Profile

I live in the New Forest with my husband, baby daughter, and three pet chickens. I also have another baby due to arrive quite soon so life is about to get even more crazy!

My favourite things to do are playing sport (especially hockey) and eating (especially chocolate). I also like watching rubbish TV and reading murder mystery books. I love cheese jokes – my current favourite it ‘what do you call cheese that doesn’t belong to you?’, ‘Nacho cheese’.

I trained as a Sport Psychologist because I wanted to help make people better at their sport but soon realised that the part of sport psychology where you sit down and are nice to people isn’t really suited to me! I like doing experiments and finding things out so I started to research into where and how really good athletes look and whether this is something that can be trained. It turns out that you can improve the visual system (eyes and brain) and by improving this you can make people better at their sport – so this is now what I do!

There are three main parts to my job now:

1. I work at AECC University College where I teach on the Psychology and Sport Science courses
2. I carry out experiments to keep finding out more about how the eyes and brain work together and how this can be used in sport
3. I work directly with athletes from lots of different sports to help them be able to use their vision to become better at their sport.

When working with athletes I am really lucky with some of the sports people I have been able to work with. Here is a video clip of a tv show I made with Cristiano Ronaldo

I also work with drivers from Formula 1, premiership rugby players, premier league football teams and loads of Olympic athletes. As well as sports people, my research also applied to the military and anyone who needs to make quick decisions based on what they are seeing in a short amount of time.

Here are some pictures of the athletes I work with training their vision

I travel all around the country (and sometimes, the world) to work with athletes which can mean getting up early and driving a long way. I have to pack up all my equipment to take with me so have to be organised and plan in advance. I have about three diaries to make sure I know where I need to be each day and what I have to take with me so I can get it all packed up the night before and be ready for whatever the day has in store. 

Each day can be very different. For example, this week I am spending Monday going to see a Formula 1 racing team where I will be filming some videos to send out to young drivers to teach them how to use their vision to be better drivers. On Tuesday I am at University doing some teaching to Sport Science students and also writing a book. On Wednesday I am going to work with a cricket team to help them understand more about where they look when they are playing. Thursday I am at a conference presenting some research I have done so I will have to stand in front of lots of people and talk about my work. And finally on Friday I am on a hockey camp to teach young players about using their peripheral vision and reaction speed to help them work as a team. This weekend I have no work planned but will try and watch some of the teams and players who I work with so I can see if they have learnt from what I have taught them and see what needs to be worked on more next time.

I am really lucky to have such variety in my work – no two days are ever the same!