The Athletic Evolution Podcast

 ​Sascha Hartel is the Head of Performance at TSG Hoffenheim He is responsible for Performance Diagnostics in the Professional Teams, Youth Teams (Male & Female), also Adler Mannheim (Ice-hockey) and Rhein-Neckar-Löwen (Handball). He also leads the team of S&C coaches as well as sharing responsibility for dat strategy and innovation. He is a consultant within the TSG ResearchLab a non-prof...

Kevin Shattock is currently working towards his professional doctorate (DProf) at Leeds Beckett University, exploring a biopsychosocial approach to athlete development.  He is the Head of Athletic Development at The Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL) and possesses over twenty five years’ experience of sports coaching, sports science support, strength & conditioning, and athlete performance. In this ep...

Sam Boylett-Long has been an accredited S&C coach with the UKSCA since 2012. Since completing his MSc in Human Performance in 2015, Sam has worked with a number of Women's Football internationals during his 4 year spell with Reading Women. In January 2020 Sam began working with the GB Rowing team providing S&C and sport science support, leading various projects including warm up strategies - maxim...

Glenn is a specialist in research and innovation in Sport related health, and winner of the International Federation of Sports Physiotherapy HvU Award for outstanding achievement in this field. He is a chartered physiotherapist and the former Head of Science and Medicine and Performance Innovation in athlete health at UK Sport, and the senior consultant in Performance Innovation at the English Ins...

Ray Zingler is a Strength Coach, Entrepreneur, Consultant, and Author. He is the Owner of Zingler Strength & Conditioning, LLC., an Industry Leader in Performance Training for athletes, busy professionals, and military personnel.  Ray is recognized as a Certified Physical Preparation Specialist and has been serving the Metro Atlanta, Georgia area since 2009. His blue collar, consistency and ha...

Kate Shilland and Fran Taylor are Registered Sports and Public Health Nutritionists (AfN). Kate is a Performance Nutritionist with over 10 years' experience working with athletes, of all levels across various sports.  She has helped a number of athletes, including teens, achieve National & World Champion status in a variety of sports. She has been working at Crystal Palace Football Club Ac...

Dr Sinead Holden is an Assistant Professor in Sport and Exercise Science in UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science. Her research interests are in optimizing musculoskeletal health and development during adolescent growth, with a view to understanding and preventing overuse and loading - related injuries and their consequences on health and performance in youth.  Her track re...

Dr Philip Graham-Smith has a long and established career as a biomechanist working in academia, professional sport and industry. He is currently Head of Biomechanics & Innovation at Aspire Academy in Qatar and was formerly Head of Department and Associate Head of School for Business and Engagement at the University of Salford. Phil is a Fellow and accredited member of BASES, a Chartered Scientist,...

Toby Edwards is currently a Strength & power scientist for Australian Track Sprint & BMX Race athletes as well as a Strength and conditioning coach and researcher interested in all things strength, speed, and power development. He had key involvements in podium performances at the 2022 World Championships and Commonwealth Games. He has experience providing strength and conditioning support...

Simon Brearley is the Head of Athlete Development & Rehabilitation at Cranleigh School and a consultant strength & conditioning coach with England Golf, and the European Tour Health & Performance Institute (official providers of science and medicine services on the DP World Tour).  In this episode Simon discusses:  The evolution of the program at Cranleigh School. How his rol...

Tom Green is the Head of Athletic Development at St Peters RC High School and holds an undergraduate and postgraduate degree in Strength and Conditioning (S&C) as well as being a qualified teacher. Outside of his role at the school, Tom works with the UKSCA to support the delivery of S&C within schools and for Catapult as the Youth Research Reviewer for Science for Sport. Tom has an extens...

In this episode we provide a preview of our upcoming LTAD Network workshop with Rob Anderson & Jared Deacon on the 25th & 26th February at the Engage Sports Centre, Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland. We cover: Who the workshop is aimed at and how it will benefit their coaching of young athletes. Who will be leading the workshop, their experience and qualifications What theoretical and...

Tom Clough has spent the past 20 years negotiating the trials and tribulations of working in professional Rugby League & Rugby Union. Learning from mistakes he made as a coach, as well as the adversity of clubs going through administrations and relegations through to the highs of promotion. Tom now works as the Head of Athletic Performance at Ulster Rugby, where he has spent the past 4 seasons...

