The Contributors
Specialists in sports performance, students of ego.
George Perry
Athlete performance coach, sports businessman and writer. US Navy veteran and law school dropout. Take care of your ego. Sometimes, it's the only friend you've got.
Adam Douglas
Sport scientist and strength coach, Catapult Sports and Hockey Canada, former NHL strength coach: Elite sport can't exist without egos...it is the ability to work within the egos that creates the sweet spot.
Adam Waterson
Australian strength & conditioning coach working with LA Galaxy in the MLS. Previously with professional football teams in Australia and Asia. Be Yourself, Back Yourself.
Alain Sola Vicente
Strength & conditioning coach and physiotherapist in different professional soccer clubs. Use your Ego to get the best of you and your colleagues. If not, put the Ego out until you have the power to control it.
Alberto Mendez-Villanueva
Performance Manager, Qatar National Team; researcher, former Senior Sport Scientist at Aspire Academy.
Alex Calder
Head of Sports Science, Houston Dynamo FC. Ego has become somewhat of a necessary trait in professional sports... but can be dangerous if not managed.
Alexandre Dellal
Strength & conditioning in soccer, sport science researcher; formerly Olympic Lyon and OCG Nice.
Allistair McCaw
Author and speaker. Team culture, mindset and leadership consultant. Ego is not the enemy. Our ability to control it is.
Amelia (Amy) Arundale
Physiotherapist and researcher, Red Bull Athlete Performance Center, former Brooklyn Nets. Amy would rather eat an Eggo than deal with the negative aspects of ego, but just like the American waffles' tagline, "L'eggo my Eggo," is working on "L'ego-ing her ego."
Andrea Azzalin
Head of Fitness for the Ukraine Football Federation; former Head of fitness at Fulham, Nantes, Leicester, Greek National Team, Monaco and AS Varese 1910.
Andrea Belli
Performance Sport Rehabilitation and RTP specialist, FC Internazionale Milano; formerly Lazio, Qatar National Football Team and 32nd America’s Cup campaign with Italian Sailing Team. Follow your path and don’t permit your EGO to get confused on what really you want to reach.
Andrea Scanavino
Athletic trainer, after a long tenure at three of the main Serie A teams, for some years he has been involved with Zenit St. Petersburg and the Italian National Football Team. “If you have never heard of me, I do not know yet whether to be angrier or happier :-)."
Andreas Beck
Performance coach with a sport science background. Head of Physical Performance, Prevention and Rehabilitation, Eintracht Frankfurt; former Borussia Dortmund and FC Nürnberg. There is no perfection in team sports, just the optimal compromise. Context is key. My Ego needed thirteen years to accept that.
Andrew Gray
Founder & Director, Athletic Data Innovations; High Performance Manager, Australian Rugby League clubs (NRL) over last two decades.
Andrew Murray
Chief Medical Officer European Tour, Ryder Cup Europe. Ex-endurance athlete. With Ego, it depends...
Andrew Wiseman
Director of Performance OL Reign, former Head of Performance and Strength & Conditioning in different football (soccer) teams including Real Salt Lake, Exeter City and Celtic FC.
Andrew Young
Physiotherapist and fitness coach. Formerly Fulham FC, Australia National Teams, AFL and various consultancies including Usain Bolt. Ego in professional sport needs to be managed via self-awareness so you do not lose sight of the most important things in your life, like family and long term friendships.
Antonio David Sánchez
Performance coach with 35 years of experience in elite sports across Europe, USA, Middle East and Asia. Worked too long to feed my EGO, now in the process of deflating it.
Antonio Gómez
Fitness Coach at Poland National Team PZPN; former Sport Scientist and Strength & Conditioning Coach, FC Barcelona, Liverpool FC. Learn a lot about personal relationships and beat the EGO by being a good colleague and an active, humble and example member inside a TEAM.
Ben Ashworth
Physiotherapist turned Director of Performance. Formerly Arsenal, EIS and Premiership Rugby: Ego warrior.
Ben Ryan
Olympic Gold Medal winning coach and performance expert. Formerly England and Fiji 7s Head Coach. Ego has floored me and has soared me. Understanding it unlocks so much potential in everyone and everything.
Charles Vallejo
Sport science pioneer, nutrition and manual treatment specialist, worked a bit in all sports, enjoyed some more than others. I always tried to put my EGO at the services of others. Others often didn’t hear it that way.
Chris Barnes
Football scientist for many years. Although I know more now than I did 25 years ago, the rate of growth in football knowledge means actually in relative terms I know a lot less!!
Chris Tombs
Performance Lead Seattle Seawolves. Formerly Leicester Tigers, Cardiff Blues and Northamptonshire Cricket. Blend the right amount of ego and humility and you can actually create special relationships that create impactful outcomes
Claude Karcher
Handball coach, strength & conditioning coach and sport science; 25 years with professionals and young talents.
Colin Lewin
23 years at Arsenal Football Club, 10 years as Head of Medical. Egos / narcissism are destroying medical and performance teams. I have stopped self-deprecating as there are people far better at it than me.
Colm Fuller
Head of Physiotherapy, Sports Surgery Clinic, Dublin; have worked with Irish national rugby team, Munster Rugby and Kerry GAA in the past. I’ve found that when ego kicks in as a defensive mechanism, it leads to problems, but when harnessed right, it can help my focus and confidence. Always be wary of the guy who tells you he doesn’t have an ego!
Craig Duncan
Human Performance Strategist, Performance Intelligence Agency; formerly Head of Sport Science, Football Federation Australia: My ego was the reason behind me having multiple heart attacks that nearly killed me.
Dan Baker, Ph.D.
Strength & conditioning coach and educator. Worked more than 20 years with pro rugby league and union. "Ego is not a dirty word" (line from a famous Australian rock song from the 1970’s!)
Darcy Norman
Kitman Labs, US Men’s National Team. Physical therapist, performance coach, athletic trainer. Formerly Bayern Munich, DFB, AS Roma and EXOS. EGO will get you in the door but it will also get you kicked out. Knowing when, where and how much is critical to one’s success.
Darren Burgess
Performance coach from Melbourne Demons, formerly of Arsenal, Liverpool, Socceroos and Port Adelaide. A positive ego can be helpful...a selfish ego, on the other hand...
Dave Carolan
Sports scientist and app developer! Millwall FC now; Norwich City, Birmingham, Derby, London Irish before. I’m less about EGO and more about WE-go! All about the team!
David Dunne
Performance Nutritionist with the European Tour and British Canoe, pursuing a PhD in Technology, Behaviour Change and Nutrition.
David Howarth
Head of Athletic Performance for Connacht Rugby in Ireland; worked previously in a number of team and individual sports as a strength & conditioning coach and sports scientist, including Oklahoma City Thunder (NBA), rugby and surfing Australia and MMA.
David Joyce
Sport strategy and performance consultant. Two decades’ worth of making mistakes in elite sport around the world. Ego is a slippery and pernicious beast that cannot be defeated alone. It needs people to let me know when it has its claws in me, and my mind to be open enough to accept these insights.
David T. Martin, Professor
Exercise Science, Australian Catholic University; Chief Scientist, Director of Performance, Apeiron Life, former Australian Institute of Sports and NBA 69ers.
David Utrera
Strength & conditioning coach, physiotherapist. Back and forth between rehab and performance. Aspetar, Aspire, clubs like OGC Nice, UD Almeria and FK Krasnodar. Good Ego: You’re good enough to help the team. Beyond that: You burn.
Duncan French
Vice President of Performance at the UFC Performance Institute, former Director of Performance Sciences at University of Notre Dame, Technical Lead for Strength & Conditioning at the English Institute of Sports, and head strength and conditioning coach at Newcastle United FC. E.G.O.: ”Everyone Gets Overwhelmed” or “Emotions Get Optimized.” Ego is a double-edge sword that can turn people off, or turn you towards success. Be sure to swing the sword in the right direction.
Dylan Mernagh
First Team Sport Scientist at Queens Park Rangers FC: We talk to fill the void and the uncertainty.
