Science for Sport Podcast

344: Preventing Non-Contact Injuries in Professional Football

November 2nd, 2026  |  35 mins 8 secs

acceleration, andrew hyde, athlete development, athlete education, athlete monitoring, daniel booth, elite sport, football injuries, football performance, football strength and conditioning, force plates, gps data, hamstring injuries, individualisation, individualised training, injury prevention, load management, movement assessment, myolab, non-contact injuries, performance coaching, performance testing, physical preparation, player availability, player ownership, private coaching, professional football, rehabilitation, return to play, richard graves, science for sport, soccer performance, soft tissue injuries, speed development, sports medicine, sports rehabilitation, sports science, sprint mechanics, strength and conditioning, training load

Richard Graves is joined by strength and conditioning coaches Andrew Hyde and Daniel Booth to examine why non-contact injuries remain such a challenge in professional football. They discuss the limitations of squad-based physical preparation, the relationship between data and what actually happens on the pitch, training load, movement mechanics and the importance of understanding each player's individual needs. They also explore how clubs and private practitioners can work together more effectively and why educating athletes to take greater ownership of their physical development could be an important part of keeping players fit and available.

343: The Enhanced Games: Performance, Risk and Athlete Choice

October 26th, 2026  |  33 mins 29 secs

anti-doping, athlete health, athlete monitoring, athlete welfare, doping in sport, elite sport, enhanced, enhanced games, high performance sport, human performance, informed consent, max martin, maximilian martin, medical supervision, performance enhancement, performance-enhancing drugs, recovery, richard graves, science for sport, science for sport podcast, sport science, sports ethics, sports science, sprinting, swimming, training adaptation, weightlifting

Richard Graves speaks with Enhanced co-founder and CEO Maximilian Martin about the Enhanced Games and the debate surrounding performance-enhancing substances in sport. They discuss athlete choice, medical oversight, informed consent and the inaugural event’s performances, while examining questions about long-term health and the wider responsibilities of promoting enhancement. Maximilian presents Enhanced’s position, with Richard questioning its implications for athletes and sport.

340: What Saliva Testing Can Tell Us About Athletes

October 5th, 2026  |  21 mins 14 secs

athlete health, athlete monitoring, biolyz, biomarker testing, cortisol, elite sport, football performance, illness monitoring, individual baselines, injury risk, marlon millard, performance data, recovery monitoring, richard graves, saliva testing, salivary biomarkers, science for sport, sports science, training load

Richard Graves speaks with Biolyz founder Marlon Millard about the use of frequent saliva testing in elite sport. They discuss individual baselines, cortisol, the need to interpret biomarker trends alongside training and wellness data, and the potential and current limits of using those data to anticipate problems.

338: How Sports Science Has Changed Coaching with Simon Grayson

September 21st, 2026  |  41 mins 21 secs

athlete monitoring, coaching, elite football, elite performance, football analytics, football coaching, football management, football performance, football periodisation, football recovery, football sports science, gps data, high-speed running, huddersfield town, injury prevention, leeds united, leicester city, man management, match preparation, performance data, performance science, periodisation, player availability, player load, preston north end, professional football, recovery, s&c, science for sport, science for sport podcast, simon grayson, sports performance, sports science, sports technology, strength and conditioning, training intensity, training load

Simon Grayson joins Richard Graves to discuss how sports science has transformed professional football across his five decades in the game. From nutrition and recovery to GPS, high-speed running and individualised training, Simon offers a manager's perspective on what performance practitioners can do to genuinely influence decision-making. He explains why data needs context, why coaches still need to trust what they see on the pitch, and why no amount of technology will replace good man-management.

336: How the NFL’s Best Practitioners Use Performance Data

September 7th, 2026  |  29 mins 38 secs

american football, applied sports science, athlete monitoring, athlete preparation, athlete readiness, catapult, catapult sports, college football, data analytics, elite sport, football performance, gps tracking, high performance sport, injury prevention, injury risk, jamie hepner, load management, ncaa football, nfl, performance analysis, performance data, performance technology, player availability, player tracking, practice load, practitioner decision making, sport science, sports science, sports technology, strength and conditioning, training load, training prescription, vector 8, video analysis, wearable technology

Jamie Hepner joins Richard Graves to explain how NFL and college football teams are moving beyond simply collecting performance data and using it to shape practice, manage player availability and improve preparation. They discuss athlete monitoring, training prescription, injury risk and why context and practitioner judgement ultimately determine whether data leads to better decisions.

335: The Three Outcomes That Define High Performance

August 31st, 2026  |  28 mins 12 secs

athlete availability, athlete development, athlete monitoring, athlete readiness, coaching, collegiate sport, data-informed coaching, exercise science, force plates, high performance sport, high-performance leadership, integrated performance, load monitoring, mental wellness, multidisciplinary teams, ncaa, nsca, performance data, performance science, return to play, richard graves, science for sport, sports medicine, sports nutrition, sports science, sports technology, strength and conditioning, trevor short, utah state university, wearable technology

Dr Trevor Short joins Richard Graves to explain how Utah State University is building an integrated approach to athlete health, wellness and performance. They discuss why alignment must come before data, how athlete monitoring can improve decision-making and what it takes to balance availability, readiness and long-term performance development.

334: How Elite Athletes Respond Under Pressure

August 24th, 2026  |  29 mins 23 secs

athlete monitoring, athlete wellbeing, baseball, basketball, behavioural science, coaching, decision-making, emotional regulation, fatigue, frustration, golf, heart rate, heart rate variability, high-performance sport, mental performance, nhl, performance psychology, pressure performance, recovery, self-talk, sport science, sports psychology, tennis, wearable technology

Dr Alicia Naser explains how behavioural science can help athletes execute more consistently under pressure. Richard and Alicia discuss the links between fatigue, heart rate, self-talk, frustration, wearable data and decision-making, making the case for mental and physical preparation to be treated as one integrated performance system.

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

Premier League, 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, 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.