave Slemen. The duo are discussing the traits needed when stepping into a leadership position for the first time. “The important thing t...

Former England, Lions and Saracens lock George Kruis played at two Rugby World Cups, won three European Cups and four English Premierships during a distinguished playing career. Those 14 years spent at the thick end of the game have imbued him with a number of skills as he now turns his attention full-time to his CBD and wellness venture, Fourfive, which he co-founded with former Saracens teammate...

“You’ve got to listen to these young people,” says Rod Ellingworth. “A lot of experienced people have been through life but they’re not perhaps listening to these young people enough. You’ve got to listen to their ambitions and, when they say things, there’s a lot in there. And if you ask the right questions, open questions, getting into the guts of it really, really getting under their skin about...