Eduard Pons
Sport scientists, Spanish National Team, former FC Barcelona.
Eric Blahic
Football (soccer) coach assistant in many Ligue 1 (France) teams, including PSG, Bordeaux, Sochaux and Guingamps. Now with the French National Women’s team.
Fergus Connolly
Performance coach who works with elite performers in professional sport, special forces and business. Former University of Michigan, San Francisco 49ers,Welsh Rugby Union and Performance Consultant to Rugby, EPL, NFL, NBA, AFL.
Franck Kuhn
Strength & conditioning coach, French Basketball Federation with Men’s National Team and SIG Strasbourg; former CSP Limoges, Poctob Handball, Roumanian Federation and SIG Strasbourg again.
Frederic Bougeant
World citizen, handball coach in France, Russia, Africa… on the road for the 22 past years – you need to travel to keep learning and growing, and need to learn and grow to win!
Frédéric Demangeon
Handball coach, Head of Player Support at the Centre of Excellence in Strasbourg, responsible for professional coaches’ education at the French Handball Federation, and research on motricity preferences.
Garrison Draper
Performance Director, Philadelphia Union (Major League Soccer), life-long student. All people have EGOs, but it is the people who can manipulate their EGOs to fit in the room with others that truly succeed
Grant Downie, OBE
Consultant in medical and performance solutions. Spent 32 years in elite football in varying roles. You spend less time in jail for murder! The older I get, I realise how little I know... I’m very comfortable with this!
Gregory Dupont
Performance manager and researcher, former Real Madrid, French National Team, Lille OSC and Celtics FC.
Ian Beasley
Sports Physician, Aspetar. Medical Consultant, Global Performance Team, City Football Group, Manchester; former chief officer for the English FA and Team GB for the London Olympics. Worked in many teams in the Premier League including Chelsea, Fulham, Arsenal, West Ham, and Bournemouth.
Ivi Casagrande
Sports scientist / performance coach with a strong passion for growing the women's game and sharing / learning with coaches and athletes from all over the world. Ego is just like the process of adaptation and growth in high performance. In order to elicit a desirable response, an optimal level of the stressor ego) must be defined. Know how to use it and work around it but always with the goal of making your staff and players better.
Iñigo Mujika
Endurance and team sports physiologist, coach and academic. My ego, not particularly small, helped me thrive at times and got me in trouble some other times.
Jack Nayler
Head of Performance, RB Leipzig, former Chelsea, PSG, Real Mardid and Celtic Glasgow.
Javi García
GK coach for 20 yrs in various top European clubs including RCDE Espanyol, Sevilla, Swansea, PSG, Arsenal and Villarreal.
Jeremy Sheppard
Integrated Support Team Lead for Canada Snowboard, and Senior Advisor to the Canadian Sport Institute. Prior to this he has worked with Surfing Australia, Australian Institute of Sport, Australian Volleyball, Queensland Academy of Sport, and professional teams in the National Football League, National Rugby League, and Australian Football League. His vocation around “doing cool things with cool people.”
Jesus Perez
PSG assistant head coach, sports scientists, former Tottenham, Southampton, Espanyol, Almeria, Rayo, Murcia, Saudí National Team and many more.
Jesús Olmo
Sports injury doctor and Health and Performance Director at Football Science Institute; formerly Real Madrid CF and Spain Rugby. Ego is fine when accompanied by knowledge, as a driving force for sports organizations, conversely, ego without knowledge fatally corrodes even the best sports organizations!
Jo Clubb
Performance science consultant; formerly Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres, Brighton and Hove Albion, Chelsea FC. Carrying my ego around the world with me, hoping it’s more carry-on than checked baggage!
Johan Svensson
Football Fitness Coach, Swedish FA, formerly AIK Fotboll. Ego is a double-edge sword, as it’s a great resource and potential drive to work your best, but within a coaching staff has the potential for creating rivalry and a hierarchy detrimental to a successful work environment if left without cooperation skills.
