Shows
Giving The Game AwayBaroness Tanni Grey-Thompson | 'Sport has the Power to Change the World'Tanni Grey-Thompson was born with spina bifida and subsequently became paralysed at the age of 7. Six years later, inspired by Paralympic legend Chris Hallam, Tanni began wheelchair racing and instantly fell in love with the sport. Tanni had won her first race within three years of starting, and just two years after that, Tanni won the London Wheelchair Marathon. This was the first in a long list of competitive wheelchair successes, and a testament to the mental strength required to overcome hardship and to compete at the very highest level of sport.
At the age of...2021-11-141h 33Giving The Game AwayThomas Hal Robson-Kanu | Taking Your ShotHal’s most famous moment on the football pitch came in 2016 when, against all odds, Wales reached the Semi-Final of the Euros. In the quarter-final, Hal Robson-Kanu scored one of the most memorable goals in modern football history, beating three defenders with one Cruyff turn and putting it past Thibaut Courtois, one of the best keepers in the world at the time. The individual brilliance of the goal warranted it being awarded a Puskas award and to all football fans, it perfectly encapsulated the exciting journey the Welsh side had been on that tournament.
Since that tournament, Ha...2021-10-131h 11Giving The Game AwayAdam Hollioake | Grief, Gratitude & GreatnessHaving captained the England cricket team, as well as later becoming both a professional boxer and mixed martial arts fighter, there is no one else in the world who has experienced a sporting career like Adam Hollioake has.
Despite having been born in Australia, as well as living in Hong Kong throughout his childhood, Adam Hollioake captained the England cricket team for the first time in 1997. In that same year, he made his test debut playing alongside his brother.
Adam and his brother would go on to share the field together across multiple seasons with...2021-09-241h 11Giving The Game AwayTony Underwood | Flying High: A Story of ResilienceA British & Irish Lion, international rugby player and producer of some of the most memorable moments in English Rugby.
Coming off the back of a Grand Slam win in 1995, in which Tony Underwood and his brother, Rory, scored 7 of the 9 tries their team scored all tournament, England entered the World Cup of that same year full of confidence. The highlight of that campaign for England would be a quarter-final win over Australia – a side who had beaten them in the final four years earlier - with Tony scoring one of the most memorable tries in English ru...2021-09-011h 03
Giving The Game AwayEd Jackson | Millimetres to MountainsEd Jackson had a ten-year career in rugby. A proud Bath lad, and someone who had grown up watching Bath at the Rec, Ed’s dreams came true when he was signed by the club in 2007 at 18 years old.
Surprisingly, it was a day off the rugby field though that would bring Ed’s rugby career to an end. On 6th April 2017, at a family party, Ed chose to jump into a pool and unfortunately the depth was much shallower than expected. Ed was rushed to hospital immediately – along the way having to be resuscitated three times – when in the Spinal C...2021-08-161h 14Giving The Game AwayJosh Ibuanokpe | Making an ImpactProfessional rugby player, business owner, physics graduate, philanthropist. These are all words that describe Josh Ibuanokpe.
A front row forward for firstly Harlequins and latterly Saracens, Josh has been a part of some hugely successful squads in the Gallagher Premiership, and has been a part of some memorable wins along the way.
Playing front-row in elite-level rugby is a profession that requires 100% intensity, knowing that every-time he does his job he is at risk of serious injury. This was the case in 2016, when Josh dislocated his neck during a scrum. Injuries of any nature are...2021-08-0143 minGiving The Game AwayLayla Guscoth | Defending the Nation: From the Court to Covid WardsToday, we have the great privilege of releasing our conversation with Layla Guscoth who is both an international sportsperson and a qualified Doctor on the Covid-19 frontline.
In February 2020, Layla won a dream move to play professional netball for the Adelaide Thunderbirds in the Australian Suncorp Super League, widely regarded as one of the most competitive in the world.
Just a few months later, as the pandemic spread, Layla – who studied Medicine at Oxford - had to choose between staying in Australia or returning to England to join the frontline fight against Covid-19. As a dedicated Doctor, Layla returned to En...2021-07-1453 min
Giving The Game AwayBen Hunt-Davis MBE | Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?“Will it make the boat go faster?” is a question that helped change the life and the sporting success of Ben Hunt-Davis MBE.
Although Ben is now an Olympic Gold medallist and renowned performance consultant, success in the rowing boat hadn’t always come as frequently for Ben as you may have thought. By his own admission, Ben had underachieved on the Olympic and World Championship stage for the first years of his career. It was on a drunken night out, after another disappointing performance, that Ben and his crew agreed that something needed to change.
