DRIVE YOUR CAREER FORWARD

As a professional athlete, you need to squeeze every last drop out of your performance on the football pitch, tennis court or golf course. That’s why we’ve built a network of coaches, nutritionists, psychologists and more to help maximise your output. At DEFY, we connect you with the best so you can be the best.

OUR PERFORMANCE PARTNERS

Shane Nicholson
Strength & Conditioning Coach

Shane is a former professional footballer with a 22-year playing career. After retirement, he joined the coaching staff at Chesterfield as Strength & Conditioning Coach where he worked with the First Team for 8 years. A move to Derby Country followed, where he spent 2 years as First-Team Performance Coach. Today Shane runs his own business, SN PERFORMANCE, where he coaches, educates and inspires elite athletes from all sports including football, tennis and golf.

Joshua McClaren
Performance Psychologist

oshua is a fully-qualified sport psychologist who has worked with a number of elite professional athletes across football, golf and tennis. His main objective is to help you develop the right psychology so you can play as consistently as you can at your highest level - with experience as a consultant for NUFC Women. Josh also runs the ProPathGolf programme where he develops young golfers to a professional level.

Jack Hicks-Flynn
Performance Psychologist

Jack is a Chartered Sport & Exercise Psychologist and expert in his field. He’s the Head of PDP Psychology at West Ham United, runs his own company, Mentology, and has also held positions at Luton Town and Portsmouth. He specialises in the delivery of psychological provision to professional and amateur athletes of all ages and backgrounds, with the aim of improving performance and wellbeing

Kara Graham
Performance Psychologist

Kara’s left the UK to pursue her passion of running Division 1 Track and Field - but her 5 years as a NCAA student athlete were the most emotional and challenging of her life, losing her coach to cancer before being diagnosed herself. Returning from cancer, getting back to fitness and returning to track meant Kara had to condition not just her body, but her mind. Now, as a performance psychologist, she coaches other athletes to optimise their performance and improve their wellbeing.

Hannah Belsham
NUTRITIONIST

Hannah has a strong interest in biochemistry and its impact on athletic performance, working with top franchises like Loughborough Lightning and Loughborough Sport. She’s partnered directly with GB athletes and other high-performing individuals to aid performance, with her experience including a significant role with a leading nutrition brand. Hannah’s work has been featured in Cosmopolitan, SheerLuxe, iNews and Stylist Magazine as she continues to contribute to the field of performance nutrition.

Harry Hedges
Nutritionist

Harry is a Certified Nutrition Practitioner and Personal Trainer who qualified in 2019 through the evidence-based MNU qualification. He’s a specialist in weight loss - but can also optimise nutrition to help athletes enhance performance, maximise energy and be ready for any occasion. Harry also provides aftercare on a fitness and nutritional basis for Bariatric Patients and is very proud to support a community of over 3,000 people on a daily basis.

Andy Higham
Tennis Performance Specialist

Andy made his reputation in Nottingham working at West Bridgford Tennis Club, the University of Nottingham and as County Coach for Nottinghamshire Tennis - coaching national-level juniors as well as international professionals on the ATP and WTA tours. He has progressed through 4 of the 5 performance tennis qualifications and still competes on the court himself - representing Nottinghamshire Men and Great Britain in the over 30s age group.

Contact us

With offices in London and Derby, we welcome anyone to DEFY HQ who wants to join us on our journey. Whether you’re an athlete, coach, club, brand or media representative – drop by for a coffee, give us a call or send us an email anytime.