Performance Strategies & Stumbles

Dan Howells, Collaborate Sports

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

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#63
Sunday · 46 min
Ep 61 - Tom Clark Strategies - "Sleep and light are the two key variables in performance."
In this episode of Performance Strategies and Stumbles, I'm joined by Tom Clark. Tom spent 13 years as a performance coach in motorsport and Formula One, looking after the sleep, training, nutrition and recovery systems that keep a driver's output steady across a season that seems designed to wear them down. He holds a professional doctorate from Liverpool John Moores University focused on jet lag and travel fatigue in elite motorsport, and he has since founded Faze, a jet lag and travel performance platform used across Formula One, the Premier League, the NFL, World Athletics and more. We start by separating two things that usually get lumped together. Jet lag is a desynchronisation problem: the body clock is out of step with local time, and it shows up as irritability, poor sleep and impaired performance. Travel fatigue is the body's response to the stress of travelling itself, and it can build up even when no time zones are crossed. Treat one as the other and you end up solving the wrong problem. From there, Tom explains why travelling east is a much tougher physiological ask than travelling west, and covers the two biggest levers coaches actually have: light exposure and sleep pressure. We talk about why flight timing alone can decide whether athletes adjust smoothly or lose days to disrupted sleep, why pre-adjustment is so hard to deliver in a team setting, and how the first night effect can undermine even a well-managed trip. The thread running through all of it is individualisation. Athletes have different sleep patterns and chronotypes, so a single travel plan for the whole squad will suit some of them and cost others. We finish on the mistakes Tom sees teams make when they treat travel as a logistics problem rather than a performance one. Tom is back next week to share the stumbles from his career and what you can learn from his mistakes. Before then, do check out how his company Phaze is supporting teams and organisations to optimise performance in this area: www.phaze-app.com/ Collaborate 360 Performance Workshops: now regional After Collaborate 360 in London, it was clear that one day in one city wasn't enough. So we've launched regional, single-topic workshops built on the same learning model: you learn by doing. There's one specialist coach, one room of practitioners, and it's close enough to home that going deep doesn't cost you a full day of travel. Our first workshop is on Wednesday 28th October at Hertfordshire Sports Village. The focus is game speed, and it's led by Ruth Waghorn from the FA. More regions will be announced soon. Early bird pricing is open now. Book your place: www.collaboratesports.com/workshops
#62
September 13 · 36 min
Ep 60 - Jonas Tawiah-Dodoo Stumbles - "Just one more has happened before so many injuries."
In this episode of Performance Strategies and Stumbles, I'm joined by Jonas Dodoo for a conversation that has less to do with method than with the thing underneath it: how a coach actually learns, and how much of that learning arrives as a mistake you didn't see coming. We start where most coaching education doesn't, with the early stumbles. Not the tidy version told in hindsight, but the decisions that cost something at the time and only made sense years later. Jonas is open about his, and the pattern that emerges is worth sitting with — the errors rarely came from not knowing enough, they came from communicating badly or committing too early. From there we get into communication as a skill in its own right rather than a soft add-on to the real work. Feedback is the clearest example: whether it's constructive has as much to do with how it lands as how it's delivered, and a coach who hasn't considered the receiver's position is essentially guessing. That runs straight into the line between directing an athlete and empowering one, and how easily practitioners drift to one side without noticing they've done it. The part I keep coming back to is his case for inquiry. Understanding methods you don't use, and being able to argue for them, is not a detour from developing your own philosophy — it is the thing that develops it. The alternative is over-commitment, where belief in a system quietly starts limiting the athlete in front of you, and Jonas is direct about how often that happens and what it costs. Context matters here too: what counts as good coaching is partly defined by the environment you're standing in, which is why adaptability travels better than loyalty to a model. We finish on the long game, what injuries and setbacks teach that a well-run block never will, and why the practitioners who develop fastest tend to be the ones who stayed somewhere long enough to live with the consequences of their own decisions. Stay up to date about our future performance workshops! Get first access to upcoming workshops built for high performance coaches and practitioners. Real-world skills, applied immediately. Click here to learn more https://collaboratesports.activehosted.com/f/79
#61
September 6 · 51 min
Ep 59 - Jonas Tawiah-Dodoo Strategies - "Forces in the right direction are everything."
