Science for Sport Podcast

Can athletes learn to grow from pressure, rather than simply recover from it?

This week, Richard Graves welcomes Dr Nick Holton to the Science for Sport podcast to explore antifragility: the idea that appropriately managed challenges could help athletes develop greater capacity to handle future demands.

Nick explains how he distinguishes antifragility from resilience, and why preparing athletes for difficult moments means looking beyond visualising the perfect performance. They discuss how coaches can introduce realistic challenges, account for individual differences, and support athletes through the experience and recovery afterwards.

For practitioners, the central question is how to create enough challenge to encourage development without overwhelming the athlete. Nick discusses the importance of understanding the specific emotions involved, why strong performances can conceal a risk of burnout, and how athlete feedback and wearable data might inform a more complete picture.

They also examine the limitations of the research. Antifragility remains an emerging field, with questions around its definition, measurement and application in sport. Nick shares what his team is investigating and what coaches can take from the concept while that evidence develops.

In this episode you will learn

How Nick distinguishes antifragility from resilience and robustness.

Why visualisation should also prepare athletes for difficult and imperfect circumstances.

Why psychological challenges need to reflect the individual athlete’s capacity and experience.

How pressure, frustration, disappointment and anger can require different responses.

Why recovery, athlete agreement and appropriate support matter when introducing challenges.

How performance, wellbeing and burnout can tell different stories about the same athlete.

Where antifragility research currently stands and what better measurement could offer practitioners.

About Dr Nick Holton

Dr Nick Holton is a performance and wellbeing coach, consultant and co-founder of The Antifragile Academy. He works with professional and collegiate athletes, alongside organisations in education, business and first-response services. His work focuses on human flourishing: supporting performance alongside wellbeing and fulfilment. A former football coach with 15 years’ coaching experience, Nick brings a background in education and psychology to his work with athletes and coaches.

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What can a saliva sample tell a performance team that a blood test taken a few times a season might miss?

This week, Richard Graves is joined by Marlon Millard, chemist and founder of Biolyz, to discuss how frequent biomarker testing could help teams understand what is normal for each athlete, and spot changes that deserve a closer look.

Marlon explains what saliva can and cannot reveal, why a cortisol reading needs context, and how testing trends may be more useful than reacting to a single result. They also discuss the practical challenge of turning large amounts of biochemical data into information that medical and performance staff can use alongside training load, wellness and performance measures.

The conversation looks ahead to whether these data could eventually help teams anticipate illness, poor recovery or injury risk, while being clear that reliable prediction still requires more evidence.

In this episode you will learn

Why Marlon moved from chemistry and endocrinology into athlete testing

Where saliva testing can add to, or differ from, blood testing

How frequent testing helps establish an athlete’s individual baseline

Why cortisol alone cannot explain the cause of a change

How training load and other data help make sense of biomarker results

Why one unusual reading should not trigger an immediate response

What is needed before biomarker data can support reliable predictions

About Marlon Millard

Marlon Millard is a chemist and the founder and CEO of Biolyz, a company developing saliva based biomarker testing. His background includes experimental endocrinology and non-invasive testing, followed by medicinal chemistry. He now works on applying frequent, multi-biomarker testing in elite sport.

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How much does the surface beneath an athlete’s feet really affect performance and injury risk?

This week, Richard Graves is joined by Professor John Sorochan from the University of Tennessee and Alan Thomson, USA Sales Director at SIS Pitches, to explore the science behind the playing surfaces used at the highest levels of sport.

From natural grass and artificial turf to the growing use of hybrid pitches, John and Alan explain what actually happens when an athlete interacts with a playing surface – and why the relationship between the player, their footwear and the surface itself matters.

John takes us inside the testing process, explaining how researchers measure factors such as surface hardness, traction, stability and consistency, and how those measurements help inform decisions around player performance and safety.

The conversation also explores the rapid development of hybrid surfaces. Alan explains how introducing a small percentage of synthetic fibre into natural grass can reinforce the pitch, reduce surface damage and help maintain more consistent playing conditions across demanding schedules.

