The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life: Recent Episodes
Paul Barnett & Jim Woolfrey
We explore leadership through the lens of high performance sport, by interviewing great coaches from around the world, to try and find ideas to help all of us be better leaders.
Jess Thirlby is a former England netballer and now coach. As a player she represented England in youth teams all the way to the senior team. She began coaching England National Youth teams while still a player and then retired at 26 to take up coaching full time. She went on to lead Bath to 3 super league titles and in 2019 was appointed England Head Coach.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Alan McConnel.
Alan is a former Australian Rules Football and now coach.
In 1996 he was appointed as the coach of the Fitzroy Football club for the final 8 games in their 113 year history before they were merged with the team who were then known as the Brisbane Bears.
After Fitzroy he joined Geelong under Mark Thompson and was then appointed Head Coach at the Australian Institute of Sport leading Australian best male youth.
From there he moved to the newly formed GWS Giants as the Director of Football. Then in 2017 he was appointed the senior coach of the Giants' AFL Women's side becoming the first person to coach both a Men's and Women’s side at the highest level.
At present he is a member of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) High Performance Coach Development team where he mentors and supports some of the nations best emerging and elite high-performance coaches.
In 2022 he was awarded the Neale Daniher Lifetime Achievement Award, which is awarded to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the game over a 'footy' lifetime.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Today’s episode is focuses on the topic of 2 great soccer coaches Jose Mourihno and Arsene Wenger, and its led byDr David Turner
David at Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching at ARU in Cambridge in the UK. We unpack the background of both coaches and how it shaped who their style, critical incidents in their careers and the key lessons that come out of their journeys. We have had Dr David on before and he always brings an interviewing perspective to the aer ans science of elite level coaching. And to that end, listen out for his thoughts on hubris syndrome towards the end of the podcast.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Andrej Lemanis is a former professional basketball player and now coach.
As a player he won the Australian National championship with the South East Melbourne Magic in 1992. He then transitioned into coaching holding various assistant roles until he was appointed head coach of the New Zealand Breakers in 2005. That team would ultimately go on to win 3 consecutive Championships, helping Andrej to be appointed to as the Australian Men’s coach in 2013. He would go on to take the Australian team from a world ranking of 11 to 3, its highest ever and go to become the winningest national coach ever. He is presently the coach of Altria Chiba in the Japan league.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Today’s Episode is on the topic of Chasing Influence.
And I am joined for the discussion by my friend Murray Noble who is the President of the Melbourne Baseball club and Dr Troy Urdhal who has just written a terrific book called Chasing Influence. The books is half story and half reflection on his learning as an educator and coach, with a deep-rooted passion for inspiring positive change in the lives of others. Troy has a doctorate in Educational Leadership and boasts over two decades of experience in leadership and coaching in the U.S.
Troy's details are:
Substack: www.chasing-influence.com
X: @TroyUrdahl
X: @chaseinfluence
email: troyurdahl@chasing-influence.com
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Glenn Pocknall
Glenn is a cricket coach with over 20 years experience at the elite level. He started coaching in 2002, learning through coaching youth representative teams.
He eventually joined the Wellington Firebirds in the New Zealand National league as an Assistant coach. He then went to England, Ireland and the Netherlands to gather international experience and in eventually returned to New Zealand and became the Wellington Head Coach. In that role he led the team to win all 3 domestic titles, Ford Trophy (50over) in 2019, Plunket Shield (four day) in 2020 and back-to-back Super Smash (t20) titles in 2020 and 2021. In 2021 he was given his first chance to lead the New Zealand National team in a T20 series.
Glenn has a deep commitment to self development and the craft of coaching and in this gem of an interview
some of the key highlights were:
- The story of how he wrote a 10 year vision for himself that led him from being a factory worker to eventually coaching the NZ cricket team.
- The way he uses routines and imagery to help combat negative self talk with athletes.
- And The answer he gives around tryng not to give feedback but instead just to listen, and why this is difficult as the leader but can also be so powerful.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Today’s episode focuses on the topic of Legendary Coaches and I am joined for the discussion by Dr David Turner at Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching at ARU in Cambridge in the UK, and Valorie Kondos Field, universally known as Ms Val. Both have been on the podcast before Dr David in his role as a leading academic on coaching and Ms Val as a Great Coach. Ms Val led the t UCLA gymnastics team from 1991 to 2019, collecting the seven national Championships along the way and she now leads the course “Transformative Coaching. Introduction to Philosophies of Coaching and Leadership” at UCLA.
I have been looking forward to getting Dr David and Ms Val together for a long time now to talk about the Great Coaches they lecture on in their programs and today is a master class in what they have learnt on their teaching journeys.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Sir Matt Busby was the Head Coach or as they say in Soccer, Manager, for Manchester United from 1945 until 1969.
He was the first manager of an English team to win the European Cup which he did in 1968. As a player he won the FA cup with Manchester City and as Manager, won it twice. He also won the League title on 5 occasions. But as you will hear in this podcast, it’s not necessarily the titles that make him a Great Coach.
It’s the way he helped Manchester rebuild after the second world war. And then, the way he and his team responded to the tragic events of 1958. When the team were traveling home from a European Cup match when their plane crashed on the runway. In total 23 people died, including 8 Manchester United payers, while 2 other players were injured so badly they never played again.
Matt Busby died in 1994, and in this episode, I am going to create a posthumous discussion with him based on his words as read by a voice actor. I used 3 books to create this discussion, 2 of which he wrote.
Sir Matt Busby by Patrick Barclay
Soccer At The Top: My Life in Football by Matt Busby
Matt Busby My Story as told to David R. Jack
This episode was challenging to put together, but it was also fascinating given the present state of his beloved Manchester United in 2024 season and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Todays episode is on Emotional Control
And I am joined for the discussion by 3 Dr’s.
Dr. Michael Mantell who among many things has been the Chief Psychologist for San Diego’s Children’s Hospital and the San Diego Police Department, as well as working with elite athletes.
Website:
https://drmichaelmantell.com/
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmichaelmantell
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/drmichaelmantell/
Email:
drmantell@me.com
Dr. Darin Davidson, an Orthopedic surgeon who also coaches professionals in high demand, high pressure environments.
Website:
www.darindavidson.com
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/darin-davidson-md-mhsc-frcsc-1478a974
Email:
darin@darindavidson.com
And Dr. Brendan Meany a sport and performance psychology, whose work focuses on optimizing individual and group performance
Website:
UpDocYoga.com
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendan-meany-edd-54a99393/
Email:
brendanmeany44@gmail.com
Together they are known as the performance doctors and pool their talents to help teams and individuals improve their emotional control.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Linn Dunn is an American basketball coach.
