Who’s the bloke with the yellow shoes on the Town bench, fans have asked over the course of the season. That man is performance coach Kevin Mincher.

Mincher is employed by the Blues on a part-time consultancy basis, working with the players on positivity and mental aspects of the game.

He has been at Town since the beginning of the season after being brought in by performance department having previously worked on a similar basis at Bristol City, where performance director Andy Rolls, CEO Mark Ashton and a number of others on the Town staff were employed prior to last summer.

Having been spotted in the dugout, as he was at Fleetwood on Saturday, or loitering at the end of the tunnel at Portman Road, supporters on social media have wondered who the man with the distinctive yellow shoes might be.

Doncaster-born Mincher was a youth player with Sheffield United but a back injury ended his time as a player with the Blades at 17 in the early 1990s.

Since then he has had spells as a youth coach with the Blades, with local non-league side Sheffield FC as a player and working in the US with youth side the Erie Admirals as assistant manager, as well as founding training camps in various US states and New Zealand.

Since 1997, Mincher has also worked to help young people achieve their potential through his Unstoppable Teen organisation via seminars, which have been attended by more than 300,000 teenagers, a book, website and blog.

According to the Unstoppable Teen website, “for over 25 years, Kevin Mincher has been helping athletes, coaches and sports teams achieve their goals. He is an innovator in the field peak performance”.

He has worked a one-to-one performance coach to athletes in cricket, ice hockey and other sports in addition to football and is the creator of more than 20 performance coaching programmes for athletes and coaches.

Mincher has worked in “sports psychology and emotional fitness with clubs including Sheffield United, Hull City, Nottingham Forest, Rotherham United and Sheffield Steelers [ice hockey]” and was a scout with Watford. The site says he has also worked on image rights deals with Inter Milan.

Young Business Person of the year in 2001 and included in the Who's Who of Britain's Young Entrepreneurs in 2002, Mincher has published a number of books, including Inner Winner and Confident With Cash in 30 Minutes.

Photo: Unstoppable Teen

Guthrum added 11:43 - Mar 7 All part of the modern approach. Get people in to have those fine margins working on our side.
5

b1079blue added 12:02 - Mar 7 Not convinced by anyone whose results can not be measured in pounds shillings and pence. Sat through too many super slick wide boy presentations.
3

Chondzoresk added 12:26 - Mar 7 Try blue shoes. Much more tasteful.
1

PortmanTerrorist added 12:36 - Mar 7 Interesting to know if/where he was when PC was in charge. PC always promised we would never be outworked or outrun, and yet in his days in charge that was routinely the case. Obviously, as with so much at the Club, our new manager has made good on PCs comments without any of the upfront bravado. Mr Mincher was not visible in PCs days, so perhaps he has been used more by the new Boss who seems much more at peace with the Club model and infrastructure provided by Ashton. We are not getting outrun any more, so if that is the case I am certainly not complaining !

3

MattinLondon added 12:48 - Mar 7 Most of us have sat through motivational speakers and thought what a load of rubbish. But we're not professional sportsmen - a winning mentality and positive mindset, as a collective, is absolutely necessary to get them through those final few minutes of injury time. These fine margins will hopefully make for a long term winning culture being installed into the club.

0

Radlett_blue added 12:58 - Mar 7 This is the low point of motivational speaking.
5

masetheace added 13:00 - Mar 7 It would be interesting to have a list of all the "behind the scenes " people and what their roles actually are
1

TimmyH added 13:13 - Mar 7 As long as those yellow shoes takes us down the yellow brick road!
1

Bazza8564 added 13:31 - Mar 7 Wenger was touted as a crackpot when he started and now he's renowned as one of the most innovative thinkers ever. If he helps get us promoted i don't care if he lays down on the halfway line before games and prays to Julie Andrews. COYB
1

Monkey_Blue added 13:56 - Mar 7 Please tell him yellow shoes look awful whichever club you are working for but at this one?😳😳😳
2

66notout added 14:04 - Mar 7 Except they're not yellow, are they? They are mustard and that's a whole lot worse.
1

JewellintheTown added 14:08 - Mar 7 Our P.E. Teacher told us he'd kick us in the nuts if we lost the game. Motivated us, anyway! That ones a freebie, Mr. Mincher.
3

Ipswichbusiness added 14:31 - Mar 7 “Worked in” sports psychology, but not apparently qualified in it?
1

SheffordBlue added 17:34 - Mar 7 Edmundson commented in a post-match interview on finding this guy's help useful a few months back so at least some of the players are finding it useful
0

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls