In this episode sports psychologist Elliott Newell joins Gordon MacLelland to discuss how as sporting parents we can help support the development of mental skills for our young athletes to thrive.
During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:
- Personality flaws or just skill deficits?
- The importance of modelling emotional regulation during those tougher moments
- Imagery, breath work, mindfulness and journalling
- Helping our children meet the demands of their sport
- The importance of vulnerability and honesty in building trust and openness in parent-child relationships
- Using daily life and sport experiences as teachable moments for emotional and mental development
- Our goal in raising self-aware, emotionally skilled, and self-regulating individuals, not just successful athletes
Elliott is a sport psychologist and director of The Thrive Academy. He has worked in a wide range of Olympic and Paralympic sports as well as in Rugby and Football. Elliott specialises in environments and the way people interact. If you get the environment right, then you can have profound impact on the performance, development and well-being of people within it and this is the primary focus of Elliott’s work.
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In this episode sports parent and life coach Stephanie Burge joins Gordon MacLelland to discuss ‘Deselection, Release and Transition’ and how we can help support young people through this incredibly challenging time.
During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:
- Intense parental emotions: shock, grief, helplessness
- The emotional fallout of deselection and the importance of parental support
- The importance of being present as a parent rather than trying to “fix” the situation
- Helping young athletes to develop interests and skills outside of sport throughout the journey
- Supporting dreams but also working through some ‘What if?’ scenarios alongside this
- Creating emotionally safe environments and validating young people beyond their performance
- Recognising that grief is not linear and that ending a sporting chapter can often lead to new freedom and opportunities
Stephanie Burge is a businesswoman, entrepreneur and ICF qualified Life coach with a powerful story of resilience, reinvention and mindset mastery. As the sole survivor of a serious car accident, she has turned trauma into a driving force for personal growth, purpose and helping others navigate life’s toughest transitions.
A mother to two daughters, one a successful entrepreneur with ADHD, and the other an ex-GB and England hockey player now thriving in her career, Stephanie understands the highs and lows of the neurodiverse brain and the player journey after elite sport. She is passionate about ensuring athletes, parents and professionals develop the right mindset, and get the right support, to thrive beyond competition.
Alongside supporting parents to show up in the best way to enhance their child’s sporting journey, Stephanie also coaches injured, de-selected and often psychologically broken athletes. Her objective is to facilitate them to process their loss, rediscover their identity and build fulfilling new careers. Often much time has elapsed before athletes finally realise they need to make peace with their past and reconnect with the joy of sport.
]]>In this episode British Sailing Squad member Molly Sacker joins Gordon MacLelland to discuss her own sporting journey, the lessons she has learned, how we can best support young high performers and life gearing up for Los Angeles 2028.
During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:
- The importance of consistent messaging to young athletes from parents and coaches
- Sacrifices or individual choices?
- Motivation and commitment and the importance of discipline
- The dangers of early success if it leads to complacency
- The logistical and emotional strain on parents who support young high performers
- Mollys mantra of ‘It’s not that deep—it’s meant to be fun.’
- Female athletes perhaps needing specific support environments, especially in male-dominated sports
- Promoting balance, independence and emotional well-being alongside performance
In sport, it can be quick to overlook parents as we are so focused on supporting the athletes. There might also be a bit of anxiousness around working with parents, but the importance of parents in sport can’t be overstated. Without them, sport simply can’t happen.
The roles and responsibilities of the sporting parent are stressful; driving hours to training / matches, buying kit and paying fees, the car ride home, balancing priorities. If we want to have a positive influence on young athletes, then we need to support parents with the issues they face, which undoubtedly has a knock on effect.
We discuss the pros and cons of running social media accounts for child athletes, the car ride home, shifting culture to influence parent support, an athlete centred approach to supporting parents, how Gordon manages being a sporting parent himself and much more……
Listen to the full episode by clicking the links below.
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eZX3cxm3
Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/eGhQk6qe
Amazon Music: https://lnkd.in/eNEh_G8z
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“No Guarantees, Just Hard Work” – A Must-Listen Episode!
In the latest For the Love of Sport podcast episode CEO Gordon MacLelland shares a powerful perspective for parents on the realities of pursuing excellence.
We dive into practical strategies for reducing conflicts, managing expectations, and ensuring parents play a supportive, positive role in their child’s sports journey.
To Listen to the episode and subscribe click below:
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gEna7J5Z
Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/g9jbgnsX
Whether you’re a coach, athlete, or someone chasing big dreams, this conversation reminds you that success isn’t promised—it’s earned.
