Inform Performance

Episode 227: In this Gameplan episode - a collaboration between Gameplan & Inform Performance, Host Andy McDonald is joined by Consultant Physiotherapist and Director of Pitch-Ready Tim McGrath. 

Tim is a Sports Physiotherapist with over 23 years professional practice & professional sport experience. Most recently returned to Australia after working as Senior Director of Player Health & Performance for the Washington Commanders NFL team in the USA, Tim completed his PhD from the Research Institute of Sports & Exercise (UCRISE) at the University of Canberra on the topic of ACL rehabilitation and return to sport following knee injury in 2016.

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In this episode, Tim shares his comprehensive Gameplan framework for PCL rehabilitation and return to play. 
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Topics Discussed:

PCL injury assessment and management

Sport-specific physical demands and rehab goals

Progressive training buckets: quad, hamstring, calf, lateral movement

Objective benchmarks for an effective return-to-play

Common pitfalls and decision making in PCL rehab

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Where you can find Tim McGrath:

LinkedIn

Instagram

 

Where you can find Pitch Ready: 

Pitch-Ready

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Sponsors

Gameplan Is a Rehab Management System providing Medical & Performance Departments with a centralised platform to plan, track & manage the return-to-play process inside a data rich environment. Gameplan provides one platform to connect the people, process and data during rehab. 

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Where to Find Us

Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:

Instagram

Twitter

Our Website

Episode 228: In this episode of Inform Performance, host Steve Barrett is joined by Dan Ramsden — Head of Performance for Super League's Hull KR, promoted into the role after eight years as the club's Head Physiotherapist.

Dan now leads the club's strength, conditioning, and rehabilitation programmes, bringing together medical and performance functions under one department. Alongside a physiotherapy degree and a PhD focused on concussion, he holds a 5th Dan Black Belt in Aikido, and specialises in injury prevention and building athletic resilience in a collision sport.

At the centre of the conversation is Dan's transition from clinician to department lead. He discusses what changes when your remit shifts from treating individual athletes to setting the direction of an entire performance team, the skills that transfer from physiotherapy, and the ones that have to be learned on the job.

The discussion also explores the culture required to build and sustain a high-performing staff — how roles are defined, how disciplines are integrated rather than siloed, and how Dan develops the practitioners around him.

Dan then unpacks player availability and its relationship with training and match intensity, before moving into his research area: concussion, neck strength, and the role of rate of force development (RFD) as a measure that goes beyond maximal strength testing.

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Topics Discussed:

Progression from Physio to a Head of Performance role

Culture and development of a high performance team

Player availability and its link to intensity

Concussion and the use of rate of force development (RFD) within neck strength

Where you can find Dan:

LinkedIn

Instagram

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Sponsors

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BTL: BTL Industries develops advanced rehabilitation and performance technologies, including SIS DUO, Shockwave Therapy, High-Intensity Laser, TR-Therapy, Lymphastim and R-FORCE. BTL systems are designed to support recovery, pain management, functional rehabilitation and return-to-play pathways across clinical and elite sport settings.

VALD Performance, makers of the Nordbord, Forceframe, ForeDecks 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

Hytro: The world’s leading Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) wearable, designed to accelerate recovery and maximise athletic potential using Hytro BFR for Professional Sport. 

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Where to Find Us

Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:

Instagram

Twitter

Our Website

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Our Team

Andy McDonald

Ben Ashworth

Nicola Graham

Steve Barrett 

Pete McKnight

Episode 225: In this Gameplan episode - a collaboration between Gameplan & Inform Performance, Host Andy McDonald is joined by Consultant Physiotherapist Lindsay Bull. 

Lindsay is an experienced sports physiotherapist and medical services leader working across elite professional sport and high-performance environments. His work centres on performance rehabilitation, return-to-sport decision making, and management of complex musculoskeletal injuries, particularly thigh muscle and hip/groin conditions across elite athletes. Lindsay's experience includes leading medical services within elite AFL programs across multiple programs, with responsibility for multidisciplinary team leadership, medical and rehabilitation strategy, and player availability outcomes.

In this episode, Lindsay shares unpacks his recent article collaboration with Martin Buccheit titled: The Handover Hangover: Sequential vs. Concurrent Return to Performance Models in Elite Sport.
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Topics Discussed:

The villain in suboptimal rehab: siloed approaches

Job security and its impact on collaboration

Principles of collegiality, alignment & concurrent engagement.

