Game Plan Coaching Podcast

Stephen Maxwell is a man who wears a lot of hats, and wears them well. Coach and Match Official Education Manager at Cricket Ireland, director of coaching across four Gaelic Games codes, founder of No Other Game Around Performance Consultants, and a researcher whose MSc thesis at the University of Limerick was titled Do Coaches Fill Their Own Cups. He completed that degree with first-class honours...

Rob Gray is a Professor of Human Systems Engineering at Arizona State University and host of the brilliant Perception and Action Podcast. With over 25 years of experience he has worked with elite sports teams including MLB and NBA franchises, and is the author of How We Learn to Move, How to Be an Ecological Coach, and Learning to Optimize Movement. He's one of the biggest names going in ecologica...

I came across Adam Nicholls on LinkedIn and his posts kept stopping me. Short clips of Klopp, Popovich, Steve Kerr - with Adam quietly unpacking the psychology of what they're actually doing. Not tactics, not systems. The human stuff. Care, compassion, what it looks like to genuinely back the people you coach. So I reached out and invited him on to the podcast. Professor of Sport and Exercise Psyc...

Mark Cairns and Andy Muir are the co-founders of Coach Logic, calling in from their bothy in Edinburgh - which, for anyone not from Scotland, is a shelter in the mountains. They haven't climbed a literal mountain to get there, but the metaphor isn't a bad one for what they're trying to do. Both rugby. Mark is a coach educator for World Rugby across Europe and comes from a PE teaching background. A...

Jen Coe is an HCPC Registered Sport Psychologist, Senior Lead for Workforce Development at the Football Association, and someone who has spent 25 years in sport from playground to podium. Before the FA she worked at UK Coaching supporting coaches across 13 high performance Olympic sports, and prior to that as Performance Wellbeing Lead in the WSL. She is a former international basketball player, a...

Recorded live at St George's Park at the Football Association's 3v3 showcase event, this episode is a little different in format, multiple conversations across the day with former England internationals, FA staff, grassroots coaches and parents, all exploring one of the most significant changes to children's football in a generation. From next season, under 7s football in England moves to a 3v3 fo...

Craig Morris spent 20 years as Podium Technical Coach at Paddle UK, coaching across three Olympic disciplines - kayak, canoe and kayak cross - and overseeing three athletes to four Olympic medals across Tokyo and Paris 2024. At Paris he coached Kimberley Woods to double bronze and Adam Burgess to silver in the men's canoe. Since leaving British Canoeing he has moved into coach development, working...

Keith Sharpe is Head of Coaching and Leadership Development for the Great Britain Cycling Team, coach mentor for the Premier League, and someone who has spent over two decades supporting athletes and coaches across Olympic, Paralympic and professional sport, including time at Right to Dream in Ghana and Denmark, where he led their Character Development strategy. Outside of all of that, he voluntee...

Dr Anna Stodter is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching at Leeds Beckett University, a rugby coach, and a researcher whose work sits right at the intersection of coach learning and applied coaching practice. Her research has explored how coaches filter and make sense of new ideas, how experimentation drives development, and more recently, how coaches can help players engage with contact in rugby mo...

Welcome to the Game Plan Coaching Podcast Dr Pete Olusoga is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Sheffield Hallam University, a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society, and a sport psychology consultant. His award-winning PhD explored stress and coping in elite sports coaching, and his research has spent over a decade asking the questions that matter for coaches: what causes b...

Welcome to the Game Plan Coaching Podcast Russell Earnshaw, known to most as Rusty, is one of the most influential coach developers working in sport today. Starting out in rugby, he now works across multiple sports and environments, from Premier League football academies to New Zealand, Canada, the US and beyond. He's the kind of person who makes you think differently about coaching within about f...

In this episode of the Game Plan Coaching Podcast I am joined by Professor Adam Kelly, Professor of Sport and Exercise at Birmingham City University. Adam leads the Research for Athlete and Youth Sport Development Lab. With a background as Head of Academy Sports Science at Exeter City Football Club, Adam bridges the gap between academic research and applied coaching practice. His work spans collab...

