About this episode

David Jacko Jackson shares his journey from a life-altering seizure to becoming a running coach focused on the importance of breathing.

David Jacko Jackson played over 300 games for Nottingham Rugby Football Club. In 2013, a month after getting married, he had a seizure on the pitch and a small bleed on the brain. His rugby career was over. What followed was months of emotional dysregulation, extreme fatigue, sensitivity to light, and a nervous system so disrupted he once burst into tears in a supermarket because he couldn't choose a yogurt. Doctors told him to sit in a dark room and wait. Nobody talked about breathing. Years into his recovery, Jacko stumbled across research connecting traumatic brain injury with disrupted respiratory patterns, and everything changed. By retraining his breathing mechanics, he knocked a minute off his 5K time in four weeks. He retrained as a strength and conditioning coach, worked with the British Paralympic swim team ahead of Rio, and eventually built an entirely new career around what he'd discovered. His book, Breathe Smarter, Run Stronger, with a foreword by Patrick McKeown of The Oxygen Advantage, came out two months ago. This week, Rich sits down with Jacko to talk about the brain injury, the recovery, and why breathing might be the most overlooked performance tool in every…

People in this episode

Hosts: Andy Delderfield, Richard Casement

Guest: David Jacko Jackson

Topics covered

• breathing techniques
• recovery from injury
• running performance
• mental health
• sports coaching

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Nottingham Rugby Football Club, British Paralympic swim team

Books & works: Breathe Smarter, Run Stronger

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