Dave Alred is regarded as the world's best kicking coach and leading the field in approaches to skills acquisition and Mental Preparation. He has been an England assistant coach for over 106 tests, and a British Lions assistant for three tours. Inaugurated into the UK Coaching Hall of Fame for his contribution to the success of the England Rugby World Cup win, he was awarded the Mussabini Medal for outstanding success on the world stage and was honored with an MBE in 2004.

His reputation for his coaching expertise has enabled him to work in a variety of sports at the elite level. As well as the England Rugby Squad, he has worked with a variety of Premiership Soccer clubs, including Newcastle, Middlesborough, Sunderland, and Watford, and Gaelic Football in Ireland with both Dublin and County Amargh. In Australia he has worked with the Wallabies, St George, Newcastle, Parramatta and Manly Rugby League and recently the West Coast Eagles Australian Rules team.

As well as the teams, he concentrates a great deal of time on individual performances believing that they are fundamental to a teams success. Recently the most notable has been his work with Jonny Wilkinson as well as Charlie Hodgson Ollie Barkley. His student list includes England's Rob Andrew, Jonathan Webb, Stuart Barnes, Paul Grayson, British Lions Neil Jenkins, Steven Jones, Ronan O'Gara and Australians Matthew Burks, David Campsee, and Mathew John. In Soccer they include Joe Cole, David James, Shay Given, Mark Schwartzer and Richard Wright.

In addition to coaching individuals, Dave also coaches coaches to improve their teams' performance under pressure. Dave looks at an individual's interaction between members of the team and more importantly how their performance changes when under a variety of pressure situations.

'The most fundamental change over the last two years has been looking at mental preparation trying to ensure players always perform at, or very near their potential, whatever the interference,' said Dave Alred, who has just completed his doctorate at Loughborough University. 'I am always looking at ways to get a player to go where he's never been before in terms of his performance, its the excitement of continually going into the unknown and often challenging convention.'

Dave has a wealth of knowledge to impart on performance under pressure, both in the sporting arena but also its application in the corporate world.

He fully understands what performing under pressure feels like. Having taught himself to play golf, he now plays off four and coaches individuals to better their game, which he uses for a metaphor for performance and more productive mindset for business and life.

Dave runs coaching workshops around golf focusing performers on areas such as posture, mindset, and laws and principles. He reinforces the importance of posture for consistent striking of the ball, and the importance of detail. He also focuses on the importance of having a productive mindset and an expectation to succeed in the 'right here right now'. Dave also believes performers need to appreciate what is important in performing a skill, what makes the difference. The bigger the muscle group, the easier it is to perform under pressure, smaller the muscle group the harder it is to be consistent with swing-point of impact, the importance of weight shift.

Dave has recently worked with Dolphins in Australia, helping him to explore his premise that skills and behaviours are often fact in the same thing. When you treat a skill as a behaviour, then there is a greater likelihood that the individual will consistently perform at a high level.

Through studying dolphins, Dave has been able to investigate how vital it is to behave and respond to performance in a constant and objective manner.

Dave is an entertaining and inspirational speaker with a unique understanding of performing under pressure. He believes that individuals rarely fill their potential and that the great achievements are just ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

COACHING HISTORY

Assistant Coach for RFU and England 1998 to 2006
...Winning 4 triple crowns
...Grand Slam 2003
...2003 World Cup

Assistant Coach on three British Lions Tours
...New Zealand 2005
...Australia 2001
...South Africa1997

Specialist Kicking Coach
...Australia(1993-1994)
...Bristol(1993 1994)
...Bath (1990 1992)

Rugby League
...Great Britain, (1984),
...St George, Australia (1991- 1993).

Australian Rules
...West Coast Eagles, Australia (20056)

Soccer
...Middlesborough
...Aston Villa
...Sunderland
...Bolton Wanderers
...FA Elite Goalkeepers Course

TESTIMONIALS
'Dave received rave reviews particularly from the sporting men in the audience. He was extremely professional and spoke brilliantly. He was also a gentleman and was happy to fit in with the general chaos of the evening! Scored high on feedback forms.'
Dr Oliver Keys, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

'The entire room perked up after lunch, listening and participating with intrigue. Dave Alred was indeed awesome. I have to say it is very rare that I rave about any guest speaker however, this was truly sensational. The way he coached a female member of our sales team (who had never kicked a ball) to aim in a precise position was nothing short of amazing - what was the high point of the day? In this instance every man and woman has said Dave Alred. Praise indeed.'
Patti Heaven, AXA Sun Life

'Before your presentation, I wouldn't have believed that in coaching rugby players to 'perform under pressure', you have to tackle the very same issues and challenges that we face as a company in a hugely competitive environment. You were both informative, entertaining and made your points with real impact. I have heard a lot of 'sport to business' presentations in the past but this was by far the most relevant.'
Keith Allen, Managing Director, ALD Automotive Ltd.

'Dave was very highly rated in our feedback forms and we all enjoyed and valued his presentation greatly'
Graham Ridgway, Chief Executive, Touchpaper