Innate Potential

08/07/2025

“The way we do things around here” is your culture and your culture is a reflection of your people. The better the people, the better your culture.
Having a shared understanding of what contributes to people being the best version of themselves, provides a reference point for any team to work from.
This simple framework of humble-hungry-smart is a great place to start.

1507 likes, 15 comments. “Patrick Lencioni - Ideal Team Player”

20/05/2025

Coaching often exists in demanding / stressful environment. Athletes turn up to training with whatever they’ve endured during the day. If the day has not been a good one, are we as coaches really listening, or are we simply trying to control things?

7411 likes, 48 comments. “When our response doesn’t quite match the moment, it’s often a clue to pause and look a little closer. Before we can claim to understand others, we have to really understand ourselves.”

03/04/2025

13/11/2024

I like this

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care

As a sport psychologist I’m fascinated by systemic intervention…

In other words, making a difference to player, coach, and staff engagement and performance by managing systems, influencing environments, and building efficacious cultures.

Here are five thoughts on the topic:

1. Organisational Sport Psychology is rarely spoken about but covers areas such as:

-leadership and management
-stress
-change
-culture
-resilience
-sensemaking during adversity
-developing thriving environments
-talent development environments
-duty of care practices and abuse

2. Coaches…

System
Environment
Player

…in that order!

Keep a close eye on how your system and environment is impacting each and every player…before intervening on an individual level…

You change the individual at both the systemic and environmental level!

3. Leadership on the pitch isn't just an armband, it's an arm around the shoulder, an arm to lean on, an arm to direct, and an arm to correct

Leadership can be loud or it can be whispered. It can be upfront or it can be conducted behind closed doors

Leadership can be kaleidoscopic

4. The idea of holding an 'appreciative inquiry' was developed by David Cooperrider.

Leaders can hold a regular appreciative inquiry with their club and team. This means taking time to reflect on:

-strengths
-whats working
-what best practice looks like
-success stories
-great moments

5. As a coach start with PIE...you need PIE...PIE will make you such a better coach!

PIE is a Psychologically Informed Environment...where every action and interaction considers the thoughts, emotions, and experiences of the person.

Where all reflection includes psychology!

PIE!

11/04/2024

This tik tok discusses the Crusader’s work with psychological preferences - how players and management work collectively to recognise individual differences. There is a deep satisfaction from hearing and seeing coaches apply their new learning. If you want to coach deeper, learn more about yourself, your team, and how you might get the best from them, drop me a message.

Watch, follow, and discover more trending content.

30/09/2021

Research on female college athletes shows that more than 65 percent of them use some type of supplement at least once a month. I don’t know what the percentage is among performance-minded women outside of the collegiate ranks, but based on my experience I’ll say it’s as high if not higher.

I am obviously not anti-supplement, since I use a few ergogenic aids like branched-chain amino acids, caffeine, and adaptogens myself. But I think it’s important for women to recognize that just as women have been traditionally understudied in sports science in general, we have been very understudied in the realm of ergogenic aids.
Let's look at Creatine Monohydrate:

👉 Women naturally have 70 - 80 percent lower creatine stores than men, and we typically consume significantly lower amounts of dietary creatine. It's no surprise then that research finds that women may benefit more from supplementing.

👉 A 2016 found that females had greater relative performance improvements over males (15% vs 6%) when supplementing.

👉 Most recently, a 2021 review of the literature published in Nutrients reported that “creatine supplementation may be of particular importance during me**es, pregnancy, post-partum, during and post-menopause” and that “females with varying levels of training and fitness may experience improvements in both anaerobic and aerobic exercise performance from both short-term and long-term creatine supplementation.”

(The researchers recommend a traditional loading dose (0.3 g∙day−1 5–7 days) or a routine daily dose (3 to 5 g) for 4 weeks as effective for women, regardless of age.)
Creatine isn't the only ergogenic aid that is worth looking at however. When was the last time you considered the effects of Beta Alanine (an amino acid found in poultry, meat, and fish) or the most popular aid in the world - caffeine? ☕️ Read more about it in my recent blog post at https://www.drstacysims.com/blog
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17/08/2021

Fantastic research for all sports, all ages.

or exercise is limited (e.g., personal, family, or business conflicts). During such periods, the goal of physical training may be to simply maintain (rather than improve) physical performance. Similarly, certain special populations may desire to maintain performance for prolonged periods, namely ath...

22/06/2021

If you’re a male coach of female athletes, this is a must

If you’re focused on performance, your male or female coach should be talking to you about your menstrual cycle. Your period directly affects your training cycles.

❗️Your low hormone phase: This is a great time for high intensity power work.
❗️Ovulation: Some women will feel flat, some women will feel bulletproof. If your coach is tracking your menstrual cycle they will see the pattern.
❗️High hormone phase: this is a good time to deload and drop the volume and intensity

👉Good coaches are already planning training in cycles. If you want to increase your performance, make sure your coach is planning a training cycle around your cycle.
I’m gonna be honest, I have less than 6% male followers.
Being a female athlete deserves as much attention as being a male athlete… with half the population being female surely we’re not an anomaly.
Talk to you coach! Tag someone below who needs to be in the know. 👇

21/06/2021

As the coach/teacher/parent, leadership goes hand in hand, but what does it look like, how does it feel, and what do others experience as a result?

The definition below from Brene Brown gives food for thought:

I define a leader as anyone who holds themselves responsible for finding the potential in people and processes, and has the courage to develop that potential. It has nothing to do with titles or corner offices. The toughest part of daring leadership is building a courageous culture where armor is neither required nor rewarded - Brene Brown

04/06/2021

For anyone involved with coaching or developing female athletes

When exercising, women have different fueling mechanisms than men.
👨 Men use more carbohydrate and fat and
👩 Women use more fat and amino acids- so we have a higher oxidation of amino acids.
Female bodies (because of the cyclical aspect of our menstrual cycle) also tend to break down more tissue when progesterone is elevated
✅So more amino acids are needed daily just to keep triggering
👉repair,
👉muscle protein synthesis,
👉lean mass development,
👉keeping body fat down,
👉and cognition.
We know that estrogen crosses the blood brain barrier increasing serotonin and density of serotonin receptors.
👉too much serotonin is associated with anxiety and depression!

‼️But if you have a high level of circulating leucine, you can moderate the serotonin effects!
👉 Leucine crosses the blood brain barrier using the same transport mechanism as tryptophan (note- tryptophan is the precursor to serotonin).
Leucine is always first over tryptophan... if you can get more leucine in the brain, then you have less serotonin production.
✅So you have better efficacy of Reducing depression, anxiety, and negative self talk.
Have you adjusted your fueling to match your physiology?
If this sounds complicated, check out for daily implementation, tracking and training.