S5E3– Ian Prior: How Professional Athletes Stay In the Arena

The Unforgiving60

Ian Prior is MORE than just a professional rugby player with over a decade of ‘high speed collisions in confined spaces’. He’s incredibly well read and researched. He meditates and practices journaling. He uses ice baths and loves the beach. He’s about performance and optimisation, but uses that to improve his being a dedicated father and husband.
This is also a story about tenacity. In the early stages of his career Ian was on the fringes of representative and first class rugby. But his determination and commitment to self improvement got him playing across three Super Rugby Franchises for over a decade. He talks about ‘how’ and ‘what’ he does.

We also talk wicked problems and how they apply to Australian Rugby.
Intelligence Summary (INTSUM)

04:00 Start the Bikram Podcast

05:10 Growing Up including in Africa

06:00 Media hasn’t been kind to Zimbabwe- what’s it really like?

08:10 Ian describes his physical stature- and how that fits into rugby

08:50 Superbowl/ NFL v rugby comparison

11:50 Back to Australia after Zimbabwe- school and sport (more of the latter than the former!)

15:05 Are the best sports people generalists or specialists?

16:59 Ian Prior’s three posters on his wall as a kid- Ricky Ponting, Matt Burke and Ben Pronk!?

20:32 Ian gets an opportunity in the Australian U20 rugby side

22:00 Ian Prior hangs up repeatedly on Queensland Red’s coach Ewan McKenzie… and interviewing for the Reds. What three questions did Ewan ask Ian?

25:00 What makes the best players?

28:00 Ian joins the Reds and wins a series

30:00 Does playing a lot of footy together (or anything together) really matter in success?

32:00 Ian moves franchises to the Brumbies…. Why? Life in Canberra.

37:15 How does leadership work in a rugby club?

41:10 Resilience Shepherds in rugby- some good examples

44:20 Ian moves to the Western Force

50:10 Ian’s journaling, meditation and grounding and its importance to performance

57:00 Ice baths? Stretching…. How to wind down

58:20 Talking strength and conditioning, loads and training blocks

1:06:00 Ian’s leadership- how did he Captain the Western Force?

1:16:20 Talking Australian Rugby and wicked problems.

References:

About Ian Prior

Sydney Morning Herald Article on Australian Rugby

‘Wicked Problems’ article Rittel and Webber

‘Positive Visualization and Its Effects on Strength Training’- Watkins and Turner

https://westernforce.rugby

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Music …. With thanks to:

The Externals – available on Spotify