She coached for 25 seasons at the college level, winning 447 games and going to the NCAA championships on 7 occasions. She then went on to be first coach and GM of the Seattle Storm in the WNBA, bringing superstars Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird into the team. In 2009 she was then appointed head coach of the Indiana Fever, and in 2012 that team go on to win the WNBA championship.
She has also coached at the Olympics and World Championships with the USA women's team. Has been named coach of the year on 4 occasions and is a member of seven different athletic halls of fame.
At 74 years of age she has now returned to the Indiana Fever as the GM.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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In this podcast we explore the Leadership traits that we have found from analyzing the transcripts of the 200+ Great Coaches we have interviewed.
If you would like to test your leadership against theres you can take our free, anonymous diagnostic here: https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/survey-intro/
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Ante Milicic is an Australian soccer Coach and former professional player. As a player he represented Australia and won National Championships and was the first player to score a hat-trick in the A-League. After retiring he moved in to coaching straight away with becoming player/coach for Sydney United in 2009. At the same time he became an Assistant coach for the Australian U20 team. From there he was an assistant coach to Ange P at the 2014 WC in Brazil and the 2015 victorious Asian Cup as well as assistant to Bert Van Marjwick at the 2018 WC in Russia. In 2019 he was appointed as the Australian Womens National Coach and led them to the Round of 16 at the World Cup. In 2020 he was then named as the inaugural Head Coach for the new National league Mens team Macarthur.
Some of the key highlights are
- How he talks about his first task when taking over the Matilda’s was to ask all the staff to present their role and responsibilities to him. And how this brought a level of calmness to the group.
- How his time coaching both men and women at the elite level has taught him about the importance of taking time with players as individuals and helping them prepare through either technical or emotional information.
- How the feeling that he didn’t do enough with the talent he had as a player now shapes the way he works with helping people develop mental strength.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Brian Bohannon is an American Football coach.
He started as an Assistant with Gardner-Webb in 1996, and then over the next 17 seasons progressed through roles with Georgia Southern, Navy and Georgia Tech. In 2014 he started as the inaugural Head Coach for Kennesaw State. That team has gone on to become the the best five-year start-up program in college football history. Along the way he has won 3 Big South Coach of the Year, the AFCE Coach of the Year as well as leading the team to two Big South Conference championships.
Some of the key highlights are:
- How he describes mental toughness as the ability to execute a simple task regardless of circumstance. And the way he strctures the teams culture around effort, attitude toughness to help re-enforce this.
- The story he tells about starting up the team from scratch and taking it to be the most successful 5 year startup program in college football history.
- How the number one thing the great coaches have is the leadership ability to take a group of people from different places and backgrounds and get them to buy in to a common goal and vision.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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This week, my co-presenter the gold medal winning coach Hugh McCutcheon and I continue our exploration of Thriving Teams with the American Football coach Mike Bloomgren.
Mike started his career in 2000 as a graduate assistant and the the University of Alabama..
He then held various assistant roles before starting at the New York Jets in 2007. From there he moved to Stanford under David Shaw where he was part of the coaching staff that won the Pac 12 championship in 2012, 2013 and 2015.
In 2017 he was appointed head coach of Rice University.
Mike has terrific energy and some of the highlights of our interview were:
- His belief that optimism and pessimism are infectious when you are the leader, and they spread more rapidly from the head down than any other direction.
- The structured way he goes about building connection across the 107 players and 50 staff and their families, and the role this plays in building a sense of care across the team.
- His philosophy which he describes as Intellectual Brutality, and the role this plays in unlocking the decision making power of the athletes.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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This week my co-host, Professor Eric Knight and I are joined by Kevin Eastman.
Kevin is an American Basketball coach.
He started coaching in 1978 progressing through assistant roles to become the Head coach of Belmont Abbey College. He then went on to lead the lead Washington State University and then the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
In 2003 he was Nike’s Basketball National Director of Skills and through that role met Doc Rivers who invited him to become an Assistant with the Boston Celtics. That team went on to win the 2008 NBA championship. These days Kevin is an in demand public speaker and the author of the terrific book: Why the Best Are the Best: 25 Powerful Words That Impact, Inspire, and Define Champions
Some of the key highlights are:
- How he believes that the most important question great teams challenge themselves with is, what are you willing to sacrifice for this group? And how sacrifice is not just about what you give up, but rather what you choose to do for someone else.
- The acronym TIPS he uses to illustrate what all Teams whether in the sporting or corporate world need to do to be at their best. T stands for Truth which is the most important element, next is Intentional which he expands to describe as, what we do intentionally to fulfil our purpose, P stands for Preparation and S for Standards.
- The way he talks about the concept of Ubuntu which is an African word that embraces 2 key ideas, People are people because of other people and second tenet is, I can only be all I can be if you are all you can be. And the way this idea formed the foundations of the connections within the team.
You can learn more about Thriving Teams at https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/thriving-teams/
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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This week my co-host, Professor Eric Knight and I continue our exploration of Thriving Teams with Shane Mcleod.
Shane is a former New Zealand hockey player and now coach.
He transitioned into coaching while still playing, and coached teams in Europe before becoming the Belgium Women’s team coach in 2002.
In 2007 he moved back to New Zealand and led the Men's team at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. He then moved back to Belgium winning 2 National titles before becoming the Men's National team coach in 2015, and took them from a world ranking of 15 to #1. Along the way they won silver at the 2016 Olympics, the 2017 and 2019 European Championship, the 2019 and 2020 FIH Pro League. As well as gold at the 2018 Men’s Hockey World Cup, and the 2020 Olympic Games
Some of the key highlights are:
- How the feedback he was given as a player, which was that the selectors thought he liked the idea of playing for New Zealand more than you actually wanted to play for New Zealand, has gone on to to inform the way he gives feedback now in a way that doesn’t deter someone from wanting to be better.
- The processes they have in place to encourage the athletes to develop their self-leadership.
- The exercise he used to get the players themselves to select the team, and he used this to identify the strengths of each individual and the players within the team who were the glue that kept the group connected.
To find out more about Thriving Teams visit https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/thriving-teams/
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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This week my co-host, Professor Eric Knight and I continue our exploration of Thriving Teams with Ben Darwin.
Ben is a former Australian Rugby Union player who represented his country 28 times. He retired at the age of 27 after a neck injury and moved in to coaching before co-founding Gain Line Analytics, a company that has uses empirical analysis to understand the way professional sports teams work and succeed with each other.
It is one of the more fascinating interviews we have had on the podcast because of the challenging views he has on the traditional drivers of success.