In this episode of Performance Strategies and Stumbles, I'm joined by Jonas Dodoo, a speed specialist whose work sits at the point where multi-directional speed, deceleration and change of direction stop being a collection of drills and start being a set of principles you can actually coach from. Jonas works from four core principles, and the first does most of the heavy lifting: forces in the right direction. Not more force, not harder force, force applied where the task in front of the athlete actually needs it. A lot of what gets diagnosed as a speed problem turns out to be an orientation problem, and once you see it that way the session you write looks different. From there we get into what has to hold for any of that to transfer. Pelvic and trunk control comes up repeatedly, less as a stability buzzword than as the thing that decides whether force reaches the ground in a useful shape or leaks out sideways. Then load management and pre-tension, how you prepare tissue to accept force rather than absorb it by accident, which is where the injury conversation and the performance conversation stop being separate topics. The part I keep coming back to is his framework for diagnosis: is this a physical limitation or a co-ordinative one? Can the athlete not produce the force, or can they not organise it? Get that wrong and you spend a block in the gym on a problem that was never in the gym. Jonas is clear that most common coaching mistakes trace back to skipping that question, and he's blunt about the misconceptions that keep circulating in the deceleration and change-of-direction space. We finish on the long game, how coaching relationships and mentorship compound over years, and why the practitioners who develop fastest tend to be the ones who stayed somewhere long enough to see the consequences of their own decisions. Stay up to date about our future performance workshops! Get first access to upcoming workshops built for high performance coaches and practitioners. Real-world skills, applied immediately. Click here to learn more https://collaboratesports.activehosted.com/f/79
#60
August 30 · 31 min
Ep 58 - Tim Roberts Stumbles - "Find the rhythm and dance to it in a new culture"
In this episode of Performance Strategies and Stumbles, I'm joined by Tim Roberts Sports Medicine Manager at UFC Performance Institute, Mexico City for a conversation about the road that got him there: the countries, the systems, the athletes, and the mistakes he still thinks about years later. This one leans into the stumbles. Tim is unusually willing to name his own a diagnosis he got wrong, a rehab that didn't hold, decisions he'd make differently now that he can see the whole arc of a career rather than the week in front of him. What comes out of it isn't a list of errors so much as a way of working: he talks about loading aggressively within safe limits, and it's clear that position was earned by having once been too cautious and watching what that cost an athlete. The failures are where his practice actually got built. A big thread here is what happens when you move. Working across different international settings sounds glamorous until you land somewhere and realise the model that made you effective in the last place doesn't transfer — the medical system works differently, the club structure works differently, the expectations of what a practitioner is even for work differently. Tim's argument is that the first job in a new environment isn't to improve it, it's to understand it: how referrals actually happen, who holds the trust, what "normal" looks like locally. Cultural adaptation, in his telling, is less about language than about knowing whose system you've walked into. From there we get into leadership how he learned to give and receive feedback, how trust with coaches and athletes gets built long before an injury forces the issue, and what changes when you're responsible for a team rather than a caseload. He's candid about the parts of that transition nobody prepares you for. There's a real thread of humility running through this conversation. Tim's practice looks the way it does because of the places he's worked and the things that went wrong in them, and he's more interested in what he's still getting wrong than in defending what he's already learned. Stay up to date about our future performance workshops! Get first access to upcoming workshops built for high performance coaches and practitioners. Real-world skills, applied immediately. Click here to learn more https://collaboratesports.activehosted.com/f/79
#59
August 23 · 40 min
Ep 57 - Tim Roberts Strategy - "If your diagnosis is wrong, everything falls apart."
