The Young Player Wellbeing Podcast Care Visions

This week we are joined by Sport and Exercise Psychologist and founder of AfrowithJeevi and The Dare Platform, Jeevi Pillai. Jeevi has paved her own lane in the field, combining dance and sport psychology, currently residing in Nairobi, Kenya. 



Jeevi brings with her a wealth of experience. Starting her sport psychology journey in her home nation of Singapore, Jeevi spent 2 spells as a Sport Psychologist at the National Youth Sports Institute in Singapore. As sport psychologists supporting youth athletes in the UK, we wanted to know more about the common issues that youth athletes in Singapore experiences, find out more about how Jeevi supported these athletes and attempt to draw parallels between these.



We also have intriguing discussion on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a modern psychological approach, and try to learn from one another in relation to how we have applied this in different sporting contexts. Plenty of metaphors to help athletes cope with negative thoughts and feelings!



Other highlights include a lengthy discussion around transitions and Jeevi's entrepreneurial pursuits.



To learn more about Jeevi, The Dare Platform and AfrowithJeevi, check out some of the following links:



The Dare Platform: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/thedareplatform/⁠



AfrowithJeevi: https://www.afrowithjeevi.com/



Jeevi's LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeevi-pillai-248089bb/⁠



 

Talking Points



1. Intro and welcome to episode (00:00)

2. Jeevi’s experience in sport growing up (3:57

3. Personal experiences that lead to pursing a career in sport psychology (7:43)

4. Sport psychology in dance (10:17)

5. Research in transitions (15:00)

6. ACT for youth athletes (30:19)

7. ACT to cope with negative thoughts and feelings (37:15)

8. Supporting youth athletes in Singapore (51:10)

9. The Dare Platform (1:02:23)

10. Closing thoughts (1:07:23)

Our guest today is Director of Player Wellbeing at the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Dr Michael Bennett. Michael is a former professional footballer, making over 150 appearances in the football league, having also represented England at U20 level. Unfortunately, like so many, Michael experienced a difficult injury in the early stages of his career. He speaks openly on this, admitting he never fully recovered from it, ultimately hampering his playing career. Despite this setback, Michael has used this experience to his advantage, paving out an extremely successful career in football off the pitch. A trained psychotherapist, Michael has combined his knowledge in mental health and wellbeing and experience as a player to shape the landscape of player wellbeing in the UK - all through the outstanding work being done at the PFA.

An excellent guest to chat to which helps to inform the work we do with academy players. Join us as we discuss 'industry hazards' in professional football and outlines some solutions for dealing with them.

Talking Points

1. Intro and welcome to episode (00:00)
2. Michael's experience in sport growing up (4:15)
3. Experiences with wellbeing / psychology as an athlete (10:36)
4. What do we mean by mental health? (22:15)
5. Moving towards a healthy head space (30:14)
6. Transitioning out of professional football (41:25)
7. Players willingness to speak about wellbeing (53:30)
8. Areas of wellbeing players should be educated on (1:04:34)
9. Advice for academy players (1:07:37)
10. Closing thoughts (1:09:22)

For player services and more information on the wellbeing focused work being done by the PFA, visit their Website: https://www.thepfa.com/

On this episode we get the opportunity to talk to the legendary 'elite sport sleep coach' Nick Littlehales. Nick is a #1 international best selling author with his book 'Sleep' and has worked with some of the top performing athletes, clubs and coaches in the world, including Manchester United and Alex Ferguson; heard of them? He is the creator of the R90 Technique which has revolutionised the way so many look at sleep. This technique helps individuals to optimise recovery to maximise wellbeing and performance by breaking down their 24 hour day into cycles. On the episode Nick breaks down this cycle and offers practical tips which can be immediately applied.



We have wanted to dedicate an episode on sleep since starting the podcast and have managed to secure the best guest to do this. It was a privilege to have a guest of Nick's calibre on the podcast and we encourage you to try to take as much from this as possible - it could help you redefine the meaning of 'sleep'! The episode was mind - blowing to be a part of. When you have an expert like this on, you let him do his thing. We hope when you tune in you feel the same way we do!



Nicks socials below



Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_sportsleepcoach/



LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicklittlehales/



Twitter: https://twitter.com/sportsleepcoach⁠



Website: https://sportsleepcoach.com/



Talking Points

 

1. Intro and welcome to episode (00:00)

2. Nick’s experience in sport growing up (3:45)

3. Experiences of wellbeing / psychology as an athlete (6:31)

4. Early interests in sleep (8:22)

5. Impact of sleep on wellbeing and performance (20:05)

6. The R90 Technique (34:10)

7. Summarising (1:15:40)

8. Our key take aways (1:22:51)

9. Closing thoughts (1:27:52)

This week we are joined by performance psychologist Hugh Gilmore. Hugh has worked at the highest levels in sport, including roles as a psychologist for Olympic and Paralympic teams at Rio and Tokyo.

On the episode, we draw on Hugh's knowledge and experience to shed light on some of the harsh realities of the world of sport, and offer tips to help athletes deal with this. Hugh has a unique outlook on the world and is unafraid to challenge the viewpoint of others, making for quite an interesting episode!
This all aligns well with his practice philosophy, where Hugh implements REBT and Motivational Interviewing to support the performance and wellbeing of athletes.

An eye - opening, thought provoking conversation that we certainly won't be forgetting anytime soon. P.s. Hugh, have you flipped the coin yet?

You can follow Hugh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hughjohngilmore/

Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugh-gilmore-22a30039/

Visit his website: https://podiumpsychology.com/

Subscribe to his YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PodiumPsychology

Talking Points

1. Intro and welcome to episode (00:00)
2. Hugh's experience in sport growing up (3:10)
3. Taboos of mental health and wellbeing in sport (8:20)
4. Offering wellbeing support at Olympic level (25:48)
5. Harsh realities of performance sport (39:51)
6. A philosophy that improves performance (50:30)
7. Building confidence (1:05:55)
8. Closing thoughts (1:14:28)

To launch season 3, we are joined by Double Olympian, performance sport specialist and mental health advocate Jack Green. Jack is competitive, driven and ambitious and has competed at the highest level. But as we know, success in sport / work does not always equate to happiness and fulfilment in life. This rings true for Jack, who publicly spoke about his poor mental health after London 2012 - a time where mental health support for athletes was limited. These games were something Jack had dreamed of since a young kid. They mark a major landmark in his career, yet he shares with us how this moment wasn't quite what he had dreamed of. We then move through Jack's journey towards Rio 2016 and how his experiences as an athlete has shaped his coaching philosophy, where he has coached athletes to world records. We then dive into how the skills learned from sport transfer to the world of work.

Thanks to Jack for coming on for an excellent episode. We hope you enjoy!

Find Jack on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackgreenoly/

Talking Points

1. Intro and welcome to episode (00:00)
2. Jack's experience in sport growing up (3:10)
3. Experiences of wellbeing / psychology as an athlete (5:07)
4. Professional at 18, world championships at 19 (10:22)
5. London 2012 (21:10)
6. Difficulties faced post - London 2012 (36:11)
7. Rio 2016 and an early athletic retirement (44:48)
8. Role as the Global Wellbeing Lead at the BBC (48:40)
9. From athlete to coach (53:23)
10. Closing thoughts (1:00:30)

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 well as improving our delivery, we have continued on from our theme of getting insightful and expert guests onto the podcast.
Tune in Monday 12th of February when our first episode drops! We think it might be one of our best yet!