Some of the key highlights are:
- The idea that small groups can be highly effective and the example he gives from military and history to show that it is the cohesion of your team, not the size of the talent pool you pull from that is key to success.
- His description of cohesion as understanding between the component parts of a team. And that this understanding is much more predictive of outcomes than the individual skill.
- And How effective cultures have normative behaviors that are established over time, are harder to change and can be learnt more easily across the components of the team.
If you would like to know about more Thriving Teams or use the diagnostic we have created to understand how close to Thriving your teams is you can check out our tools here: https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/thriving-teams/
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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This week my co-host, Professor Eric Knight and I continue our exploration of Thriving Teams with the Great Coach Jill McIntosh
Jill McIntosh is a former Australian National netball player and team coach. As a player she won the 1983 World Championship and then coached the national team to the championship in 1995 and 1999, as well as gold medals at the 1998 and 2002 Commonwealth Games.
She has also coached the National teams of Singapore, Northern Ireland and Jamaica. And is presently the coach of the Cardiff Dragons in the UK Super League.
In 2020 she was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame
The key highlights from the interview are:
- How many coaches are good at knowing what they want, but they fall down when it comes to creating the “How” of how they will achieve it.
- The way she uses her rule of excellence to guide all the teams activities.
- The importance of getting in sync as a team, and they she goes about moulding teams to achieve this.
You can find out more about Thriving Teams here: https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/thriving-teams/
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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In 2022 we were talking with 2 of the great coaches we have interviewed over a coffee, Eddie Jones and Neil Craig, as we got up to leave they challenged with an idea; so many sports coaches have models to illustrate what they think high performing teams do, why not compare them against what the coaches you are interviewing are saying?
It was an interesting idea that stayed with me afterwards and in early 2023 I found some time to do this.
I looked at models from Coaches, Academics and Consultants. I printed them off and laid them out on a table and started to compare them against the insight database that we have built up. That database has 1500 one to two minute videos from the coaches and is coded into buckets like culture, communication and mental skills. You can find it here: https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/individual-insights/
The model that I thought best reflected the messages I was hearing from the Great Coaches , was the Thriving Teams model developed by the consultancy Thompson Harrison in conjunction with Oxford professor Robin Dunbar. Their model builds from the idea that organisation only thrive when people do. And they identify six dimensions that enable this; Belonging, Purpose, Connection, Culture, Values and Learning.
In this podcast I will talk about their model and use audio from the Great Coaches to bring it to life.
If you would like to know more about Thriving Teams you can find the information here: https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/thriving-teams/
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Liam is a former Irish Hurling player and now Coach.
Liam played 13 senior games with Tipperary over 10 years. He retired in 1999 and in 2002 began coaching Tipperary youth teams. In 2007 he was appointed senior coach, and in 2010 he led to team to their 26th All Ireland Victory. Liam then took a year break from coaching at the highest level to spend more time with his family, as well as to coach local teams. In 2018 he returned to coach Tipperary and in his 2nd year won the All Ireland final again.
- His challenge on whether you focus on the setback or the bounce back and how this idea flows through his story and the championship teams he has led.
- His belief that a perfect day is when you give to somebody who might never be able to repay it. And his focus as a leader on creating an environment where the person gets to flourish.
- How the great coaches are innovators and focused on creativity so that they can get to the future before anybody else.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Graham is a Rugby Union Coach.
He started coaching in 1975 while teaching at Auckland Grammar school. His coaching and teaching continued and in 1993 he was to win the first of 4 consecutive Provincial Championships with Auckland. In 1996 he resigned as a headmaster to take up full time coaching with the Auckland Blues, leading them to back to back Super 12 titles in 1996 and 1997. He then took on the role as Head Coach of Wales and In 2000 led them to the 6 Nations Championship and the Grand Slam.
While coaching Wales he also led the British and Irish Lions on a tour of Australia. In 2003 he was appointed coach of the All Blacks and went on to lead them to the 2011 World Cup. In 2012 he was awarded a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (KNZM) in services to rugby.[17]
In this terrific interview some of the key highlights are:
- The way the teams culture was built from its purpose which was to be the best sporting team in the world. And the role that humility played in bringing this to life.
- How by the time he was appointed All Blacks Coach he had learnt the importance of empowerment and moving from a coach driven environment to a team driven environment. And how this was the catalyst for the leadership groups he put in place.
- The way the difficult decision he has made in his life have gone on to benefit him in the longer run. And how in his words “’learning about yourself under pressure” has been a key part of his development as a leader.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Tim Sheens.
Tim Sheens is an Australian Rugby League coach. He played 166 games for the Penrith Panthers and then moved in to coaching in 1984. He coached the Canberra Raiders to Premierships, in 1989, 90 and 94 and then in 2005 led the Wests Tigers to the premiership.
He has also coached the NSW team to the 1991 state or origin series win and the Australian team to the 2013 World Championship.
Some of the key highlights are:
- The philosophy he borrowed from an American coach of “being consistent in treating everybody differently.” And how as a result he doesn’t see people management in black and white terms.
- How Tim identifies 3 things that effective teams need to be doing every week: working on their public perception, thining about the opposition and making sure that small groups within the organisation don’t start talking negatively about other small groups.
- How the best coaches are good recruiters, and they select people who are going to suit their style.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Kelly is an American Volleyball coach. He started coaching volleyball in his teens, helping out at summer camps. He then went on to Assist at High School level before getting his chance as an Assistant at the University of Houston in 1997. He was given his first Head Coaching role at the University of Albany in 2001 and led them to 3 regular season championships. In 2012 he was appointed as Head Coach of the University of Wisconsin and has led them to 5 Big 10 Championships, 4 NCAA Final Fours and the 2021 NCAA Championship.
Some of the highlights of our discussion were:
- His view on the importance of his teams environment teaching life lessons at a critical time in peoples lives.
- The way he talks about balancing optimism and positivity against just cheerleading and the story he shares about rubber wrist bands to illustrate this.
- The importance of removing the worry the players may have about the coaches mood.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Becky is an American soccer coach who has just retired after leading the University of Florida Gators for 26 years.
She was the inaugural coach in 1994, and went on to win the NCAA title in 1998. She retired with a winning percentage of 75, and ranks second in total number of all-time wins among Division I coaches. In her time at Florida she also led the team to 14 SEC championships.
With her colleague Brett Ledbetter she also runs the very successful What Drives Winning conferences that bring together Great Coaches from all over the world.
In this interview some of the key highlights for me were:
· Her belief that there is no task that is so important or critical that it should stop you from her bringing your best energy to the team.
· Her view on the importance of courage as a coach.
· That the way you treat people is more important that the tactics you deploy.
