This week’s episode is an AASP Special. Dr. Mustafa Sarkar is Associate Professor of Sport and Performance Psychology at Nottingham Trent University as well as a consultant specialising in individual, team, and organisational resilience across many high performance domains. The Association for Applied Sport Psychology (or AASP)’s annual conference is coming up this week from the 15th – 18th October in Montreal, where there will be a host of great speakers and content. Mustafa delivered ...

In this second episode of 2025 we have the pleasure of getting to speak to Dr. Martin Turner again - exploring different nuances and themes within REBT, and its growing applicability to systemic and environment challenges. On the applied side Martin has worked across football, cricket, rugby, cycling, archery, shooting, and equestrian. He also provides performance psychology to business professionals. He’s the Lead Sport Psychologist for England Futsal and his work with athletes has included...

Welcome to Slice of PIE episode 32. Stuart Holliday (CPsychol) is a Sport Psychologist for GB Olympic Swimming, and runs his own practice Focused Mind Coaching with clients in sport, music, and business. He has worked in elite sport environments for over 10 years at Olympic, Paralympic, Commonwealth, and Premiership experience for Archery, Swimming, England Netball, and Liverpool Football Club. His real passion and area of expertise is Endurance sport, which is why he has a subsidiary of Focu...

In the fourth Slice of PIE of 2024, we get the pleasure of speaking to Dr. Will McConn Palfreyman, Head of Psychology at Scottish Golf, and lecturer in Sport Psychology at the University of Sterling. A chartered sport & exercise psychologist through the British Psychological Society – Will has worked with a number of sporting organisations including sportscotland Institute of Sport, Scottish Golf, Scottish Cycling, the Scottish Rugby Union, Racing Welfare, the National Trainers Federation...

In the third Slice of PIE of 2024, we get the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Duncan Simpson. Duncan joined IMG from Barry University in Miami in 2017 - providing mental conditioning services for tennis, golf, and soccer. Originally from England, he received his Ph.D in Sport Psychology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He’s a Certified Consultant with the Association of Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) and has been conducting mental skills training with athletes and coaches since 20...

In the second Slice of PIE of 2024, we get the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Martin Turner. Martin is a very experienced academic, researcher and practitioner – with specific interests in challenge and threat states in athletes, and the use of REBT with athletes. On the applied side Martin has worked across football, cricket, rugby, cycling, archery, shooting, and equestrian. He also provides performance psychology to business professionals. He’s the Lead Sport Psychologist for England Fu...

Another year, and another Slice of PIE first. We get to speak to Niels Feddersen, Associate Professor at the Norwegian School of Sport Science - and we get to speak to him at two points in time ! First in 2020, during his move from Denmark to Norway, and then again in 2023 - where we have a conversation and reflection on the first conversation ! I can't take credit, it was Niels' idea... We talk about some of his important research studying sporting organisations and their cultu...

Slice of PIE is back with some exciting personal and professional news. We also get to speak to Dr. Jamie Barker, former chair of the British Psychological Society's (BPS) Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology (DSEP) and 'Pracademic' with over 20 years of experience. In this episode we dig into his experience working with the British Paralympics team in Rio, and from working in sport to business to the military and many other performance environments. Jamie is also the author of multi...

It's Part Two time ! A chance to return to our conversation with Elliott Newell, former Pathway Scientist at the English Institute of Sport (EIS) and now Senior Athlete Support Advisor at UK Sport. You can hear the first part of our conversation here: https://www.sliceofpiepodcast.com/987202/5419588-sport-psychology-on-the-road-elliott-newell-part-one You can find Elliott here: Elliott's Twitter: https://twitter.com/ElliottSportPsy EIS - Performance Pathway Learning Hub: https://pphub.ei...

Slice of PIE has been shortlisted in the 'Wellbeing and Performance' category in the 2022 Sports Podcast Awards. You can help by voting for Slice of PIE here: https://www.sportspodcastawards.com/categories/11 In this episode we speak to Jack Apperley, a London based choral conductor. Jack studied at the University of Birmingham where he was mentored by Simon Halsey CBE, and then went on to train at the Royal Academy of Music under the tutelage of Patrick Russill (Patrick Russill ...

Join me for the second in a two-parter we recorded last year - a conversation about Social Identity. In fact, with the Euros in full swing, this is a great time to revisit the first part (here) as well as Gareth Southgate's recent interview on the High Performance Podcast (here). Dr. Matt Slater from Staffordshire University and Chris Hartley from the University of Stirling spend a lot of time thinking about groups, identity and leadership. Dr. Matt Slater is Associate Professor of S...

In this episode we speak to someone who has worked, and is currently working in professional football and rugby. Joe Dixon is a fellow graduate of the MSc Sport & Exercise Psychology Masters as Staffordshire University and now performance psychologist at Stoke City Football Club and Bath Rugby. Joe had a career in Occupational Psychology before he pivoted into sport, working in HR and as a consultant. This took him as far away as Western Australia and the buzzing industries circulating ar...

I am joined in this episode by chartered Sport Psychologist Jo Davies. Jo runs a sport psychology consultancy, based out of Reigate in Surrey, and is the sport psychology lead at The Army Elite Athlete Performance Centre, working with the Army Target Shooting and Army Boxing Teams. She is also a sport psychologist for TASS (the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme) and previously worked with the academy athletes at Surrey County cricket. She also supports several scholars at British Universiti...

My guest this week is Ismael Pedraza, or 'Isma'. Isma is a performance psychologist working as a practitioner and researcher in Germany, who has come via Finland, Australia and his home country of Colombia where he played a high standard of football. He’s currently the performance coach for Rogue, a professional eSports team in Europe that participates in the League of Legends European Championship. He is also on the managing council of ENYSSP, the European Network of Young Specialists in Sp...

In this episode I speak to Cath Bishop. A speaker, consultant, executive coach and author on developing success in leadership. Cath is also a former diplomat and former elite rower for Great Britain, representing at 3 Olympic games, achieving World Champion status twice as well as an Olympic Silver Medal in partnership with Dame Katherine Grainger in the coxless pair in Athens. A cursory glance at Cath’s Wikipedia or LinkedIn might give you the impression of one word… SUCCESS. Yet it’s the no...

In the spirit of speaking to different types of experts I have been wanting to a) speak to people in the world of consulting that help companies improve team effectiveness and develop leaders, and b) speak to people that have worked in teams in the furnace of the military environment. With this episode's guest Richard Waddell, I am fortunate to get 2 for the price of 1 … ! After passing through officer training at Sandhurst, Richard was in the UK one moment, and 48 hours later on the ground i...

In episode 4 of season 2, we speak to Jenna Woolven. Jenna has got a very impressive list of experiences across many environments, both as an athlete and a sport psychology consultant. She played national level and junior international level hockey before transitioning into sports marketing, and then into her sport and exercise psychology. Jenna then went on to work for sports and management consultancy Lane4, where she worked with various businesses and sports organisations, including a yea...

In the third episode of Season 2 I get to talk to Pathway Scientist at the English Institute of Sport (EIS) - Elliott Newell. Elliott's conversation with Dan Abrahams on The Sport Psych Show was the first time I had heard of the 'PIE' so you can largely credit Elliott with the title of the podcast. Elliott is a sport and performance scientist (BASES Accredited/Science Council Chartered) with specialism in psychological support. He works in high performance sport with a focus on talent develo...

In the second episode of season two we talk to Sport Psychologist in Training Louise Byrne. As well as training towards psychology chartership, Louise also works in finance, and we touch upon the interesting cross-application of performance psychology and wellbeing strategies in the corporate sector. The first 30-35 minutes is also a great deep-dive in to that mystical notion of 'balance' we're all striving for. Training as a psychologist whilst working another job is no mean feat, and this ...

Season TWO of the Slice of PIE podcast kicks off with former chair of the British Psychological Society's (BPS) Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology (DSEP) and 'Pracademic' with over 20 years of experience. That's experience in consultancy, lecturing, research, presenting and working in all manner of domains from premier league football and academy cricket to supporting the British Paralympics team in Rio, and from working in sport to business to the military and many other performance e...