Graeme Close

speaker

532 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard May 2026 last heard 5 May

Graeme Close’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 1.

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The Offload · British and Irish Lions Head of Performance Graeme Close – THE DRESSING ROOM: Unlocked | The Offload · 5 May 2026 podcast

So we've done interviews with players about the perception of the collision and the contact, where they think the problems are coming from.

And what's fascinating is that the data that

he's getting is often different to the narrative that people who haven't played the game would get.

So utilizing X players for me is a great way to get great research.

I think jockeys have it the hardest diet-wise of any athlete.

The first thing we needed to do was convince people in the industry that the jockey was the athlete and not the horse, because there was a perception within the industry that actually the jockey's really not important.

You get the best horse, and as long as that jockey can make weight...

Almost the provision of care to that individual wasn't maybe where it is today.

So we was really keen on this concept of the jockey athlete.

So much so that you can probably still see it online somewhere.

We got a jockey into our labs here and did a series of fitness tests.

I think it was against Tom Vandell to show how fit the jockey athlete has to be.

You've got to remember that

A young jockey coming through might have to ride under eight stone with the claim that they have.

Now, historically, jockeys were tiny people.

Often, if you look back at the history of it, often they were the malnourished farmhands.

So there was often really small individuals.

But these days, I've got people rocking up to my lab

I'm tough, mate.

You talk about being tough and everyone thinks...

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