· And the story she shares about how she controls her emotions during a game. Which I think has great applicability in the work place.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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As a player, Sean was a Goalie at Springfield and was twice names All American.
Sean coached Endicott University from 1998 to 2015, leading them to 8 CCC Championships, as well as taking the Division 3 school to as high as 5 in the National rankings. He has coached 21 All American players. And in 2020 led the the Cannons in the Premier Lacrosse League, to the Championship.
Sean is a terrific leader and role model and in this interview some of the highlights for me were:
- The role that positivity plays in correcting and sustaining culture
- The pillars of respect, trust and accountability that shape his teams; and how he talks about bringing these things to life in everyday actions.
- And The story he tells about starting as a head coach at 26 years old with a team and writing to each player individually, and then maintaining that connection over the years.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Today’s episode is focuses on the topic of Serial Winning Coaches
And Dr David Turner and I are joined for the discussion by Professor Cliff Mallett and Professor Sergio Lara-Bercial who have just written a book called Learning from Serial Winning Coaches based on their research interviewing 17 of these coaches across 10 sports and 10 different countries.
Cliff Mallett is an Olympic and World Championship medal winning coach. He is a distinguished Professor of Sport Psychology and Coaching at the University of Queensland, Australia. And has developed a world-renowned online program in sports coaching and consults nationally and internationally for many elite sporting organisations.
While Sergio is also an international basketball coach who led teams into 4 European Championships. He is a world-renown Professor of Sport Coaching at Leeds Beckett University, England and VP for the International Council for Coaching Excellence. He also conducts applied research in coach development and youth sport and consults globally for organisations such as FIFA, UEFA, FIBA, NIKE and the IOC.
There are so many great ideas in the interview but a few that stuck with me afterwards were:
- The idea of connection before correction when it comes to coaching, as you cant teach anyone until you have connected with them and they know you care.
- The importance of a shared purpose, holding each other accountable and respecting the individual when it comes to building connection within the team.
- And How the great coaches have a philosophy that contains clear values and principles that they use a framework to guide their work, particularly when they face dilemmas.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Kevin is an American paralympic athlete and now Wheelchair Rugby coach.
As an athlete he won 2 Bronze medals at the 1988 Paralympics, before transitioning into coaching Wheelchair Rugby in 1992. His team, Lakeshore then went on to 5 consecutive National Titles. This led to him being appointed Team USA coach where we won a silver at 2002 World Championships and a Bronze at the 2004 Paralympics. In 2009 he was appointed coach of the Canadian National team and led them to a silver medal at the 2012 Paralympics and gold at the 2015 World Wheelchair Rugby Challenge. He is presently the head coach of the Japan Wheelchair Rugby team where he led them to Bronze at the 2022 world Championships.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is rugby's Damian McGrath.
Damian started life as a teacher, but then in his words “took a gamble” and moved into professional coaching. He has now coached teams across multiple countries, in both rugby league, Rugby union, as well as Rugby sevens. He has coached at Club level with the Leeds Rhinos in England’s Super League and was England’s Assistant Coach at the 2000 Rugby League World Cup. In 2015 he became Head Coach of the Samoan National 7s team leading them to a Cup success in Paris. He then took over as Head Coach of the Canadian National 7s team leading them to a historic Cup success in Singapore. He also coached national Rugby 7’s teams of Germany and Kenya.
He has just released a new book: Can You Be Fluent In Success?
The highlights are:
- How he uses the play by Thomas Moore, A Man for all season to describe the roles a coach must play.
- The story she he shares about the bass player Herby Flowers who played the famous riff on Lou Reeds son Walk on the wildside. To illustrate how coaches get the most from the options available to them.
- His theory on the doubt percentage and how he uses this to find that little bit extra in people.
- And the idea of a mental highlights reel and how he has used it during his career to fortify his confidence.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Muffet is an American Basketball coach who led the women’s team at Notre Dame for 33 seasons.
In all she led the team to 9 final fours, 7 championship games and 2 NCAA champion ships in 2001 and 2018.
She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011
and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and Legends of Coaching award in 2017.
Some of the highlights include:
- Her thoughts on empowering young women and doing this through a mixture of listening and encouraging them to use their voice to talk about things that are important to them.
- How believing in people after they fail at something is one of the most important things a leader can do.
- Her view that women are often not taught that it is not OK to be competitive and ambitious, and the work she does to help women understand that it is OK to be like this on the court.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Doug is a former Ice Hockey Head Coach, GM, and sportscaster and he has just written a terrific new book called Draft Day: How Hockey Teams Pick Winners or Get Left Behind.
Doug is a great story teller and some of the highlights of our discussion were;
- The importance of scouting staff, and how in Hockey they have to cover Canada, the USA. And key parts of Europe like Czech, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden, Finland and Russia.
- How he talks about the tension between scouting and analytics, and describes analytics as the salt and pepper you put on your meal.
- The way he talks about trading for the future, not the past.
And the story he tells about his biggest draft mistake and how it ended up costing him personally 30 million.
If you have any comments or feedback you can reach us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Mike Hesson is New Zealand cricket coach.
He started his coaching career in his early 20’s while playing in the UK. From there he progressed through Assistant coaching before accepting a the role as Argentina’s head coach in 2003. He returned to New Zealand and became Head Coach of Otago and leading them to the 2008 one-day trophy and the 2009 T20 championship.
In 2011 he took on the job of Head Coach of Kenya before being appointed the Head Coach of the New Zealand national team, the Black Caps in 2012. He went on to take them from a One-Day international ranking of 8th to 2nd by the time he left the role in 2018. He finished his tenure as one of the most successful coaches I the nations history with highlights including a record breaking 13 game winning streak. He has gone on to coach the Kings in the IPL and Islamabad in the Pakistan Super League.
Some of the highlights include:
- On being comfortable with silence and not feeling like you have to always fill it as a coach with information. But instead using it as a space to observe and gather information so you can be helpful later on.
- The way he uses questions to help lead people, as he believes that the majority of the team the player has the answer they just haven’t been asked the right question.
- The importance of authenticity and in his words “if I want my players to believe in me and trust me and have relationship with me, they need to know that it's actually me rather than me trying to be somebody else.”
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Vern is that rare individual who has coached at the elite level across multiple sports. His foundation is in Track & Field coaching, however over a career that spans almost 50 years he has worked in Major League Soccer, Major League Baseball, the NBA, Cricket, the NHL, Softball, Swimming and with San Francisco Forty Niners. Kansas City Chiefs. He is also the author of 9 books and over 100 articles. By any sense of the definition he is a coaching polymath.
In this terrific interview some of the key highlights were:
- Verns view on The importance of pointing out an athlete’s negative self-talk and working with them on reframing it.
