I help coaches, practitioners and leaders
working in high-performance sport get
clearer about what they actually want
and create a way of working and living
that feels like their own.
I have supported coaching and support professionals from organisations including...
Something Needs To Change
A free 15-minute guided reflective practice
For moments when you're navigating change, uncertainty or an important decision.
Sometimes we don't need more information.
We need enough space to hear ourselves.
When you signup, Men Behind Sport will be sending you weekly emails with additional free content.
The Men Behind Sport Mission
We all want a career that is meaningful, impactful, and sustainable.
But for many coaching and support professionals in high-performance sports, the reality is far from that. Instead of fulfilment, they experience exhaustion, pressure, and the creeping feeling that they’re losing themselves in the relentless demands of their work.
Which is why so many talented professionals in sport find themselves at a crossroads—wondering if the passion they once had is worth the toll it's taking. For many, this struggle looks like:
- Feeling like you have to choose between professional success and personal well-being, with no clear way to have both.
- Being so consumed by your work that you've lost sight of who you are beyond your role.
- Achieving career success, only to realize you feel disconnected, unfulfilled, or even trapped by the very thing you've worked so hard for.
- Or you've spent so long focused on athletes, teams and organisations that you've lost touch with what you actually want.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone—and there’s a way forward.
Checkout my podcast: The Untapped Potential
Catch up on season 1-4 on The Untapped Potential Podcast, where we uncover the inconvenient truths of performance sport and explore what it truly takes to thrive.
We go beyond the technical skills and external benchmarks that dominate the industry—diving into the human side of high performance that often gets overlooked. Through real stories from coaching and support professionals, we carve out the non-technical skills needed to create lasting impact, unlock deeper fulfillment, and shift the culture of elite sport for the better.
Available wherever you listen to podcasts.
Season 5 now in production!
Listen Now
Sometimes the problem isn't the job itself.
High-performance sport teaches us to focus relentlessly on what is outside us — the athlete, the team, the result, the next opportunity.
Over time, it can become harder to hear what's happening inside.
Your worth can become tied to your performance. Loyalty can keep you somewhere long after it feels right. Fear can make certainty feel safer than change. And your role can become so much a part of who you are that it's difficult to imagine yourself without it.
So when something doesn't feel right, the instinct is often to think harder.
Sometimes what's needed is the opposite.
Enough space to hear yourself again.
What if work didn't have to take so much from you?
The aim isn't to care less about what you do.
It's to build a different relationship with it.
One where you can:
Think more clearly
Without constantly replaying decisions or second-guessing yourself.
Trust yourself more
Recognise what you actually want, rather than what you think you should want.
Set stronger boundaries
Give your work what it deserves without giving it everything.
Know who you are beyond the role
So your sense of worth isn't dependent on the badge, result or next opportunity.
Make clearer choices
Whether that means staying, leaving, changing direction or creating something new.
Have more space for life
For your relationships, family, health, interests — and yourself.
You can still be ambitious.
You just don't have to lose yourself in the process.
This is the support I offer...
1:1 COACHING SUPPORT
FOR
SPORT PROFESSIONALS
A six-month coaching experience for coaches, practitioners and leaders in high-performance sport who want greater clarity, self-trust and freedom in how they work and live.
Using the ALIGN Method, we'll explore what's actually happening, recognise the patterns influencing how you think, feel and act, and reconnect with your values, identity and inner wisdom.
Whether you're questioning what's next, navigating an important decision or opportunity, feeling consumed or disconnected from your work, or simply aware that something needs to change, the work is shaped around you.
The aim isn't for me to tell you what to do. It's to help you move from unconscious reaction to conscious relationship — becoming clearer about what you actually want and more able to create a career and life that feels like your own.
INVITE
Richard to Speak
FOR
SPORT PROFESSIONALS
A different conversation about what it takes to succeed in high-performance sport without losing yourself in the process.
Richard Husseiny spent more than 20 years working inside elite and high-performance sport, including coaching in Great Britain and internationally.
Since then, he has spoken with more than 250 coaches and performance professionals across 17 sports and 11 countries, exploring a side of performance that is often overlooked:
What happens to the person behind the role?
