Science for Sport Podcast

330: Frontal Plane Fundamentals with Dr Matthew Ibrahim

July 27th, 2026  |  30 mins 24 secs

adductor strength, athlete buy-in, athlete development, athlete monitoring, change of direction, coaching communication, criteria-based rehabilitation, data analytics, dr matthew ibrahim, force plates, frontal plane training, groin strength, high performance sport, injury rehabilitation, isometric strength testing, lateral lunge, lateral movement, lateral squat, lateral strength, load management, malden catholic, matthew ibrahim, performance data, readiness monitoring, rehabilitation, return to performance, return to play, richard graves, science for sport, science for sport podcast, sports science, strength and conditioning, student-athletes, training load, vbt, velocity-based training, wellness monitoring, youth athlete development

Dr Matthew Ibrahim joins Richard Graves to explain how sports science, strength and conditioning, wellness and education can work together within an integrated performance model. They discuss selecting meaningful athlete-monitoring data, moving beyond return to play towards return to performance, and why frontal-plane strength deserves a more prominent place in athletic development.

329: The Five Qualities of Speed Development

July 20th, 2026  |  33 mins 20 secs

1080 sprint, acceleration, agility training, american football, athlete monitoring, athlete recovery, athletic performance, catapult gps, change of direction, coaching psychology, college football, conditioning, curved sprinting, deceleration, elite sport, external load, force velocity profiling, high performance sport, horizontal force, individualised training, injury risk reduction, internal load, matt gebert, max velocity, maximum velocity, multidirectional speed, ncaa football, ole miss football, ole miss rebels, performance coaching, player availability, sleep and performance, speed development, sports performance, sports science, sports technology, sprint training, strength and conditioning, training load, velocity-based training, wellness monitoring, work capacity

Richard Graves is joined by Ole Miss Strength and Conditioning Coach Matt Gebert to explore how speed is developed, assessed and managed within an elite college football programme.

Matt explains how acceleration, maximum velocity, deceleration, change of direction and conditioning are trained across different position groups. He also discusses how Ole Miss uses sports science technology to profile athletes, manage training load and support player availability.

The episode provides a practical look at the relationship between speed, data, recovery and coaching judgement, while highlighting why effective performance programmes must be individualised to the physical and psychological needs of each athlete.

328: Blood Flow Restriction at the World Cup

July 13th, 2026  |  26 mins 25 secs

athlete monitoring, athlete readiness, bfr, blood flow restriction, circulatory recovery, dr warren bradley, elite football, elite sport, exercise physiology, football performance, hrv, hytro, injury risk reduction, international rugby, long-haul travel, performance recovery, performance support, physiotherapy, player availability, practitioner education, premier league, recovery, recovery science, return to play, science for sport, sleep quality, sports medicine, sports physiology, sports science, sports technology, strength and conditioning, tournament football, travel fatigue, wearable technology, world cup

Richard Graves speaks with Dr Warren Bradley about how blood flow restriction is being used in elite sport, with a particular focus on World Cup football. The episode explores BFR as more than a recovery tool, covering its role in travel, tissue priming, injury mitigation, return-to-play and player availability. Warren also challenges the obsession with overly specific data, arguing that practical, consistent application matters when working across elite squads under tournament pressure.

325: Building Sports Science Systems That Coaches Use

June 22nd, 2026  |  32 mins 5 secs

ai in sport, anna cruse, applied sports science, artificial intelligence, asymmetry, athlete management systems, athlete monitoring, athlete welfare, catapult, coaching, college sport, data analytics, elite sport, football performance, force plates, high-performance sport, human performance, integrated performance teams, ncaa, performance analysis, performance data, performance science, return to play, science for sport podcast, sport science, sports science, sports technology, strength and conditioning, teamworks, university of utah, utah athletics

Anna Cruse joins Richard Graves to discuss how the University of Utah turns performance data into meaningful decisions across 19 sports. Anna explains why context and education matter more than simply collecting additional metrics, how Utah is developing more individualised athlete monitoring and where AI can support sports science without replacing human judgement.

324: Joe Truman: Training of a GB Track Sprinter

June 15th, 2026  |  24 mins 2 secs

athlete monitoring, athlete-led programming, bfr training, blood flow restriction training, british cycling, cadence, cycling performance, elite athlete, elite sport, joe truman, keirin, kilo time trial, la 2028, olympic cycling, peak power, performance coaching, physiology, power training, race-specific training, recovery, richard graves, s&c, science for sport, sport science, sports science, sprint cycling, sprint performance, strength and conditioning, tapering, team gb, team sprint, track cycling, training load

Richard Graves welcomes Great Britain track cyclist Joe Truman to discuss the science, training and decision-making behind elite track sprinting. Joe reflects on his journey through the British Cycling pathway, his first major individual European title, and the British record performance that marked a major breakthrough in his career. The conversation explores how studying sport and exercise science has shaped Joe’s training philosophy, why he now takes a more active role in his own programming, and how methods such as blood flow restriction training, tapering, cadence management and race-specific preparation are helping him push performance forward. For practitioners, this episode offers a detailed look at how an elite athlete blends science, experience and self-awareness to keep improving at the highest level.

