Steve Black - Bespoke Improvement

Ben is a quite extraordinary character with an amazing story, which seems to have been made possible by his determination and no-nonsense desire to succeed in his chosen profession. By his early 40s, he’d already gone from PE teacher to head coach of England Rugby 7s, resigned from that job and was hunting for a new challenge. He found one in Fiji, where Ben eventually took a group of spectacularly skilled but unfit and disorganised rugby players from underperforming in 2013 to Olympic Gold in 2016.

A 2 time National Champion swimmer turned elite mental performance coach, Seth Pepper has seen top level sport from every angle. His insight - hard-won from decades of experience - is fascinating and will of benefit to any athlete at any level. Even for those of us who watch on from the sidelines, he's got some superb advice.

A 2 time National Champion swimmer turned elite mental performance coach, Seth Pepper has seen top level sport from every angle. His insight - hard-won from decades of experience - is fascinating and will of benefit to any athlete at any level. Even for those of us who watch on from the sidelines, he's got some superb advice.

Sean Shelton is that rarest of things - a professional American Football player who plies his trade in Europe. The story of how he got from Tampa Bay, Florida to the Swarco Raiders in Innsbruck, Austria via Kansas, Paris and Helsinki, is fascinating, and his in depth analysis of his position on the field - quarterback - is staggering. If you don’t know much about American Football, prepare to be amazed by what you are about to hear. I say during this interview, and I’m happy to argue the point with anyone, that quarterback is the single most difficult position that anyone plays in a team sport. When you’ve heard Sean explain what his job involves, you’ll understand why.

Joining me this week I’ve got an athlete turned psychologist who’s creative and fun approach to her craft is both fascinating, and clearly effective. Madeleine Eppensteiner competed successfully in climbing competitions but after completing a degree in psychology she decided to combine her 2 passions, and started climbingpsychology.com

Axel Merckx was a professional cyclist who competed in 8 Tour de France and won Olympic bronze, a Giro d’Italia stage and the Belgian National Road Racing Championship. Now he’s mentoring young cyclists and steering them towards careers as successful as his.

To call Steve Black - almost universally known as Blackie - a coach is barely to do him justice. He’s a manager, a motivator, a change maker, and so much more.  This is a no nonsense analysis of sporting and business success from a man who has walked the walk for over 3 decades. Enjoy.

I’m Charlie Boscoe and today I’m chatting to Jordi Cruyff - a man who’s experienced the highest highs and the toughest lows that professional sport has to offer. He played for Manchester United and Barcelona, was forced to retire due to injury and then came back a couple of years later just to prove he could. He’s been a sporting director in Malta and Israel and is now making his first forays into management.

Steve House is one of the World’s best alpine climbers, with an extraordinary mountaineering resumé and Scott Johnston has a long and diverse athletic background, having excelled in climbing, swimming and nordic skiing, amongst others. Together they’ve teamed up to create a company called Uphill Athlete, and have also written 2 training manuals for mountain athletes - Training for the New Alpinism and, more recently, Training for the Uphill Athlete. Both are available on their website www.uphillathlete.com

As a rule, active athletes don’t open up about how they feel and sport, and the care of professional sportspeople, is poorer as a result. Jamie’s searing honesty and openness should be an example to anyone of what courage really looks like. Forget the physical battle or rugby, saying that you’re not OK is sometimes the toughest challenge of all.