Common misalignments in prognosis and expectations

Practical tips for building a collaborative department

The role of facility design and communication
 

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Where you can find Lindsay Bull:

LinkedIn

Instagram

 

Where you can find the paper: 

Performance and Sport Science Reports

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Sponsors

Gameplan Is a Rehab Management System providing Medical & Performance Departments with a centralised platform to plan, track & manage the return-to-play process inside a data rich environment. Gameplan provides one platform to connect the people, process and data during rehab. 

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Where to Find Us

Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:

Instagram

Twitter

Our Website

Episode 224: In this episode of Accelerate Podcast, host Nicola Graham is joined by Mark Opar — a clinical physiotherapist of ten years who made the leap into sports technology, and now serves as Head of Strategy for Health at VALD, one of the world's leading sports technology companies.

Mark's career has bridged the clinic and the boardroom — giving him a rare perspective on what it takes to translate elite sport innovation into everyday healthcare. VALD's force plates, strength testing systems, and assessment tools are trusted by thousands of elite teams worldwide, and Mark's mission is to bring that same objective assessment capability to clinics, hospitals, and the general population.

ㅤ At the centre of the conversation is a provocative thesis: objective assessment isn't just about better data — it's about better engagement. Mark unpacks how giving practitioners and patients a shared language changes the dynamic of care, driving motivation, trust, and ultimately better outcomes.

ㅤ The discussion also explores the realities of moving from clinician to corporate strategist, and what elite sport can teach healthcare about measuring what matters.

ㅤ Topics Discussed:

The Clinician-to-Corporate Transition

VALD's Position in the Market

Crossing from Elite Sport to Healthcare

Objective Assessment as Engagement

Sponsors

Gameplan is a rehab Project Management & Data Analytics Platform that improves operational & communication efficiency during rehab. Gameplan provides a centralised tool for MDT’s to work collaboratively inside a data rich environment

VALD Performance, makers of the Nordbord, Forceframe, ForeDecks 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

Hytro: The world’s leading Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) wearable, designed to accelerate recovery and maximise athletic potential using Hytro BFR for Professional Sport. 

BTL: BTL Industries develops advanced rehabilitation and performance technologies, including SIS DUO, Shockwave Therapy, High-Intensity Laser, TR-Therapy, Lymphastim and R-FORCE. BTL systems are designed to support recovery, pain management, functional rehabilitation and return-to-play pathways across clinical and elite sport settings.

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Where to Find Us

Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:

Instagram

Twitter

Our Website

-

Our Team

Andy McDonald

Ben Ashworth

Nicola Graham

Steve Barrett 

Pete McKnight

Episode 223: In this 1st episode of Gameplans - a collaboration between Gameplan & Inform Performance, Host Andy McDonald is joined by Michael Giakoumis the Head of Rehab at Manchester City FC.

Michael is an experienced sports physiotherapist with specialised expertise in complex hip, groin, and lower-limb muscle injuries, frequently providing second opinions for challenging cases. He has previously held roles at the Marylebone Health Group (MHG) in their specialist hip, groin, and muscle injury clinic, as well as within elite international athletics with British Athletics and across multiple other sports. 

In this episode, Michael Giakoumis shares his comprehensive framework to hamstring rehabilitation, emphasising the importance of understanding sport demands, individual variability, and systematic planning for effective recovery.
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Topics Discussed:

Framework for deconstructing football-specific demands.

Identifying hamstring strain co-actives

Phased approach to hamstring rehabilitation

Physical qualities and their role in rehab

Use of speed bounds and biomechanical demands

Individualized rehab based on injury severity and history

Monitoring and adjusting rehab objectives

Importance of interdisciplinary collaboration

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Where you can find Michael Giakoumis:

LinkedIn

Instagram

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Sponsors

Gameplan Is a Rehab Management System providing Medical & Performance Departments with a centralised platform to plan, track & manage the return-to-play process inside a data rich environment. Gameplan provides one platform to connect the people, process and data during rehab. 

-

Where to Find Us

Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:

Instagram

Twitter

Our Website

-

Our Team

Andy McDonald

Ben Ashworth

Nicola Graham

Steve Barrett 

Pete McKnight