How I help / Performance and integrity in sport
Performance and integrity aren’t a trade-off.
Abusive coaching, badly handled career transitions and tick-box anti-doping education can cost performance as well as welfare. I help clubs, leagues and governing bodies build environments where people perform well and behave well.
My research has involved Olympians, Premier League and international managers, and professional football clubs.
Where clubs and governing bodies get stuck
The problems I’m most often asked about.
- Your best coaches get results, but some of the ways they get them worry you.
- Coaching quality depends on whoever is in charge this season.
- Players leave the game, or the first team, with no plan for what comes next.
- Your anti-doping education ticks the box. It doesn’t change what happens in the changing room.
What I offer
Fixed fees wherever possible, agreed before we start.
Coaching effectiveness
Evidence on what effective coaches and managers actually do, and support for them and the people who appoint them.
Abusive coaching and coaching culture
Spot and stop the coaching behaviours that harm players and performance, without losing the edge.
Career transitions
Support for players, coaches and managers moving up, on or out of the game, built on research with the League Managers Association.
Anti-doping and integrity education
Programmes built on why people bend the rules, not just what the rules are.
Psychological first aid and wellbeing
Practical training so players, staff and fans can support each other.
Psychology provision, reviews and supervision
An independent review of your psychology or culture provision, help building it on the evidence, and supervision for practitioners on the BPS applied route.
Selected work
Performance and integrity in sport
Behaviour change in a football-based curriculum.
Advised Football Beyond Borders on its coaching and behaviour change curriculum, designed to improve attainment and reduce the risk of exclusion.
Read the case studyWADA-funded research
Research funded by the World Anti-Doping Agency, developing frameworks and measures for understanding doping behaviour.
Talent identification in football
The Scouting Self-Efficacy in Soccer Scale (SSES-S), developed over five years with hundreds of Premier League, EFL and grassroots coaches and scouts, measures how confident they are across the skills involved in identifying talent. Coming soon in Global Perspectives on Talent Identification and Development in Football.
League Managers Association
Research on managers’ career transitions, with recommendations against encouraging managers to chase managerial jobs indefinitely.
BBC: Do Black Lives Still Matter?
Research featured in the documentary, showing that, over five years of English football, some playing positions were held mostly by lighter-skinned players.
How it works
Get in touch.
Tell me what you’re working on. If I’m not the right person, I’ll say so.
Get a plan.
We talk it through, then I send a short written plan and a fixed price. No surprises.
See what changes.
We design, deliver and evaluate it together.
Questions
Doesn’t integrity work soften performance?
It shouldn’t. Fear-based coaching can make players less willing to take risks, own mistakes or speak up, and doping, abuse and badly handled transitions all carry performance and reputational costs. Good integrity work aims to remove those costs, not the edge.
What helps anti-doping education change behaviour?
Knowing the rules is necessary, but rarely enough on its own. Pressure, norms, the people around athletes and the ways we justify our own behaviour all play a part. Education that tackles those drivers alongside the rules works better, and I build in ways to see whether attitudes and intentions shift, not just whether people passed a quiz.
Do you carry out independent reviews?
Yes. I review integrity, wellbeing, coaching culture and psychology provision independently, with the rigour to stand up to your board, your funders and public scrutiny, and a clear plan for what to change.
Who do you work with in sport?
Clubs, leagues, governing bodies, anti-doping organisations and sport charities, from grassroots to elite. My research has involved Olympians, Premier League and international managers, and professional football clubs. Past work includes research funded by WADA, work with the League Managers Association and Football Beyond Borders.
Are you a sport psychologist?
No. I’m a chartered psychologist and behavioural scientist, and a RAPPS-registered supervisor who has supported practitioners through the BPS applied route. I don’t work one-to-one with players or coaches. I make sure the psychology and education your people deliver is based on evidence, and help build a culture where it works.
Want performance without the integrity risks? Let’s talk.
Tell me about your club, league or programme, and what you want to change.
Send me a message