- How he defines mental training as mind plus muscle equals life.
- The importance of rhythm when it comes to analyzing elite performance.
- And How he describes his philosophy of trying to help the best be better. And how he tries to achieve this as a coach by helping prepare the athlete for the path ahead, not preparing the path for them.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Anson is an American soccer coach (in the USA it is referred to as soccer not Football) who is currently the Head Coach of the Womens Team at the University of North Carolina. Under his leadership the team has won 21 of the 31 NCAA Championships. His teams have a winning record of 91%. He has been named the NCAA coach of the year on 8 occasions.
In 1991 he also led the USA team to the first Womens World Cup. The USA have gone on to win the World Cup and 4 occasions and one-third of the players in those teams have come through Ansons team at North Carolina. Another notable alumna from his team is Sarina Weigman who led the UK to the Women's Euro 2022. Anson has firm and challenging philosophies that he has hones over many many years, and listenting to him made me reflect on the way I parent and lead.
In this fantastic interview some of the highlights for me were:
- How coaching men and women the same was a mistake. And his associated learning that women are better at making moral judgements based on how people are affected, and he personally would prefer to be led by someone like that.
- The concept of the competitive cauldron which shapes the culture in his team, and is based on rankings for performance on a multitude of ares at training and in games.
- His fantastic idea that "And if you're a female, and you're competitive, you are excoriated by your own culture, like there's something wrong with you. No, there's nothing wrong with you."
- And How the first step on any leadership journey is learning to lead yourself, and this is where most people fail because it requires action that scares people.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Aimee is an American Gymnastics coach who led the USA Team at the 2016 Rio Olympics. However, she is perhaps best known as the coach of Simone Biles, who she started coaching in 2003 when Simone was just 6. Aimee and Simone were together for 14 World Championship and Olympic Gold medals.
Simone became the first woman ever to win three straight all-around titles and the first gymnast to capture 10 gold medals at the World Championships.
As you’ll hear in this terrific interview, Aimee’s approach to gymnastic coaching breaks with tradition, and is marked by a strong sense of doing what is right for her athletes, many of who are teenagers in elite competitions.
Some of the other key highlights for me were:
- The way she has learnt about tailoring her communication to the many age groups she leads, and how she is never afraid to apologise when she gets it wrong.
- The way she deals with the anxiety that her athletes feel, in search for the perfect 10 in gymnastics
- And The way she helps her athletes control their emotions in competition, by bringing them back to their practice, and not trying to do any more than they do then.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Brendan Joyce.
Brendan played for 13 seasons in the Australian National Basketball League. Upon retiring he transitioned into coaching and led the Ballarat Miners to 2 CBA Championships.
He then went on to coach more than 400 games in the National Basketball League, winning the championship in 2001 with the Wollongong Hawks. He Has coached at 3 Olympics, twice as an Assistant to the Australian men’s team, and once as the Head Coach of the Australian women’s team, with who he also won a bronze medal at the 2014 World Championships. And has twice been voted the NBL coach of the year. He is presently in Taiwan coaching the Kaohsiung Aquas and won the championship with them in 2022, and was subsequently voted coach of the year.
In this terrific interview some of the key highlights were:
- The way he talks about finding the line when it comes to challenging people to the right level, and how your consistency is a good tool in helping you achieve this.
- The need to develop a high level of confidence and self belief as a coach given the criticism you will experience. But also ensuring this doesn’t spill over into arrogance.
- How he encourage his players to find the balance between being aggressive to score, but also doing what they can to make the extra pass.
- And The link between good team chemistry and clarity on roles.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Today’s episode is focuses on the topic of A Second Set of Eyes.
And we are joined for the conversation by Cody Royle. Cody is an author, podcast host and a Coach of elite level sports coaches and he has just written a fantastic book called a second set of eyes.
Some of the highlights from this interview with Cody are:
- The idea of helping the coaches he works with to in his words Coach free, a state where they can intuitively use their innate knowledge and not be distracted in a game situation.
- The idea that Coaching high performance knowledge work and there are things you can di to facilitate a better environment for this work.
- And his own purpose which he describes as wanting to rehumanize coaching
You can find out more about Cody on his website. He is also very active on Twitter.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Mike Thibault is an American Basketball coach.
He started his career as a scout with the LA Lakers in 1978, eventually becoming an Assistant Coach. He was working with the team in 1980 when they won the NBA championship. He then moved to the Chicago Bulls where he worked as a Director of Scouting and Assistant Coach, and was in the room when the Bulls chose Michael Jordan in the draft. He has gone on to work with the Atlanta Hawks, New York Knicks, Seattle SuperSonics, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Connecticut Sun, as well as being part of the basketball staff for the USA women’s team that won the Olympic Gold medal in 2008. He was most recently the Head Coach of the Washington Mystics in the WNBA and led that team to the 2019 championship.
This is a master class of an interview and some of the take aways for me were:
- How honesty is the number attribute that a coach at any level needs. And how as the leader you needed to bring in people to be honest with you.
- How his time working at the LA Lakers when Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar taught him that its never about you as the coach but instead how well the team work together.
- How you priority should be getting better at your current job not looking for your next job, and he talks about how he had to learn this early in his career.
- The importance of emotional control even if it is not something that you are particularly good at.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Today’s episode is on the topic of People Skills, and we are joined for the discussion by Allistair McCaw.
Allistair is that rare person who excels across disciplines and industries. In addition to being an author who has sold over 300,000 books, his podcast ranks in the top 1% in the world, and for the last 25 years he has also consulted and worked with Olympic Gold Marriage, Grand Slam Champions, Fortune 500 companies, NCAA Colleges, and Professional sports teams. And you will hear him mention some of the these in this terrific interview.
Allistair also has a fantastic social media presence.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Noel Donaldson is a rowing coach.
He was a coxswain and competed at the 1979 world championships and then transitioned in to coaching in 1980.
In the 1990 in began coaching Australia’s Oarsome Foursome, who won Olympic Golds in 1992 and 1996 and 5 world championships. He also coached Georgina Douglas to World Championships in 1998 and 1999. In 2013 became the coach of the New Zealand team of Hamish Bond and Eric Murray who also won back to back Olympic Gold medals.
Noel is a serial winning coach whose wisdom transcends sport. Some of the key highlights of the interview are:
- The importance on treating each new campaign as something separate from the last one. And setting goals that are appropriate for that team, not simply reflecting on the past to set future expectations.
- How the ‘Oarsome Foursome’ would go about debriefing after a performance and importantly how they had the ability to switch on and off, which is something that he thinks is lacking a little today with athletes.
