Performance Strategies & Stumbles

Dan Howells, Collaborate Sports
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Welcome to ”Performance Strategies and Stumbles,” a podcast where we dissect the dynamic world of strategies in performance sports, as well as practitioner struggles, in two compelling halves! In our initial segment, we delve into the strategies practitioners employ in performance sports environments, uncovering the HOW and the WHY behind their decisions. This exploration equips our audience with actionable insights, providing a playbook of strategies to implement in their own athletic endeavours. The second half of our podcast shifts focus to the hurdles and missteps encountered by practitioners throughout their careers. As we delve into the realm of mistakes, our guests candidly share valuable lessons learned from their setbacks. By shedding light on the imperfections in performance, we underscore that success is a journey filled with unexpected twists. Embracing the concept of ”failing forward,” we invite you to join us as we unravel authentic stories behind the ebb and flow of strategy in the ever-evolving world of performance sports! Host: Dan Howells, Founder of Collaborate Sports www.collaboratesports.com email: info@collaboratesports.com

  1. 3d ago

    Ep50 - Tim Kettenring Stumbles - "I grossly overestimated my impact!"

    Tim Kettenring doesn't hold back in this episode. We go all the way back to the early days of his coaching career - the arrogance he carried in, the relationships he damaged, and a job he lost because of it. It's the kind of honest reflection that's rare in this industry, and it sets the tone for everything that follows. What makes Tim's story particularly valuable is how he traces the turning point. Not a single lightbulb moment, but a slow and sometimes painful process of looking inward — recognising that the reason he wasn't in coaching wasn't down to bad luck or circumstances, it was down to him. We talk about the absence of structured mentorship, his sensitivity to feedback and how that kept him stuck, and the moment he started seeking it deliberately - and what happened when he asked for too much of it. We also get into programming and how a support network for sense-checking ideas should always be proactive rather than reactive to avoid mistakes. The episode closes with a moment from Tim's time in professional rugby that might be the most memorable of the whole conversation. Tim describes how a single comment changed his entire approach, moving from a mindset of authority to one of collaboration, and realising that how athletes feel and the trust they place in you matter far more than any session you could design. This episode is sponsored by TeamBuildr - the platform for strength and conditioning coaches to programme, track, and communicate with their athletes. Coaches attending Collaborate 360 in July get a full month of free access. To get your tickets to our first in-person live set of workshops, visit www.collaboratesports.com/360 We'd love to see you there! Enjoying the podcast? Then please consider leaving a review or sharing on your social networks!

    32 min

  2. Jun 21

    Ep49 - Tim Kettenring Strategy - Back to Basics in Multidirectional Speed

    Multi-directional speed is one of the most talked-about qualities in performance sport - but is it one of the most misunderstood? In this episode, Tim Kettenring, President of Maverick Human Performance (https://www.instagram.com/tim_kettenring/) makes the case for why so much speed development work misses the mark, and what a more principled approach actually looks like. With over a decade of experience working across developmental and professional sport, Tim has a gift for getting to the root of what drives genuine speed improvement — and this conversation is a clear example of that. At the heart of Tim's framework is the plyo step — a linking movement that he argues underpins everything else in multi-directional speed. From there, we explore why every change of direction should be understood as a restart for acceleration, and how that reframe changes the way you coach and cue. We also get into the role of perception and action in speed development, how these principles translate to the specific demands of baseball, and why video feedback remains one of the most underused tools for coaches working in this space. Output Sports are the sponsors of today's episode. One portable sensor, one platform — helping coaches test, track and programme athletes with velocity-based training and real-time performance assessment. They'll be at Collaborate 360 this July, so if you're coming along, you'll have the chance to get hands-on with the technology in person. If this episode got you thinking about how you design sessions around speed and skill acquisition, that's exactly the territory we'll be exploring at Collaborate 360 in July. Our design section, led by Matt Sayce, will give you the chance to work through better, within-session decision-making in a room full of great coaches. Early bird tickets have sold out, but if you're a listener of the pod, use the code event25 at checkout before the end of the month and you'll get that early bird price. Link below. Collaborate 360 tickets: www.collaboratesports.com/360 Enjoy the episode!