In 1...2021-06-301h 09Giving The Game AwayFrances Houghton MBE | Learnings From 5 Olympic GamesAs a teenager, Frances Houghton wrote a contract to herself saying “I vow to do everything I can to get to Sydney 2000.” Twenty years later, as well as having already achieved the initial dream of going to Sydney, Frances was a 5-time Olympian, 4-time World Champion and one of the most successful British rowers of all time.
Frances - as the first female British rower to be selected to compete in five different Olympic games – has a unique sporting experience to reflect on. She has a wealth of knowledge about the dedication, drive and hard-work that is needed to get to the...2021-06-1745 minGiving The Game AwayNick Compton | Unwavering FocusGrandson of former Arsenal footballer and England cricket legend, Denis, Nick Compton has huge sporting pedigree and in many ways it was written in the stars that he would become a professional athlete. However, it wasn’t just good genes that enabled Nick to reach the highest level - it was his unwavering focus and relentless dedication that allowed him to flourish on the international stage.
In an honest reflection of his career, Nick admits that sometimes his intense focus and desire to succeed was unhealthy and contributed to feelings of anxiety and doubt. During the interview, Ni...2021-06-0257 minGiving The Game AwayMartyn Rooney | The Inside TrackMartyn Rooney is a double 400m European Champion, a former captain of Team GB, and an athlete who has been at the top of their sport for over ten years. ⠀
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Despite the incredibly successful career that Martyn has had, he is no stranger to disappointment and controversy. With Martyn, as is often the case with track and field athletes, these highs and lows have unfolded on the biggest stage of them all – the Olympic Games.⠀
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At just 21, having been touted by Steve Cram as the next Seb Coe, Martyn represented GB at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Coming fourth in the final, losing to...2021-02-0958 minGiving The Game AwayLewis Hatchett | No ExcusesAs described by ESPN Cricinfo, "Lewis Hatchett achieved one of the most gloriously defiant careers in the history of cricket…" Lewis was born with a condition called Poland Syndrome, a rare condition which appears in only one in 100’00 births, leaving Hatchett missing a right pectoral muscle, and the two ribs that would have been behind it. At birth, Hatchett’s parents were told that he would not be able to play and compete in sport at all.
In Lewis’ own words though, he knew he was different but wasn’t willing to be treated that way and, as a resul...2021-02-011h 08Giving The Game AwayJames Taylor | Embracing the ChallengeWith 27 ODIs and 7 Test matches under his belt, former England cricketer, James Taylor, was an extremely talented batsman and fielder, who was renowned for his work ethic and physical fitness. And it was his exceptional fitness levels that ultimately saved his life, when in 2016, he was diagnosed with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy or ARVC, a life-threatening heart condition, similar to the one sustained by Fabrice Muamba. If it wasn't for James' excellent fitness, it is unlikely that he would have survived.
Unfortunately, the condition forced Taylor’s retirement and robbed him of more success as an England cr...2021-01-241h 03Giving The Game AwayLou Vincent | Road to Redemption: Life After Match FixingMatch-fixing is ‘the action or practice of dishonestly determining the outcome of a match before it is played.’ In this interview, we speak to someone who, themselves, has received eleven life bans for fixing cricket matches.
Before being embroiled in scandal, Lou Vincent was a world-class cricketer, famed for his fearless approach to the game and ability to score runs against any opposition. A hundred on Test debut against Australia is just one on a long list of Lou’s cricketing achievements.
However, his career ended when he was slammed with eleven life bans in 2014, after...2021-01-101h 01Giving The Game AwayJeremy Snape | The Winning PhilosophySpending the last fifteen years advising and getting inside the minds of champions, from the likes of Frank Lampard and Shane Warne, to Stuart Broad and Boris Becker, there is perhaps no one who is better qualified to make sense of elite-sporting performance than Jeremy Snape.
Having had an incredibly successful 16 year cricket career, in which Snape went on to receive 10 caps for the England team, he has many experiences of playing alongside the games’ greats. Snape is a firm believer though that failure was often his most powerful teacher and when he under-performed in front of 120,000 pe...2021-01-0356 minGiving The Game AwayEmily Diamond | An Olympian's MindsetIn 2016, at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, Emily Diamond and her teammates stood on the podium after winning the bronze medal in the 4 x 400m relay. While the race to get there only lasted a few minutes, the journey started many months and years prior.
Ever since Emily took up athletics as a teenager, she has been focussed, dedicated and willing to make sacrifices in order to reach the top. Sprinting is a sport with incredibly fine margins, meaning that immense discipline, determination and motivation is required to ensure every millisecond is gained.
