The Young Player Wellbeing Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

On this episode we talk to the amazing Jen Coe. Jen is an advocate of greater gender equity and inclusivity in sport and is dedicated to promoting well-being across the sporting landscape. With over two decades of experience working in high performance environments, she champions a culture of performance through well-being in her work with organisations and individuals. Jen has worked from grassroots to elite level across a portfolio of sports, in roles such as coaching, analysis, coach development and sport psychology. She currently works within the women’s professional game in football as the Performance Well-being Lead an exciting role and key to supporting the players journey into, through and after professional sport.

 

On the episode, Jen shares detailed insight into the landscape of wellbeing support in the women’s game. Jen has been leading a bit of rebranding in the ‘player care’ space, with the role responsibilities being unclear in recent years. This rebranding has helped to streamline wellbeing support with a bit more clarity and intent. 

 

Jen also shares first hand experience on how wellbeing is addressed at an organisational level, ensuring that staff and wellbeing is being looked after across all of the women’s Super League and Championship teams.

 

Other highlights include discussion around how clubs may or may not exploit future employees due to many with ambition to work in sport being ‘obessed with the badge’. 

 

Thanks so much to Jen for coming on. We hope our listeners enjoy this episode.

Purchase Jen’s new book ‘Myths of Sport Performance’ here: ⁠https://www.sequoia-books.com/catalog/sport/⁠

 

Find Jen on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-coe-1a308a49/⁠

 

Talking Points

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

2. Jen’s experience in sport growing up (4:40)

3. Being person - centred (12:31)

4. Performance Wellbeing Lead @ WSL and Women’s Championship (22:10)

5. Addressing wellbeing at an organisational level (33:03)

6. A psychosocial lens in practice (42:10)

7. Avoiding the ‘tick box’ approach (51:52)

8. Sharing best practice in wellbeing (58:42)

9. Exploitation of those ‘obsessed with the badge’ (1:03:25)

10. Closing Thoughts (1:12:06)

We launch season 4 with a bang as we talk to the one and only Dr Pete Olusoga. Anybody interested in sport psychology will know of Pete, whether that’s through his educational wellbeing snippets on social media, tuning in to the eighty percent mental podcast (which Pete hosts) or having been one of Pete’s many students. Toni and Brad have admired Pete from a far for some time and were buzzing to hear that he was willing to appear on the pod.

 

The 3 chat largely about stress, burnout and the connection with wellbeing. We offer in the moment strategies that will help our listeners to manage stress and ensure that burnout is avoided. In an eye – opening discussion, it becomes apparent that wellbeing is not solely the responsibility of the individual (who knew it?). Whether you’re an athlete, work in a sales team, or a kitchen, the organisation you work for has a duty to ensure that your wellbeing is being catered for. These are the ‘bigger picture’ ways that wellbeing can be addressed in a working environment. It is that very premise that sets up the rest of season 4.

 

The Young Player Wellbeing Podcast is back. Enjoy!

 

Thanks so much to Pete for coming on. Find his socials / podcast info below.

 

Listen / follow / turn notifications on for the eighty percent mental podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/143LNdkleAM1Tx3RLITImd?si=576c5624dcba4f1a

 

Follow Eighty Percent Mental on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eightypercentmental?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

 

Follow Pete on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr_pete_olusoga?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

 

And LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peteolusoga/

 

Talking Points

 

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

2.Pete’s experience in sport growing up (3:51)

3. Experiences influencing career path (7:25)

4. Early research interests (9:26)

5. Stress, burnout and connections with wellbeing (13:26)

6. Common symptoms of burnout (25:19)

7. Strategies to manage stress and avoid burnout (32:52)

8. Wellbeing is the responsibility of the organisation (51:40)

9. Closing thoughts (1:10:20)

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!

