Not by the Playbook

It's amazing how many people are involved in anyone sporting endeavour... Of course the athletes are the stars of the show, but then there's coaches, physiotherapist and umpires. And beyond them there are cameramen, hot dog sellers and security staff. This week we spend some time with some of those people we don't think of as crucial to our enjoyment of sport, but without them we'd really miss them!
Benny Drawbars is a man who occupies an almost unique position in sport, one that straddles the very best "old timey" traditions of sport and the modern and exciting way we all now experience sport. How? Well each week Benjamin Wooley steps into the Climate Pledge Arena, home of NHL team Seattle Kraken, blows gently on his fingers, cracks his knuckles and morphs into Benny Drawbars, the demon organist! But is this most wonderful of traditions, heard mostly in the US at hockey and baseball games a dying art?
In some ways you could say Ken Calwell has had a career in pizza, but that would do him no justice! He has in fact he has headed up some of your favourite fast food companies, from Pizza Hut to Dominoes and now Papa Murphy... He even had a spell at Wendy's! So why would we want to chat to a man who has spent his life marketing pizza, how ever delicious that might sound!? Well he also created an advert you probably saw during the Super Bowl, the only one not "selling" a product! But first we chatted about his life before and after August 8th 1991 and what happened on that day that changed everything
To win a gold medal at the Summer Games or it's winter counterpart is a pretty amazing feet, but to win gold at BOTH, well that's the preserve of a very very few number of athletes. American Kendall Gretsch is one of them. Born with spina bifida which has severely limited the use of her legs, she won gold in the Para-triathlete in Tokyo in 2021 and has now won multiple Paralympic Winter golds, including just a few weeks ago in Milan Cortina, topping the podium in the cross-country skiing.
Imagine creating a swimsuit so good it would have to be banned?! That's what Jason Rance and his team at Speedo's research and development Aqualab did ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games in August 2008. Wearing the LZR Racer swimsuit, United States swimmer Michael Phelps won a record eight gold medals at the Water Cube. Athletes wearing the swimsuit would shatter 30 world records in the space of three months. The suit developed with space agency Nasa and the reduction in skin friction drag was so significant, some called it "technological doping".
Photo: The organist for the Chicago Blackhawks plays a tune during an NHL game with the Los Angeles Kings and Chicago Blackhawks circa 1978 at the Chicago Stadium in Chicago, Illinois. (CREDIT: B Bennett/Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios/Getty Images)

Sometimes the daily grind can feel like climbing the sheer face of a mountain, and all that's keeping you hanging are the very tips of your fingers. This week, four inspirational female athletes tell us their secret to what has made the difference between clinging on and fulfilling their dreams and giving up and falling down.
A couple of months ago Sasha DiGiulian attempted the latest in a long line of extraordinary achievements. She wanted to become the first woman to "free climb" the toughest route of the infamous El Capitan in Yosemite. The Platinum route. An already-difficult task was made tougher a week or so into the climb when a storm hit... There was nothing left to do other than hunker down and cling on in her tiny 4ft x 6ft "portaledge", a specialised suspended shelter used for sleeping on big-wall climbs. Sasha has been telling me all about surviving and thriving her most audacious and frightening challenging to date.
In August the inaugural season of the Women's Pro Baseball League will get underway. The WPBL is the first professional baseball league for women for more than 70 years, and for one woman it will mark a significant staging post on the way to making her dream of a game truly available to all, come true. Justine Siegal was recently announced as the Commissioner of the WPBL a fitting position for the woman who has broken more barriers in the sport than anyone else. She became the first female coach of a professional men's baseball team, the first woman to throw batting practice to an MLB team, and first female coach employed by an MLB team, and like so many with a love for the game it started as a child, with grandpa in tow!
The Portuguese coastal town of Nazaré draws, siren-like, surfers from all over the world. Why? Well it's here that the largest recorded waves are produced and crash down. Lena Kenma is one of only a handful of women who can handle such an endeavour. Born in Germany she moved to Nazaré to pursue her dream of tackling all the Atlantic could throw at her. What she found was that it wasn't Mother Nature who provides the biggest challenge to success.
In 1982 Julie Moss made history when she crawled to the finish line, having collapsed just metres from the end of the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. It was her first competitive triathlon and she came second, but as she explains to Not by the Playbook's Rebecca Kesby, that heroic fight for the line changed her life, and her attitude to the sport.
Photo: Rock climber, Sasha DiGiulian climbs to gold medal at the 2011 World Championships (Credit: Matt McClain for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Risk and fear are bed fellows. It's difficult not to feel some fear when you are taking a risk... But as some people are fond of saying "The biggest risk is not taking any risk at all". So how do we best assess risk and control our fears to perform at our very best? We have lined up four amazing guests who have spent their entire lives actively putting in to practice the philosophies and theories on how best to control our fears and take the right kind of risks.
Sometimes guests really surprise us and not always in a good way! But since Not by the Playbook started exactly a year ago, we've not had the pleasure of many more fascinating people than Diego Poncelet. A two-time downhill skateboarding world champion we expected a grungy, laid back, skater boi... Well shame on us for falling for so many stereotypes. Sure, Diego hurtles down mountains at over 100 kilometres an hour, but his thoughtful philosophy that guides him through sport, and his entire life is a fascinating mix of risk taking and challenging fear.