In this episode of Performance Strategies and Stumbles, I'm joined by Tim Roberts — Sports Medicine Manager at UFC Performance Institute, Mexico City — for a conversation about rehabilitation in combat sport and what it actually takes to get a fighter back to competing. At the heart of this conversation is a deliberate shift in language: return to fight, not return to play. It sounds like semantics until you sit with what a fight actually demands — a weight cut, a date that can't move, an opponent whose job is to find the thing you've just rehabbed. Tim's argument is that if the language doesn't reflect the end point, neither will the process. Rather than starting with protocols, he starts with the impairment itself and what the athlete is actually being asked to return to. We get into the psychological side of rehab and why it isn't a bolt-on to the physical work — including how keeping an injured fighter around the gym protects the identity that injury tends to strip out. From there, Tim walks through the distinction between early and mid-stage rehab and why collapsing the two is where a lot of programmes come unstuck, how he thinks about structuring intensity and volume as the athlete progresses, the value of simulating fight situations rather than testing in clean conditions, and what a genuine set of return-to-fight criteria looks like when it accounts for physical, technical and mental readiness rather than just one of the three. He's also candid about the time pressure combat athletes carry compared to team-sport environments, where a missed camp isn't a missed weekend — and about the communication and collaboration between sports medicine staff and coaches that has to hold up under it. There's a real thread of humility running through this conversation — the sense that good rehab is less about owning a protocol than about asking better questions of the athlete in front of you, and Tim's point that mentorship in this space is worth more to a practitioner than almost anything else they can go looking for. Episode Sponsor — Absolute Performance This episode is supported by Absolute Performance — gym facilities designed to inspire, built to perform. Absolute Performance design and build performance spaces that push boundaries, set standards, and inspire greatness, maximising potential and performance for people and teams in every space they touch. Their website is HERE. Stay up to date about our future performance workshops! Get first access to upcoming workshops built for high performance coaches and practitioners. Real-world skills, applied immediately. Click here to learn more https://collaboratesports.activehosted.com/f/79
#58
August 16 · 36 min
Ep 56 - Tom Clough Stumbles - "Mistakes should shape us, not define us."
In this episode of Performance Strategies and Stumbles, I'm joined again by Tom Clough for a conversation about the mistakes that have shaped our careers and in particular, the ones that happen in the interview room. At the heart of this one is a reframe that runs through everything Tom says: mistakes should shape us, not define us. Interviews get treated as a test you pass by being composed and measured, when in practice they're a very short window in which energy, passion and authenticity do most of the work. Tom is candid about how often that got him early on how a demeanour he thought read as calm and considered was interpreted as disinterest, and how many opportunities went elsewhere before he understood what was actually being assessed. From there we get into the practical side of that: why preparation isn't about scripting answers but about being able to recall the right examples under pressure, and why role-playing common questions out loud, with someone else, not in your head, is the difference between having the experience and being able to convey it. Tom also turns the lens the other way and looks at the interviewer's job, which is harder than it's given credit for, especially online where building any genuine connection in forty-five minutes is a real challenge. He's not sparing about job descriptions either, and makes a strong case that the rigid, sprawling, twenty-point person specification is quietly filtering out exactly the candidates you'd want to meet. The conversation lands on feedback, giving it and asking for it and the argument that it's a gift rather than a verdict. It's the thing most likely to fast-track a change you'd otherwise take years to make on your own, and Tom's willingness to talk openly about where he got it wrong is the clearest illustration of that in the episode. Stay up to date about our future performance workshops! Get first access to upcoming workshops built for high performance coaches and practitioners. Real-world skills, applied immediately. Click here to learn more https://collaboratesports.activehosted.com/f/79
#57
August 9 · 33 min
Ep 55 - Tom Clough Strategy - "It's not about the solution. It's about naming the problem."
