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The Inform Perform Podcast is an industry show focussed on Sports Performance and Sports Medicine. The show interviews thought leaders and professionals that support elite athletes and teams. The aim of the show is to deconstruct the strategies and philosophies the guests utilise in their working environment or area of expertise. Featured guests have worked across the NBA, NFL, MLB, F1, World title Boxing, EPL and more.
Episodes

Monday Jul 13, 2020
Monday Jul 13, 2020
Episode 40: Andy McDonald chats to Physiotherapist Alan Hazlett. Alan works at the British Olympic Intensive Rehabilitation Unit. Alan functions as a part of the English Institute of Sport , BOA and UK athletics. He has previously enjoyed roles at the English RFU, Reading Football Club and Sport Wales. This episode will focus primarily on how the Intensive Rehabilitation Unit functions to support elite athletes during injury followed by with some educational content from Vald Performance on Dynamic Strength Index.
In this episode Andy & Alan discuss:
- Alan's background
- The British Intensive Rehabilitation Unit
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- Communication
- Patient journey
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- Evidence Based Practise
- Art v Science
Vald Performance Education Feature:
- Dynamic Strength Index
Where you can find Alan:
Inform Performance is sponsored by 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
Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:
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Monday Jul 06, 2020
Duncan French (UFC Performance Institute Vice President of Performance)
Monday Jul 06, 2020
Monday Jul 06, 2020
Episode 39: Andy McDonald chats to Dr Duncan French the Vice President of Performance at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas. Duncan is globally recognized as a leading expert in high-performance sport with over 20 years of experience working with elite professional and Olympic athletes. Duncan has previously enjoyed been the Director of Performance Sciences for the University of Notre Dame Athletics Department, Technical Lead for Strength & Conditioning at the English Institute of Sport and has worked three full olympic cycles for GB Basketball and Taekwondo. He has also served as the Head of Strength & Conditioning at Newcastle United Football Club in the EPL and authored or co-authored 60 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts and seven book chapters.
In this episode Andy & Duncan discuss:
- Duncan’s background
- Setting up the UFCPI
- Understanding the fighter
- Training transfer
- Concurrent training
- The future of the UFCPI
Where you can find Duncan:
Inform Performance is sponsored by 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
Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:
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Saturday Jun 27, 2020
Saturday Jun 27, 2020
Episode 38: Andy McDonald chats to Scott Epsley the Philadelphia 76ers Medical Director. Scott is an Australian Physiotherapist who has previously worked for Georgetown University, Medstar Sports Medicine and consulted to numerous sporting organisations including the Washington Wizards, Australian Womens Field Hockey and professional athletes across a wide range of sports including basketball, cycling, indy car, golf, and sprinting. Scott is also an RMSK Certified Musculoskeletal Sonographer with a passion for clinical diagnostics and bone stress injuries.
In this episode Andy & Scott discuss:
- Scott’s background & role
- Ultrasonography in sports medicine
- Bone Injuries with Ultrasonography
- Bone Stress Injuries
- Understanding the bone tissue
- Symptoms
- Medical management
- Phases & remodelling
- Monitoring
- Loading & rehab
- Return-to-play
Where you can find Scott:
Smartletics Tempo App
Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:
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Sunday Jun 21, 2020
Pierre Barrieu (FIFA High Performance Expert & Physical Instructor)
Sunday Jun 21, 2020
Sunday Jun 21, 2020
Episode 37: Andy McDonald chats to Pierre Barrieu a High Performance Expert at FIFA. As a performance practitioner Pierre has enjoyed spells at LA Galaxy, Swansea City, UAE Football Association and the USA National Team + plus more! Pierre has an extensive and varied background across multiple football leagues, national teams and environments and as a result provides the conversation with pragmatism and experiential insight.
In this episode Andy & Pierre discuss:
- Pierres background
- Cultural differences between leagues and countries
- Trends of practice and methodology
- Player availability monitoring
- Coach development & education
Where you can find Pierre:
Smartletics Tempo App
Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:
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Sunday Jun 14, 2020
Sunday Jun 14, 2020
Episode 36: Andy McDonald chats to Physiotherapy Consultant Gordon Bosworth. Gordon is Founder and Clinical Director of The Bosworth Clinic and has been involved in elite sport for most of his life. Specialising in performance therapy, Gordon has supported elite athletes and teams across multiple sports and notably was Physiotherapist to the British Bobsleigh and Bob-Skeleton Team, a member of the Great Britain Teams at the Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Sochi, Salt Lake City and Torino. He was also Medical Lead for the Canadian Speed Skating Team at Vancouver Games & Chief Physiotherapist to British Athletics at the London Games in 2012. More recently he worked with the Canadian #1 Women’s Bobsleigh and Cross-Country Teams at the PyeongChang Games. A clinician of great calibre and experience.