Johann Bilsborough
Director of Performance & Rehabilitation in the NFL. Previously worked in the AFL, NBA and NRL.
Jonny King
Rehabilitation physiotherapist in high performance sport. Be humble. Be kind. Maintain high standards. Be consistent. Don’t be a d**k. Easy enough, right?!
Joseph Coyne
Formerly UFC, Chinese Athletics Association, and Chinese Olympic Committee: Ego is a double-edged sword and you need to know how to cut with the right edge.
Joël Trebern
Founder of JHT Performance, cognitive and psychology consultant, working with the French Football Federation, the French Institute of Sports and many pro clubs in football (soccer).
Juan Carlos Álvarez Campillo
Sport psychologist working with players and coaches, Spanish National Football (soccer) Team, Sevilla FC and other European league teams, national field hockey and Olympic athletes.
Julien Robineau
Strength & Conditioning Coach for Rugby XV and 7s, FFR: Make your ego work for you.
Julio Tous-Fajardo
Strength and power coach with the soul of a basketball coach. Formerly FC Barcelona, Juventus FC, Italian National Team, Chelsea FC and Inter Milan FC. Ego is a dual concept, similar to a rope, since you either could use it to climb the highest peaks or to hang yourself.
Karim Hader
Over 15 years as conditioning coach, performance manager and researcher. Currently PSG Academy, formerly Aspetar in Qatar.
Keir Wenham-Flatt
Strength & conditioning specialist, worked for a decade with elite level rugby and college football in five different countries. Now dedicated full time to raising the standards of the profession through www.strengthcoachnetwork.com. Ego is like fire. You can use it to cook your dinner, or you can let it burn down your house!
Keith D'Amelio
Performance and sports scientist in basketball, formerly Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics. Lucky enough to work with great athletes, successful teams and amazing people. I would like to think (and sometimes pretend) I have a healthy relationship with my ego as I was fortunate enough early on in life to realize that if you don’t care who gets credit, it’s amazing what you can accomplish.
Lee Nobes
Head of Physiotherapy, Liverpool Football Club. Former Head of Physiotherapy, Manchester City FC. Ego: Players - The necessary feed that helps them succeed. Staff - The thorn in the side, if out of control it will spoil the ride!
Luis Suárez Arrones
Head Fitness Coach at FC Basel, Senior Lecturer at Pablo de Olavide University; formerly Tianjin Quanjian FC, ACF Fiorentina, Qatar National Football Team, Real Betis. Reduce your ego, build more humility and become a better teammate and colleague.
Maggie Bryant
Director of Rehabilitation for LA Clippers. Ego is the enemy of success in high performance teams - once we rid ourselves of ego, we will be able to reach greatness.
Marc Quod
Great coach, insightful sport scientist, and leading high performance manager...oh, wait… worked for the Australian Institute of Sport, Aspire Academy, multiple World Tour cycling team.
Mathieu Lacome
Head of Research and Innovation at PSG, former Sport Scientist at the French Rugby Federation. Failed footballer turned into a sports performance specialist to help others become more successful than him. Ego is like a spark, it can switch on your internal drive or end up into an explosion.
Maurizio Fanchini
Head of Performance at AS Roma, formerly with US Sassuolo, FC Inter. Searching inside / outside EGO mitigation strategies.
Michael Caulfield
Sport psychologist for teams and coaches, putting the person before the player or coach.
Miguel Ángel Campos
Strength & Conditioning Coach Cádiz CF, previous Granada CF, Levante UD, Algeria National Team and many other pro teams in Spain. The EGO is a great strength when put at the service of the team and people you work for.
Nick Grantham
Performance specialist and coach to Olympians, professional athletes, and sports teams the world over. We all have an ego, it's a combination of our past, present and future and how each of those influences our actions and behaviours.
Olivier Krumholz
Head Coach of the Women French National Team, 2x World and 1x European Champion, Olympic finalist in Rio.
Paul D. Balsom
Now officially 50% Brit and 50% Swede and 50+! Fortunate to have spent all of my professional career working in football with diverse groups of players and staff. Whilst most talented young players and practitioners continue to enrich football, important to remember that the best source of knowledge is often experience. Swedish National Team and UEFA course, Former Leicester City.