Kay Kay Keung has a Kinesiology background including coaching, fitness testing, clinical skills and research in the United States (North Carolina) and Hong Kong. She is experienced in coaching a wide range of clients from hospital outpatients to competitive athletes and is passionate about working with individuals and teams to become the fittest, strongest, fastest and healthiest version of themse...

For over 16 years,  Richard Husseiny worked as a performance coach in high performance sport, with some of the best organisations and athletes in the world - from Great Britain and China. This included supporting teams in preparation for two Summer Olympic Games – London 2012 and Rio 2016 – and the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. In 2015 he gave end of life care to his mother. This exper...

Jessica Spendlove is one of Australia's most respected and experienced Sports Dietitians. She has accumulated more than 30 seasons working with various professional team sports, world record holders, Olympic athletes and many corporate organisations, schools and active adolescent athletes. Over the last decade, Jess has worked with many professional sports teams in Australia including the GWS Gian...

Joe Eisenmann hosts this roundtable discussion with Rich Clarke and Lee Taft on Agility. They discuss: What is agility? How to train perceptual and decision making skills. Training change of direction and agility with closed and open drills. How and when to implement and program using various methods. Testing and evaluations agility. To learn more about the LTAD Network check out www.ltadnetwork.c...

Julie has been a UKSCA accredited coach since 2009 and has led successful programmes within schools and universities for over 10 years. Julie frequently consults on the initiation of many schools S+C programmes, and advises on content, infrastructure and viability. Julie is a member of the UKSCA board of directors and is a lecturer at Uni of Chichester. In this episode, Julie discusses: The humble...

Crofton Alexander has been an Accredited S&C coach with UKSCA since 2008 and L2 BWLA coach since 2006.  He started his career at London Wasps Rugby Cub in 2006 and was responsible for the physical development of a number of the squad's up and coming talent such as Christian Wade, Sam Jones, Eliot Daley and Joe launchbury as well as leading the recovery protocols of the whole squad. Since then he h...

Angela Jackson is a Chartered Physiotherapist who has spent the last 35 years seeking to understand why some young athletes get injured, yet others don’t. Her determination to educate young athletes on reducing their injury risk, has fuelled a career that has taken her from Canada, to working with national teams, clubs and schools across many sports becoming an expert in understanding all aspects...

In this episode Tulshi Varsani is joined by James Baker as they discuss the Youth Physical Development Model. To learn more about the LTAD Network check out www.ltadnetwork.com or follow on Instagram: @ltadnetwork or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ltadnetwork . You can keep up to date with Athletic Evolution via our www.athleticevolution.co.uk , Instagram: @athleticevouk and Twitter: @athletic...

Rob Anderson created Athletic Evolution to provide best practice in the athletic development and coaching of young athletes. He is dedicated to improving the quality of athletic development training delivered to young athletes. Rob previously lead the Youth Athletic Development for the Scottish Rugby Academy in both the Caledonia and the Borders & East Lothian Regions, as well as the U16, U17 and...

Ali Jawad is a 4x Paralympian, 2016 Paralympic silver medallist, 2014 World Champion, 2 time Commonwealth Games Bronze Medallist at 2014/18, PhD candidate and Co-founder of Accessercise. In this episode Ali discusses: Growing up as a double limb amputee. How "getting dragged to the gym" started his career in Paralympic powerlifting. His meteoric rise to international competition. The impact of Cro...

Lee Taft, known to most simply as “The Speed Guy”, is highly respected as one of the top athletic movement specialists in the world. In the last 30 years he has devoted the majority of his time training multi-directional speed to all ages and abilities. He has spent much of this time teaching his multi-directional speed methods to top performance coaches and fitness professionals all over the worl...

Noorin Gulam took part in her first weightlifting competition just six weeks after starting the sport - and she hasn't looked back since. Gulam began lifting in her GCSE PE lessons and soon developed a talent and love for the sport. She was crowned 2022 British Champion in the 49kg weight class and holds the British Records with a 73 Snatch, 89 Clean & Jerk and 161 Total in the 49kg class. Thi...