Richard speaks openly about the pressure to prove, please and keep going; the difficulty of switching off; identity becoming tied to the badge; and what happens when outward success begins to come at the expense of health, relationships, purpose or a sense of self.
His talks create space for people to slow down, recognise the patterns they may have normalised and reconnect with how they actually want to work, lead and live.
Expect honest stories, challenging questions, practical tools and conversations that continue long after the session ends.
Speaking themes include:
- When Success Stops Feeling Like Success — What happens when the career you've worked so hard to build no longer feels right?
- The Person Behind the Performance — Identity, self-worth and the hidden cost of becoming your role.
- Who Are You Trying to Prove Yourself To? — Pressure, perfectionism, people-pleasing and the drive to keep doing more.
- We Develop Knowledge. But Do We Develop Knowing? — Intuition, embodied awareness and learning to trust yourself under pressure.
- Success Without Losing Yourself — Rethinking ambition, performance and what a sustainable career actually looks like.
- Beyond Burnout — Why exhaustion can be a symptom of something deeper than workload.
Richard speaks at conferences, leadership events, coach-development programmes, performance departments and team environments.
If you want to bring a different kind of conversation into your organisation—one that puts the person behind performance back into the picture—invite Richard to speak.
I have also spoken at internationally recognised conferences such as...
My Why
Hi, I'm Richard, the experience of giving end-of-life care to my mother allowed me to truly see what was important to me, and has now inspired me to provide the support I didn't have as a performance coach.
This is my why for founding men behind sport.
More About Me
My Research within performance support staff
The men I have interviewed (>250) inhabit roles including physiotherapists, nutritionists, data analysts, physiologists, performance coaches, sports scientists, performance directors, sports coaches, head of performance, head coaches, and head of academic programs.
I've learned how highly successful men that have achieved a great deal within high-performance sport and academia are quietly suffering to maintain the perception of being successful and happy.
I am in no doubt - Coaches need coaches!
Athletes have a vast array of options within their support network, but there is very little currently aimed at offering this unique support for senior performance staff.
men behind sport fills that gap
What performance support staff have to say about working with me:
“The struggle in high-performance sport is real. And at some point, you realise—you can’t keep resisting it. You have to face it.
For me, talking to someone was the best way to move through the pressure and find my mojo again. Richard helped me a lot with that.
Working with Richard and going through The Empowerment Blueprint was a turning point in reconnecting with myself—not just as a practitioner in high-performance sport, but as a person.
He was always very supportive and intentional in his listening. That, I think, was the key, because when I felt truly heard, I could open up more.
And the more I opened up, the more I could explore myself—and find the answers I was looking for.
And that space—of calm, trust, and depth—is what made this experience powerful.I’d definitely recommend Richard. Not just for those who are struggling.
But for any practitioner in high-performance who wants to stay connected to who they are, not just what they do.”
Alexandros Stefanakis
(Lead Physiotherapist, British Canoeing, UK Sports Institute)
“At the time of reaching out to Richard I was feeling lost and anxious in my work. I was experiencing high levels of anxiety facing into my everyday tasks and burnout in managing a significant workload. This led to a loss of passion, a loss of self confidence and doubt over my future in the profession
Richard presents a genuine, caring and adaptable style within the sessions. At all times I felt truly heard and sessions were adapted to meet acute needs and evolved in parallel to my evolution dealing with the issues we highlighted to address.
Working with Richard was the catalyst for me finding new structure in my work. Anxiety and burnout are no longer part of my daily routine and in times where I can sense them building I now have the warning signs in place to sense them, the tools in place to address them and the confidence to not feel threatened by these things. Following ny work with Richard I have gone from doubting my future in the industry to once reigniting my passion and receiving plaudits for my work from my coworkers.“
In simple terms I am now operating, as a coach and a leader, with a renewed passion; at a level above what I have done previously. I would recommend this program to all coaches in high performance sport, whether they are struggling or thriving!"
Ed Slattery
(Head of Athletic Performance, Womens Pathway and National Team at Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU))
“When I first reached out, I was at a crossroads in my life. My work and personal life were deeply interconnected, but I’d always favoured the professional at the expense of the personal. I felt stuck and unsettled, like I was constantly in a transient state. I knew I’d outgrown my role, but I couldn’t see a way forward that aligned with the life I wanted—one that allowed me to stay rooted in my personal circumstances while finding fulfillment in my career. I needed clarity, guidance, and someone to help me untangle the internal conflicts that were holding me back.