Paul Devlin
Lead for Amazon Sport in Australia trying to enable sports to maximise their potential through technology and cloud. Over 20 years playing and high performance coaching in rugby league and union in UK and Australia. Look at things differently and try to remove your bias.
Paul Laursen
Physiologist, sport scientist, endurance coach, entrepreneur. The double-edged sword of ego: while some is necessary to drive us, too much results in a fixed mindset, a lack of humility and resistance to growth.
Paul Quetin
National Strength & Conditioning Coach for the French Tennis Federation, working with Davis and Fed cup teams for over 20 years.
Pierre Lassus
13 years of strength & conditioning in pro rugby (Bayonne) and football (soccer, PSG), consulting in football and endurance sports.
Pierre Mangin
Former PE teacher, Martin’s handball coach at the Strasbourg talent training centre, first division men’s handball, French Handball Federation and coach for the Youth Women National team. Know how to play with yours and others’ EGO and you’ll be closer to success.
Pippa Grange
Psychologist, culture coach and author, Head of Culture at Right to Dream Group. Former Head of People and Talent Development for the Football Association, Cotton Group and the Australian Football Association.
Rafael Maldonado
Fitness, rehab and injury prevention coach. The ego is the first stone for everything to collapse. Open up to others with professional humility, admiration, empathy and correct self-esteem as medicine to combat it.
Rafel Pol
Physical coach Spanish National Team, former FC Barcelona.
Scott Guyett
Head of Sport Science and Strength & Conditioning Crystal Palace Football Club and UEFA Pro Licence coach
Selwyn Griffith
Head of Strength & Conditioning, Melbourne Demons Football Club; previously Brisbane Lions Football Club. Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. Don’t let your ego get in the way.
Steve Barrett
Ph.D., former Director of Sport Science and Research Innovation, Hull City. My ego is the reason I won’t be able to do a good job of writing this description of myself! Steve Ingham, Founder, Supporting Champions.
Steve Ingham
Founder, Supporting Champions.
Steve Tashjian
High Performance Consultant, Head of Performance US Men’s National Team; formerly Columbus Crew and Everton. It does not take courage or talent to serve yourself. Anyone can do that. Instead, admit your mistakes, ask for help, grow in life and lead through your service to others.
Stuart McMillan
Lead Short Sprint Coach and CEO: ALTIS. Ego is NOT the enemy.
Stuart Yule
Head of Strength & Conditioning, Scotland National Rugby Team; former Glasgow Warriors, English and Scottish Institute of Sports and Falkirk Football Club.
Sébastien Carrier
Director of Performance at Coach Corner, strength & conditioning with the French Ski Federation for three Olympic games, working with Alpine downhill skiing and SkiCross; former Grenoble Ligue Magnus Ice Hockey.
Sébastien Gardillou
National Coach for the French Handball Federation working with youth and senior teams, as well as a few clubs including Nice and Metz. World and European Champion, Former PE teacher, as well!
Thierry Omeyer
Best handball goalkeeper in history: who did you say I was?
Thomas Little
Performance Coach, Preston North End; formerly Manchester City. Founder, heroPro. Ego in the form of self-interest and promotion can be one of the biggest obstacles to a high performing team and your own development.
Tom Vandenbogaerde
Lead Physiologist, Swimming Australia. Fifteen years’ experience working closely with Olympic athletes and their coaches.
Tony Strudwick
Head of Performance, Arsenal Academy, former Head of Performance for Sheffield United FC, Wales National Team, Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers and West Ham.
Yann Le Meur
Sport scientist and entrepreneur, working for AS Monaco, Daniil Medvedev and the French Agency of Sport. Ego can drive you to great achievements but it can also easily become a real handicap when it pushes you not to accept reality as it is.
Yann-Benjamin Kugel
Performance coach with PSV, former German national team and some other soccer teams, Ego is a hungry bitch. Feed it wisely and not too much because once it is addicted it’ll be hard to get it sober again.