{"id":22603,"date":"2024-01-04T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-04T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=podcast&p=22603"},"modified":"2025-12-15T11:36:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T11:36:02","slug":"the-people-behind-the-tech-podcast-brian-cunniffe-uk-sports-institute","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/podcasts\/the-people-behind-the-tech-podcast-brian-cunniffe-uk-sports-institute\/","title":{"rendered":"The People Behind the Tech Podcast: Brian Cunniffe – UK Sports Institute"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 4 Jan 2024 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Podcasts<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

The People Behind the Tech Podcast: Brian Cunniffe – UK Sports Institute<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
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The sports scientist behind recent British and Irish Lions tours discusses the real value of finding the right tech and the balance between domain expertise and leadership.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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A Data & Innovation podcast brought to you in collaboration with<\/p>\n

\"sport<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we design tech and tech solutions to almost combat [other] tech solutions and distractions?\u201d<\/h6>\n

The question is posed by Brian Cunniffe of the UK Sports Institute [UKSI], who is Joe Lemire and John Portch\u2019s first guest on The People Behind the Tech podcast for 2024.<\/p>\n

Brian, a performance lead at the UKSI who works primarily in canoeing and who also served as the British and Irish Lions\u2019 sports scientist on tours of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, is discussing the power in gamifying training, particularly for younger athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a slight irony in there but how do we bring it back to the stuff that matters, not just for players but for staff as well?\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do we help coaches on a journey to understand not just the stuff that players have completed but maybe some of the decisions that we need to take on a journey and learn from that so that we\u2019re not replicating or duplicating and can be more efficient with our time?\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Brian delves into:<\/p>\n

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  • The reasons why he is not driven to be a domain expert [6:00];<\/li>\n
  • The mismatch of the tacit knowledge of coaching and the newer objective of monitoring athletes [13:00];<\/li>\n
  • The under-appreciated importance of design thinking and bringing people on a journey [18:00];<\/li>\n
  • The performance promise contained in epigenetics [31:00].<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n