#328 Dr Ellie Gennings - Well-Being and Well-Becoming in Children's Sport

I'm delighted to speak with Dr Alan McKay in this week's episode. Alan is an HCPC sport psychologist, researcher, and practitioner. He completed his PhD in sport psychology with the Football Association of Wales (FAW) and is currently working as a senior research assistant at the FAW Centre for Football Research, housed at the University of South Wales. In this role he helps to produce multidisciplinary, world-leading, applied performance science research to enhance the performance of Welsh athletes and organisations. Alan also works within elite level sport at both Welsh Triathlon and in his own company Mindframe Performance, where he has supported athletes competing at both the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. In this episode Alan and I discuss behaviour-based approaches to mental toughness in sport.

I am delighted to speak with Dr Erin Prior in this episode. Erin is a Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist working across a range of sports. Erin has her own sport psychology consultancy practice working with a wide range of athletes, coaches, and parents to enhance their psychological approach to their sport. She has worked with a variety of sporting organisations including the FA, The Wheelchair Football Association, Swim England, West Bromwich Albion, Aston Villa FC, and Leicestershire and Rutland Sport. Erin has also worked as a consultant for various universities including Warwick University, Coventry University, and Birmingham City University. Erin is also a Lecturer in Psychology at Loughborough University. Her research focuses on athlete mental health, specifically sporting staff understandings and experiences of supporting athlete mental health and illness. Erin graduated with a BSc in Psychology from Coventry University, followed by an MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology from Loughborough University. In 2020, Erin returned to the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University as a Post-Graduate University Teacher to undertake a part-time PhD alongside teaching in psychology and sport and exercise psychology. Erin's PhD explored how staff within elite sport conceptualise mental health and mental illness, staff experiences of managing athlete mental health support, and an Olympic athlete's experience of living with bipolar disorder. In this episode we discuss one of the papers from Erin's PhD. 

I'm delighted to speak with Johan Forsberg in this week's episode. Johan is a mental performance coach and Swedish former professional ice hockey player. Johan helps individuals, groups and organisations to develop, feel and perform better. He is primarily interested in leadership, motivation and group dynamics. Johan has provided support and training for coaches, managers, and elite athletes. Prior to his work as a mental performance coach, Johan played professional ice hockey for 15 years including playing for Luleå HF, the highest level in the Swedish Hockey League.

I'm delighted to speak with Dr Phil Kearney in this week's episode. Phil is one of the world's leading skill acquisition specialists. He is Interim Course Director of the Masters and Applied Sports Coaching course at the University of Limerick. Phil completed his PhD at the University of Limerick, exploring the application of skill acquisition principles to children's learning of fundamental movement skills. He subsequently taught at the University of Chichester, England, where he was programme coordinator for the BSc Sport Science and Coaching, before returning to Ireland. A Fellow of the Higher Education Authority, Phil is passionate about skill acquisition, and inspiring the next generation of sport scientists and coaches to apply the core principles of skill acquisition in the development of athletes. Phil is also co-founder of Movement and Skill Acquisition Ireland. Phil and I speak about what skill is and how it can be developed through session design and coach behaviour.

I am delighted to speak with Dr Ellie Gennings in this episode. Ellie is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching based in the Department of Sport and Event Management at Bournemouth University. Ellie is interested in children's wellbeing, children's rights and safe sport. Ellie completed her PhD in 2022 in which she measured children's wellbeing developing a wellbeing scale.   In this episode we discuss a fantastic paper Ellie led on entitled "A critical examination of children's well-being and well-becoming in a professional youth football academy".

I'm delighted to speak with Dr Peter Schneider in this week's episode. Peter is an expert in high performance environments and transitions. He was most recently the mental performance coach at RB Leipzig helping them to win 2 DFB Cups and 1 Supercup. Peter's focus is to help create talent development environments in which athletes, coaches, and parents are provided with the necessary information that leads to success at the professional level.   Peter's area of expertise includes talent-development environments, transition into professional sport, group processes, coach-athlete relationships, and mindfulness in soccer. In this episode Peter and I discuss a range of psychological topics and Peter shares his experiences working with RB Leipzig in the German Bundesliga.

I'm joined by Jeremy Holt in this episode. Jeremy is an author, leadership team coach, trainer and mentor with three and a half decades of experience applying psychology to real-world teams in business, sport, and public service. Jeremy's work with teams focuses on identity - the glue that binds people together and drives performance. As a Chartered Occupational Psychologist, Jeremy supports leadership teams and boards to create shared identity, clarity and cohesion, so that accountability flows naturally and performance becomes sustainable. Whether in the boardroom or on the training ground, Jeremy helps leaders build teams that are not just effective, but proud of who they are together. We speak about Jeremy's new book "For the Love of the Game: How to coach identity, belonging and performance in sport". The book has been written for grassroots and youth sport coaches who care about the people in the shirts as much as the results on the scoreboard. Drawing on years of experience and grounded in social identity research, Jeremy introduces the TRIBE protocol– a practical and powerful method for building a team identity that fuels belonging, commitment and high performance.

I am delighted to welcome back high-performance coach Dr Ian Peek in this episode. Ian works with clients to improve performance and well-being, helping them achieve their goals whether that's transitioning to a new level of achievement or maintaining their position at the top of their sport or industry.  Ian is a PGA Master Professional - the highest educational level in The PGA - which recognises PGA Members who make a significant effort to improve themselves as golf professionals and maintain the highest degree of excellence for themselves and their operations. In this episode Ian shares his 35+ years' experience as a high-performance coach working with clients with both performance and well-being in mind.

I'm delighted to speak with Ray Power in this episode. Ray is a coach developer and best-selling author of 10 soccer coaching books. He is also the Technical Director of the largest football academy in South Asia. Ray has coached at every level of football, from youth at risk to elite youth internationals. He achieved his UEFA A Licence in 2012 and has worked in youth football development all over the world since, including with the FA, Sunderland AFC and Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP), the national sports institute of Bangladesh. Ray's series of soccer coaching books combine to make him the best-selling football coaching author globally. Ray works with every level of coach through Ray Power Coach Education, offering webinars, 1:1 mentoring and football curriculum development. 

I'm delighted to speak with Prof Mike Wilson in this episode. Mike has over 16 years of dedicated expertise in the mental health field. Serving as both a professor and mental performance coach, Mike has collaborated with international governments, leading international bodies like the United Nations and the World Bank, law enforcement agencies, and a diverse range of global sports organisations. Their impactful work includes championing mental health as a human right, providing psychological capacity building for refugees and lower-income communities, facilitating essential support through hygiene distributions for marginalised groups, engaging in post-war peace-building via sports initiatives, and advancing community development through potable water projects. Mike shares his knowledge and experiences as a sport psychologist touching on areas such as growth mindset, challenge and threat states, resilience and explanatory styles.