British and Irish Lions Head of Performance Graeme Close – THE DRESSING ROOM: Unlocked | The Offload
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What insights does Graeme Close share about high performance in sports?
Okay, welcome to the dressing room. Doneca here. Of course, we're chatting high performance this evening. That means Tommy has belted it and legged it as far away from chatting high performance as he possibly could. But we do have one of the greats of our game, someone that has done it all, both sides of elite sport in terms of playing it and helping out with it. This guy is the secret weapon behind most elite athletes' top performances. A former rugby league player himself, an incredible human. We are delighted to be joined by Professor Graeme Close. Closey, how are you?
Donnas, thank you so much. I almost didn't recognise myself, but I appreciate you, Alfie.
Closie, man, sorry, no, but introducing you is quite difficult. You, genuinely, man, you are a Swiss Army knife of high performance, aren't you? Like, don't be modest here, no, but just your area of expertise, please do go into it, if you don't mind, just in terms of just leaving everyone know how incredible you are.
It's almost I couldn't make my mind up what I wanted to do. So I ended up doing a bit of everything, really. So as you said, I started trying to be a pro rugby league player myself back in the mid-90s, playing at Warrington and a few teams in the Northwest where I met the great Paul Derbyshire that we might mention later. And then went to do my sports science degree, stayed on to do a PhD specializing in sport nutrition. And since then, Yeah, the opportunities have been unbelievable. So from the likes of working with Everton, who I'm currently consulting in the Premier League, worked a lot with jockeys, European Tour Golf and Ryder Cup team. I did a decade of England rugby. Before that, met yourself at Munster Rugby, just back from the British Lions Tour.
So, yeah, I'm going to work in boxing, mainly with heavyweight boxers, professional boxers. So predominantly in that area of nutrition. But being a professor of human physiology, I try and help with all aspects of the human body, whether it's jet lag, fatigue management, recovery, wellness. So, yeah, a bit of everything, really.
It's amazing because I'm going to pull you up on one, though. British lines. There was hardly any British on this one, man. We dominated that fucking thing.
Sorry, British mouth lines. I'm so sorry.
I'm stuck with my mug in front of me. There you go. There you go. But Graham, just that ability for you to learn and always improve. Like, were you spotting there that there is, right, I know this from a nutritional point of view, but if I can arm myself with the strength and conditioning side of it or the physiological side of it, You know what I mean? That I can actually enhance the environment I go into.
Yeah, almost the other way around, mate. I started off wanting to be a strength and conditioner. That's where I thought my initial love would be. So that was where I started. But then I then realized that everything I was doing in that strength and conditioning world was falling apart because people weren't getting the diet right. So that's where my interest in nutrition came to really help drive human performance. And to really understand the human body, you need to understand physiology, the muscle. So that's where my professorship was. So you're right. There's no point understanding nutrition if you don't understand human physiology. There's no point understanding strength and conditioning if you don't know how to fuel it.
We can do the best... gym program in the world but if you want to grow more muscle you've got to grow it from something and that thing that you grow it from is the food that we eat yeah yeah amazingly said and we might go back to the start and you mentioned him
Paul Darbyshire, both of our colleagues and teammates, but you might just take us back to the very start because ye tugged out with each other playing rugby league, isn't that right?
That's right. We were teammates at Warrington back in the mid-90s. And then as you do, you drift apart. You know, Paul went into a real successful playing and coaching career.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What insights does Graeme Close share about high performance in sports?
0:12–6:47
2
How has Graeme Close's background shaped his approach to nutrition in sports?
6:47–12:22
3
What role does nutrition play in enhancing athletic performance?
12:22–17:48
4
How does Graeme Close address the challenges of nutrition for elite athletes?
17:48–22:49
5
What is the significance of teamwork in sports performance according to Graeme Close?
22:49–28:50
6
How does Graeme Close view the evolution of nutrition in rugby?
28:50–35:43
7
What are the common nutritional myths that Graeme Close wants to debunk?
35:43–42:19
8
How does Graeme Close suggest young athletes should approach supplementation?
42:19–1:03:04
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Offload
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