The Upside Newsletter

Today we have the honor of interviewing a group of MLB practitioners that are experts in mental performance and preparation. * Lindsay Shaw, Director of Sport psychology for the Guardians, an MLB team. * Zach Brandon, Head of Mental Performance and Coach Development, for the Arizona Diamondbacks, an MLB team. * Len Zaichkowsky, PhD, retired Professor from the Boston University, World-class’ sports...

This week we had the honor to interview Athanase Kollias, CEO of KINVENT , a company that helps sports and rehab professionals assess progress and build engagement and motivation. Founded in 2017, KINVENT is a leading player in the fields of physical rehabilitation and sports biomechanics producing innovative measuring and training devices for the facilitation of every day and athletic movements....

Dear colleague,This week I sat down with David Daoud , CEO of Compliance Standards to share my thoughts on on how elite teams vet sports tech startups, on the common mistakes made by startups. We also discussed the world of elite sports which is based on relationships. We also touched on the tech budget side of teams, and the need to get internal champions to successfully do pilots with teams. We...

Today we have the honor of interviewing Michael Ross, CEO of Nice Recovery systems, a leading manufacturer of performance and recovery devices with an expertise in cooling. NICE Recovery Systems is a Boulder‑based firm founded in 2012 by Michael Ross after his own injury-driven recovery experience inspired the creation of an iceless cold‑compression therapy device. The company’s flagship NICE 1 Co...

This week we had the honor to interview again Dr. Ron Dick, associate professor of sports marketing at Duquesne University in the school of business. Ron also worked for 20 years in sports, including 15 years in the NBA with the Sixers and the Nets, and then five years in the NCAA. You can read the full transcript of the podcast interview with Ron located at the top of this blog post. You can watc...

Today we have the honor of interviewing Dr Warren Bradley, Founder at Hytro a leading blood flow restriction company. Hytro is the world's first wearable Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) system designed specifically for sport. Trusted by 250+ sports teams across the NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA, and The Premier League, Hytro’s patented BFR products enable coaches & athletes to integrate BFR within their existi...

Today we have the honor of interviewing Darcy Norman, the director of performance for the Chicago Fire FC a top MLS team. Darcy Norman is the Director of Performance at Chicago Fire FC , where he oversees medical services, physical performance, nutrition, and sports psychology across the first team, Fire II, and the academy. With nearly 30 years in sports science and elite performance, Norman has...

Today we have the honor of interviewing Martin O'Reilly, CEO of Output sports , a leading performance company using one sensor including VBT and jump tracking . Output Sports offers a portable, single-sensor system that allows teams to capture a wide range of performance data, including strength, power, speed, mobility, and balance, all with a single device. This simplicity makes Output particular...

Today we have the honor to interview a interviewing a group of sports performance experts (MLS, Ligue 1, NHL, NFL). * Rick Cost, the High Performance Director at l’Olympique Lyonnais (Ligue 1 team). * Alexi Pianosi, the head of S&C conditioning coach for the Colorado Avalanche (NHL team). * Karam Al Hamdani , the director of sports medicine at CF Montreal (MLS team). * Adam Quigley, an experienced...

Today we have the honor of interviewing Neil Craig, involved in high performance sports both as a sports scientists and coach and now coaching the coaches. Neil Craig is an Australian Australian rules football coach and former player. He is best known as being coach of the Adelaide Football Club from 2004 to 2011. He also notably served as caretaker coach of the Melbourne Football Club in 2013. He...

Today we have the honor of interviewing Steven Lund, the head of sales at Cerbrec , a leading AI agent development platform. Cerbrec is an AI agent development platform designed to make powerful, enterprise-grade AI accessible to everyone—from high school students to professional sports teams—without requiring coding skills. The platform, developed over three years, enables users to build customiz...

This week we have the honor to interview a group of experts in the science of movements in elite sports. * Abdul Sillah, experienced performance coach. Abdul has worked with Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka. * Brijesh Patel, Associate Athletic Director, Director of Athletic Performance at Quinnipiac University (NCAA). * Dr Ryan Ting, founder of RNA Sports . He is also an MD, MPH, and Medical Director...