In this episode of Performance Strategies and Stumbles, I'm joined by Tom Clough — Head of Performance at Newcastle Red Bulls — for a conversation about systems thinking and what it actually looks like in a performance sport environment. At the heart of this conversation is a simple but powerful reframe: systems thinking isn't a problem-solving technique, it's a way of seeing. Most of what we treat as problems are really symptoms of interactions we haven't mapped — and until you look at the whole system rather than its individual parts, you end up solving the wrong thing well. Rather than starting with solutions, Tom starts with the question of whether the problem has even been correctly identified — and this episode is a detailed look at what that philosophy involves in practice. We get into why identifying the actual problem is harder and more valuable than generating answers to it, and why the instinct to simplify a complex problem is so often the thing that keeps it unsolved. From there, Tom walks through feedback loops and how they shape behaviour in a department whether or not anyone is paying attention to them, the practical use of causal loop diagrams to get those interactions out of your head and onto paper where a group can interrogate them, and the role leadership plays in building a culture where this kind of thinking is possible rather than theoretical. He also makes the case for collaboration as a genuine input to better decision-making, not a nice-to-have. There's a real thread of curiosity running through this conversation — the idea that practitioners don't need better answers so much as deeper questions about the environments they work in, and that awareness of how the parts interact tends to do more for outcomes than any single intervention. Episode Sponsor — Absolute Performance This episode is supported by Absolute Performance — gym facilities designed to inspire, built to perform. Absolute Performance design and build performance spaces that push boundaries, set standards, and inspire greatness, maximising potential and performance for people and teams in every space they touch. Their website is HERE. Stay up to date about our future performance workshops! Get first access to upcoming workshops built for high performance coaches and practitioners. Real-world skills, applied immediately. Click here to learn more https://collaboratesports.activehosted.com/f/79
#56
July 26 · 32 min
Ep54 - Peter Hughes Stumbles - "Extreme ownership is a big area of learning."
In this episode of Performance Strategies and Stumbles, I'm joined again by Peter Hughes — a rehabilitation specialist at the Gallagher Chiefs in New Zealand — this time for a conversation about the mistakes that shaped him. At the heart of it is a reframe that runs against how most practitioners are trained to operate: mistakes aren't something to be minimised or hidden, they're the primary mechanism by which you actually get better. Peter is refreshingly open about his own, and this episode is a detailed look at what he took from them. We get into the early-career trap of believing more is always better, and why that belief is so seductive for young coaches. Peter walks through the single stressor approach in rehab — why isolating one variable at a time is often the only way to know what's actually driving a problem — and how he manages expectations with coaches when athlete welfare and selection pressure pull in opposite directions. He also makes the case for mentorship as a genuine accelerator, and for self-reflection and journaling as practical defences against confirmation bias. There's a real thread of humility running through this conversation — the idea that trust with athletes is built through genuine care rather than technical credentials, and that a team culture only grows when people are willing to challenge each other respectfully and be challenged in return.
#55
July 19 · 38 min
Ep 53 - Peter Hughes Strategy - "Working back from the game is fundamental."
In this episode of Performance Strategies and Stumbles, I'm joined by Peter Hughes — a rehabilitation specialist at the Gallagher Chiefs in New Zealand, whose role uniquely combines physiotherapy with strength & conditioning to deliver a truly performance-driven approach to rehab. At the heart of this conversation is a simple but powerful reframe: rehabilitation isn't just about restoring what was lost — it's one of the biggest opportunities for performance gains an athlete will ever have. Rather than treating rehab as a holding pattern, Peter builds programs designed to return athletes better than they were before injury — and this episode is a detailed look at what that philosophy involves in practice. We get into why understanding the injury mechanism is the foundation of effective rehab, including assessing the movement patterns that existed before the injury ever occurred. From there, Peter walks through his approach to intensity in rehab (and why it doesn't simply mean adding load), the value of early exposure to game-like scenarios for reintegration, and how he isolates individual qualities before integrating them back into the whole. He also makes the case for why movement quality is so often sacrificed for quantity — and what a whole-system approach to rehabilitation really looks like. There's a real thread of pragmatism running through this conversation — the idea that the best rehab plan isn't the one that simply clears an athlete to return, but the one that restores, rebuilds, and enhances their capabilities so they're genuinely ready for the demands of the game. Episode Sponsor — VALD Performance This episode is supported by VALD Performance — makers of the NordBord, ForceFrame, ForceDecks and HumanTrak. VALD Performance systems are built with the high-performance practitioner in mind, translating traditionally lab-based technologies into engaging, quick, easy-to-use tools for daily testing, monitoring and training. 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. If you want to be in the room, see what we have planned and grab your ticket HERE!