- His learning as he has matured as a coach that winning at all costs can cause mental health challenges that end up meaning that winning is only temporary.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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This episode is On Mental Skills and we are joined for the discussion by Aaron Walsh.
Aaron a Mental Skills Coach presently working with the Chiefs Rugby and Scotland Rugby. Aaron has also worked with Hockey New Zealand and New Zealand Football. He also coaches players from the San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks and NY Mets and New Zealand All Blacks. He also coaches corporate leadership teams on creating and maintaining a High Performance working environment.
You can reach him here: linkedin.com/in/aaron-walsh-561690b0
The key parts of the interview were:
- How a key part of developing someones mental skills is reshaping or reframing their relationship to pressure.
- And how he describes his job as a mental skills coach to shrink the gap between someones capability and what they deliver under pressure.
- How a culture is the environment that people experience everyday within the group they belong to.
- Have great coaches and leaders creating social belonging within the team. And to achieve this have what he calls 3C’s connection, consistency and competency.
If you are interested in improving your own leadership and would like to understand what Executive Coaching entails you can contact me on paul@elevatedleadership.com.au or visit our website elevatedleadership.com.au. We work with business exec's, sports coaches and do some pro bono work with emerging leaders.
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Jack is a former rugby union player who represented both the USA and World 15. He has also coached the USA National team the Eagles to 16 Test victories.
He is presently in his 41st year as coach of the University of California bears. IN that times he has led the team to 23 National Collegiate Championships in 15s, and five national titles in 7s
He has also been named a Living Legend by the Pac-12 Network is a member of U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame and Cal Athletics Hall of Fame.
Jack is a master coach with so many hard won insights. Just a few of them that stayed with me afterwards were:
- The way he talks about mental toughness as being the ability to focus on the next most important thing.
- The mindset he tries to bring into his team of grateful for everything entitled for nothing
- And How he views leadership as a skill not a rank.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is John Kessel.
As a volleyball player John participated in 16 U.S. Open Championships and played professionally in Europe.
He started coaching at the Collegiate level in the USA in 1971 and led teams to National titles in 1986 and 1987. He was Team Leader for the 2000 USA Olympic Beach Volleyball Teams in Sydney, which brought home one gold medal, and for the 2004 USA Paralympic Women’s Sitting Volleyball Team in Athens, which came home with the bronze medal.
It as a coach and administrator though where he has had the most profound impact on the game. He worked for over 30 years at Volleyball USA and 20+ years at World ParaVolley.
He is an author of over 12 books, including the IMPACT coaching manual which is now in its 33rd edition. He has been inducted in the Volleyball Coaches Hall of Fame and in 2007 was named a Sport Ethics Fellow by the Institute for International Sport.
John consults to other Olympic Sports, well over 20 in fact, and travels around the world talking about coaching and in particular in the youth space. This was one of those interviews which I would classify as a master class.
Among the many highlights som that resonated with me were:
- His view that the player who knows why they are doing something will beat the player who knows how to do something.
- The power of praise as a coach, and looking for ways to catch people doing the right things and reinforcing those.
- How one part of a coaches job is to help each individual within the team show competency and this does not necessarily have to be connected to skills required within the team, and how this strengthens the group.
- And How he defines success as a coach as never being an athletes last coach.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Alan is a volleyball player and now coach. As a player he was a Collegiate All American and represented the USA Team.
He was an Assistant Coach at his Alma Mater, Long Beach State University in 1996 before taking over as Head Coach in 2000. He has led them to 7 final four appearances and back-to-back NCAA championships in 2018 and 2019.
From 2009 until 2012 he was also the Coach of the USA Men’s team and led them to Gold medal at 3 Continental Championships as well as Gold at the 2012 World League.
Alan is a reflective and thoughtful leader, who manages to couple a program with a strong structure and supportive environment.
Some of the highlights from the interview for me were:
- The way he encourages his team to focus on the message not the tone during in-game communication.
- The importance of not coaching to the last point, but to be able to manage your emotions and look forward.
- The importance of honesty and not using “feelings” when describing selection decisions
- And how he uses Mindset Monday to reset and prepare for the week ahead.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Today’s episode is on the topic of Being Coachable, and we are joined for the discussion by Allistair McCaw, who has just written a terrific new book called Habits that Make a Champion.
Allistair is that rare person who excels across disciplines and industries. In addition to being an author who has sold over 300,000 books, his podcast ranks in the top 1% in the world, and for the last 25 years he has also consulted and worked with Olympic Gold Marriage, Grand Slam Champions, Fortune 500 companies, NCAA Colleges, and Professional sports teams. And you will hear him mention some of the these in this terrific interview.
Allistair also has a fantastic social media presence.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Dan McKellar
Dan is a former professional Rugby Union Player and now coach.
He played more than 150 premier grade games at Souths Rugby Club in Brisbane, Australia winning a premiership with them in 2000.
He started coaching as a Player-Coach at Wicklow in Ireland in 2002, before becoming the Head Coach of his old side Souths Rugby Club in 2008. He then became Head Coach for the Tuggeranong Vikings Rugby in 2011 and won back to back premierships with them.
In 2018 he became Head Coach of the Brumbies in the Super Rugby competition and led them to the 2020 Super Rugby AU premiership.
In 2021 he became as Assistant Coach for the Australian Wallabies and then in 2022 was announced as the head coach for Leicester Tigers.
Dan has a nice balance between the science and art of coaching and in this terrific interview some of the highlights for me included:
- The importance of life-balance and how he has added this to the trademarks he looks for in the coaching group.
- How the time you invest with each individual in an organisation will mean a lot to them, and strengthen their connection to the organisation.
- The importance of self-awareness as a leader, but also having people around you who are will to empower you to learn about leadership through being given opportunities to lead others.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Today’s episode is focuses on the topic of Turning Points and we are joined for the discussion by Dr David Turner.
Dr David Turner is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom, where he is a member of the Cambridge Centre for Sport and Exercise Sciences. He has been a sports coach and an educator for around 40 years. His research interests are centred around expertise and learning in sports coaching and beyond. He is particularly interested in the use of storytelling to derive and represent the wisdom of great coaches, and has an ongoing project of public talks and articles entitled Learning From Legendary Coaches.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Noeline is a former national team player who is currently head coach of the New Zealand national netball team, the Silver Ferns. As player Noeline won a silver medal 1998 Commonwealth Games and a bronze medal at the 1995 Netball World Championships. From 2002 to 2013 she was the Head Coach of Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic leading them to the Championship in 2005, 2006 and 2012. In 2017 and 2018 she coached the Sunshine Coast Lightning to back to back premierships in the Australian Suncorp Super Netball league. Then in 2019 she famously led New Zealand to victory in the World Cup.