Working with Richard was exactly what I needed. He listened and helped me make sense of the feelings and thoughts I couldn’t organize on my own. Even when I raised doubts or put up barriers, his experience and insights shifted my perspective. He guided me through understanding what I truly wanted and needed, all while considering the risks and benefits of making a change.
The turning point came during our fourth session. That conversation gave me the clarity and push I needed to move forward. As a result, I’ve left behind a chapter of my life that left me feeling stuck. I’ve changed full-time roles, started my own business, and even begun collaborating on another project. These steps have reignited my passion for personal and professional growth. I’m now developing myself not only as a coach and a business owner but also as a family man.“
Peter Gascoigne
(Team Bahrain Victorius, Strength & Conditioning Coach specialising in endurance sport disciplines)
“Richard and I connected at a perfect time in my career. We were able to walk through my career path and he was able to understand where I have been and where I want to go. Within the time we met he was also a great teacher and brought pertinent examples from his background, experiences and analogies from tribes to create learning points for me. His softness, ease in communication, flexibility to work with my schedule all made his program stand out and work for me.
What I liked the most was his ability to take all the different information I threw at him and he helped me become more singularly focused on one thing at a time.
It was great to work with Richard. I looked forward to the time we set aside to work together. The meetings felt comfortable, focused and a safe space to get away from the high stress of the day to day of working in professional sports.“
Tony Katzenmeier
(NBA Athletic Trainer, Oklahoma City Thunder)
“Since the latter part of last year, I have been engaged in one-on-one coaching with Richard. My motivation for starting this proces stemmed from some challenges involving my identity and values that reached their peak last year.
At the time, I was probably still a bit burnt out from an intense five-year period in football while simultaneously working toward a PhD. Additionally, my career in sports started to feel misaligned with my changing life after the birth of my son.
Soon after I accepted a job that felt out of sync with "my identity as a coach". An identity I've pursued and held for well over a decade. This new role was much-needed work, having felt the ruthless nature of sport a few months previously. However, I needed to learn how to reconcile this new role with my "identity".Navigating these issues was tough, especially without a clear method for examining or questioning my identity, values, and goals beyond my professional life. Moreover, I hadn’t really discussed these challenges with anyone else.
Richard has helped me achieve greater clarity about my broader purpose, values, and boundaries, most of which extend beyond my professional life. He has also provided me with useful frameworks and exercises for challenging my assumptions and thoughts. I've spent a lot of time and money in the past on CPD, but this is one of the best investments I've made in myself, the benefits of which will also impact those closest to me. Well worth considering. “
Adam Sullivan PhD
(Performance Coach, Sports Science Consultant, Researcher)
“Working with Richard has taught me the ability to separate who I am from what I do. Searching for satisfaction in work by first understanding what my values are and learning to be happy regardless of what I do has allowed me step forward and not only have greater impact in what I do but also outside of work.“
Julian Haigh
(High Performance Director Gotham FC, Sport Scientist US Men’s National team)
“Richard was great, he has helped me realise what I want and how I value my self. He has also helped me in becoming a better leader and how to understand how I’m feeling or how others are feeling.
Richard spent time getting to know me and we went further than surface level feelings and thoughts. He helped me understand why I was feeling certain ways and how to manage these feelings. He helped me find solutions to a mixture of issues around day to day problem solving to long term career and my own needs and values.“
Robert Morledge
(Fitness Coach, Derby County FC)
"The more I delve into this topic, the more I see real life examples not only with me but other people in the sport sector. It's the pink elephant in the room that no one is talking about. But as soon as someone brings it up it's immediately aware how important this subject is."
"The course itself is good, but what makes it great is how it's delivered. You need someone who cares and who truly is passionate about the subject and Richard does that. I like also how he pushes me out of my comfort zones and delve into topics that I dont normally get into. It's these moments that really helped me move forward."
