333: Why Athletes Keep Breaking Down

Science for Sport — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0100

This week, Richard Graves is joined by Dave Emsley, physiotherapist and movement specialist at The Body Mechanics, for a practical conversation on why successful rehabilitation needs to look beyond the site of pain.

Dave explains how the body adapts around injury, why a scan or strength test is only one part of the picture, and what practitioners can learn by observing how an athlete actually moves. From hamstring tears and persistent knee pain to golf swings, fast bowling and return-to-play decisions, this episode explores the relationship between biomechanics, motor patterns and long-term performance.

The discussion also unpacks “adaptive potential”: the body’s remarkable ability to find a way to keep performing when something is not working as it should. But that capacity is not unlimited. For practitioners, the challenge is recognising when an athlete’s compensations are taking them closer to the gutter and helping them restore better options before another area of the system breaks down.

In this episode you will learn

Why pain should be treated as information, rather than simply the problem to remove
How movement compensations can shift load elsewhere in the kinetic chain
Where scans, strength testing and force-plate data fit within a complete assessment
Why data should help confirm a clinical decision, rather than make it in isolation
The difference between quantitative testing and the qualitative assessment of movement
What “adaptive potential” means for injury risk, performance and longevity
Why athletes with the same diagnosis may need very different rehabilitation plans
When technical changes are worth making—and when practitioners should protect an athlete’s existing strengths
Why return-to-play should account for the athlete’s actual performance demands, not just symptom resolution
How practitioners can use movement quality to guide more individualised rehabilitation

About Dave Emsley

Dave Emsley is a physiotherapist and movement specialist at The Body Mechanics. With a background in sports science and physiotherapy, he works with athletes across a range of sports, including golf and football, and consults with Premier League footballers. His work focuses on biomechanical assessment, movement patterns, rehabilitation and helping people return to performance with a better understanding of how their body moves.

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322: The Performance Demands of a World Cup with Dr Dave Hancock

Science for Sport — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 06:00:00 +0100

In this episode of the Science for Sport Podcast, Richard Graves welcomes Dr Dave Hancock back to the show.

Dave has spent more than three decades working in elite sport, including roles with Chelsea, Leeds United, the England national team and the New York Knicks. He is now CEO of Apollo, where his work focuses on helping performance teams use data, technology and AI to better understand player availability, injury risk and performance.

Dave begins by sharing the latest developments in his Blind Screen approach, which looks beyond traditional testing by examining movement quality, control and rotational demands. He explains how Apollo is combining screening information with AI-generated insights, practitioner feedback and individualised exercise recommendations.

The conversation then turns to the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Drawing on his experience of working with England at the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012, Dave discusses the challenges facing performance and medical teams across a long international tournament: heat, travel, accumulated club workload, recovery, sleep, mental freshness and the need to bring a squad together around one common goal.

This is a practical discussion about the margins that matter at the highest level of sport, from interpreting data more effectively to preparing players and staff for the demands of tournament football.

In this episode you will learn

How Dave’s Blind Screen approach is developing and being used with elite athletes and teams.
Why rotational movement may be an important missing consideration in traditional screening methods.
How AI can help practitioners combine objective data with coaching and clinical insight.
The key physical demands facing players heading into the 2026 World Cup.
Why player preparation must become increasingly individualised after a demanding club season.
The importance of sleep, recovery monitoring, travel planning and heat acclimatisation during a major tournament.
Why mental freshness, squad togetherness and staff culture can influence performance at international level.
What Dave learned from working with England at the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012.

About Dr Dave Hancock
Dr Dave Hancock is the CEO of Apollo and an experienced performance director, chartered physiotherapist and strength and conditioning coach.

Across a career spanning more than three decades in elite sport, Dave has worked as Head Physiotherapist at Leeds United and Chelsea, served on the medical staff of the England national team at the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012, and spent seven years as Performance Director of the New York Knicks in the NBA.