I'm delighted to welcome Dr Jerry Lynch and John O'Sullivan back to the show to discuss their brand new book "Captain: The Athlete's Guide to Being an Exceptional Team Leader".

Jerry is a performance, leadership and coaching expert helping people of all ages and abilities in all arenas of performance to develop the qualities of courage, integrity, fearlessness, tenacity, patience, persistence in order to overcome mental and emotional blocks. Jerry helps individuals and teams to create confidence, mental toughness, inspiration and empowerment for competitive events and to better navigate the unchartered waters of life. He has worked with athletes and teams at universities such as The University of North Carolina, Duke, Maryland, Oregon State, Stanford, Harvard, and more.

John is an internationally known speaker for coaches, parents and youth sports organisations, and has spoken for TEDx, the US Olympic Committee, US Soccer, USA Wrestling, USA Swimming, Ireland Rugby, Australian Rugby League and at numerous events around the world. John's work has been featured by CNN, Outside Magazine, ESPN, NBC Sports and numerous other media entities. John's background as an athlete and coach led him to start the Changing the Game project with the mission to put the 'play' back into 'play ball' by providing parents and coaches with the information and resources they need to make sport a healthy, positive, and rewarding experience for their children.

In their new book, 'Captain', Jerry and John share wisdom accrued from decades of consultation with well over 100 championship teams, dozens of Hall of Fame coaches, and hundreds of interviews with Olympic, world champion, and professional athletes and team leaders. The lessons in this book will help readers start leading in a positive and constructive way, stop certain behaviours before they destroy team culture, and face the many challenges of being a team captain. Through numerous stories of well-known leaders such as Tim Duncan, Steve Kerr, Carla Overbeck, Abby Wambach, Carles Puyol, Richie McCaw, and Simone Biles, as well as lessons from Eastern philosophy and Western psychology, this book will help readers become a respected leader and a trusted bridge between coaches and teammates.

On this week's episode I hand the reins over to my long-time friend, Mark Peters, to discuss my new book Compete: Developing a Mental Playbook for Performance Under Pressure in Sport.

Mark is Deputy Head and former Director of Sport at Hornsby House School and Chair of Governors at Lark Hall Primary Campus. Mark has a strong history of coaching a variety of sports and has experience as a coach educator.

Mark and I discuss Compete in depth and I break down the contents chapter by chapter bringing to life some of the skills and techniques contained within.

Compete: Developing a Mental Playbook for Performance Under Pressure in Sport is out now and available to purchase online.

I speak with Richard Fryer in this week's episode. Richard is a psychologist working in high performance sport in Australia.

Richard works with many of Australia's highest profile sporting teams and athletes and has supported Australians at five Olympic and Paralympic Games. Richard's passion is helping individuals, teams, and organisations achieve their performance potential.

Richard is a Senior Consultant with the Australian Institute of Sport, helping national sporting organisations design mental performance programs for athletes and coaches.

Coming from a background in rowing coaching, Richard is passionate about helping coaches build their skills in the mental side of coaching performance.

In this episode we discuss a paper Richard led which examines coaching under pressure.

I'm delighted to speak with Dr Séamus Harvey and Dr Chin Wei Ong in this week's episode. We discuss a mental well-being screening process which was implemented at an elite youth football academy developed by Séamus, Chin and colleagues.

Séamus is a Postdoctoral Researcher with the NetwellCASALA research centre at Dundalk Institute of Technology. Séamus researches digital health and health psychology as well as sport and exercise psychology. Séamus also lectures on Dundalk Institute of Technology's (DkIT's) Health and Physical Activity programme.

Séamus completed his MSc. in Applied Sport and Exercise Psychology at Ulster University and a PhD in Sport Psychology at Bangor University. Prior to his PhD, Séamus worked as a Research Assistant with Liverpool John Moores University.

Chin is a behavioural scientist and consultant with 15+ years' experience across elite sport, research, and organisational contexts. Chin's work focuses on how individuals and teams perform under pressure, and how organisations can design systems that enable sustainable performance.

Chin previously worked across a global network of elite environments, designing systems that integrated performance, talent development, wellbeing, and risk. These are challenges that closely mirror those faced by organisations operating in complex, high-stakes contexts.

Chin is particularly interested in helping organisations move beyond measuring talent to truly understanding it; using that insight to build stronger leaders, more effective teams, and resilient performance cultures.

I'm delighted to speak with Daniel Coyle in this week's episode. Daniel is the award-winning author of multiple New York Times bestsellers including The Talent Code and The Culture Code.

Daniel's work explores how people and groups grow, perform, and thrive. He combines immersive field reporting with behavioural science to create practical frameworks for building skill, culture, and meaningful connection.

Daniel has worked as a consultant with the Cleveland Guardians since 2013, and as an advisor to military special forces, professional sports teams, schools, and other organisations. He has written for Outside, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times Magazine, and Play, served as consulting producer on the ESPN documentary series, Enhanced, and worked as an adjunct professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

In this episode Daniel and I speak about his latest book Flourish: The Art of Building Meaning, Joy and Fulfilment.

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.

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.

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.