Off the Pitch with Active

Joel Franco is using his passion in film making in producing a documentary about youth sport "Where our children play". Three out of four American families with school-aged children have at least one playing an organized sport — that's a total of about 45 million kids. By age 15, as many as 80% of these youngsters have quit. The documentary intends to shed new light, perspective and expose the tru...

Mark O'Sullivan is a UEFA A licensed coach and is head of youth development for 8-12 at AIK in Stockholm, Sweden and is part of their Research and Development department. Mark is currently doing PhD Research Sheffield Hallam University, UK, which centers around designing learning environments in youth football. Mark has also worked as a consultant for the Canadian FA (2017) helping them to develop...

The sports world is a high-pressure environment, Richard's skills and experience mean he is able to probe the tough issues and challenges parents and coaches face, without being judge mental or pushy. He delivered parent engagement strategy support, sports-parent meetings and coaches CPD on working with parents for: Three National Governing Bodies; (England Rugby U18 Boys & Girls, England Hockey U...

Mikael Wallsbeck have a European Masters in Sport and Exercise Psychology, from Högskolan in Halmstad. He is also educated in psychotherapy in cognitive behavior therapeutic direction. Mikael has been working as a leader with experience of working with children and adolescence, specifically with LSS (Australian equivalent to NDIA, National Disability Insurance Agency) Today, he works with Gefle IF...

Born in Argentina, Marcos Flores, had a great career in professional football in Union de Santa Fe between 2001 and 2003 where he began his professional career, then Newell's Old Boys and he also played in Curico Unido. He signed for the A-League club Adelaide United in Australia, where he achieved the player of the year in 2011 (Johnny Warren Medal). Marcos has also been in the USA, to help devel...

Ben is a young football coach based in Brisbane, Australia. Just off the back on spending the last 9 months in Uganda, East Africa working at a football academy called Football for Good. Currently studying a masters at the Queensland University of Technology and the tutelage of Ian Renshaw and Brendan Moy. He runs a YouTube channel, 'Opposite Direction' making short educational videos about coachi...

Player Development Project is an online learning platform and collaborative project designed to bring together top coaches and experts from around the world. PDP was founded to bridge the gap between research and practice as well as showcase the work of top practitioners from around the world of football and other sports. Their goal is to aggregate and create quality content supported by evidence...

Hall of Famer & mother of 8, Joey Peters has 110 caps for Matilda's, including 3 World Cups ('99, '03 & '07) & One Olympic Games (2004) and she scored 28 goals for the Matilda's.  She played in USA, Brazil, and my birth country Sweden Retired from pro football '09 and continued as a Development Coach for International Football School for 6 years on the Central Coast Joey study at AIS, she has FFA/...

Reed Maltbie does not really need an introduction, he is a Mentor in youth sport and coaching. With two Masters degrees, one in Early Childhood Learning & one in Sports Psychology, Reed understand children and what is going on in their brains while growing up to become adults. He is the Creator of "Coaching code" podcast & Raising Excellence, He did the TEDx talk "Echoes beyond the game" which is...

Sports Mum of 8, Outreach Coordinator at MVP Leadership Academy and owner and founder at Sports Mom Essentials. Stacie run her own podcast "Eating curve balls for breakfast" 50:08   min episode Overview: 2:10     Introducing Stacie Mahoe 4:00     Stacey's story is amazing referring to her 8 teachers and      how she has seen families falling apart from their children's sport. 7:45     Do we know w...

Richard is a young (26years old), passionate and innovative coach from North Wales, UK. He continually strives to improve his level of knowledge working within a sporting environment in an attempt to fulfill individual(s) potential. With 7 Years of coaching experience, working an array of ages (U6 > Seniors), and abilities, cultures and backgrounds, he takes pride in developing and maintaining rel...

Gordon MacLelland set up 'Working with Parents in Sport' after 20 years as a teacher and as a coach for all age levels from 7-year olds to Adults. He has a BA/Hons degree in Sports Science from University College Chester and a PGCE from Lancaster University. He is the author of two books, 'Great Sports Parenting' – A pocket guide for parents of children in sport and 'Engage' – A coaches guide to b...

