Lateral Think - The Melbourne Athletic Development Podcast

Lateral Think - Avish Sharma (PhD) is the current Victorian Institute of Sport Track and Field Performance Scientist (Physiology). His background includes posts at the AIS and with Triathlon Australian, where his research has centred on altitude training and performance optimisation. In this discussion we explore the attainment of performance, understanding the input of physiology and the complex...

Lateral Think - Load Monitoring has become a huge area of sports performance and injury management. In this episode we explore what is useful and what may assist clinicians and coaches in making group or individual decisions with the aim of improving performance and reducing injuries.

Lateral Think - Justin Rinaldi is a world renowned middle distance track coach. Justin has guided 4 Australian males to run under 1 min 45 sec over 800m and has the three most recent 800m Australian record holders as his current or former athletes. Despite such an impressive coaching career, Justin has worked throughout his coaching life in a full time role working in management for a major Austra...

Lateral Think - In this episode Jack and John discuss Manual Therapy. The topic has become somewhat a talking point in the world of physical therapy, however upon diving deeper into the understanding of its effects, its application and the appropriateness of use to an individual case, we see that there are opportunities to explore its implementation to create the best outcomes for patients.

Lateral Think - Marco Keogh is a psychologist who specialises in  addiction. Drawing on his experience working through group therapy, counseling and psychotherapy approaches Marco shares how understanding how psychological skills and relationships affect interactions with patients and the careful use of communication for the benefit of both patient and clinician. 

Lateral Think - Jack and John discuss the use of experimentation in clinical practice. We explore the use of educated experimentation, known as 'safe to fail' experiments and highlight how this ties together concepts of complex systems theory and healthcare practice. This is deeper exploration on how to use a targeted and individual approach to injury management using information to constantly upd...

Lateral Think - Associate Professor Tania Pizzari is a clinical physiotherapist, researcher and successful physiotherapy clinic owner. Tania's research across a multitude of injuries makes her a world leading expert in more than one area of research. In this discussion we explore clinical practice, teaching and learning and the translation of research to practice. Tania is a true leader and c...

Jack and John discuss diagnosis in healthcare. Diagnosis is the cornerstone of many healthcare frameworks, however it is important to consider its effect on the patient, the prognosis and the outcomes that are achieved. In this discussion we explore what a diagnosis means and how you may use first principles to guide your management even in situations where a clear diagnosis is difficult to ascert...

Lateral Think - Katrina Borg is the lead Nutritionist at Married to My Macros. Katrina uses her Masters of Science in Nutrition & Human Performance and a background as a competitive weightlifter to develop and optimise nutrition plans for athletes and the general populace. Her background as an athlete shines through in this discussion across topics from weight cutting for combat sports and wei...

Lateral Think - David De La Harpe is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in spinal surgery. Prior to his specialising in spinal surgery David completed his training as a Chiropractor. In this discussion we explore his unique perspectives on spinal surgery, and how is background has altered his clinical care, in particular when to use spinal surgery and when it may not be the best option. 

Lateral Think - Jack and John discuss the emerging evidence that is highlighting the use of nutrition for the optimisation of injury healing, health and performance. This discussion opens up the concept that the healing of connective tissue requires both mechanical loading and the nutrient environment to create effective adaptation. 

Lateral Think - Prof. John O'Donnell is a Melbourne-based Orthopaedic Surgeon, and was  one of Australia’s first surgeons to perform arthroscopic hip surgery  and anterior approach hip replacement. He has been active in the teaching and implementation of hip surgery over a long period of time. In this discussion we discuss hip surgical outcomes, the conservative/surgical spectrum and inn...

In this episode Jack and John discuss complex thinking and adaptive systems including how to define human systems and ultimately what this means for healthcare.

Lateral Think - Paul Coburn is a senior clinical physiotherapist who has worked in elite sport, is the director of a successful private clinic, has taught at La Trobe University and has been involved for many years as the clinical lead for compensable agencies such as TAC and Worksafe. Paul's knowledge of healthcare practice, the implementation of effective health interventions and understand...

Lateral Think - Dr Richard Fernandez is the Head of the Cadaveric Dissection Program at Latrobe University. His research is multidisciplinary and includes areas such as injury prevention,  anatomical and anthropometric measurements, impact biomechanics,  orthopaedic surgical procedures. In this discussion we explore how anatomy, its evolution and understanding influences how the hum...

Lateral Think - Dr Pamela Boekel is trained as an Orthopaedic Surgeon, specialising in elbow and shoulder surgery. In this discussion we discuss surgical training, understanding the mindset of surgeons and how research is used in the surgical world. Dr Boekel shares her knowledge and pragmatic approach to healthcare problems. A great discussion for health professionals and patients alike. 

Jack and John discuss the expression power, how it is defined, and some of the nuances related to rate of force development across the force-velocity spectrum. This discussion dives into developing power across this spectrum and some of the underlying muscle-tendon physiology and what is required when prescribing power training across different age populations. 

Dr Lachlan James is a lecturer and researcher that has been involved in the development and delivery of the Masters of Strength and Conditioning at Latrobe University. Lachlan brings practical experience as a sports performance professional to his industry based research working in Mixed Martial Arts and Rugby to deliver and answer questions for coaches and sports performance professionals. In thi...

Jack and John discuss skill acquisition and the role that sensori-motor control has on influencing the development of skills and bio-mechanical outputs. As a follow up to our discussions on running this episode looks to explore what affects the bio-mechanical outputs that we observe, how we can identify, teach and change bio-motor outputs to create skill changes. 

Helen Symon and Colin Mandy are barristers working in advocacy from corporate taxation to criminal defense and prosecution. In this discussion we explore decision making, the ability to gather and synthesize information and how these processes can be used to improve clinical practice. We lean into the ethical and philosophical underpinnings of knowledge and the law and how these considerations may...

Jack and John discuss aspects of running performance from biomechanics to injury. The discussion touches on aspects of acceleration, maximal velocity sprinting as well as distance running. For anyone interested in running performance and injury this discussion opens up some of the key aspects that we think are important and interesting to explore. 

David McCloskey is a data consultant with a background in psychology, data management and modelling. His ability to tell stories and capture the essence of a problem has allowed him to inform and be part of a number of state and national policy development projects. In this discussion we explore the ability for health data to inform public health policy, the interaction this has with decision maki...

Jack and John discuss the concepts related to periodisation. In this episode we explore the factors that influence periodisation including organisation of loading, periodisation structure and the transfer or exercises to rehabilitation or performance and how they relate to planning for rehabilitation and performance. 

Dr Andrew Dawson is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching at Victoria University. Andrew’s research informs both sport policy and professional  practice and has examined the way coaches work, develop their expertise, and influence the lives of their athletes, other coaches and their organisations. He has been fortunate enough to work with very successful coaches from elite settings such as Aus...

Jack and John discuss the application of stress, how it affects adaptation and the application of exercise prescription.  This is an introductory dive into understanding how human systems are affected by both positive and negative stress application and how we can manipulate these stressors to our advantage for each individual.