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Stephen Cobley is an Associate Professor in motor control, skill acquisition, and sport and exercise psychology at The University of Sydney. He earned his Bachelor’s degree at Loughborough University, his Master’s degree at Queen’s University in Canada, and his PhD at Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK.

​Steve’s research examines developmental factors that constrain learning, development, and performance across sport, educational, and workplace settings. In this episode, Steve and I discuss some fascinating work his team is doing in swimming looking at the effect of biological maturation on performance. 

Kia ora!

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After experiencing a magic moment playing golf when everything seemed to click and his performance excelled, my guest in this episode began a research journey into psychological states of peak performance.

You may have heard athletes talk about being ‘in the zone’. It’s a time when you’re so engrossed in the task at hand that you lose track of time, become supremely confident, and nothing can stop you from putting out your best performance. You just need to ‘let it happen’. Heck, you’ve probably, at some point, even experienced it yourself.

The scientific term for this feeling is called ‘flow‘, and my guest on the show today, Associate Professor Christian Swann (@cswannpsych), studies it.

But it turns out there’s another mind state that can also induce peak performance. It’s called ‘clutch’, and is much more about ‘making it happen’. Clutch is also an idea Christian studies.

In this conversation, Christian describes exactly what flow and clutch are, and how you can help your athlete get into them.

You can check out Christian’s research here. 

Kia ora! 

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Andy Milne (@carmelhealth) is a teacher, creator, TEDx Speaker and father of two young boys. Originally from England, Andy taught physical education in London for 12 years before moving to America in 2008, where he now teaches Kinetic Wellness and Health at New Trier High School, just north of Chicago. 

Andy received his BA (hons) in Sports & Recreation at Staffordshire University and his Post Graduate Certificate in Education at Exeter University. In 2017 he earned the award for the National Health Teacher of the Year. 

In this conversation, Andy and I discuss what it means to be creative, the skills of health, why relationships are so important, developing empathy, the power of community, and much more.
 
Kia ora! 

Connect with Craig:

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 James Mortimer (@jamesmortimernz) is a former national hurdles and sprint athlete, having represented New Zealand at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia.

James now coaches a group of some of our fastest athletes, including Zoe Hobbs, who recently ran 11.08 seconds at the Athletics World Championships in the US to set a new New Zealand record. He also works at Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland where he manages day to day operations of a portfolio of sports from Year 7-13 level.

As James puts it, “speed kills”, and in this conversation, he shares his approach to developing it. 

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Tom Willmott (@tomwillmott) is the head coach of the park and pipe program at Snow Sports New Zealand. Tom leads a team of coaches that looks after ~20 athletes from the very elite, including winter olympic gold medalists Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Nico Porteous, to 11 and 12 year olds in the national development programme.

Tom is a former snowboard competitor and national champion, has a Professional Doctorate in Elite Performance, a Master’s degree in Physical Education and a Bachelor’s degree in Sports Coaching.

In this episode we discuss:

• Tom’s deep connection with the mountains;
• The feeling of ‘flow’ and why Tom loves to chase it;
• Month long summer holidays camping and traveling though Europe as a kid;
• Coaching and studying all over the world;
• The evolution of snowboarding;
•  How to coach risk-taking;
• Designing learning environment to optimise progression;
• The School of Shred
• Tom’s reflective practice; and
• More.

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