Today as part of our continued effort on AI and the impact on elite sports, we have the honor to interview a interviewing a group of experts in AI and elite sports: * Dr Bill Burgos, the CEO of LONU a next generation AI based nutrition platform. Bill is also a highly accomplished strength and conditioning expert with extensive experience in the NBA , having served as the Head of Strength and Condi...

This week we have the honor to interview again a group of sports performance executives to talk about the latest trends in the world of sports performance and rehabilitation. * Jason Han, the former head of rehabilitation at LAFC (MLS). Jason is also the head of business development in North America at OneBase health. * Michael Messer, the head of rehabilitation, Nashville SC (MLS). You can watch...

Dear colleague,This week I sat down with David Daoud , CEO of Compliance Standards to share my thoughts on on how elite teams vet sports tech startups, on the common mistakes made by startups. We also discussed the world of elite sports which is based on relationships. We also touched on the tech budget side of teams, and the need to get internal champions to successfully do pilots with teams. We...

Today we have the honor of interviewing Ralph Pethica , the CEO of Genetrainer , a data & personalization platform for professional sports teams. Genetrainer builds bespoke performance software systems for professional sports teams with feature rich platforms that extend from administrative and planning functionalities, to load management and medical. * Communication: The Genetrainer platform faci...

Today we have the honor of interviewing a group of MLB practitioners that are experts in mental performance and preparation. * Lindsay Shaw, Director of Sport psychology for the Guardians, an MLB team. * Zach Brandon, Head of Mental Performance and Coach Development, for the Arizona Diamondbacks, an MLB team. * Josh Kozuch, Mental Performance Coach for the Baltimore Orioles, an MLB team. You can w...

Today we have the honor of interviewing David Dunne, the CEO of Hexis , an intelligence nutrition platform to enhance performance. Hexis is an AI-driven personalized nutrition platform designed to optimize athletic performance through its proprietary "Carb Coding™" system. Developed by experts in sports nutrition, exercise physiology, and data science, Hexis creates individualized fueling plans th...

This week we have the honor to interview a group of NFL Top practitioners to talk about the latest trends in the world of sports performance in the NFL. * Ryan Juarez, Director of rehabilitation, Washington Commanders (NFL team). * Roderick Moore Jr, coordinator of sports science, Pittsburgh Steelers (NFL team). 📝Show Notes: Through this interview, we touched on the following topics: * What major...

Today as part of our continued effort to bring more awareness on female athletes, teams and associated trends related to female athletes, we have the honor to interview a group of female sports performance experts: * Megan Rottler Hattori, Associate Director of Sports Performance for Olympic Sports at Duke University. She is also the primary sports performance coach for the women’s soccer and voll...

This week we had the honor to interview a group of ATP/WTA sports performance experts in pro tennis. * Al Murphy, senior S&C coach at Tennis Australia . Al works with tennis players such as Rinky Hijikata, Emerson Jones and Aleks Vukic. He is also the head of sports science at Tennis Australia. * Abdul Sillah, an experienced performance coach. Abdul has worked with top players such as Serena Willi...

Dear colleague,This week I sat down with David Daoud , CEO of Compliance Standards to share my thoughts on the impact of trade tariffs on sports tech companies and products, on companies’ innovation and R&D. We also discussed the main hubs for sports tech startups are located, what the most innovative sports tech startups are coming from. We also touched on what the revenue and profitability profi...

This week we have the honor to interview again Dr. Ron Dick, associate professor of sports marketing at Duquesne University in the school of business. Ron also worked for 20 years in sports, including 15 years in the NBA with the Sixers and the Nets, and then five years in the NCAA. You can watch the full video interview by clicking on the link above or by listen to the audio podcast link above. Y...

This week we have the honor to interview a group of rehab and performance experts across the NFL and NHL. We discussed concussion assessment and management, their approach to this topic, the various modalities, best practices and trends that they are seeing in the market. * Alexi Pianosi, Head S&C coach at the Colorado Avalanche , an NHL team. * Kim Brouzes, an experienced Canadian sports therapis...

This week we had the honor to interview a group of NCAA sports performance experts. * Dr. John DeWitt, director of applied sports science in the athletic department and a faculty member, Rice University (NCAA team). * Eric Renaghan, Executive Director of Sport Performance, University of Miami (NCAA team). * Drew Lukes, Senior PT at Duke University and the head of sports science, Duke university’s...