    39 min

  3. Jun 7

    Ep48 - Jesse Green Stumbles - "I forgot to deload..."

    In this stumbles episode of Performance Strategies and Stumbles, I'm joined again by Jesse Green — a sports scientist whose career has taken him from Australian rules football academies to the NBA and NHL — to explore the mistakes and learning experiences that have shaped how he operates as a practitioner. This isn't a conversation about failure for its own sake. It's about what happens when you're willing to look honestly at the moments that didn't go to plan — and use them as a reference point for how you develop. Jesse covers three distinct stumbles across different stages of his career, each one revealing something important about programming, bias, and how we manage the people around us. The first takes us back to his early days working with the Brisbane Lions Academy, where a lack of deloading before a key fitness test meant that months of solid conditioning work didn't show up in the results. It's a story about assumptions, the pressure of performance KPIs, and the cost of not asking for help when you need it. The second moves to his time at the Sacramento Kings, where a recency bias towards heavy bilateral loading — driven by research he'd been reading — led to a significant back spasm in a player whose anatomy simply wasn't suited to that stimulus. It's a sharp reminder that what works for you, or what you've just read, isn't always what the athlete in front of you needs. The third examines the challenges of middle management — specifically, what happens when you give a practitioner genuine autonomy to develop a new testing protocol, sign off on it without enough scrutiny, and then watch it fall apart in practice. Jesse unpacks the concept of fail-safe experiments: how to give coaches real ownership within a structure that protects both them and the athletes, and what he would do differently to ensure the fail is genuinely safe before anything reaches the floor. There's an honest thread running through all of it — that mistakes are rarely the result of carelessness. They tend to happen when capable people are moving fast, trying to prove themselves, and not yet asking enough of the right questions. What matters is what you do with them. This episode is supported by TeamBuildr — strength and conditioning software built for coaches who take programme design seriously. TeamBuildr gives you the tools to build, deliver, and track training across your entire athlete group in one platform. If you're spending more time building spreadsheets than building athletes, it's worth exploring. Collaborate 360 — Our First In-Person Event Collaborate 360 is coming this July. A full day built around applied practice, group thinking, and getting hands-on with technology that can genuinely change how you work. You can get your tickets via this LINK.

    38 min

  4. May 31

    Ep47 - Jesse Green Strategy - Profiling, Injury Prevention and the Closed Loop Processes

    In this strategy episode of Performance Strategies and Stumbles, I'm joined by Jesse Green — a sports scientist who has developed a rigorous, systematic approach to athlete profiling, with a particular focus on ice hockey and the injury challenges that come with it. At the heart of this conversation is Jesse's closed-loop process — assess, profile, prescribe, and monitor — and how applying that framework with genuine depth can transform the way you understand and support athletes. Rather than accepting the tools and systems already available, Jesse identified a gap, went looking for answers, and built something better. This episode is a detailed look at what that process actually involved. We get into the groin injury problem in ice hockey — how Jesse identified it as the key issue to address, the research and collaboration that followed, and what the understanding of the sport's anatomy and biomechanics revealed about why existing profiling systems were falling short. From there, Jesse walks through how he developed a new assessment framework from the ground up, what effective prescription looks like when it's genuinely tailored to individual athlete needs, and how monitoring every two weeks using force frame data allowed him to adjust strategies and anchor expectations to the adaptation process rather than guesswork. There's a real thread of intellectual honesty running through this conversation — the idea that it sometimes takes an adverse situation to prompt the kind of investigation that should probably have happened sooner, and that the minimum effective dose approach, when applied thoughtfully, can be one of the most powerful tools a practitioner has. Episode Sponsor — 1080 Motion This episode is supported by 1080 Motion — the industry leader for motorised resistance in high performance sport. 1080's technology gives elite practitioners the ability to create precise and unique loading like overspeed, eccentric overload, and isokinetics straight from a screen, with instant insights from athlete outputs and profiling. From speed to strength to return-to-play, 1080 Motion has everything you need to truly drive performance. Their website is HERE. Collaborate 360 — Our First In-Person Event Collaborate 360 is coming this July. A full day built around applied practice, group thinking, and getting hands-on with technology that can genuinely change how you work. Early bird discount tickets are still available — link to join us HERE.

    40 min

  5. May 17

    Ep46 - Tom Dos Santos Stumbles - "I hate admitting mistakes, but I know its where I grow!"

    In this Stumbles episode of Performance Strategies and Stumbles, I'm joined again by Thomas Dos'Santos to explore the mistakes and learning experiences that have shaped his approach as a practitioner and researcher in sports performance. Tom reflects on what it felt like to walk into situations badly underprepared early in his career, and the lasting impact that had on how he approaches his work now. He shares honest lessons from his time coaching in para football — an environment that challenged his assumptions about athlete needs and pushed him to think differently about engagement and communication. We also get into the cost of saying yes to too much, how spreading yourself across too many commitments can quietly compromise the quality of everything you're doing. There's a thread running through all of it about the art of coaching — and what it actually takes to bridge research and real-world practice in a way that genuinely serves the athletes in front of you. Episode Sponsor — Output Sports This episode is supported by Output Sports. Output help coaches test, track, and programme athletes using one portable sensor and one platform — built to give practitioners the tools they need to get the best out of their athletes. Through velocity-based training and real-time performance assessment, they help coaches make smarter, faster decisions — on the pitch, in the gym, wherever they work. See their product HERE Output Sports will be at Collaborate 360 this July, supporting the Decision Zone — where coaches will get hands-on with the technology and explore how to make within-session changes to programmes to ensure the goal and the stimulus for the athlete is being met at all times. Collaborate 360 — Our First In-Person Event Collaborate 360 is coming this July. A full day built around the kind of practical, collaborative thinking that moves you forward as a practitioner — with the Decision Zone, learning environments, and a room full of people who take their development seriously. Tickets are available now HERE.

    32 min

  6. May 10

    Ep45 - Thomas Dos'Santos Strategy - Mastering change of direction

    Mastering Change of Direction: Technical Principles, Assessment and Training Frameworks — with Tom Dos Santos In this strategy episode of Performance Strategies and Stumbles, I'm joined by Tom Dos Santos — a researcher and practitioner who has dedicated a significant amount of his work to understanding one of the most technically demanding qualities in sport: change of direction. This is a detailed, practical conversation that goes well beyond the surface level. Tom walks us through the core biomechanical principles that underpin effective change of direction, including the angle-velocity trade-off and the stress placed on the ACL during cutting manoeuvres — and why coaches need to understand this before they design a single drill. We get into how to approach needs analysis when entering a new sport, how to assess change of direction across multiple angles and actions rather than relying on a single test, and the role game analysis should play in shaping what we do in training. Tom also discusses how to build effective progressions and regressions, how technology is changing the way we evaluate these qualities, and why developing perceptual cues for anticipation is just as important as the physical output itself. If you work with athletes who need to move fast, change direction under pressure, and do it repeatedly without breaking down — this one is worth your full attention. Episode Sponsor — 1080 Motion This episode is supported by 1080 Motion — the industry leader for motorised resistance in high-performance sport. 1080's technology gives elite practitioners the ability to create precise and unique loading like overspeed, eccentric overload, and isokinetics straight from a screen, with instant insights from athlete outputs and profiling. From speed to strength to return-to-play, 1080 Motion has everything you need to truly drive performance. Check them out HERE. 1080 Motion will also be running a dedicated learning zone at Collaborate 360 in July — our first in-person event. Tickets are available now, link below. Collaborate 360 — Our First In-Person Event Collaborate 360 is coming this July. A full day bringing together practitioners from across high-performance sport, with 1080 Motion running a dedicated learning zone on the day. If you want to be in the room, see what we have planned and grab your ticket HERE!

