Inform Performance

Episode 49:  Andy McDonald  chats to Andrew Gray  the High Performance Manager at Wests Tigers Rugby. Andrew's performance roots were in Physiotherapy and over his career he has worked extensively in the NRL. He has enjoyed previous roles at Cronulla Sharks and St. George Illawarra Dragons. Andrew is also a thought leader on GPS in sport as the creator of Athletic Data Innovations (ADI), a softwar...

Episode 48:  Andy McDonald  chats to Adam Loiacono the Director of Rehabilitation at the Phoenix Suns NBA team. Adam has a wealth of experience and has enjoyed previous roles at Atlanta Hawks, Orlando Pride and New England Revolution. In this episode we will be discussing some of the principles behind a recent presentation that he delivered via the Altis platform.     In this episode Andy and Adam...

Episode 47:  Andy McDonald  chats to Mike Tucker the Head Athletic Performance Coach at Villanova University Football. Mike has previously enjoyed S&C roles at San Jose State University, Clemson University, Kuztown University and North Dakota State University. This episode focusses on Mike's program and problem solving through Covid, Speed Development and 'Sprintember' a program both him and Ken C...

Episode 46:  Andy McDonald  chats to Navin Hettiarachchi the Director of Health, Wellness and Performance for the Washington Wizards at the time of recording. Navin began his career interning at the Washington Redskins NFL team, followed by spells at Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation INC and the Washington Mystics. This episode and the conversation is largely centred around Navin's holistic and br...

Episode 45:  Andy McDonald  catches up with Elliott Clarke at Harlequins Rugby. Elliott is a Senior Rehabilitation Physiotherapist who has been with Harlequins rugby for over 5 years beginning as the Academy Physiotherapist. Prior to Quins Elliott worked within the NHS and also for Worthing RFC. In this episode Andy and Elliott discuss rehab frameworks and philosophies without shying away from tec...

Episode 44:  Andy McDonald  catches up with Inform Performance regular Dr Matt Tuttle  the Denver Nuggets Lead Sport Scientist & Physical Therapist. Matt at the time of recording is currently based inside the NBA Bubble for the closing of the 2019/20 season. We caught up with Matt to discuss his journey from clinician to his current hybrid role as a PT and combined Sport Scientist.  In this episod...

Episode 43: Andy McDonald chats to Garrison Draper the Director of Performance at Philadelphia Union MLS Team. Garrison is a Sport Scientist and Strength & Conditioning Coach with a wealth of knowledge ad experience working within the MLS enjoying previous spells at Chicago Fire and Seattle Sounders. On todays show we’ll be discussing environmental stresses including altitude, weather, the effects...

Episode 42:  Andy McDonald  chats to Amy Arundale a Biomechanist and Physical Therapist for the Brooklyn Nets NBA team. Amy has enjoyed previous roles at Proaxis Therapy and was a post doc fellow at Linkoping University. In addition to this Amy has completed a Phd in Biomechanics at The University of Delaware and has coaching roots in soccer before becoming a Physical Therapist.    In this episode...

Episode 41:  Andy McDonald  chats to Performance Coach and Physiotherapist Bradley Scanes.  Bradley is currently the Physio and Performance Coach for Max Verstappen at Redbull Racing through Hintsa Performance. Alongside F1 Brad is a consultant to British Gymnastics and works privately. He has enjoyed previous roles at British Basketball, Southend Football Club, the NHS and lectured at the Univers...

Episode 40:  Andy McDonald  chats to Physiotherapist Alan Hazlett. Alan works at the British Olympic Intensive Rehabilitation Unit. Alan functions as a part of the English Institute of Sport , BOA and UK athletics. He has previously enjoyed roles at the English RFU, Reading Football Club and Sport Wales. This episode will focus primarily on how the Intensive Rehabilitation Unit functions to suppor...

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...