The Sports Initiative Podcast

Kevin Mulcahy is a sports practitioner with a wide range of experiences and roles within the sector. Working predominantly in GAA, Kevin uses a Constraint Led Approach to help players develop, and more importantly, create a long-term love for the game. With the support of sporting governing bodies, Kevin would like to see a shift away from the current 'academy' model toward an environment that all...

Stuart Wilkinson is a former player turned coach in Rugby League. He has worked for a variety of clubs and teams including Leeds Rhino's and the England National side. Alongside these roles, he is also a lecturer at the University of central Lancashire and has over 20 years of experience in a variety of roles in the sports industry. Show notes 1:00 - Experience as a practitioner in sport 10:00 - T...

Jasmine Baba is a freelance technical researcher; talent identify and editor of football in Europe. This is particular prudent in the German market. From unconventional roots within the betting industry, Jasmine has worked her way into professional football and now works as a consultant as part of agency available for hire on the continent. This unique way of working allows her to experience a var...

David Sharkey is an English teacher turned consultant who helps business develop a sense of purpose through theming/ story telling. A large proportion of his work in now in the sports industry where he helps creative narratives and identities for high performing teams. An example of this is with Ronan O'Gara's, La Rochelle. Show notes: 03:00 - The origin of storytelling 15:00 - How to relate story...

Jenny Coe is the Head of Performance and Well Being at West Ham Football Club. She focuses on providing players and staff with a support network to allow them to perform on a consistent basis whilst also supporting them as individuals away from the field. Previously she held roles within Olympic sports to assist coaches and players with their preparation during Olympic cycles. Show notes: 2:10 - C...

Alex Auerbach is the Director of Wellness and development at NBA team Toronto Raptors. In this role he focuses on supporting the team in developing their psychological performance both on and off the court. Timestamp's 02:00 - Introduction to previous roles in cur college sports and current role with Toronto Raptors 04:00 - The difference between clinical psychology and performance-based psycholog...

Adam Commens is the Director of Performance at Belgium Hockey. He oversees all performance related aspects of hockey in the country and focuses on improving talent pathways for both coaches and players. Formally a player in his own right, he went to multiple Olympic games with the Australian national team. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom Brown is a former professional cricketer now turned academic. In his recently completed PHD he focused on the under representation of South Asian English players in the English game. This research should hopefully lead to some actionable strategies to improve player pathways across a variety of sports. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oliver Gage is the Director of Football for the Canadian Premier League. In this role he supports the clubs to develop their infrastructure and use league central resources with the overall all aim of seeing more young Canadian players playing professional football. Prior to this role he worked with the Houston Dynamos in thei r analysis department. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

Duane Allen is the Lead Youth Development Phase coach at Walsall academy. Formerly of Premiership side Wolverhampton Wanderers, Duane now oversees the development of Youth phase players at the League 2 which has just gone through a philosophy change in the early part of 2022. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tony Miller is a basketball coach and academic lecturer at Bob Jones University. He is also the host of 'A Quick Timeout Podcast' and content creator at Dr Dish Basketball and FastModel sports. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kris Goodman is a Mental Performance Consultant with the MLB side Tampa Bay Rays. In this role, he often supports the younger athletes with their transition into professional baseball and hopefully prepare them for the jump to the major leagues. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Carlon Carpenter is a tactical and video analyst for Statsbomb. Statsbomb are one of the world leaders in football analytics and data production. Alongside this role, Carlon also works for National League South side Bath City as a performance analyst, where he implements his theoretical work and modules in practice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Warren Abraham is the Rugby 7's coach for Brazil. Born in South Africa, Warren uprooted his life in his early 20's, moving to England where he went on to work with the likes of Saracens and Harlequins. Later he worked with England Men's rugby 7's and then had the privilege to be Head Coach for the Wales Women's rugby 7's team. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andy Halliday is the former England and Team GB Hockey Team Manager. During this time, he worked on multiple Olympic cycles including London 2012 and Rio 2016. Andy also spent the majority of his working life with the Metropolitan Police including 18 years as a specialist fire arms officer.. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Alex Lascu is a lecturer at the University of Canberra. A specialist in skill acquisition, she had been investigating how developmental pathways and environemntal factors can affect athlete development as well as skill acquisition itself. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jordan Gardner is the Chairman and co-owner of Danish Football Club FC Helsingor. Also a minor shareholder in the English Championship side, Swansea City, Jordan specialises in operational challenges of owning and running a football team full time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cameron Campbell is the Lead U18's coach at Rangers FC. Focusing on assisting players with their jump from the Professional Development Phase into the Professional game, Cameron also spends his time looking for innovative tactics and methodology to support the players. Coming from an academic background, Cameron is able to provide a level of critical thinking to an industry that usually hires ex p...

Christian Day is a retired Rugby player who played for Sale Sharks, Stade Francais and Northampton Saints. A lock, Christian played with some of the greatest rugby players of his generation including Jason Robinson, George North and Sebastian Chabal. His current role is as Head of Player affairs at the Rugby Players Association. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Caleb Cousens is the CEO at Adamas Esports training and performance. One of the fastest growing industry's in the sports, E sports is projected to turnover 1.8 Billion in 2022. At Adamas, Caleb focuses on supporting teams and individuals athletes to increase their well being and performance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave Kline is a former employee of Bridgewater and Moody's Analytics. Dave specialises in teaching leaders how to build efficient and productive teams. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter Motzenbecker is a Technical Soccer Director in the Boston area. Formally a coach for Juventus, Peter now supports coaches in their professional development. He is also a regular contributor to the twitter Sunday Share movement where he discusses coaches philosophical ideals. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alex Sarama is the Lead basketball coach at the Pallecanestro College. Alex is one of the first basketball coaches n the world to fully adopt an Ecological Dynamics & Transformational Coaching approach. This approach is comes from academic research and is derived from the constraint based philosophy. Prior to this role he also worked for NBA Europe and has worked in 35+ countries around the gl...

In Episode 100 we take a look back at some of our fantastic guests and revisit some fascinating topics from all aspects of the sporting world. Thank you all for your listening and engagement over these last 100 episodes and here is to many many more!!! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Johnathan Davies is a well travelled football coach who has travelled he world coaching after switching from teaching to coaching. Currently he works at Slavia Prague as U12 Lead coach and has recently worked on updating the coaching methodology at the club using templates from Seattle Sounders and West Ham United. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.