"What I am seeing now after going through the Practitioner Needs Analysis is how it has impacted my coaching. I didnt take the course to become a better coach, it was to find myself, but in doing so there have been so many positive aspects on my coaching style and how I work with my athletes and fellow staff. Finding and understanding yourself feels almost selfish at the beginning, but in the end it's the most unselfish thing you can do as everyone around you benefits.The blueprint is exactly that, a blueprint. The plan is in place now and I need to continue doing the work. I look forward to continuing my journey with Richard and Men Behind Sport."
Paul Marks
(Head Coach Snowboard Race Team, Snowboard Germany)
"There are people you meet in life and there are people you meet in life for a reason. Richard is the latter. We crossed paths a couple of years ago but I wasn't ready for what Richard had to offer to be honest. But last year I was ready and needed help and Richard was my go to man. Richard walked with me for the last quarter of last year and I will always be grateful.
Richard is unique especially in sport. You have to be prepared to 'let go' to the process though to maximise the benefit of working with him.
As a result of our work together I now have a better understanding of who I am having literally done some soul searching. Align this with a better understanding of my purpose and my values and the end result is Ian Braid 2024 - At peace because the dissonance in my mind has gone. I am up for whatever is my destiny, free from my mistakes of the past and have let go of being in control. I am the best version of me and know I will continue to grow. Thank you my friend."
Ian Braid
(MD, DOCIA Sport)
"I can't believe I doubted signing up to start with because it has had a massive positive effect on my professional and personal life. More people need to know about this. I wish someone had told me earlier."
Dan Cluett
(Head of Medical, Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC)
"One of the stand out aspects to this was the organic nature of it. Richard seemed to tailor things to what I needed for the day. He never felt rushed to end a session or stay on a thought... I felt he truly wanted to help me. I've been scattered for too long and now I have a better point to help myself. "
Vaughn Arthur
(MAG Gymnastics Coach, Team Canada)
"Despite having a generally good working life, I had still experienced two burnouts. I also regularly see the same stress & fight within my colleagues that I used to live before, just to maintain the expectations and pressure I put on myself.
I started working with Richard to make sure I had a right balance between life and work, with special reference on the role of my values and purpose of life in the context of my job.
I was impressed how deeply we went in terms of destroying myths and false beliefs I had, which led to many profound insights.
I really enjoyed the calls with Richard, and above all he is a very good at listener and offers great reflections that I couldn't see before.
If you work in high-performance and you are struggling to find a work life balance, I highly recommend you contact Richard.
Looking forward to what's next which will be a more conscious stage of my life and career."
Vincenzo Rago
(Sport Scientist, S&C Coordinator, Al Ain FC)
"Working with Richard has helped me to have a clear idea of navigating through difficult situations, busy moments, busy periods of my life, and having the discipline to take care of myself.
Richard and the group made me realize that many people in our industry face the same difficulties and there are ways to get out of that and do things in a healthier and more positive way.
An unexpected result has been my ability to connect to my inner self that I didn't go into this program thinking about. It’s been very positive because it makes me understand that the more I'm connected with what I feel, the more I can present and show myself to the world in a more positive authentic way.
To anyone that is considering this program, reach out, reach out, reach out! Richard has been amazing and the group is a safe space to talk about everything."
Federico Pizzuto
(Director of Performance, Columbus Crew)
"I have to say I've taken a huge amount from this program. It came at a really important time for me in my personal development. The program helped me really assess how I want to take the next steps in my life. The incredible framework gave me clarity on my own personal journey, I really enjoyed this program."
Rhys Ingram
(Senior Strength & Conditioning Coach, British Cycling/EIS)
"Rich is a subject matter expert, who added a different slant to my personal problems. He helped me to find solutions to the issues that I was struggling with. The skills and tools that I’ve learned on this course have really, really been beneficial to me, almost instantaneously. It's been one of the most impactful investments I’ve ever made."
Josh Fletcher
(Senior Consultant Performance Coach)
"It struck me how lost I was in terms of working in performance sport. The more I’ve been involved with Rich, the clearer I've become with what I want, why I’m not feeling happy with what I’m doing, where I want to be heading and how to start putting change in place."
Rob Francis
(Senior Performance Coach & Founder Movement Mojo)