Sprinting...2020-12-271h 02Giving The Game AwayMiles Hammond | Beating the 'Yips' and Re-InventionMiles Hammond started off his career as a promising young bowler, travelling the world with the England U-19 side, and taking wickets for his county. However, a potential battle with the ‘yips’ followed, and Miles had to adapt and change his game entirely.
The ‘yips’ was coined by golfer Tommy Armour in the 1920s to describe his sudden inability to hole short putts, and it has since become one of the most fascinating areas of sport. Psychologists still know little about the cause of the yips, which can come on suddenly and cause an athlete to have a comple...2020-12-2034 minGiving The Game AwayKenji Gorré | More Than a FootballerKenji Gorré is definitely more than just a footballer.
Son of Dutch football legend, Dean Gorré, Kenji was tipped to stardom from a young-age, when he played for both Manchester City’s and Manchester United’s academies at just 6 years old. This was the perfect footballing education, as he learned from the likes of Giggs, Scholes and Ferdinand on a daily basis on the training ground. During this episode, Kenji talks about the winning culture that was instilled at United, and what he learned from his time there.
Unfortunately, at 18 years old, Kenji received a brutal...2020-12-1358 minGiving The Game AwayTymal Mills｜Near Retirement to Million Dollar ManThe incredibly technical nature of cricket means that many of the games current professionals had to have been born “with a bat in hand”. For Tymal Mills, the case could not have been more different. At 13, as someone who was largely unaware of the sport, Tymal was asked to fill in for a friend in a local after-school club game. A clear natural to the sport, within five years of first playing Tymal already had a contract at Essex CCC.
At aged 22, Tymal experienced his first injury shock when, during a spell for Essex CCC, he began feel...2020-12-0600 minGiving The Game AwayJay DeMerit | Sunday League to the Premier LeagueJay DeMerit's story is one of high risks and high rewards. At 18 years old, Jay flew to England with just $1800 to his name, in the bid to become a professional footballer.
Jay spent a couple of years in the lower tiers of English football, before playing Watford in a friendly and impressing so much that he secured a contract with the then-Championship side. During his time at Watford, Jay became captain, scored and won man of the match in the Championship play-off final, before becoming a regular in the Premier League.
His strong performances in England's top-tier resulted in Jay b...2020-11-2900 minGiving The Game AwayAlex Davis | Finding Your WhyMost athlete’s careers are full of highs and lows, but for Alex the peaks and troughs have been bigger than most.
Medals at the Commonwealth Games and the Rugby Sevens World Cup have come alongside the death of his father, a series of long-term injuries and Olympic heartbreak. Alex’s strength to bounce-back from these set-backs is phenomenal and his willingness to speak openly about them is inspirational.
During the session, Alex also talks about starting the social-media-famous ‘Shave, Donate, Nominate’ Campaign, his ambitions for Tokyo 2021, and his advice for young sportspeople on how finding their 'why' can help to keep...2020-10-0800 minGiving The Game AwayDaniel Geey | The Secrets of Football BusinessThe coronavirus pandemic provided an opportunity for football’s professionals to take a break from the game, and use the time to express their interests, via Instagram and Twitter, for areas outside of football. Perhaps the best example of this was Hector Bellerin, who, since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, has not only become the second-largest shareholder at Forest Green Rovers FC, but has also channelled his creativity with purpose to become the Creative Director of a new Fifa 21 Feature. Hector Bellerin in this sense, is definitely “more than” a footballer, as his newly-launched podcast is so aptly named...2020-09-3033 minGiving The Game AwayLuke Amos | Changing the Narrative of the Modern FootballerNarrated by Tom Hardy, the most recent All or Nothing series grants access to Tottenham Hotspur during the first campaign in their new billion-pound stadium. In contrast to the past edition with Man City, which was criticised for being a blatant PR exercise, the Spurs edition is far from sanitised, and lifts the lid insightfully into the lifestyle of a modern professional footballer. The series humanises the Spurs players by showing their down to earth changing room discussions and highlighting their inspirational work in the community. In this way, the series helps to change the often negative narrative that...2020-09-0946 minGiving The Game AwayAlicia Blagg | Olympian at 15: Dealing with the PressureAlicia Blagg: Olympian, National Champion, Commonwealth Gold medalist, future detective and mental health advocate. It’s an extensive CV already at just 23 years old.
For most athletes, competing at the Olympic Games is the pinnacle of their career. For Alicia Blagg, involvement in the Games was achieved at just 15 years old when she competed at London 2012 in the diving. Success came even earlier for Alicia, when at 13 she became England’s youngest ever double national champion.