In this episode of the Game Plan Coaching Podcast, I’m joined by Skye Eddy, founder of Soccer Parenting and The Sideline Project, a former player, All-American goalkeeper, and coach educator. Her work is helping clubs, coaches, and parents rethink the role adults play in youth sport. Skye’s mission is simple: inspire players by empowering parents. Rather than falling into the usual “parents are th...

  This conversation will help you: think differently about how you design practices reflect on the questions you ask become more aware of how athletes experience your coaching   Links Tom’s LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhartleycoaching/ Richard’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardsbarbour/ Feedback form (share feedback, suggest guests, propose episode ideas):  https://forms....

In this episode of the Game Plan Coaching Podcast, I’m joined by Sally Needham - a football coach, coach developer, and human development specialist whose work brings together football, neuroscience, and performance.   Sally has worked across football for many years, including roles within The FA Skills Programme, academy football, and international environments such as Wales Women. Through her co...

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Alex Lascu - a coach, researcher, and learning designer whose work sits at the intersection of skill acquisition, coach development, and practice design. Alex has worked across community and performance sport, has researched talent development and skill acquisition in cricket, and is currently connected with the Queensland Academy of Sport and the University of Ca...

Welcome to the first episode in the brand-new series of the Game Plan Coaching Podcast. In this conversation, I’m joined by Peter Sturgess: a coach, coach educator, and one of the most influential voices in helping coaches create better experiences for children in football. Together we explore what it really looks like to coach with young players, not at them, and how great coaching doesn’t have t...

This special episode brings together the key 'game-changing advice' from each guest in Series 1 of the Game Plan Coaching Podcast. It is a quick way to catch up with some of the headlines from the podcasts, and the insights that can genuinely shift how you coach, lead, and support the people you work with.   I’ve absolutely loved recording this first series. I’ve learnt so much from every guest an...

Less drills, more thrills. I sit down with my good friend and long-time colleague Stuart Armstrong. I’ve known and worked with Stuart for years, especially during his time leading workforce development at Sport England. I’ve always admired his thoughtful, progressive approach to improving coaching, learning and policy across the UK. We explore the balance between technical knowledge and human conn...

Change a life, not just a bib. I’m joined by Rus Smith, founder of the Black Country Coaches Club and a proper community coach in the truest sense of the word. Rus has spent over 25 years investing in people in his local area, creating opportunities for young coaches to learn, lead and belong. We talk about what coaching really is (and isn’t), why empowerment beats control, and how long-term impac...

Make Today Count: I’m joined by Jean Côté, one of the world’s most influential voices in coaching and talent development. We explore relationships, environments, reflection, and the everyday experiences that shape how children and young people engage with sport. Jean challenges some of the assumptions we make about long-term development and reminds us that great coaching is often found in the smal...

Grit, Growth and Goats Bobby Scales II is one of those people you just can’t help but learn from. Former Major Leaguer, senior leader with the Los Angeles Angels and Pittsburgh Pirates, and now a broadcaster with the Detroit Tigers. But more importantly, someone who thinks deeply about people, development and what truly helps athletes thrive.   In this episode, we get into the human stuff. The stu...

Today’s episode offers something unique. Not a typical interview, but a rare window into the thinking of John Hendry OAM, one of the most experienced educators and coaching minds in Australia.   John has spent more than five decades working with young people, coaches, teachers and schools, and has shaped how organisations think about relationships, wellbeing and performance.   In this conversation...

In this episode of the Game Plan Coaching Podcast, I am joined by Paul Bodin. Former Wales international, Swindon Town icon, and respected coach who made more than 450 senior appearances in his professional career spent more than a decade developing young talent for the Welsh national teams.   From scoring one of Wembley’s most high-pressure penalties to guiding future stars into international foo...

In this episode of the Game Plan Coaching podcast, our guest is Professor Joe Baker, Tannenbaum Research Chair in Sport Science, Data Modelling and Sport Analytics at the University of Toronto and author of The Tyranny of Talent.   Together we explore why talent is much more complex than most systems assume, how early selection and deselection can shape the arc of a young person’s life, and what c...