Afke van de Wouw

About Afke van de Wouw

Afke van de Wouw is a sports psychologist, performance coach, movement scientist, and former physiotherapist. With her broad background and extensive experience, Afke presents many themes. Consider topics such as sports psychology, coaching, team building, communication, leadership, visualization, motivation, dealing with pressure and setbacks. Health topics like stress, overtraining, burnout, recovery, and injuries are also part of her expertise. And of course, personal development topics such as self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-confidence.

From a young age, Afke has been interested in people and their motivations. This led her to study Physiotherapy and work with football and hockey teams. Through her further studies in Movement Sciences, she became a Movement Scientist and Sports Psychologist. Afke views sports psychology not so much as a band-aid, but more as a component of performance. This component also needs to be trained by an athlete to achieve top performances. Therefore, she prefers to speak of ‘Performance Coaching.’

At Vitesse, FC Utrecht, FC Twente, and VVV-Venlo, she guided the coaches, teams, and players. Afke is also active in other sports disciplines. Additionally, Afke has worked for sports organizations such as NOC*NSF and NLcoach.
Besides these clients, Afke also teaches and conducts workshops at sports federations, universities of applied sciences, and universities. In the 2008-2009 season, Afke contributed to VVV-Venlo’s championship, which led to their promotion to the premier league. Finally, Afke runs her own practice. Here, she guides athletes, teams, coaches, and organizations to get the best out of themselves, both at the top and amateur levels.

Afke has not only been successful in the sports world but is now increasingly so outside of it. She creates a beautiful and unique combination of (team and individual) Performance Coaching, project management, and research. She is connecting, innovative, and has accessible expertise. Afke aims to make sports psychology accessible to everyone. Besides her extensive practical knowledge, she has a very solid substantive story, which she conveys well through her enthusiastic manner of presenting. She speaks powerfully, has good body language, uses humor, and incorporates many practical examples, drawing everyone into her story.

In 2020, Afke wrote the book ‘Learn to Perform‘. This book describes how to get the best out of your athletes during the season phase. In 2021, Afke, together with her colleague Yara van Gendt, released the book ‘Learn to Rehabilitate‘. This book helps injured athletes optimally recover from their injuries and ensures they come out stronger from their rehabilitation. Afke is regularly invited to NOS Radio 1 broadcasts, such as ‘Radio 1 Journaal’, ‘Nieuws & CO’, ‘Langs de lijn’, and ‘Nieuwsweekend’.

In 2021, Afke was nominated for the ‘Frank Bakker’ Award. This award is presented biennially to a person who has made a significant contribution to sports psychology in the Netherlands. The jury provided the following reasons for Afke’s nomination for this distinction:

– Her book ‘Learn to Perform’ and together with Yara van Gendt the book ‘Learn to Rehabilitate’. Learn to Perform is an excellent book. Original, targeting trainers and coaches, yet also highly suitable for athletes (and involved parents) and linked to the seasons: training and learning, season preparation, season, season closure.
– Very positive comments on the book from some of the top coaches, trainers, athletes. Those who praised the book include Jeroen Otter, Merijn Zeeman, Kim Lammers, Selena Piek, Arno Havenga, Ruud van Nistelrooy.
– Original and very functional are also the links to websites that Afke included in the book.
– Afke has a very broad background: physiotherapist, movement scientist, sports psychologist (also European with successful participation in the European Master in Sport and Exercise Psychology program).
– In her work, Afke focuses on athletes, supervisors, in sports, but also in healthcare and business. She is a very good ambassador of sports psychology and someone who receives a lot of appreciation from those she works with.
– It is also remarkable that Afke has worked with professional football organizations like VVV, FC Twente, Vitesse, and FC Utrecht.

In short, a nominee who has everything it takes to receive the FB-Award.