Some of the highlights for me were:
- How the great coaches are able to mobilize people and create an environment where people want to keep coming back.
- The importance of having strategic drivers that will drive the vision you have for the club or team,
- The importance of succession planning and proving the right experiences to everyone in the team so that they grow.
- And the story she shares about her daughters experience of not getting on court for the team she plays for, and how this illustrates the way the she approaches learning and helping people reach their potential.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Nick Montgomery is a former professional soccer player and now coach.
As a player he started his career in England most notable playing 349 games for Sheffield United.
In 2012 he moved to Australia and played for the Central Coast Mariners. In 2018 he started as an Assistant coach at the Mariners before being appointed as Head Coach in 2021. In just his second season he led the team to A -league championship where they beat the more fancied and resourced Melbourne City 6-1. And in 2023 was appointed Head Coach at Scottish club Hibernian
Some of the highlight were:
- The way Nick goes about understanding what drives each individual, how this fuels his belief that people can change; and the results he had at the Mariners to prove this.
- How he was able to turn a team with one of the lowest salary budgets into premiers by building on what he calls a siege mentality, coupled with seasoned professionals and young energetic players and his own unshakeable belief.
- And The role that visualization played in the story of their underdog championship.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Today’s episode is focuses on the topic of Mindset and we are joined by Mark Zimmerman to talk about Mindset.
Mark is a Mindset coach and works with sporting teams across Australia and his homeland South Africa. His passion is Rugby and he has great energy
and some of the things he said that resonated with me were:
- How he defines mindset as your mental outlook, and how that either helps or hinders your performance in a professional or just a competitive arena.
- The analogy he uses to explain how your mindset is the software that powers your hardware.
- And The interesting link between the collective mantra a team might use and their mindset.
You can reach Mark at https://otmcoaching.com.au/
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Jeremy Gunn is a former professional soccer player and now Head Coach.
He grew up in England before moving to American for University. There he attended Cal State and was part of their 1992 Championship team and an All American.
He then became an Assistant and Cal State, before becoming a Head Coach at Fort Lewis College. He led that team to 6 Rocky Mountain Championships and the 2006 NCAA division 2 championship. He then moved to the Charlotte 49ers before becoming the Stanford Head Coach in 2011. He has since led the Cardinals to 3 NCAA Championships, as well as 5 straight Pac 12 conference titles.
Some of the key points are:
- How, when coaches hold back on challenging people for fear of over stepping a line they are in fact not helping the athlete become mentally fitter.
- How the line to which you can challenge people changes with each individual, and so when you're a coach, or you're a leader, the big thing is to create agreed upon lines within the group you have, and then maintain standard to those lines
- How he believes that people are a product of their environment. And he sees the role of the coach to create an environment that shapes people towards the outcome that you want.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Today’s episode is focuses on the topic of On being a champion teammate, and we are joined for the conversation by Dr Jerry Lynch and John O’Sullivan.
Dr. Jerry LYNCH received his doctorate in psychology from Penn State University, he is the author of 13 books on coaching, leadership, peak performance, and sports psychology. In the past 30 years alone, he has worked with teams that have been a part of 54 Final Four and 36 National Championship at the collegiate and professional levels.
John O’Sullivan is a former collegiate and professional soccer player and has coached for over 30 years on the youth, high school, and collegiate levels. John has written two bestselling books, he is also the host of one of the world’s top podcasts, The Way of Champions.
Together John and Jerry have written a new book called The Champion Teammate: Timeless Lessons to Connect, Compete and Lead in Sports and Life
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Joe Gallagher .
Joe is a former amateur boxer who started coaching in 1993. He has been involved in over 300 professional fights. 100 title fights and his fighters have won world, European,. British and Commonwealth titles. In 2015 he became the USA Ring Magazine 2015 World Trainer of the year. Then became 2018-19 Boxing News trainer of the year for a second time .
In 2018 Joe set up the Joe Gallagher Academy in Manchester which is backed by England Amateur Boxing which provides Education and boxing courses for 16-18 year olds. In 2019 Joe received award for the work done with the academy at The This Is Manchester Awards ceremony for making a difference in the community.
Some of the highlights are:
- His belief that new blood motivates old blood, and how he brings this to life in the gym.
- The work he does giving back to the community through is academy in Manchester which he says gives him a feeling that “ theres nothing better than’” which is saying something given the world champions he has coached.
- His learning that underdogs meed to have grit, tenacity and desire if they are to succeed.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Today’s episode is on the topic of Strength and Conditioning coaching, and we are joined for the discussion by Dean Benton.
Dean has worked with an amazing number of elite sporting clubs such as RUGBY AUSTRALIA, Japan Rugby and England Rugby, The Rugby league teams: Brisbane, Melbourne, Newcastle and Canberra and the Australian Rules Football teams, Essendon, and Adelaide, as well as the Australian netball team.
He has also written and published extensively on topics related to strength and physical conditioning. He is a true authority on this important element elite level sporting teams.
Dean can be reached through his website: https://www.atletico.com.au/
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us
through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Rhonda Revelle is an American softball coach and former collegiate pitcher
As a player she represented the University of Nebraska and played in the team at the inaugural Women's College World Series. She transitioned into coaching in 1986 and in 1993 became the Head Coach of her alma mater. She has gone on to record over 1000 career wins across her 31 years as a coach including, 3× Big 12 Conference Tournament wins and one Big Ten Tournament victory. She has also led the team to the NCAA tournament on 20 occasions and 3 times to the Women’s College World Series.
Rhonda is a leader with a deep sense of self and connectedness. In this insightful interview some of the highlights for me were:
- The 3 questions she asks herself everyday: have I helped someone today? Have I worked to make deep connections today? in my responses to others today, did I choose love? But also, how these questions have changed since her coaching style was very publically challenged.
- The story she shares about the work the team did on Feedback routines, and how they role played having difficult conversations, so they were more prepared for them when they occurred.
- And Her view that leadership is dealing with shades of gray, and how she works with the teams leadership group to help them develop their decision making skills in this area.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Today’s episode is something a little different, we are joined by Samantha Rockey to look at the ways psychology, teams and high-performance overlap.
Sam has just co-authored the book: The Social Brain: The Psychology of successful groups.
She is an Associate fellow at the Oxford University said Business school, is one of the co-founds of the consultancy Thompson Harrison, and also co-hosts one of my favourite podcasts, Ghost Lights.
Some of the highlights from the interview are Sam's thoughts that:
- Its through team membership and in particular the teams leader that people experience the culture of the organisations they belong to.
- How the focus of leaders should be to create other leaders so that they can create a ripple effect throughout the organisation.
