Joe De Sena is a force of nature. I first became aware of Joe through podcasts like The Tim Ferris Show and Rich Roll and decided to reach out. Joe's story on those podcasts was one of starting out with very little and how a drive to change 100 million people’s lives pushed him on to found Spartan, which now has over 250 races in over forty two countries and with his recent acquisition of Tough Mudder, those stats are only going up. We only scratch the surface in this episode around his early ye...
Aug 11, 2021•36 min
As a heptathlete, Kelly Sotherton had huge success. A triple Olympic medalist, Commonwealth Games gold medalist and with European and world medals. But some of her medals came years and years after she actually competed as the result of some of her opponents failing drug tests retrospectively. We talk about that and her next chapters now, as a coach, as a team leader for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Kelly doesn’t hold back and I find that so refreshing. She says what she thinks and it c...
Aug 04, 2021•1 hr 11 min
Former Fiji sevens captain and my great friend, Osea Kolinisau, or Oscar, as he is known in rugby, is this week's star guest. Flag bearer for Fiji at the Rio Olympics, when Fiji won their countries first ever Olympic gold medal, he’s one of the most successful sevens players in the history of the game. Our relationship was more than just coach and captain. He helped navigate me in my early days in the pacific and we relied on each other on and off the training field. We really dig into that rela...
Jul 27, 2021•47 min
Owen Eastwood is a performance consultant who’s book ‘Belonging’ I devoured recently. Topping the charts in his native New Zealand, it’s crammed full of story-telling and take-home messages. I would read a few pages, then reflect on my own work and career and drift off into thought and feelings. It’s such a good read. Owen has worked with some of the very best teams and organisations both in the UK and abroad. Of Maori descent, that’s also a driver that’s fuelled his thinking around purpose, lea...
Jul 21, 2021•59 min
Ex-International Rower Cath Bishop won World Titles and has been to three Olympics including the 2004 games in Athens where she won a silver, but results are not what she would like to be judged or defined by. In fact, just starting her introduction as “ex-international rower” already wrongly labels what she is about. In her terrific book, The Long Win, Cath looks at winning from a longer term view and this conversation opens up many questions around what really defines success. Cath’s three C’s...
Jul 14, 2021•59 min
Series 2 kicks off with Olympian and former world champion athlete, Liz McColgan. Liz had a glittering career in athletics on both the track, in the 10,000m and the road, in the marathon. On top of world titles, she’s also a double olympian, double commonwealth champion and multiple marathon winner. In fact her story around her debut marathon, coming straight off a track season with no Marathon training to go out and win the New York marathon is a must listen coming up. From her early days growi...
Jul 07, 2021•54 min
Series 2 starts on July 07 with former World Champion and Olympic Silver Medalist Liz McColgan the first of many weekly guests. Details of how you can subscribe to the Ben Ryan Show, along with social media details are below... Listen & Subscribe to The Ben Ryan Podcast: Ben’s Website - http://benryan.co.uk/bio/ Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-ben-ryan-podcast/id1553400216 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/3iUL1eLA7HFKt5gxO7Uf4j?si=oN9YN6uFRSSGbO6kR01ONQ Amaz...
Jun 30, 2021•2 min
As part of their discussion, which will be aired in full as part of series 2 of the Ben Ryan Podcast, Ben sat down with former heptathlete Kelly Sotherton and the chat soon turned to athletes relationship with the press and in particular, thoughts after Naomi Osaka withdrew from Roland Garros citing mental health issues and the pressure of dealing with press conferences after matches.
Jun 02, 2021•6 min
Welcome back to the podcast where this week I take a look back over series one with the help of my partner, TV presenter Michelle Ackerley. It’s been a fantastic start to the podcast and over the course of the past ten week's we've heard from one of the stars of the Peter Crouch Podcast, Tom Fordyce, sprint coach, Margot Wells, sport psychologist, Dr Austin Swain, Fiji rugby player, Nemani Nadolo, New York Knicks performance leader, Erwin Valencia, Andy Murray's strength and conditioning coach, ...
