Inform Performance

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.
-

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
 

- 

Where you can find Lindsay Bull:

LinkedIn

Instagram

 

Where you can find the paper: 

Performance and Sport Science Reports

- 

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

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.

- 

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.
-

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

-

Where you can find Michael Giakoumis:

LinkedIn

Instagram

- 

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

Episode 222: In this episode of the Inform Performance Podcast, Andy McDonald is joined by Dr. Warren Bradley — sports nutritionist turned co-founder of Hytro, the world's leading Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) wearable used by elite teams across multiple sports worldwide.

With over a decade of experience in professional sport and a PhD in sports nutrition, Warren has spent the past six years transitioning from applied practice into building a company that delivers BFR solutions to high-performance environments around the globe. His unique perspective bridges the science of recovery with the practical realities of elite sport.

Throughout the episode, Warren explores the physiological challenges athletes face during congested tournament schedules, and how practitioners can mitigate the effects of jet lag, travel fatigue, and accumulated load. The conversation examines neuromuscular function, the role of perception in fatigue and recovery, and how emerging modalities like BFR may support tendon recovery.

The discussion also dives into how practitioners can identify which recovery strategies actually matter, how to evaluate their effectiveness, and why the human element remains central to recovery science — even as technology and data continue to evolve.

Topics Discussed:

Physiological challenges in tournaments

Mitigating jet lag and fatigue

Neuromuscular function and recovery techniques

Perception of fatigue and recovery modalities

Exploring BFR and tendon recovery

Identifying key recovery strategies

Evaluating recovery effectiveness

The human element in recovery science

Where you can find Warren:

LinkedIn

Instagram

- 

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. 

- 

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 221: In this episode of Sports Science Insights, host Steve Barrett is joined by Julie Gooderick — a UKSCA Accredited Strength & Conditioning Coach and Sports Therapist with more than 15 years of experience supporting athletes across a wide range of sports, from grassroots participation through to the Olympic Games.

Julie has led athlete scholarship programmes within schools and universities, helping to create pathways that develop talent from early participation to elite performance. With a degree in Sports Therapy, an MSc in Strength & Conditioning, and experience supporting athletes at two Olympic Games, she brings a unique perspective on long-term athlete development, performance support, and the realities of working in high-performance sport.

At the centre of the conversation is the challenge of supporting athletes beyond the training programme itself. Julie discusses the role of recovery in performance, why sleep remains one of the most underutilised tools available to athletes, and how practitioners can create environments that promote both performance and wellbeing.

The discussion also explores Julie's involvement in initiatives designed to support and develop female coaches within the profession. Drawing on her own experiences, she reflects on the progress that has been made, the challenges that remain, and the importance of creating opportunities for future generations of practitioners.

Throughout the episode, Julie shares practical examples and case studies from her consultancy work with female athletes, providing insight into the complex and individualised nature of performance support across different sporting environments.

- 

Topics Discussed:

Julie's Background and Career Journey

Sleep, Recovery and Performance

Female Coach Initiatives Through UKSCA

Female Athlete Consultancy Case Studies

Long-Term Athlete Development

Supporting Athletes Across Different Sporting Environments

- 

Where you can find Julie:

Linkedin

Publications

- 

Sponsors

Axon: Performance teams spend the morning after game day stitching together six systems before the coach gets an answer. Axon Perform fixes that. Every source you already use, Catapult, StatSports, VALD, Opta, OVAL, Wyscout, WHOOP, Garmin and the rest, connects into a dedicated Snowflake warehouse.
Ask Axon, the in-platform chat, lets analysts and sports scientists query the lot in plain English. Reports that took hours now take seconds.
Used by the Springboks, England RFU, Japan RFU, Sydney Roosters and a growing list of rugby, football & cricket clubs and federations. Your data, reports, measures and AI models stay yours, fully portable.
See if your data is ready for AI at axonperform.com

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. 

- 

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