]]>In this episode mindset/performance coach and former professional cricketer Lewis Hatchett joins Gordon MacLelland to discuss the positives and perils of perfectionism and what we should be looking out for in helping to support our young performers.
During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:
- Lewis’ own personal battles with perfectionism throughout his career
- Why not all elements of perfectionism are bad when it comes to performance
- Spotting the signs of perfectionist tendencies in our young people
- Having the right and most realistic levels of expectation when it comes to performance
- The importance of allowing our young people to experience failure
- Helping our children focus predominantly on their regular process goals
- Working with our children to help them understand what their ‘minimum, viable performance'(MVP) looks like
- Encouraging our children to use practice and training time efficiently
- Helping our children strive for excellencism rather than perfectionism
Lewis Hatchett is a Mindset and Mental Performance Coach, Former Professional Cricketer, MSc Student of Performance Psychology at Bangor University, Host of the Raising Your Game Podcast and Creator of the MindStrong Sport App.
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In this ‘Olympic Special’ sports psychology consultant, speaker and author Chris Shambrook joins Gordon MacLelland to discuss the Olympic Games, High Performance and Supporting Young Athletes.
During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:
- Chris’ reflections on his Olympic Journey supporting world class performers
- Life behind the scenes of high performing teams
- Being curious about the information we hear as sports parents
- Strategies for helping to support young high performers
- Recognising every child is different and ensuring co-collaboration with our children
- Helping our children intelligently define failure
- The dangers of ‘Silver Bullets’ of advice
- Personal highlights of the Olympics so far
Chris Shambrook is an accomplished speaker and author and as a sports psychologist worked over 5 Olympic Games with one of Team GB’s (Rowing) most successful sports.
He now uses this immense wealth of experience to support leaders and performers in the world of work.
Chris designs and quality assures ‘PlanetK2’ programmes and content, and his common-sense, personable approach has had such a positive impact on the people he has worked with.
He also has an Honorary Professorship from Staffordshire University and is the co-author of three books.
]]>During this episode they explored a number of topical areas around coach, parent and player relationships.
This included:
– Dynamics of functional vs dysfunctional parent and coach relationships across different ages and levels of sport
– Navigating the anti parent sub culture within coaching
– Language as a starting point for working with parents
– Managing difficult conversations with parents
– And much much more!
]]>In this episode Australian Institute of Sport Athlete Development Senior Lead Graham Turner joins Gordon MacLelland to discuss his latest book ‘The Young Athlete’s Perspective.’
This book features six stories told by young athletes about their talent development experiences in sport. Each young athlete tells a personal story. They describe their own individual set of circumstances and provide a personal perspective that has been shaped by living in contemporary times.
These unique stories are shared in the hope that they may support coaches and parents to better connect with the young athlete’s perspective. When considered together, these individual insights confirm the essence of the talent development experience and they reveal what every parent and coach supporting and developing the young athlete needs to know.
During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:
- Understanding the mentality of young people
- Working closely to understand your own child (they are all different)
- The importance of hard work and making the most from the whole sporting experience
- Helping our children to trust themselves and find environments that allow them to thrive
- The importance of positive relationships between the key people around young people
- Creating an environment for genuine, authentic conversations
- Impression management and how information is perceived by all involved
- The importance of parental role-modelling and walking the walk
In this episode author and sports parent Catherine Baker joins Gordon MacLelland to discuss being a sports parent and the complexities of the role based on her experiences of parenting three sporting children, one of whom is currently involved in professional rugby.
During the conversation they discuss amongst other things:
- The realities of being a sports parent
- Learning on the job and navigating the role of a sports parent
- Thinking about our communication, our language and the messages we give our children
- Reinforcing hard work and effort
- Working alongside our own children’s goals and motivations
- The importance of connection
- The challenge of navigating our children being injured or not being selected
- Passing the baton to our teenage children and giving them a greater agency over the experience
- Picking the moments to have important conversations with our teenagers
- The lessons we can apply from Catherine’s book ‘Staying the Distance’
Author, coach, and Keynote Speaker Catherine is relentless on the benefits of sport and movement. Catherine is a parent of three boys, all of whom have played sport at a high level. Through her business Sport and Beyond she has had the privilege of working with many elite athletes, elite coaches, and senior leaders across sport and business, with a focus on mindset and leadership.
She is also a non-executive Director on various Boards, including the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust. Catherine’s debut book, Staying the Distance: The Lessons From Sport That Business Leaders Have Been Missing, published by Bloomsbury Business, came out on 20th March 2023.
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