Ruth Nicholson is an internationally-certified professional facilitator, mediator, and organizational alchemist. She specializes in helping clubs design board processes and club operations to provide more effective support to coaches, teams, and players.  Ruth is also the co-creator of the 2019 GO! Chase Excellence Think Tank to Improve Youth Sports which engaged nearly 200 people from two dozen s...

Glen Mulcahy is a professional speaker & coach, mentor with a down to earth flair who shares his knowledge from a lifetime of involvement in multiple sports as athlete, coach and parent. Glen is passionate about sharing what he has learned to " bring the game back to the kids", while leading others to do the same Glen grew up playing multiple sports across Canada and played on provincial winning t...

Janis is a family coach for all families, but has extensive experience coaching families with children who play sports. She was a coach's wife for 29 years, a sports mom for 21 years, and is now a mom to two coaches, and a mother-in-law to one. She loves to see families thrive through all their seasons, in and out of youth sports. You can learn a lot more on Janis website www. rcfamilies.com Overv...

Ryan Krzykowski has Director of Community for Coaches since 2008, a group based in Kansas City that provides training and mentoring for athletic coaches at all levels of sport 42 years old Married to Erica, four sons ranging from 18 to 10 years old teach High School Math in addition to leading CFC. Ryan is raised in Southwest Florida, played many sports growing up and later played college (America...

I saw Jenn's email address on an email I got from Reed Maltbie, (Coaching Code and Way of Champion podcasts). I didn't know who Jenn were, but I watched an interview with her.   I was so impressed with her approach to coaching kids and she demonstrated some tricks to get kids to expand their "can do thinking". I had to have her on Off the Pitch with Active to share with parents and coaches in Aust...

Interview with Brian Barlow, father and soccer referee in Oklahoma, US. He was sick of parents abusing referees, so he started a Facebook Page called Offside sharing videos of abusive parents. This created a massive media attention by CBS, NBC, Today, Forbes, Inside, Fox News and many more. This time he shares how it is with Off the Pitch with Active I am not looking for your approval, but I am lo...

I caught up with Raff for a coffee before the 2018 Adelaide season. Raff began playing football at the age of 9 at school level in Adelaide. One of the highlights with Campbelltown City was winning the rising star award in the first season. He enjoyed 3 seasons there and was offered a trial in the Hong Kong Premier League midway through 2012. After a brief experience in Hong Kong he moved back to...

I came across a video clip from Sunrise on Channel 7, Australia about parents behaviour in youth sport in Australia. My guest Oliver Brecht, completed his Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) at the University of South Australia before returning to Sydney and completing his Masters of Professional Psychology at the University of Wollongong. During this time Oliver gained experience through volunteerin...

Steve has been coaching for over 10 years, running Inclusion Coaching. Steve spent 4 years, between 2012 and 2016 as part of the coaching team in the Academy at Championship club Bristol City FC. He has also coached at tier 9 of the football pyramid with Witney Town FC in the Hellenic Premier Division, tier 10 with Devizes Town FC (First Team, Reserves, U18's) and in grass roots youth football wit...

About Mark O'Sullivan is a UEFA A licensed coach at AIK in Stockholm, Sweden. Mark delivers Swedish FA coach education courses and has run many youth social projects, has his own blog – Footblogball – and is currently doing PhD research in to designing learning environments in youth football. Mark has also worked as a consultant for the Canadian FA (2017) and regularly holds lectures, talks and pr...

Never Lose Sight of Your Passion and Dreams was the headline of my interview with Christian Sotira (DOB 2001) and his parents, Sergio & Adriana and sister Alessia, in July 2017. Now living in Italy, I caught up with Christian while on holiday in Australia. We had a chat about the difference between Australia and Italy from a football perspective. We covered many aspects of his lifestyle in a compo...

Skye is the founder of the Soccer Parenting Association (SoccerParenting.com), with a mission of elevating the game by engaging, educating, supporting and advocating for youth soccer parents. Skye is a sought, after speaker for parents, coaches, clubs and players. A former professional player, Skye was a collegiate and youth All-American goalkeeper, Defensive MVP of the Final Four (1993) and State...

With nearly 30 years of experience as an educator/coach and two master's degrees (one in sport psychology and one in Early Childhood Education), Coach Reed has a wealth of practical experience and scientific research that he draws on to help athletes, coaches, and parents find more effective ways to navigate the youth sport environment. Since the release of his 2015 TEDx talk "Echoes Beyond the Ga...