The pair also discuss one of the biggest challenges in modern sport: creating elite-level natural playing surfaces inside stadiums that are increasingly expected to host football, American football, concerts and other major events throughout the year.

Drawing on their work around the 2026 FIFA World Cup, they reveal how surfaces were developed to perform consistently across hugely different environments – from the heat and humidity of Miami to altitude in Mexico and cooler conditions in Canada.

They also look at the debate around artificial turf in the NFL, what research can tell us about hybrid alternatives, and where playing-surface technology could go next.

In this episode you will learn

Why player safety depends on the interaction between the athlete, footwear and playing surface

What researchers actually measure when testing elite sports pitches

How surface hardness, traction and stability can influence player movement

The difference between natural grass, artificial turf and hybrid playing surfaces

Why hybrid pitches are still predominantly natural grass despite their synthetic reinforcement

How hybrid systems can create greater stability and consistency as a pitch begins to wear

How playing surfaces were developed for very different climates during the 2026 FIFA World Cup

Why achieving consistent ball and player interaction across different stadiums is so important

How multi-use stadiums are changing the demands placed on grounds teams and playing surfaces

Why shallow hybrid stitching has opened up new possibilities for temporary and replaceable surfaces

What elite sport can learn from the ongoing debate around artificial turf and player safety

How research, technology and experienced pitch managers work together to produce elite surfaces

About Professor John Sorochan and Alan Thomson

Professor John Sorochan is Distinguished Professor of Turfgrass Science and Management at the University of Tennessee and one of the leading researchers in sports turf and athletic-field safety.

His career in turfgrass science stretches back more than 30 years, including working as a student on the 1994 FIFA World Cup. Today, his research examines the relationship between playing surfaces, player biomechanics, turf performance and safety.

John has worked with organisations across elite sport including the NFL, Major League Baseball and professional football, and has played a leading role in research designed to deliver safe and consistent pitches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Alan Thomson is USA Sales Director at SIS Pitches and has spent his career working with elite sports surfaces.

After beginning his career in golf-course management in Scotland, Alan moved into the construction, renovation and maintenance of football pitches before joining SIS Pitches. He now works across the United States helping venues implement hybrid playing-surface technology across sports including football, American football, baseball and lacrosse.

His recent work has included major stadium projects across North America and the installation and development of hybrid surfaces used during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

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​ Reduce Your Athletes' Injury Ratese

​ Save 100's Of Dollars A Year That Would Otherwise Be Spent On Books, Courses And More

​ Improve Your Athletes' Performance

​ Advance Forward In Your Career, Allowing You To Earn More Money And Work With Elite-Level Athletes

​ Save Yourself The Stress & Worry Of Constantly Trying To Stay Up-To-Date With Sports Science Research

Few people are better placed to chart the evolution of sports science in professional football than Simon Grayson.

Across a career spanning five decades, Simon has experienced the game as both a player and manager, from an era of bacon sandwiches before training and beers on the team bus, through to the GPS data, individualised programmes and specialist performance departments that are now part of everyday professional football.

This week, Richard Graves sits down with Simon to discuss how that transformation has changed the way players train, recover and prepare for matches, and how his own approach to management has evolved alongside it.

Simon explains what he wants from sports science practitioners as a manager, why information has to be relevant rather than simply available, and why data should always be understood within the context of what actually happened on the pitch.

They also explore one of the challenges facing modern performance teams: finding the right balance between objective data and a coach's experience. Simon discusses why high-speed running is one of the metrics he pays particular attention to, how physical data can influence team selection during congested schedules, and why he has never wanted his training sessions to be dictated entirely by the numbers.

Drawing on his experiences in English football and coaching overseas, Simon also explains how climate, culture and the physical capabilities of players can force coaches to adapt their methods.

And despite everything that has changed, he believes one part of coaching remains as important as ever: getting the best out of people.

