The Track and Field Performance Podcast

In this episode, we sit down with Ross Jeffs — jumps and combined events lead coach at Aspire Academy in Qatar, and former sprints and hurdles coach with experience across the UK, Netherlands, and now the Middle East.  Ross brings a deeply curious and evidence-informed approach to coaching, shaped in part by his own experiences as an athlete, working directly with coaches like Jonas Dodoo, and muc...

Jack Green is a two-time Olympian, World and European relay medalist, European U-23 champion in the 400m hurdles, and now the lead coach for Saudi Arabia's long hurdles and sprint relay program. Jack's athletic career was shaped not only by his successes but also by his promise as an adolescent and the battles he faced thereafter. Now, channeling those difficult lessons combined with the...

David Kerin is a former collegiate coach, USA Track and Field national team administrator, and performance consultant. David brings a refreshingly unconventional lens to some of the sport's most persistent challenges.  His articles on '2D, 2.5, 3D Coaching' and 'Fixing the Right Problem' and most recently, developing a provisional patent for an innovative movement analysis...

Angus Ross is the Strength and Conditioning and Power Physiology Lead with High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ), working with elite track & field athletes and multiple Olympic sports across lead coaching, s&c, and sport science. He is also a three-time Winter Olympian in bobsleigh and the full-time coach of New Zealand 60 m record holder Tiaan Whelpton. His PhD focused on sprint perf...

Dr. Christopher Stanley (CMPC) is a sport and performance psychology professor at the University of Western States, former Lead Sport Psychologist for USA Track & Field across the Tokyo–Paris Olympic cycle, and the Atlanta Track Club Elite. In this episode, Chris illustrates how coaches can implement mental skills training in track & field without adding extra time—covering practical tools...

This episode brings together three coaches with documented success coaching the 400 meters and 4×400 m relay within the NCAA system. Ernie Clark, the Head Coach for sprints, hurdles, and jumps at Northern Arizona University, previously coached at San José State and Ashland University. He has guided athletes such as Trevor Bassitt, Myles Pringle, and Jeremiah Walker to 45-second performances, while...

Craig Pickering – former Olympic sprinter, Winter Olympian in bobsleigh, sport scientist, and now Director of Performance Sustainability at Athletics Australia – joins the show to unpack what it takes to build a world-class sprint and relay system. He shares insights on athlete transitions, skill acquisition, and the systems driving Australia’s sprint resurgence. We explore his journey from elite...

Marco Airale has been one of the fastest-rising elite sprint coaches of the past five years — and one of the youngest — guiding athletes like Reece Prescod, Andre De Grasse, Daryll Neita, Amy Hunt and others to fast times and global medals. With a background in physiotherapy and osteopathy, Marco blends therapy and coaching to maximise performance and keep athletes healthy.  In this conversation,...

From being a 6 meter pole vaulter back in 2005 to coaching the 2024 Olympic gold medallist Nina Kennedy and 2023 World Championships bronze medallist Kurtis Marschall, Paul Burgess has transitioned from elite athlete to coach with huge success, particularly over the past 5 years. That journey, however, hasn’t been totally straightforward. In this episode, you’ll hear real humility from someone who...

Eamonn Flanagan is the Head of S&C at the Sport Ireland Institute. In this episode, Eamonn shares deep insights from a career that spans elite Olympic (including track & field), Paralympic, and professional rugby environments. He is very well known for his work on jump or plyometric training with peer-reviewed research, online courses and much more on this form of training.  We unpack a ra...

Joseph Coyne, PhD is the Director of High Performance & Sports Development, Lindisfarne Anglican Grammar and Strength & Conditioning Coach, Elite Sport Program & Swimming, Bond University Joseph's experience in Track & Field extends far and wide; we dug into his time working with the Chinese athletics federation including his work supporting Olympic-level sprinters and jumpers...

Dr. Chris Shambrook, is a renowned expert in performance psychology with over five Olympic cycles of experience. In this episode, Chris shares his journey from earning a PhD in sports psychology to working extensively with British Rowing, Olympic athletes, and high-performance teams across various sports and business settings. We explore the evolving role of sports psychology in elite environments...

