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340 episodes

#340 Declan O'Connell - Adaptive Expertise
2026/03/30 | 49 mins.
I speak with Declan O'Connell in this week's episode. Declan is a coach and performance consultant with over 20 years working with elite sports, global executive teams, and high-performance environments across the world.
Declan is currently finalising his Doctorate in Elite Performance Psychology at Dublin City University. His doctorate research focuses on developing adaptability in individuals, teams and organisations.
In this episode we discuss a paper Declan co-authored with Dr Robin Taylor "What got me here, won't get me there – how the world's best sports coaches successfully adapt their expertise in different environments". The study explores how world-class coaches develop and apply Adaptive Expertise (AE) across multiple high-performance settings.
The findings offer a practical framework for developing Accelerated Learning and underscore its value in navigating the uncertainties and transitions inherent in high-performance sport.
#339 Dr Andreas Küttel - Exploring Mental Health and Performance Dynamics
2026/03/16 | 58 mins.
I'm delighted to speak with Andreas Küttel in this week's episode. Andreas is a Swiss former ski jumper who won five World Cup competitions from 2005 to 2007, and placed third in the overall World Cup in 2006. He won a gold medal in the individual large hill event at the 2009 Ski Jumping World Championships. Andreas also competed at three Winter Olympics, earning his best finish of fifth in the individual normal hill event in 2006.
After his competing days, Andreas entered academia working in the field of sports science at the University of Southern Denmark.
In this episode we discuss a research paper he led on which explores mental health and performance dynamics in elite sport.
#338 Dr David Moran - Grouping by Ability in Youth Sport
2026/03/02 | 57 mins.
I speak with Dr David Moran in this week's episode. David is a coach and coach developer in Gaelic games. He is a post-doctoral researcher with the Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics and the School of Health and Human Performance at Dublin City University.
We discuss a paper David led which examines grouping players by ability. Following the introduction of formal competition structures, youth sport often features ability grouping, referred to as streaming, for training and competition. In Gaelic games, a set of participatory sports indigenous to Ireland, streaming is commonly used to organize players. Despite its prevalence, streaming in sport has been under-researched. This study explored the experiences and perceptions of players, parents, and coaches across five Gaelic games clubs. It's findings on the advantages and disadvantages of streaming are relevant across all sports and will be of interest to every coach involved in youth sports.
#337 Katja Rewitz - Exploit or Explore: Decision Making in Sport
2026/02/16 | 42 mins.
I'm delighted to speak with Katja Rewitz in this week's episode. Katja is a second year PhD student at the Dynamics of Human Performance Regulation Laboratory at the University of Hamburg. Her research focuses on human sensations and their influence on decision-making and performance behaviour.
In this episode, we discuss a fascinating paper led by Katja which examines the explore-exploit framework related to decision making in sport and exercise.
The explore-exploit framework has been instrumental in advancing our understanding of decision-making across fields such as cognitive science, behavioural economics, and clinical psychology. The authors propose that the explore-exploit framework could provide valuable insights into decision-making processes in sports and exercise where decisions naturally occur in dynamic, uncertain environments with fluctuating rewards and inherent costs.
#336 Dr Simon Quick - Balancing Athlete Welfare with the Pressure to Perform
2026/02/02 | 58 mins.
I speak with Dr Simon Quick in this week's episode. Simon is a lecturer in Sport Coaching at the University of Essex, specialising in sport pedagogy, coaching ethics, and holistic athlete development. Simon previously taught Physical Education in high schools holding leadership roles including Head of Physical Education, Athletic Director, and Deputy Headteacher.
Simon is an active researcher and collaborator, with recent publications in leading journals such as the International Sport Coaching Journal, Quest, International Journal of Sport Science and Coaching, and Journal of Teaching in Physical Education.
Simon completed his PhD at Leeds Beckett University. His current research focuses on the tensions between athlete performance and welfare in high-performance sport.

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About The Sport Psych Show

Join Sport Psychologist, Dan Abrahams, on The Sport Psych Show as he aims to demystify sport psychology for players, coaches and parents by speaking with some of the most influential people in sports performance today. Dan is on a mission to learn more about how sport psychology philosophies, tools and techniques positively impact participation, progression and performance in sport. He wants to learn more about how to drive participation – what motivational tools engage players and inspire people to play and stay in their sport. He wants to explore how players can progress quicker and more effectively – what is great practice and training? And how does learning in sport really happen? Finally, he wants to hear what his guests have to say about the psychology of performance – how do they think players can improve their ability to high perform consistently under pressure? Discover simple and practical tools and techniques by listening in to Dan's conversations with elite competitors, sports coaches, sport scientists, and psychologists.

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