In this episode you will learn

How sports science in professional football has changed since Simon began playing in the 1980s

What a manager actually wants from sports science and performance staff

Why more data doesn't necessarily mean better information

Why Simon pays particular attention to high-speed running

How physical data can influence selection during congested fixture schedules

Why training load data needs to be interpreted within the context of the game

How managers balance sports science recommendations with coaching experience

What modern recovery looks like compared with previous generations

How Simon adapted his training methods when coaching in different climates and cultures

Why man-management and relationships remain fundamental regardless of advances in technology

About Simon Grayson

Simon Grayson has spent more than four decades in professional football as a player, coach and manager.

After beginning his career at Leeds United, he went on to play for clubs including Leicester City, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers and Blackpool. His playing career included promotion to the Premier League with Leicester and victory in the 1997 League Cup.

As a manager, Simon has led clubs including Blackpool, Leeds United, Huddersfield Town, Preston North End, Sunderland and Bradford City, with promotion-winning campaigns at several clubs. His career has also taken him overseas, giving him experience of working with players and performance teams in different footballing cultures and environments.

More recently, Simon has worked in international football and advisory roles, while also launching the Simon Grayson Football Academy in Leeds.

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​ Reduce Your Athletes' Injury Ratese

​ Save 100's Of Dollars A Year That Would Otherwise Be Spent On Books, Courses And More

​ Improve Your Athletes' Performance

​ Advance Forward In Your Career, Allowing You To Earn More Money And Work With Elite-Level Athletes

​ Save Yourself The Stress & Worry Of Constantly Trying To Stay Up-To-Date With Sports Science Research

Are elite athletes training harder than the demands of their sport require?

This week, Richard Graves is joined by performance coach Colin Byrne, who spent seven years working with Conor McGregor as part of his training and corner team.

Colin believes many athletes, particularly in combat sports, still confuse doing more work with preparing effectively. He explains why conditioning should reflect the actual structure of competition, how fatigue affects technical execution and why the ability to recover between intense efforts can decide contests.

The conversation explores Colin’s work with McGregor following his first defeat to Nate Diaz. He describes how introducing greater structure, separating skill development from conditioning and helping McGregor understand his own intensity transformed the preparation for their rematch just 14 weeks later.

Colin also introduces his “one-round principle”, challenges the value of routinely exceeding competition distances in training and explains what combat sports can learn from cycling’s measurement-led approach to performance.

In this episode you will learn

Why many combat athletes train too much without training specifically enough

How fatigue affects decision-making and technical execution

What Colin changed after Conor McGregor’s first fight with Nate Diaz

Why skill training and conditioning may need to be separated

How heart rate and power data can help athletes understand pacing

Why recovery between high-intensity efforts matters so much

How the “one-round principle” changes the structure of fight preparation

Why training beyond the demands of competition is not always productive

What coaches can learn from cycling’s approach to measurement

How amateur athletes can make better use of limited training time

About Colin Byrne

Colin Byrne is a performance coach, martial artist and founder of the Shinobi Academy in Portugal. A former professional cyclist and European silver medallist in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, he holds black belts in both Brazilian jiu-jitsu and ninjutsu.

Colin spent seven years travelling and working with Conor McGregor, helping to structure his conditioning following the first Nate Diaz fight and supporting him as a trainer and cornerman. His approach combines practical coaching experience, measurable performance data and a detailed understanding of the demands placed on combat athletes.

FREE 7d SCIENCE FOR SPORT ACADEMY TRIAL

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​ Learn Quicker & More Effectively

​ Optimise Your Athletes' Recovery

​ Position Yourself As An Expert To Your Athletes And Naturally Improve Buy-In

​ Reduce Your Athletes' Injury Ratese

​ Save 100's Of Dollars A Year That Would Otherwise Be Spent On Books, Courses And More

​ Improve Your Athletes' Performance

​ Advance Forward In Your Career, Allowing You To Earn More Money And Work With Elite-Level Athletes

​ Save Yourself The Stress & Worry Of Constantly Trying To Stay Up-To-Date With Sports Science Research