About me
About me
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Welcome to the world of elite sports performance
My name is Bastiaan Bruning. I am an elite sports coach specialized in the development of physical and mental capacities, injury prevention, and sustainable performance. After nearly 19 years at AFC Ajax, I founded Thriveos with a clear purpose: to support elite athletes, across all sports, in reaching their full potential. I don’t believe in isolated solutions. Performance is never just physical, technical, or mentality, it is everything combined.
That’s why I work from a 360-degree perspective, translating performance not only to the demands of the sport, but to the athlete as a person. Athletes are not projects to manage but they are individuals to empower. I have special interest in physical and mental development, injury prevention and sports performance.
My Journey
Sport has been part of my life since childhood. Football was my first love, running my second. I trained relentlessly, at my club, on the streets and in the nearby parc to be the next Patrick Kluivert or Jari Litmanen. My football talent was recognized early. AFC Ajax invited me for a trial period, but my parents made a difficult yet wise decision: education first. At the time, I felt frustration and disappointment.
Looking back, it was my first major lesson in acceptance and emotion regulation. In the latter years of elementary school, I suffered growth-related injuries that kept me sidelined for several years. and I never returned to my previous level. This period of injuries forced me to become creative, resilient, and self-aware to find ways to stay active despite physical limitations.
This period shaped also my drive to be highly active. Those experiences shaped my future more than any success could have. I discovered early that guidance at physical, mental and medical level was often missing. That realization stayed with me.
Driven by a desire to challenge myself and help others, I initially aimed for a career in the Marines or Special Forces. An elbow injury with structural damage ended that path, forcing me once again to adapt to deciding which area was next. I turned toward healthcare and performance, choosing physiotherapy for its active role in rehabilitation and its strong connection to sport.
This decision brought me back to AFC Ajax as a physiotherapy intern in 2006. After graduating, I joined the youth academy as a physiotherapist (2008). What followed was a career focused on continuous development: roles at KNVB and in private practice, a master’s in Manual Therapy (2013), and specialization across injury prevention, rehabilitation, return to play, and performance development.
From 2010 onward, my focus shifted increasingly toward performance development, from prevention to elite output. In 2016, I became medical-performance manager of the Ajax youth academy, where I led multidisciplinary teams and built systems for long-term athlete development. During this period, talents such as Jorrel Hato emerged.
During COVID, my interest in the mental side of performance deepened. While co-leading the mental department, I completed a second master’s in applied psychology (2022). At the same time, I rediscovered myself as an endurance runner, improving from a 10K time of 41:41 to a personal best of 34:07 in official competition. Embracing performance as a personal pursuit once again.
Currently, I am completing my Master in Strength & Conditioning, finishing in 2026, completing what I consider as my “performance triangle”. And no: I don’t promise it will be my last degree.
Coaching philosophy
My core values are integrity, positivity and compassion. I believe athletes perform best in a psychologically safe environment: one where they are challenged, supported, and respected. The athlete is always central. Every decision, intervention, or confrontation is made with one goal: long-term development, even when it doesn’t always feel comfortable in the moment. So, I challenge athletes to change themselves and learn skills to develop their capacities and skills on their own in the future. When athletes truly believe in their plan, when it feels realistic, challenging, and personal, motivation increases and performance follows. They are not just athletes. They are human beings. And if they are not well as a person, elite performance is impossible.
My ultimate objective is not to make athletes dependent on Thriveos. It is to help them become independent, self-aware, motivated, and capable of developing themselves, now and in the future. I strive to make them hungry to thrive for their personal best and dare to start changing their behavior to improve even more than before. Thriveos contains therefore the name of the Greece goddess of a new beginning.
What does Thriveos provide for athletes like you
At Thriveos, you gain access to a specialized multidisciplinary team, structured like a professional club or federation. We offer in-depth analysis and personalized action plans, high level physical and mental performance coaching, injury prevention strategies, and rehabilitation, return to sport, and return to performance pathways. Before training begins, every athlete completes an extensive 360 degrees intake, including: lifestyle and performance factors (nutrition, sleep, biorhythm, recovery), a comprehensive physical test battery for prevention and performance, and mental screening, including questionnaires and sport-specific scenarios.
All together, we review your athlete profile and define a clear action plan which we present afterwards. After agreement with you the plan will be implemented. After testing, you can also take the analysis and plan to your own professional environment or continue working with the Thriveos team.
Professional Coaches
Certified Youth Coaches
Training Hours Annually
Result is no coincidence.
It is measurable.