On our latest episode we chat to HCPC accredited sport and exercise psychologist, Ryan Pelling. Ryan is someone Brad and Toni have known for a couple of years, having been part of the same supervision group throughout that time. Ryan has had a lot of experience working in football as a sport psychologist, both as a trainee and as an accredited practitioner. We try to bring Ryan’s experience to life to learn more about some of the common areas of support Ryan has found himself providing in the football environment, both in an academy and first team setting. If you’re a trainee sport psych we recommend you listen to this episode which will help to normalise some of the feelings you may have in the early part of your journey. A key message was that we are never the finished product, and that is okay, but we can use this to our advantage when working with athletes.   Motivation is a passion of Ryan’s, which we take full advantage of as he provides some great insight into why motivation and commitment come hand in hand. As a sport and exercise psychology lecturer, Ryan also offers some tips for students and those aspiring to work in the field of sport. Of course, for any young athletes tuning in there are plenty of wellbeing and performance tips throughout this episode.   We hope you enjoy.   Check out Ryan and Tom’s podcast where the hosts have conversations around the difficult / awkward parts of sport psychology that don’t get discussed enough: https://open.spotify.com/show/4mmBtndxGE2iEq3esGiK7S?si=6ea746916a4148e1   Talking Points   1.     Intro and welcome to episode (00:00) 2.     Ryan’s experience in sport growing up (3:00) 3.     Experiences of wellbeing / psychology as an athlete (5:02) 4.     Journey to an becoming an accredited sport psychologist (13:33) 5.     Working within football clubs as a sport psychologist (19:42) 6.     Common areas of support in football (29:22) 7.     One area a lot of us struggle with (32:54) 8.      How to boost motivation (40:55) 9.     Skills to develop for those aiming to work in sport (52:36) 10.  Looking after wellbeing (58:43) 11.  Tips for young players (1:02:14) 12.  Closing thoughts (1:06:31)