Athletics New Zealand track and field coach, James Sandilands is mainly known as the coach to the current World Indoor and Olympic champion in the jump, Hamish Kerr, but James's current crop of high level athletes spans far and wide from multi-eventers, sprinters, and horizontal jumpers. He is a former high jumper and hurdler himself with several years of experience as both a performance tech...

In this episode, I chatted with Werner Prinsloo, the coach behind South African sprinting sensation Akani Simbine who in his third consecutive Olympic 100m final, at the age of 30, ran a national record of 9.82 seconds to finish fourth place.   Werner shares his unique journey into coaching, from a corporate career to becoming a full-time coach for one of the world’s most consistent sub-10-second...

Josef Karas is a former Czech International Decathlete and a graduate of Kansas State where he worked under legendary coach Cliff Rovelto. Since transitioning into coaching, Josef has coached long jumper Radek Juska to 8.31m (NR), gold at the World University Games, Silver at the European Indoor championships and most recently, the Olympic final in Paris. Josef is a well known multi's coach w...

 Glenn Smith is a former Canadian national champion and world championship semi-finalist in the 200m sprint. He holds a Master’s Degree in Exercise Science from the University of Texas at Austin and has nearly 20 years of coaching experience. His expertise spans developing All-American collegiate athletes and international-level competitors in the jumps, throws, multi-events, and sprints.   A cent...

Being the Chief Physiotherapist to UK Athletics/British Athletics at the London Olympic Games (2012) is just one of many major roles that Gordon Bosworth has undertook during his professional career. He has played a key role in several national physiotherapy teams in winter and summer Olympic enabling Bobsledders like Kaillie Humphries to win Olympic gold. Gordon who owns his own practice 'Th...

Dan Pfaff is widely regarded as one of the most influential track and field coaches of all-time with over 50 years of experience.  His thought provoking insights on sports performance concepts always come with a lot of dept and in this episode, He spoke about the rationale for having a holistic knowledge base and how coaches can develop that. From there, we dove into debriefing throughout the seas...

Coaches Jeremy Lyons, Gerard O'Donnell, and Aideen Synott have created a high performing environment for sprinters in Ireland to thrive both collegiately and post-collegiately. Through years of hard work and collaboration, they've enabled the likes of Sophie Becker, Cillian Greene, and Jack Raftery to become Olympians, European medalists, and household names in Irish Athletics. In this e...

CEO of Altis and world class sprints coach Stu McMillan came back on the podcast to talk about the importance of pursuing what is interesting to you as an individual, the core features of high level sprinting, trialing new methods with your athletes in an informed way, and much more. I hope you enjoy. Give Stu and Altis a follow if you haven't already. -Instagram: FingerMash and Altis -Altis...

Rolf Ohman is a coach and innovator with over 35 years of experience in global sports such as Track and Field; he was a high level decathlete before beginning his coaching career.  Between 2016 and 2017, he served as Head Coach for the Dalian Olympic Sports Center before becoming the Assistant Head Coach under Randy Huntington for the Chinese National Team in Sprints and Jumps, he then moved to a ...

Jim VanHootegem has over 20+ years of experience as a collegiate coach working at schools like Texas A&M, The University of Oklahoma, and Arkansas. He has achieved great success with athletes like Fabrice Lapierre and Julian Reid -- both who have achieved medals at World and European championships.  In his career so far, he has guided his programs to 12 NCAA team championships and 27 conferenc...

Very few coaches can say they've had five athletes run 1.44 or faster in the 800m. Joseph Deng and Peter Bol (among several others) have risen to the top of the event -- thanks to the guidance of Justin Rinaldi. His group named 'Fast8TrackClub' not only highlights their aim, but it matches how they get there -- they run fast, all year round, but the devil is in the details, so in th...

Sports and Exercise physiotherapist, to many of Australia's top track and field athletes, Sam Leslie, discusses his multi-layered approach to rehabilitating and reducing injuries as well as improving event specific performance. Sam, who works out of MyPhysio Evolution, in Melbourne Australia, takes an evidence based approach to help establish timelines for the returning to full health and sel...

Daniel Davey is the Founder of DaveyNutrition and has over 15 years experience as a Performance Nutritionist, 9 of which were spent in elite sport environments with Dublin GAA and Leinster Rugby.  We sat down to discuss topics like fueling and recovery based on individual demands like event groups in Athletics as well as creating processes to make nutrition feel like a fun and sustainable experien...