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 episodes that our listeners may not have managed to catch this season giving them the opportunity to go back and listen them. As we close things off we want to say thank you to all of our guests who have contributed to season 2 of The Young Player Wellbeing Podcast. Drawing upon your own experiences and expertise has shaped a lot of our work at The Young Player Wellbeing Academy, assisting us to support the wellbeing and performance of young academy players. Additionally, thank you to our listeners and followers for liking, sharing and providing feedback for our episodes it means the world to us. Have a great Christmas and we hope that you will continue to support the podcast moving forward

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 also chat about how to deal with homophobia in the workplace and why it is essential that we use inclusive language. 

David is in an interesting position where he is hybridising strength and condition and psychology work by combining cognitive training and physical conditioning, something that practitioners may be interested to hear more about. We also talk about a motivation climate and what this looks like in a football team and how we can create it. + much more  We hope you enjoy the episode! IG: @stonewallperformance Website: www.stonewallperformance.com Podcast: ‘Drag Race Psychology’ coming soon

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

2. David’s experience in sport growing up (4:04) 3. Experiences of well-being / psychology as an athlete (7:41)

4. From resenting sport as an athlete to working in sport as a practitioner (19:00)

5. Impact of the gay games in David’s career today (22:41)

6. Barriers that gay athletes experience and what we can do to be more inclusive in sport (28:38)

7. Competing in individual sport but working in team sport (34:32)

8. Hybridising S&C and psychology support (40:05)

9. A motivational climate in football (50:32)

10. Moving to Germany (1:00:52)

11. Looking after wellbeing (1:05:38) 12. Tips for young players (1:07:16)

13. Closing thoughts (1:07:59)

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 this episode. We also get the chance to go into detail on Carly's PhD project which was extremely useful for us and will help to inform the work we do with young female academy players in Scotland in the coming weeks. Other interesting discussion focuses on ACL injury in female footballers, moving to the UK to study at Loughborough, differences in UK uni sport vs US college sport, improving sport psych in the UK and of course tips for young athletes. Another great episode in which we learned loads, we hope you enjoy! Twitter: @carly_perry24 Talking points: 1. Intro and welcome to episode (00:00) 2. Carly's experience in sport growing up (02:54) 3. Experiences of wellbeing / psychology as an athlete (5:35) 4. Dealing with 4 ACL injuries in her career and why it is such a prevalent injury (11:50) 5. Differences in college/university sport the UK Vs US (18:45) 6. How Carly experienced transitioning to Loughborough (29:10) 7. Research in mental health in elite women footballers (34:30) 8. The shift in societies acceptance of mental health in recent years (39:00) 9. How can we look to improve the support of athletes mental wellbeing (41:00) 10. Looking after wellbeing (58:40) 11. Tips for young players (01:01:48) 12. Closing thoughts (01:03:05)

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 life to learn more about some of the common areas of support Ryan has found himself providing in the football environment, both in an academy and first team setting. If you’re a trainee sport psych we recommend you listen to this episode which will help to normalise some of the feelings you may have in the early part of your journey. A key message was that we are never the finished product, and that is okay, but we can use this to our advantage when working with athletes.

 

Motivation is a passion of Ryan’s, which we take full advantage of as he provides some great insight into why motivation and commitment come hand in hand. As a sport and exercise psychology lecturer, Ryan also offers some tips for students and those aspiring to work in the field of sport. Of course, for any young athletes tuning in there are plenty of wellbeing and performance tips throughout this episode.

 

We hope you enjoy.

 

Check out Ryan and Tom’s podcast where the hosts have conversations around the difficult / awkward parts of sport psychology that don’t get discussed enough: https://open.spotify.com/show/4mmBtndxGE2iEq3esGiK7S?si=6ea746916a4148e1

 

Talking Points

 

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

2.     Ryan’s experience in sport growing up (3:00)

3.     Experiences of wellbeing / psychology as an athlete (5:02)

4.     Journey to an becoming an accredited sport psychologist (13:33)

5.     Working within football clubs as a sport psychologist (19:42)

6.     Common areas of support in football (29:22)

7.     One area a lot of us struggle with (32:54)

8.      How to boost motivation (40:55)

9.     Skills to develop for those aiming to work in sport (52:36)

10.  Looking after wellbeing (58:43)

11.  Tips for young players (1:02:14)

12.  Closing thoughts (1:06:31)