Apr 28, 2021•48 min
Greg Barden was the youngest to ever pass Special Forces Selection and his journey from the Special Boat Service to England Sevens and company founder is as inspirational as it is interesting. This was the first time we met each other since we parted ways badly with England Sevens, me as the coach and Greg as the captain. It really was great to see Greg again and something we should have done a long time ago. He has not only done some truly amazing things in his life so far, but he also talks ab...
Apr 21, 2021•1 hr 10 min
My guest this week is Dr. Sherylle Calder. Sherylle was part of the staff that helped South Africa win the Rugby World Cup in 2007, having won the same tournament four years earlier in Australia with England. She's also worked in many other sports including Football, Cricket, NFL and Formula One and has also worked on an individual basis with some of the world's best athletes, such as Open Golf Champion, Ernie Els. Her specialism, that she discovered as a young international hockey player, centr...
Apr 14, 2021•59 min
If you have listened to last weeks episode then you would have heard leading psychologist, Dr Austin Swain, talk about coping with pressure, confidence, psychological safety and a whole lot more. We continue that conversation in this week’s show as we jump into the world of business and work-life, from a leadership point of view, but also the different styles of leadership and new ways of working, communicating and avoiding burnout. From stories of the battle between Coco-cola and Pepsi, to brin...
Mar 31, 2021•56 min
Dr Austin Swain is one of the co-founders of Lane 4, experts in organisational performance that have a 25 year track record of world-class and ground breaking delivery. He was England Rugby’s first Sports Psychologist and has worked with many top-end professional sports teams and athletes, but he’s also spent a huge amount of his career in the corporate sector too. I have known Austin since my student undergraduate days at Loughborough University when I attended his Sport Psychology lectures. Mu...
Mar 24, 2021•42 min
If you watch tennis, you might recognise his face. You aren't sure what he does but you see him at the Grand Slam events as the cameras pivot to the players team and families seating. Maybe in the short video played before Andy Murray, Britain’s greatest ever tennis player, comes onto centre court at Wimbledon, you see him on the same practice court chatting to Andy as he then disappears into the locker room. Matt Little is a world renowned coach and he has been Andy Murray’s strength and condit...
Mar 17, 2021•1 hr 1 min
We go stateside this week and talk to Erwin Benedict Valencia or simply ‘E’. I have know Erwin since 2016 when we met in New York City in his role working in Basketball and we’ve been good friends ever since. I would regard him as a polymath, hugely competent in many different and diverse domains. At the last count he had over 30 letters after his name but that really is just a by product of who he is. He grew up in the Philippines but moved around a fair bit as a kid before getting his first br...
Mar 10, 2021•52 min
From his beginnings in Sigatoka ‘Rugby Town’ in Fiji, to gracing every top professional league in the world, rugby superstar, Nemani Nadolo’s story is an engaging one. One of the world's best Rugby Union wingers in the last twenty years, it’s not been a straight path to his many achievements and honours. Indeed at one stage it looked like Nemani might not have a career in rugby at all, but thoughts of lucrative work in the mining industry soon turned to following his passion and eventually light...
Mar 03, 2021•46 min
Welcome to another show where each week I'm joined by some brilliant minds that deliver their take on what they think really makes the difference in performance. My second guest on the #benryanpodcast is Margot Wells, one of the great unsung heroes, but not by the many international sportsmen and women who have benefited hugely from her talents and expertise. Her personal performance journey began as an International sprinter back in Scotland in the 1970’s before she took on the task of coaching...
Feb 24, 2021•44 min
Welcome to my new podcast where each week I’ll be joined by leading coaches, athletes and educators from the world of sport and far beyond. On each episode I’ll go through my guests journey, their stories and compare with my own experiences coaching at the elite level, to pull out some greats tips and useful advice around all things performance and that often mentioned, but misunderstood word, culture. Currently I consult with some of the biggest sporting and corporate organisations in the world...
Feb 23, 2021•35 min
The most successful rugby sevens coach in the world, Ben Ryan is on a mission to better understand what makes individuals and organisations world class, by swapping notes with leading coaches, players, administrators from the world of sport and further afield. In this promo we hear extracts of initial conversations Ben will have over the coming weeks with the likes of Jessica Ennis-Hill's former coach, Toni Minichiello, Andy Murray's Strength and Conditioning coach, Matt Little, Fijian rugby pla...
Feb 10, 2021•3 min
