Time: 09:10 – 10:00
Session: Keynote

From Experience to Innovation: Coaching Practice and Pokket in Sport Psychology

Speaker Profiles

Dr Michelle Pain is a highly experienced sport psychologist with nearly four decades of work in elite sport, including with Olympic and World Championship athletes. She has played a key role in the development of sport psychology in Australia, establishing the country’s first Master’s-level programme in the field at Monash University and contributing to the professional recognition of the discipline.

She holds a BSc, DipEd (Psych), MEd, and PhD from Monash University and has taught psychology, sport psychology, and research methods across Monash, Victoria, and Deakin Universities over more than three decades. Alongside her applied and academic career, she is currently involved in the development of PokketCoach, working to advance innovative approaches to mental performance support.

Reid Johnson is the CEO of PokketCoach, an AI-driven platform focused on enhancing access to sport psychology support for athletes and coaches. His work centres on developing technology that translates psychological expertise into practical, scalable tools. In this session, he brings a perspective on innovation within the field, highlighting how digital solutions can complement applied practice and support performance in modern sporting environments.

Overview

This keynote brings together extensive applied experience in elite sport psychology with emerging innovation in performance support. Drawing on decades of work within high-performance environments, the session explores key principles underpinning effective psychological practice with athletes and coaches, including how to develop and sustain performance-focused, athlete-centred approaches.

Alongside this, the session examines how technological innovation is shaping the future of sport psychology. Through the lens of PokketCoach, an AI-powered platform designed to increase access to mental skills support, the keynote considers how digital tools can complement traditional practice while maintaining ethical and applied integrity.