Steve Judge had always been a keen runner, it was his escape from a challenging job as an engineer. Today he goes around the world as a motivational speaker, inspiring people with his story of how having lost the ability to walk, he managed somehow to prove the world wrong and not only walk again, but get back to running and become a World Champion triathlete...
Dr. Marcia Goddard is a neuroscientist on a mission. Having studied for many years Marcia wanted to use what she had learned in as practical way as possible. And if she could combine that with her love of fast cars, well, all the better! And that's exactly what Marcia has carved out for her career. Combining her knowledge as a psychologist she became a high performance expert coaching teams in Formula One.
Ultra marathons are as much about the mind as the physical challenge... and it's 20 years since Scott Jurek, one of the world's best ultramarathon runners, travelled to the remote canyons of Northern Mexico to race runners from an ancient Mexican tribe. The experience inspired the best-selling book, "Born To Run".
Photo: Diego Poncelet Sanchez-Cuenca, 2x World Champion Downhill Skater & Filmmaker, makes his way swiftly down a mountain run. (CREDIT: Red Bull)

When we see our sporting heroes it's often in highly pressurised situations... and yet the look calm, controlled and steely eyed... but what we see on the surface often belies the hard work, dedication and hidden struggles. It's called the "swan effect". All poise and grace on top, whilst paddling furiously underneath. This week the remarkable stories of athletes who take control despite the struggles and challenges are unseen by us fans.
Exactly two years ago we sat down with film director Helen Tither who had something of a pipe dream. To tell the story of soccer team, The Manchester Corinthians. The woman's team, based just a couple of miles from the BBC Sport Studios, dominated around the world...and all while its players including Monica Curran were officially banned from participating in the sport. Well fast forward to present day and "Corinthians: We Were the Champions" premiered on the big screen in March 2026 and so it was time to invite Helen and Monica back on the show
Joanna Garland is a young tennis player making her way up the world rankings. She turned professional more than 6 years ago, and now, still aged just 24 she is currently ranked 117th in the world. As such you might expect her life to be one full of the trappings of professional sport. Luxury travel, big pay days and an entourage. But the truth is very different. And nothing illustrates her challenges better than being inches from a life changing million dollar victory and her punishing travel schedule.
There's nothing we love more than bringing you upbeat inspiring stories that leave us feeling all warm inside...but the truth is life isn't always like that, and Elise Headley's story sadly illustrates that the dream you can spend your entire life time chasing, could leave you living a nightmare. At just 10 years of age Elise developed a love for the pool and soon it became apparent that with hard work and dedication she could be an elite swimmer and compete at the Olympics. The years rolled on and despite success, something wasn't right. What Elise reveals is a brutally honest appraisal of life as an elite athlete, and one she is sure is shared by many.
Sometimes pressure comes primarily from within yourself, sometimes its brought on by coaches, colleagues of close family... but Majlinda Kelmendi had the weight of an entire nation on her shoulders! At the Rio 2016 Olympics, she was expected bring home the first medal for Kosovo since the small country gained independence. The two-time World Champion judoka came from a nation that had endured years of oppression and war, and she'd previously had to compete under the Albanian flag.
Photo: Corinthians Ladies FC on tour at Sporting Lisbon 1958 Portugal. Featured in The Corinthians We Were The Champions. Credit/Copyright: Films Not Words/Anne Grimes

Growing up, Katrina Webb was crazy about sport. But aged eighteen she had a choice to make. Did she continue to hide her disability? Or embrace it and excel in disability sport. She chose the latter and just year later she would go to the Atlanta Paralympics and win two gold medals, embracing what made her different as a strength.
Team GB skeleton racer, and Milan-Cortina gold medallist, Tabitha Stoecker offers insight into carving (or sliding!) a unique path in one of the world’s most thrilling winter sports. A late night scroll on social media led to a new start in a sport where speed and fearlessness are everything.
Growing up in sweltering Phoenix, Arizona; Alison Levine was a long way from the polar explorers she loved reading about. But, after heart surgery, she was determined to make her dream a reality. She went on to lead the first American all-women expedition up Everest, challenging conventions and drawing strength from adversity in some of the world's harshest environments.
And Great Britain baseball do things differently at the World Baseball Classic, with their own team artist.
Stories that reflect innovation, adversity and the power of embracing unconventional routes to success. Proving that sometimes extraordinary achievements come from daring to do things differently.