The Young Player Wellbeing Podcast

Hello wonderful listeners and welcome back! As always on The Young Player Wellbeing Podcast we have been hard at work making sure that this season keeps building on what has been an incredible growth of the podcast so far. Not only have there been changes to the graphics and the jingle, we have been hard at work tweaking the pod so that our listeners can get even more out of our recordings. As wel...

20 episodes in 20 weeks, 19 guests in total, triple the amount of listeners and a massive increase in followers on our social media accounts. Season 2 has been an incredible journey for Antonio and Brad. In their final episode tune in to hear the duo pick apart season 2, addressing the key takeaways from the season as well as key topics that were covered. Furthermore, the episode highlights episod...

On todays episode we chat to sport psychology consultant, S&C coach and sport diversity leader David Smith. David has been using his platform as an openly gay coach to support athletes from the LGBTQ+ community in recent years. He shares with us some significant challenges he experiences as a young gay athlete, competing in the gay games and how this has ultimately shaped his career today. We...

On today's episode Brad gets the chance to speak to expert in mental health in women's football, Carly Perry. Carly grew up in the States and comes in with a different past experience of sport psychology / wellbeing growing up as an athlete than most guests we speak to on the podcast. This is largely due to cultural difference between the US and UK, which is a recurring theme throughout th...

On our latest episode we chat to HCPC accredited sport and exercise psychologist, Ryan Pelling. Ryan is someone Brad and Toni have known for a couple of years, having been part of the same supervision group throughout that time. Ryan has had a lot of experience working in football as a sport psychologist, both as a trainee and as an accredited practitioner. We try to bring Ryan’s experience to lif...

On this episode we chat to Nina Wilson, who will be joining us as a Wellbeing Coach at The Young Player Wellbeing Academy very soon, as we make our first steps into working in the women's game. As well as working on the YPWA, Nina is a professional footballer, having recently moved up to Scotland to play for Hibs in the SWPL. This season we have spent a lot of time understanding the demands of...

On this episode Brad and Toni chat to Ewan McLevy. Ewan is currently playing in the West of Scotland junior league for Troon FC, studying football coach performance and development at Edinburgh Napier and is a coach for the U14's at Kilmarnock FC. Our guest played with Kilmarnock FC's academy for around 8 years. We talk about the highs and lows of academy football, including attending a pe...

Nutrition is a vital tool that athletes need to utilise in order to not only maximise their performance but to look after their wellbeing too. On this week's episode Antonio had the privilege of being joined by an expert in the field and got a crash course in all things nutrition. Our guest this week Mikaela, has not only completed an undergraduate and postgraduate degree in Sports Nutrition,...

This week Antonio and Brad had the pleasure of being joined by Ex Aberdeen F.C. and Sunderland A.F.C. footballer Russell Anderson. During this episode Russell reflects on his career covering topics such how he dealt with setbacks, travelling to play in Europe, representing his country, moving to Sunderland for a spell and what football has taught him. Additionally, Russell has an incredible founda...

On this episode we get the chance to speak to Stirling Uni FC striker and Cammy Mckinley. Cammy, like many of our guests, played academy football as a teenager but was unfortunately released before U17 level. Despite this setback, Cammy didn't sulk and worked hard in the gym and on the pitch throughout his undergraduate degree, progressing from the 5th team to the 1st team in 4 years. As the t...

In this episode, Toni and Brad get the chance to chat to Lucas Capalbo, multi - award winning coach and lecturer in sport psychology and coaching at London Metropolitan University. Hailing from Brazil, the land of Joga Bonito, Lucas has had quite the career so far. As a coach, he has been a head coach in Sweden (Malmo), Italy (Milan), and London and an assistant coach in USA (Michigan). On his aca...

Unfortunately Antonio was not able to attend this week's recording (which Brad wasn't salty about at all...) however this was made up for by yet another fantastic guest. This week Brad was joined by UEFA C licensed and full time coach at Bromley FC George Orchard. George offers a fantastic look into his journey through the academy system and some of the struggles he experienced. From balancing sch...