    44 min

  7. Apr 15

    Ep44 - James Nolan Stumbles - "My energy caught the better of me"

    In this Stumbles episode of Performance Strategies and Stumbles, I'm joined again by James Nolan to explore the mistakes and learning experiences that have shaped his approach as a coach in high performance sport. Following on from our previous conversation around in-season strength and power development, this episode shifts the focus to the realities of professional growth — the moments where things went wrong, and what James has taken from them. James shares honest reflections from his time in Ireland and with the Welsh Rugby Union — from communication breakdowns and administrative errors to the gradual realisation of how much active listening and self-awareness matter in a coaching environment. He talks about the tension between being an energetic, engaging presence and staying true to the core principles of a programme, and why understanding how you come across to the people around you is just as important as what you know. Ultimately, this episode is about recognising that mistakes are part of the process — and that growth comes from how we reflect, adapt, and improve. If this episode has made you reflect on your own practice, our Collaborate Sports performance mentorship programmes are designed to support exactly that kind of development — you can find all the details here: https://collaboratesports.com/groupmentorship A big thanks to our sponsor once again, the IUSCA. Check out what they do HERE

    34 min

  8. Apr 4

    Ep43 - James Nolan Strategy - Moving Beyond Strength Maintenance in Training

    In this episode of Performance Strategies and Stumbles, I sit down with James Nolan to explore how we should rethink in-season strength and power development, particularly in rugby. Too often, in-season training is framed as “maintenance.” In this conversation, James challenges that concept — arguing that if we’re not continuing to develop athletes, we may actually be doing them a disservice. Drawing on his experience in elite rugby environments, James shares how to approach in-season training with intent, structuring programmes around clear goals, and ensuring athletes continue to adapt despite the demands of competition. We discuss how to build training blocks across the season, how to balance intensity and volume within sessions, and why individualisation and communication across staff are essential for effective delivery. James also introduces the idea of using storytelling as a coaching tool, helping athletes better understand and buy into training, and explains how viewing the season as a series of “chapters” can help coaches plan more effectively. Ultimately, this episode is about shifting from simply maintaining performance to continually developing athletes within the constraints of competition. 🚀 Collaborate Sports Mentorship Programmes If this episode has challenged your thinking around programme design, in-season training, and athlete development, our Collaborate Sports performance mentorship programmes are designed to support that journey. 👉 Explore all mentorship programmes HERE: This episode is supported by the International Universities Strength and Conditioning Association (IUSCA). IUSCA are hosting the International Conference on Strength and Conditioning 2026 at Leeds Beckett University on Friday 5th June 2026, bringing together leading practitioners and researchers from across the world. Details HERE.

    36 min
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About

Welcome to ”Performance Strategies and Stumbles,” a podcast where we dissect the dynamic world of strategies in performance sports, as well as practitioner struggles, in two compelling halves! In our initial segment, we delve into the strategies practitioners employ in performance sports environments, uncovering the HOW and the WHY behind their decisions. This exploration equips our audience with actionable insights, providing a playbook of strategies to implement in their own athletic endeavours. The second half of our podcast shifts focus to the hurdles and missteps encountered by practitioners throughout their careers. As we delve into the realm of mistakes, our guests candidly share valuable lessons learned from their setbacks. By shedding light on the imperfections in performance, we underscore that success is a journey filled with unexpected twists. Embracing the concept of ”failing forward,” we invite you to join us as we unravel authentic stories behind the ebb and flow of strategy in the ever-evolving world of performance sports! Host: Dan Howells, Founder of Collaborate Sports www.collaboratesports.com email: info@collaboratesports.com

Information

  • Creator
    Dan Howells, Collaborate Sports
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    52
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2023 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Performance Strategies & Stumbles

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