Competing on the big stage and being thrust into the limelight at such a young age is a di...2020-07-3045 minGiving The Game AwayMarc Sagal | The Psychology of Sven's EnglandNot many people can say they’ve worked with Microsoft, the US Army, Manchester City and the England football team. Marc Sagal, a sports psychology consultant, has worked with all these organisations, plus many more.
Sport psychology is a developing field and it has come a long way since Marc began his career. Initially, Marc was met by scepticism; players and managers were reluctant to speak with a psychologist, but nowadays, more emphasis is placed on the mental side of sport and people like Marc are hired by elite professional sports teams across the world.
On...2020-07-1442 minGiving The Game AwayJon Smith | The Original 'Super-Agent'Asif Kapadia’s 2019 documentary shows that, ironically for a man with such gifted ball control, in Naples, almost everything else in Maradona's life progressively slipped from his grasp. The fame and notoriety that his unique talent brought, was sadly accompanied by unwanted and harmful attention from outside influences and as a result, his departure from Naples could not have been more different to the fanfare he was greeted with upon arrival in 1984. ⠀ ⠀
Too often, not enough attention is paid to the themes that ran beneath Maradona’s genius talent, contributing to his off-field demise. For our giveaway...2020-06-2338 minGiving The Game AwayAngus Scott | The Changing Nature of Football MediaAngus Scott, has presented football all around the world, working for ITV, Setanta Sports and more recently BeIN Sports.
With over 30 years experience covering the sport, Angus has seen the football broadcast landscape change dramatically; from one or two cameras at stadiums in the 1990s to the modern day package which sees 40+ cameras and a range of innovative technological features. In session #5, Angus explains how football media has changed since he started, and what further innovations will be brought in as a result of the pandemic.
Throughout his career, Angus has interviewed some of the sport’s biggest names, and more...2020-06-2325 minGiving The Game AwayKane Vincent-Young | Mental ResilienceAs an established member of the crop of young, attacking, English full-backs, there was perhaps no better place to for Kane Vincent-Young to learn his trade than in Tottenham Hotspur's academy – particularly at a time when the first team was filled with Danny Rose, Kyle Walker and Benoît Assou-Ekotto.
At 18, Kane found himself released from the Spurs academy and, like many in the game, it may have been all too easy to fall through the net and not go on to achieve the heights he has so far. A recent article in the Athletic highlighted the severity and impact tha...2020-06-2330 minGiving The Game AwayFreddie Owsley | Generalist v. SpecialistAt just 2 years old, Tiger Woods appeared on television, and was widely recognised as a golfing prodigy. At the same time, theories like the ‘10,000 hour rule’, made ‘specialisation’ common language in sporting circles across the world. As a result, many of today’s top athletes, particularly in golf and tennis, are told to specialise early, and focus on one sport at the exclusion of others. ⠀ ⠀
Over the past few years however, we have seen athletes like Patrick Mahomes pay testament to an opposite type of sports upbringing – that of a ‘generalist.’ The theory is that playing multiple sports at a young ag...2020-06-2339 minGiving The Game AwayRaphell Thomas-Edwards | The Last DanceThe Netflix series “the Last Dance”, directed by Jason Hehir, shows the early formation of the Jordan brand as his parents dragged a reluctant teenage Michael onto the plane to go and visit Nike.⠀
The resultant collaboration, described by Nike Founder Phil Knight as “the perfect combination of quality product, marketing, and athlete endorsement”, set the blueprint for modern sports marketing – paving the way for the likes of Tiger Woods and David Beckham to sign endorsement deals in a way that had never been done before Michael Jordan.⠀
The Air Jordan Brand has gone on to change popu...2020-06-2335 minGiving The Game AwayJames Bracey | Mindset of an InternationalThe first 3 names that ran before James Bracey’s in the 55 man England squad list this year – Anderson, Archer, Bairstow – confirm James’ calibre, as a future England player, but also his status as a Bristol boy living his dream.
For many, a quick rise to the top like James’ would have been too much to digest. After all, it was only two years ago that James was graduating from Loughborough University. For James, a guy whose character is “a combination of humility and age-belying maturity”, it is just another challenge he is rising to, and facing head-on, in the pursuit of his ultimate...2020-06-2332 minGiving The Game AwayIntroductionModern sport isn’t just about what you see on the pitch.
On GIVING THE GAME AWAY we’ll discuss areas of sport that aren’t often talked about; whether that’s psychology, culture, lifestyle or other unspoken parts of a sportsperson’s life.
Through our #GiveawaySessions, we aim to humanise sportspeople by discussing their off-the-pitch interests, highlighting the more traditional aspects of their lives, such as dealing with rejection and recovering from injuries, to the more modern struggles like handling social media, or the importance of speaking out on mental health.
We aim to get...2020-06-2202 min