#54
July 12 · 37 min
Ep 52 - Les Spellman Stumbles - "I was too obsessed with targets."
What happens when a coach is willing to admit what they got wrong? In this episode, Les Spellman, founder of Spellman Performance, opens up about the mistakes that shaped his coaching — and why vulnerability, not certainty, has been the real driver of his development. Having worked with athletes across the NFL, NCAA, MLB and Olympic sport, Les has earned the right to be confident in his methods, which makes his honesty about where he's got it wrong all the more valuable. At the heart of the conversation is the danger of rigidity — how being too wedded to targets, technology and technical drills can quietly hold athletes back. Les reflects on his early mistakes in speed training and the shift towards a more holistic approach, including the role of eccentric work in keeping athletes fast and healthy. We also get into why context is everything in performance training, how feedback from teams has sharpened his coaching, and the often-overlooked challenge of hiring and managing staff in the private sector — and what it takes to build an environment where both athletes and coaches thrive. 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 reflect on and evolve your own coaching, that's exactly the territory we'll be exploring at Collaborate 360 in July. 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!
#53
July 5 · 35 min
Ep51 - Les Spellman Strategy - "Speed is an expression of physical resilience."
In this speed episode of Performance Strategies and Stumbles, I'm joined by Les Spellman — a speed coach who has built a systematic approach to speed training and physical preparation for football athletes, with a particular focus on preparing players for the realities of training camp and the season ahead. At the heart of this conversation is a simple but powerful reframe: training tolerance matters more than raw speed gains. Rather than chasing numbers on a timing gate, Les builds structured microcycles designed to prepare athletes for the actual demands they'll face — and this episode is a detailed look at what that planning process really involves. We get into microcycle design for football athletes — how Les balances volume, intensity, and recovery across the week, the specific drills and session structures he uses, and how constraints and coaching cues shape movement without over-coaching it. From there, Les walks through his approach to periodization for NFL players, what progressive overload looks like in a speed context, how sport-specific conditioning and contact prep fit into the plan, and the metabolic and endurance considerations that often get overlooked in speed-dominant programs. There's a real thread of pragmatism running through this conversation — the idea that the best training plan isn't the one that produces the biggest gains in isolation, but the one that builds athletes who can tolerate, absorb, and express their qualities when the demands of camp and season arrive. 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 such as 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. 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 built around applied practice, group thinking, and getting hands-on with technology that can genuinely change how you work. If you want to be in the room, see what we have planned and grab your ticket HERE!
#52
June 28 · 31 min
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!
#51
June 21 · 38 min
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!
#50
June 7 · 38 min
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.
#49
May 31 · 39 min
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.
#48
May 17 · 32 min
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.
#47
May 10 · 44 min
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!
#46
April 15 · 33 min
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
#45
April 4 · 36 min
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.
#44
March 23 · 31 min
Ep42 - Peter Tierney Stumbles - "get mistakes out in the open"
In this Stumbles episode of Performance Strategies and Stumbles, I’m joined again by Dr Peter Tierney to explore the mistakes and learning experiences that have shaped his approach as a practitioner in sports science and coaching. Following on from our previous conversation around wearable technology, this episode shifts the focus to the realities of professional growth — the mistakes that happen in practice, and what we can learn from them. Peter shares how, early in his career, he found himself overcomplicating processes, trying to do too much rather than focusing on what truly mattered. Through experience, he learned the importance of simplicity, clarity, and effective communication, particularly when working within multidisciplinary teams and athlete environments. We also discuss the value of athlete feedback, the importance of addressing tension early within teams, and why removing emotion from professional discussions can lead to better collaboration and decision-making. Ultimately, this episode is about recognising that mistakes are part of the process - and that growth comes from how we reflect, adapt, and improve. As mentioned in the episode, if you are interested in joining the data skills mentorship with Shaun McLaren - click this link

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