321: Preparing for the World Cup: Physical Performance Under Extreme Pressure

May 25th, 2026  |  46 mins 34 secs

292 performance, altitude training, athlete monitoring, athlete readiness, ben rosenblatt, dr ben rosenblatt, elite football performance, elite sport, england football, fatigue management, fifa world cup 2026, football sports science, gb hockey, heat acclimation, high-performance sport, international football, olympic performance, performance coaching, physical performance, pressure training, recovery, rehabilitation, return to play, richard graves, science for sport podcast, sports science, strength and conditioning, the football association, tournament preparation, world cup preparation

Dr Ben Rosenblatt joins Richard Graves to discuss the physical performance demands of preparing players for the 2026 Men’s World Cup. Drawing on his experience with England, Olympic athletes and GB Hockey, Ben explores tournament readiness, rehabilitation, recovery, heat and altitude preparation, individualised support and the importance of preparing athletes to perform under extreme pressure.

320: The Challenges of Modern Collegiate Sport

May 18th, 2026  |  32 mins 19 secs

ai in sport, athlete monitoring, athlete wellbeing, coaching, collegiate sport, data analytics, female athlete data, female athletes, gps, heather farmer, high performance, human performance, interdisciplinary teams, ncaa, performance data, rehabilitation, return to play, science for sport, sport science, sports medicine, sports performance, sports science, sports technology, strength and conditioning, transfer portal, university of nevada las vegas, unlv, wearable technology

Richard Graves is joined by Heather Farmer, Assistant Athletics Director, Sports Science at UNLV, to discuss how sport science has developed within collegiate sport and how UNLV has built a human-first, data-informed performance model. Heather explains why data should support decision-making rather than replace practitioner judgement, how to build coach and athlete buy-in, and why the lack of female athlete data remains a major challenge. The episode also covers wearable technology, AI, return to play, the transfer portal, and the importance of strong communication across the whole high-performance team.

314: Player Load, Practice Periodisation, and the Art of Keeping It Simple with Jackson Polk

April 6th, 2026  |  29 mins 24 secs

american football, athlete development, athlete monitoring, catapult, college athletics, college football, data analytics, elite sport, force plates, forcedecks, gps monitoring, high performance sport, jackson polk, load management, nfl preparation, oklahoma sooners, perch, performance data, player load, practice periodization, principal component analysis, recovery, richard graves, science for sport, sports analytics, sports performance, sports science, sports science podcast, sports technology, strength and conditioning, university of southern california, usc football, usc trojans, vald, velocity-based training, wearable technology

Jackson Polk, Director of Sports Science at USC Trojans football, joins Richard Graves to discuss how he built a sports science programme from the ground up using data analytics, GPS monitoring, and the art of genuine conversation. Jackson shares his unorthodox path from student videographer at Oklahoma to leading sports science at one of college football's biggest programmes, and offers a frank, grounded perspective on everything from Catapult metrics and force plate testing to the real limitations of AI in applied sport.

311: The Future of Weight Room Monitoring with Perch P2

March 16th, 2026  |  28 mins 46 secs

athlete monitoring, athlete performance data, catapult sports, computer vision in sport, elite sport performance, machine learning in sport, perch system, performance technology, s&c coaching, sports science, sports technology, strength and conditioning, strength training analytics, velocity based training, weight room monitoring

Richard Graves is joined by Jordan Lucier, Senior Director of Engineering at Catapult and Co-Founder of Perch, to discuss the evolution of weight room monitoring technology. The conversation explores the development of Perch, the launch of the new P2 system, and how advances in computer vision and machine learning are helping coaches better understand strength training performance.

310: Why Female Physiology Still Needs Greater Attention in Sport with Dr Candice Macmillan

March 9th, 2026  |  30 mins 42 secs

athlete health, athlete monitoring, elite sport science, female athlete health, female athlete performance, female physiology, hormonal contraception, injury prevention, menstrual cycle, performance science, sports medicine, sports physiotherapy, sports science, strength and conditioning, women in sport

Dr Candice Macmillan joins the Science for Sport Podcast to explore the complex relationship between hormonal contraceptives, female physiology, and athletic performance. The episode highlights why education, communication, and symptom awareness are essential for practitioners supporting female athletes in elite sport.