Science for Sport Podcast

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.

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.

317: Building Effective Analysis Processes in Elite Teams with Jamie Cook

April 27th, 2026  |  30 mins 25 secs

analysis workflow, athlete performance, chelsea women, coaching, coaching process, cpd in sport, data analysis, decision making in sport, elite sport, football analytics, football coaching, high performance sport, match analysis, performance analysis, performance analyst, player development, sports data, sports science, sports technology, women’s football

Jamie Cook provides a clear, practical insight into modern performance analysis in elite football, highlighting the importance of communication, process, and player understanding. The episode focuses on how analysts can turn complex data into meaningful impact, avoid over-analysis, and support coaches and players in high-pressure environments.

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.

313: Building Durability in Action Sports with Ryan Blake

March 30th, 2026  |  30 mins 8 secs

action sports, action sports science, adventure sports, ai in sport, athlete preparation, athletic durability, british water ski and wakeboard, elite sport, extreme sports, extreme sports performance, fatigue management, freestyle sports, high performance, injury prevention, jump testing, long term athletic development, ltad, olympic sports, performance coaching, periodisation, readiness monitoring, ryan blake, science for sport, snowboarding, sports coaching, sports performance, sports science, sports technology, strength and conditioning, vbt, velocity based training, x games, youth strength and conditioning

Ryan Blake, founder of Extreme Sports Performance and performance consultant for British Water Ski and Wakeboard, joins Richard Graves to make the case for a completely different approach to athlete preparation in action sports. Drawing on over 20 years of experience across elite sport and education, Ryan explains why durability, not peak output, is the real target in disciplines defined by unpredictability, variable terrain, and repeated decision-making under fatigue. He walks through his Restore, Apply, Own framework, the role of technology in bridging the gap between training and competition, and why the explosive growth of the X Games League and Olympic action sports makes this one of the most exciting frontiers in performance science right now.

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.

308: Peak Demands and Decision-Making Under Fatigue with Stan Parker

February 23rd, 2026  |  30 mins 50 secs

afl, ai in sport, athlete monitoring, brisbane broncos, contextualisation, gps tracking, high performance sport, injury prevention, interdisciplinary collaboration, load management, peak demands, performance analytics, phd in sports science, sports science, sports technology, team sport analytics, western bulldogs

In this episode, Stan Parker explains how elite sports science is evolving beyond basic load monitoring toward contextualised performance analytics that genuinely inform coaching decisions. Drawing on experience across multiple professional codes, he outlines how data, vision, communication and interdisciplinary collaboration combine to enhance availability, performance and long-term athlete development.

307: Performance Science in AFL and NRL with Brendan Fahrner

February 16th, 2026  |  27 mins 30 secs

afl, athlete buy-in, athlete monitoring, coaching science, elite sport, gps tracking, high performance, injury risk management, nrl, performance analytics, performance culture, performance leadership, practitioner wellbeing, rugby league, sports data, sports science, sports technology, strength and conditioning, team sport science

Brendan Fahrner reflects on a career spanning premiership-winning AFL environments and the NRL, sharing why trust, clarity and relationship-building matter more than complex analytics. He explains how simplifying data, aligning with coaching philosophy, and focusing on athlete-centred systems can create meaningful performance impact. A grounded discussion for practitioners navigating modern high-performance sport.