In this episode Andy & Gordon discuss:
- Gordons background
- Effective Physiotherapy at Olympic Games
- Involvement with Altis
- Gordons Approach
- Understanding optimal function first
- Levelling the playing the field
- Structure governs function
- Approach to manual therapy
- Second opinion work & consultancy
Where you can find Gordon:
If you enjoyed this episode then check out Episode 35 with Dr Jas Randhawa
Smartletics Tempo App
Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:
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Monday Jun 08, 2020
Dr Jas Randhawa (Altis Lead Performance Therapist)
Monday Jun 08, 2020
Monday Jun 08, 2020
Episode 35: Andy McDonald chats to Dr Jas Randhawa the Lead Performance Therapist at Altis. Jas is a Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine with a background in Strength & Conditioning who has previously worked at the Canadian Basketball team. In this episode Andy and Jas dig into what the Altis Performance Therapy philosophy and methodology is and discuss it in an injury context compared to the traditional model of care or performance.
In this episode Andy and Jas discuss:
- Jas's background
- Clinician Education
- Altis Performance Therapy Philosophy & Methodology
- Performance Trinity
- Monitoring collaborative effectiveness
- Origins of Performance Therapy
- Systematic reduction of detail
- Making research practical
- Performance Therapy in comparison to ‘traditional’ models
Where you can find Jas:
Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:
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Monday Jun 01, 2020
Monday Jun 01, 2020
Episode 34: Andy McDonald chats to Tracy Axel the Director of high performance analytics at USA surfing and manager of sports performance research and analytics at Mamba sports academy. In this episode with Tracy we’ll be discussing her role at USA surfing and unpackaged what professional surfing looks like from a sport science and performance analytics standpoint.
In this episode Andy and Tracy discuss:
- Surfing as an Olympic sport
- Training culture in surfing
- Performance markers in surfing
- Physiology and conditioning in surfing
- Return to play in surfing
- Future of research in surfing
- Tracys approach to high-performance
- Effective communication between a performance MDT
Where you can find Tracy:
Smartletics Tempo App
Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:
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Monday May 25, 2020
Monday May 25, 2020
Episode 33: Andy McDonald chats to Strength & Conditioning Coach Alex Natera. Alex is based at GWS Giants Football Club in Sydney as Senior Athletic Performance Specialist. Alex has a wealth of experience and has enjoyed previous roles at Aspire Academy in Qatar, South Australian Sports Institute, English Institute of Sport, St Mary’s University, and Crystal Palace Football club to name a few. In this episode we have a discussion about something he is world renowned for in Isometrics and Eccentric training methods.
In this episode Andy and Alex Natera discuss:
- Alex’s background
- Training during Covid. High-Neural output work
- Alex’s interest in Isometrics
- Reasoning & benefits isometrics
- When to implement isometrics
- Methods for implementing Isometrics
- Program transitioning in/out of isometrics
- Eccentric Training
- Isometrics in rehab
Where you can find Alex:
Smartletics Tempo App
Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:
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Wednesday May 20, 2020
Wednesday May 20, 2020
Episode 32: Andy McDonald chats to Alex Wolf the co-founder of Wayfaring. Alex is a Performance Consultant, Strength & Conditioning Coach and also an experienced leader with a demonstrated history of working in the high performance. He has a wealth of experience of preparing athletes, staff and teams successfully for Olympic Games. He has previously been Head of Learning, head of strength of S&C and the technical lead at the English Institute of Sport, as well as lead S&C coach for GB rowing amongst other sporting roles. Alex in this episode shares wealth of technical knowledge and thinking on the topic of adaptation led programming.
In this episode Andy and Alex Wolf discuss:
- Alex’s professional background
- Adaptation Led Programming
- Origin of work and questions
- Why do we strength train?
- Function as product of outcome not method
- Clarity and explicit objectives
- Simple solutions to clear objectives
- Structural, local & global coordination adaptation
- Periodisation & adaptation led programming
- Clarity in language and terminology
- Wayfaring - leading teams
Where you can find Alex:
Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:
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Tuesday May 19, 2020
Tuesday May 19, 2020
Episode 31: Andy McDonald hosts a discussion on achilles tendinopathy between Karin Silbernagel, Mark Young and Matt Tuttle.
Dr Dr Karin Grävare-Silbernagel is an Associate Professor at the Department of Physical Therapy, University of Delaware, Newark, USA. At University of Delaware she runs the tendon research lab together with her colleagues from mechanical and biomedical engineering.
Mark Young is a Senior Physiotherapist at the Geelong Cats who has previously worked at the AIS, EIS, UK Athletics, Nike Athletics and the England & Wales Cricket Board.
Dr Matt Tuttle has previously been on the podcast in episodes 11 and 24 and is the Lead Sport Scientist and Physical Therapist for NBA team the Denver Nuggets.
In this episode the panel discuss:
- Their backgrounds & personal interests in tendons
- Achilles diagnostic considerations & processes
- Acute achilles tendinopathy management
- Management approach & philosophy
- Challenges in their individual athlete settings
- Tendon risk mitigation
- Elastography & UTC to monitor and Intervene with rehab
- Imaging
- Achilles tendon ruptures
- Tendon Resiliency
- Managing Tendons In-season
- Athlete cut points / can the athlete train or play?
- Managing warm-up and game timing
- Setting expectations
- What exercises to use to make a tendon feel better in-season.
- Thorough assessment and differentials
Keep up to date with everything that is going on with the podcast by following Inform Performance on:
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