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
Jun 8, 2020
Jun 8, 2020
47 min
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:
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Jun 1, 2020
Jun 1, 2020
36 min
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
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May 25, 2020
May 25, 2020
51 min
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
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May 20, 2020
May 20, 2020
1hr 3 min
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:
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Our team
May 19, 2020
May 19, 2020
1hr 15 min
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
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Our team
May 13, 2020
May 13, 2020
1hr 16 min
Episode 30: Andy McDonald chats to Dr Meeta Singh. Dr Meeta Singh is a sleep doctor whose work and research focuses on “Coaching the sleep muscle” to help maximize performance in both individual athletes and sports teams. She is the Service chief of the sleep medicine, and section head and medical director at the Henry Fordsleep laboratory in Michigan. Dr Singh is board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology as a psychiatrist and sleep medicine sub-specialist. She has served as a consultant for multiple NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA teams. She has also worked with college sports teams. As part of this service, Dr. Singh performs athletic sleep assessments with personalized prescriptions for better sleep. She also helps sports teams and athletes with their travel management with a focus on addressing sleep deprivation and jet lag and maximizing athletic performance. Her passion is lecturing and educating teams and athletes about the benefits of sleep on performance.
In this episode Andy and Dr Meeta Singh discuss:
- Her background
- Sleep requirement, deficit & dose response
- Sleep Diaries
- Wearable Technology
- Educating and implementing sleep strategies
- Orthosomnia
- Sleep Environment
- Jet lag
- Crossing time zones
- Relationship between sleep and Injury risk
- Sleep and Recovery from injury
- Can you get too much sleep?
- Napping
- Uncoupled sleep and circadian rhythm
- Backroom staff sleep considerations
Where you can find Dr Meeta Singh:
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Our team
May 6, 2020
May 6, 2020
36 min
Episode 29: Andy McDonald chats to Dr Andy Barr a British Physiotherapist / Doctor of Physical Therapy. Andy is an established leader in the field of high performance and injury risk reduction with over 20 years of experience working in professional sports. He has held Director of Medicine and Performance roles with Bolton Wanderers F.C., Southampton F.C. and Manchester City F.C. in the EPL, New York Knicks in the NBA and New York City F.C. in the MLS. More recently Andy is the CEO & founder of Quantum Performance in Los Angeles providing rehab and performance solutions to elite athletes and teams.
In this conversation with Dr Andy Barr we discuss:
- Andy’s background
- Transitioning from the UK to USA / EPL to the NBA
- Working freelance and as a consultant
- Andy’s 4 Pillars approach to rehabilitation
- Variety during rehab
- Pros and cons of working independently vs in a team
- Andy’s current and future projects
Where you can find Dr Andy Barr:
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Our team
Apr 29, 2020
Apr 29, 2020
42 min
Episode 28: Andy McDonald chats to Dr Matt Taberner, a Sport Scientist, S&C and Rehab Coach who has enjoyed career spells at Aston Villa and Everton Football Club previously. Matt recently finished his PHD constructing a framework for return to sport in elite football. In this episode we’ll hear Matt explain his work and dive into the control chaos continuum framework he’s produced.
In this conversation Andy & Matt discuss:
- Origins of the Control Chaos Continuum
- Bridging the gap between traditional rehab and return to performance
- Applying the Control Chaos Continuum to specific injury cases
- Applying the principles of the CCC to different sports
- What Matt is looking to do next professionally
Where you can find Matt:
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Apr 22, 2020
Apr 22, 2020
35 min
Episode 27: Andy McDonald chats with Dr Phil Wagner the Founder & CEO of Sparta Science. Phil is a a Physician and a Strength Coach who received his medical degree from USC focused on biomechanics. Phil’s passion for protecting athlete health and longevity through injury resilience coupled with his medically-oriented human performance mindset inspired him to found Sparta Science, a movement technology and data science company focused on improving musculoskeletal health.
In this conversation Andy & Phil discuss:
- Phil’s from athlete to Strength & Conditioning Coach to medicine.
- Setting up Sparta Science
- Informed consumers
- Assessing methods & tools before Implementation
- Re-defining what “Injury prevention means”
- How Sparta Interacts with team systems
- AI & Machine learning in predictive injury models
- Blind spots in data models
- Injury risk identification verses occurrence
- The value of coaches & clinicians gaining foundation knowledge in data methods
Where you can find Phil:
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Apr 15, 2020
Apr 15, 2020
42 min
Episode 26: Andy McDonald catches up with Pete McKnight the Hintsa Performance Director of Coaching & Sports Science. Pete has also been a Strength & Conditioning Coach in elite sport and human performance for almost two decades, working across multiple organisations including the French Ski Federation, Leicester CCC, England & Wales Cricket, UK Athletics, The English Institute of Sport and he was previously Chairman of the Board of Directors for the UK Strength & Conditioning Association (UKSCA).
In this conversation Andy & Pete discuss:
- His current role at Hintsa
- The skills, qualities and lessons Pete carried forward in the journey director.
- Stability at home
- Goal setting
- Skills: leadership, communication, building a team, systems, program development
- What Pete learnt from being at the English Institute of Sport MDT environment
- Preparedness to lead a discipline / department
- Preparedness to progress to Director / Head of Dept
- Challenges he faces and strategies he deploys
- Advising yourself in hindsight
- People that have Inspired him
- Books and resources
- Changing jobs, accepting and turning down offers
Were you can find Pete
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