The Sport Psych Show Dan Abrahams

I’m delighted to speak to licensed clinical and sport psychologist, Dr Mitch Greene in this week’s episode. Mitch is Adjunct Instructor in Temple University’s College of Public Health. He completed his PhD in clinical psychology and worked in family therapy before moving into sport psychology. He is now the sport psychology consultant to several athletic departments, endurance coaches and national race series. 
Mitch has written a fantastic book from his time both as a sport psychologist and an athlete himself entitled “Courage over Confidence: Managing Mind Chatter and Winning the Mental Game”. In the book, Mitch explodes one of the field’s most common and malicious myths - that confidence is a prerequisite for athletic success. Stating that the evidence shows that most athletes find it nearly impossible to sustain positive thinking when their minds are riddled with mind chatter - that unwelcome, doom and gloom self-conversation that crops up in high-stakes competitions. Chatter-filled athletes will excel in practice but struggle to perform on game day and they will fear the stakes of losing despite having trained to compete at their best.

The clear instructions in Courage over Confidence provide guidance for managing mind chatter and a method for “joining forces” with that negative voice rather than battling it. With courage over confidence, good players can learn to become great competitors.

I’m delighted to speak to Dr Billy Low in this week’s episode. Billy is Assistant Professor at the School of Sport and Exercise at Heriot-Watt University. Billy completed his PhD at the University of Essex on the topic of pressure training.
We take a deep dive into pressure training and discuss a fascinating paper Billy led on the subject along with Dr Mike Stoker, Prof Joanne Butt and Prof Ian Maynard entitled “Pressure Training: From Research to Applied Practice”. The purpose of the paper is to guide coaches and sport psychology practitioners in conducting pressure training at both elite and lower levels of sport.
The paper includes steps for conducting pressure training effectively. Based on research and applied practice, the recommendations address how to create pressure and how to establish training environments that are conducive to pressure training. Each recommendation describes a principle that can guide practitioners and coaches as they tailor pressure training to specific sports and levels of competition.

In this episode I’m joined by Dr Brendan SueSee and Dr Shane Pill. We continue the conversation on the spectrum of teaching styles from episode 232.
Shane is one of Australia's leading coach educators and developers, and thought leaders in physical education. He is Associate Professor in Physical Education and Sport at Flinders University. Shane's research is in the fields of sport coaching and physical education curriculum and pedagogy, and education leadership. He has authored over 150 peer reviewed and scholarly articles.
Brendan is a senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education at University of Southern Queensland. His interests are in the Spectrum of Teaching Styles and Physical Education Pedagogy. Prior to lecturing, Brendan was a high school physical education teacher for over 20 years.
Brendan and Shane take us through the Spectrum of Teaching Styles and break each one down as it applies to sports coaches – a topic they have written about in the brilliant book they have co-written called The Spectrum of Sport Coaching Styles.

I’m delighted to welcome back licensed clinical psychologist and sport psychologist, Dr Scott Goldman in this episode.
Scott started out at the University of Arizona where was one of the first embedded sport psychologists in an athletic department. He has since served as a clinical and performance psychologist for the University of Michigan and Saint Louis’ Athletic Departments. Scott also helped co-author the best practices for the NCAA and was part of their first mental health task force.  
Scott has worked as sport psychologist for the Miami Dolphins and Detroit Lions NFL teams and NBA teams Washington Wizards, and currently the Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Vikings.  
Scott has also developed a test called the AIQ which measures sport-specific intelligence that is used across all 5 major leagues in the US as well as in other countries around the world.
Scott shares his considerable knowledge with us on the topic of leadership and we take a deep dive into the different leadership styles.  

This week I’m delighted to speak to Cailie McGuire and Dr Daniel Brown about thriving in sport.
Cailie is in her final year of her PhD at Queen’s University. Her research interest is in sport psychology, specifically team dynamics: looking at how teammates interact with one another and how that influences individual and collective outcomes. Cailie’s PhD specifically focuses on the importance of building trust between teammates, coaches and support staff to promote athlete thriving.
Dan is a senior lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at the University of Portsmouth and leads the undergraduate programme in Sport and Exercise Psychology there. He is a Chartered Psychologist of the British Psychological Society and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Dan’s research centres on the psychology of human excellence and well-being (thriving).
Cailie and Dan have written a paper along with Dr Desmond McEwan, Dr Rachel Arnold and Dr Luc Martin and led by Cailie entitled “Thriving together: conceptual and methodological considerations for examining thriving in interdependent sport”. Cailie and Dan take us through the paper and what it means in practice for coaches.

I’m delighted to speak to Dr Andrew Kirkland in this week’s episode. Andrew is a Lecturer in Sports Coaching at the University of Stirling. He is also a member of the General University Ethics Panel, a Chartered Scientist and a BASES Accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist (support & pedagogy).
Andrew has worked as a sport physiologist and coach developer at British Cycling and supports others in developing performance environments.
Andrew's research philosophy is driven by impact and translation of research into practice. Specifically, he uses Implementation and Behavioural Change Science to explore mental health in sport, 'merging' his practical experience with evidence-based practice with the aim of helping others to develop more effective sporting systems. We discuss a range of topics related to Andrew’s research and experience, including biopsychosocial factors influencing engagement and performance and the mental health of athletes.