Our latest episode is with Tom Gardiner, who is the performance psychologist and player care coordinator at a WSL club. Toni and Brad shared a supervisor with Tom over the past year or so and he has offered plenty of advice on navigating a career in the world of sport psychology and football. It was great to catch up and chat about key psychological components of player support in academy football...

This week we get the chance to pick the brains of 'that wellbeing guy' Richard Simpson. Richard is a lecturer in sport psychology at Leeds Trinity University and an associate lecturer with The Open University. Richard completed his PhD at Leeds Beckett University with his research expertise and focus sitting within psychological well-being among sport performers. Richard is interested in individua...

This week Brad and Toni had the pleasure of being joined by fellow Sport and Exercise Psychologist in training Louise Paul. Don't let the "in training" part fool you, Louise has worked with a range of athletes (even some tradies) and some National Governing bodies. This week we gain insight into how a programme gears up for an Olympics, the similarities and differences between supporting male and...

Our latest guest is Rory Winters, a man who has faced many setbacks and challenges throughout his life. The odds may have been stacked against him but Rory has taken each challenge head on and carved out a successful career in football. In the first half of the pod, Rory goes into detail on some of the challenges he, and many others around the country, faced as a youth player. We discuss how chall...

This week we are joined by the man with many hats - director, Dad coach and ex professional footballer - Graham Robertson. When we first met Graham we knew that he was going to be an excellent guest and to no surprise, he delivered. Graham reflects back on his own career as a youth and how today's academy set up compares to that of his era. We go on to discuss how this shaped his career in profess...

This week Antonio had the pleasure of being joined by Natascia Bernardi. Natascia is the current Girls Academy Manager at Kinetic Foundation, U12 Head Coach for QPR and U16 Assistant coach for London Football Talent Centre. She has been on a journey of her own that started from Bologna, Italy where she was born and fell in love with football. Her experience includes Regional Referee for 12 years i...

We have wanted to chat to a student - athlete on the podcast for a while and are grateful to have had the chance to learn more about this dynamic through guest Conor Doan. Like so many, Conor was released from an academy set up in his late teens. Thankfully, he was given an opportunity to play full time football with the University of Stirling 1st team whilst studying there. After completing his u...

In our second episode of season 2 we were joined by Anthony Cato. With Anthony being an ex academy footballer with experience competing as a semi professional footballer and currently working as transitions officer and careers lead at League Football Education. It is no surprise that this episode is full of incredible in-depth discussions around not just the struggles footballers face but how they...

In our first episode of season 2 we had the privilege of chatting to Dr Michael Malone. Brad first met Michael in his 4th year of university, when he worked under Michael on a project at Dundee United Community Trust. Michael discusses many of the projects DUCT have been doing over the years and their connection to wellbeing and mental health in the community. We also get to discuss Micheal's...

We got the chance to chat to East Kilbride FC first team coach Blair Munn. As a youth player, Blair had the privilege of playing for Rangers and Falkirk as well as representing Scotland. Like many, Blair was released but has still managed to pave out a successful career in football. It's evident from this episode that Blair has taken a lot from his playing days, taking so many skills he picked...

On this episode we're delighted to have sport psychologist Alban Dickson join us. Alban currently works for an SPFL club, with both the men's and women's team. We get to pick Alban's brains and learn more about how applying acceptance and commitment therapy (or ACT) can benefit athletes. Alban does a great job of breaking down ACT and provides some tips for our players to consider....

Around the country young players will currently be enjoying their off - season or (not) enjoying their pre - season. We thought this would be a good time to share some insight into how players can use this time to their advantage. We focus on what young players should be accountable for during this time and the best ways to mentally recharge before a new season gets underway. As always, we draw up...

This week we pick the brains of Lucy Boyce who provides some amazing insight into psychology in football. Lucy spent the past season working at West Ham as a performance psychology intern and at Gillingham as a lead academy psychologist. Chatting to Lucy, it was clear how knowledgeable and passionate she is about sport psychology and is likely the reason she has been so effective in both her roles...