- The research that says 60% to 70% of people are stressed because of the behaviour of their superiors. And the implications of this for you as a leader.
- And The importance of disrupting your teams by bringing in ideas and stimulus from outside, and making sure that the membership is diverse.
Samantha can be reached here.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Don Showalter.
Don is a basketball coach who over 32 years coached in High Schools in America, in that time he led teams to 601 wins 8 conference titles and 11 district championships.
In 1998 he served as head coach of the youth USA Team at the 1998 Nike Hoop Summit. Then in 2001 he became chair of the USA Basketball Cadet and Youth Committee.
He was then appointed coach of the USA under 16 and under 17 teams, and led those teams to 10 Gold medals at 62 straight victories.
He is considered one of the best youth basketball coaches of all time and has lectured all over the world.
He also has a new book called Cornfields to Gold medals.
Some of the highlights from our discussion were:
- The communication circle his teams use to finish training where they hold hands and focusing on connecting with each other.
- The importance of quote being where your feet are end quote as you cant be a coach 24/7.
- And How he mentors the way he was, and that means not telling people what to do, but laying out the facts for them so they can make their own decisions.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Tom Reeves.
Tom is a rodeo rider who won the USA National High School championship twice. Then from 1985 as a pro rider, he qualified for his first National Rodeo finals, going on to win the event in 2001. He was captain of the 2002 of the USA team for the 2002 Olympic Command Performance Rodeo where they won a silver medal. He retired in 2005, and took up coaching and led Ranger College to the men's Rodeo championship in 2007, a fact even more impressive given that the team had been in hiatus for the 23 years prior.
He is a two times winner of ProRodeo Hall of Fame Mentoring Award and in 2009 was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame. He has also founded the Wild Horses Building Champions charity whose focus is the prevention of suicide and drug abuse for local youths through equine therapy
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
10 Great Coaches reflect on their lessons on starting with new teams and organisations.
These insights will help you prioritise the key tasks when starting with a new team.
Key Terms
•Leading new teams
•First tasks
•Taking over successful teams
if you would like to listen to the rest of this podcast you can access it here: Starting with New Teams
Our Great Coach on this episode is Matt Thornton.
Matt is a Brazilian Ju Jitsu coach, who has coached some of the greatest Mixed Martial Arts fighters in the world.
He is the founder of the Straight Blast Gym, where he has developed cross training in several martial arts as well as boxing and wrestling.
The gym now has over 50 affiliate academies located around the world.
Fighters he has coached include Randy Couture, Forrest Griffin, and Dan Henderson while he has also helped develop the careers of coaches like John Kavanagh and Karl Tanswell.
He is also a guest lecturer on philosophy and has recently published a book called The Gift of Violence: Practical Knowledge for Surviving and Thriving in a Dangerous World.
In this philosophical and insightful interview some of the highlights for me were:
•His core philosophy of Aliveness, which emphasizes training on timing, energy and motion through competing to deliver repeated experiments.
•The idea that you can't acquire meaningful skill in Brazilian Ju Jitsu without submitting 1000’s of times. And through this approach to testing and learning through failure you achieve progress
•And his belief that "frustration in the moment is almost always a useless emotion. So you run into a problem in a fight, or you run into a problem in a match. That's something that we're here to solve. That's a puzzle that will admit to a solution."
Here is the link to Matt's new book: https://amzn.asia/d/asci4hF
If you enjoy listening to the podcast and would like to learn more, you can head over to our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Jeff Traylor is an American Football coach.
Jeff started his coaching career in 1989 as a High School Assistant coach. He would eventually return to be the Head Coach at his own High School. Gilmer High and would go on to lead the team to 3 state titles. His impact at the school was so profound that they would eventually name the stadium after him.
He then took assistant positions at University of Texas, Southern Methodist University, and the University of Arkansas before being appointed as Head Coach at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) in 2020. In his first year he led them to the best start in the school’s history for a season, winning their first eleven regular season games. They went on to win their first conference championship, a feat they achieved again in 2022.
This is one of our favourite interviews we have ever done. Jeff has great authenticity, and some unique ideas around building culture.
Some of the highlights were:
How the great coaches are self aware enough to know where they are great and where they are. Not. And they hire people to take the place of where they’re weak.
The wonderful way he started with his new team and won their confidence by listening and working with their ideas on how to improve the team.
How is history as a teacher and coach has taught him about the power of hands on learning
And How he tries to fire himself from his jobs and hand the responsibility over to his support staff.
If you enjoy listening to the podcast and would like to learn more, you can head over to our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com; where we offer exclusive video and podcast content for subscribers that is taken from the more than 150 interviews, we have done with some of the world great coaches. The content is downloadable, sharable, and designed to start a conversation around the dinner table, locker room or boardroom table.
We also have a newsletter that features information on our latest podcasts, leadership insights from our guests, recommendations they have on books or other media, as well as information on how you can engage with other people who listen on zoom sessions to discuss topics like Culture, Behaviours or starting with new teams.
You can sign up for that as well as access all the other content we have at our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Today’s episode is on the topic of High Functioning Teams and we are joined for the discussion with one our past guests the Great Coach Hugh McCutcheon who has just written a book called Championship Behaviours
Hugh led the USA men's team to an Olympic Gold in 2008 and the USA women in 2012 and is presently an Assistant Athletics Director at the University of Minnesota
If you are want to improve your own leadership skills, then you can reach Paul and another member of the team Grant, at Elevated Leadership where we coach you towards the leader you aspire to be.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at feedback@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Peter Eriksson .
Peter is an Athletics coach who was formerly the head coach of the Olympic and Paralympic programs for both British Athletics and Athletics Canada.
He started coaching in the early 80’s after a reaching the world championships as a Speed Skater for his native Sweden.
Under his leadership as Performance Director and Head Coach, the nations that he has worked with has generated over 240 medals at major International Competitions.
He is also the most successful Canadian Athletics coach in modern history.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at feedback@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Gareth Taylor.
Gareth played as a professional football player for 18 seasons, playing for Bristol Rovers, Crystal Palace, Manchester City, Burnley and Nottingham Forest among others teams.
He retired in 2011 and started coaching youth teams at Manchester City. After 8 years in the City Academy, he was appointed Head Coach of the Women’s team and led them to a FA Cup title in 2020 and the League Cup title in 2022.
Some of the key highlights of the interview for me were:
How he defines his purpose on this planet as helping people; and how understanding this has helped him focus his energies and life.
The importance of their review process, which they complete using a multi-disciplinary team, in order to drive improved performance on the pitch.
And the importance of risk taking in the culture at Man City and how he goes about empowering people to do this.
If you enjoy listening to the podcast and would like to learn more, you can head over to our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com.
Today’s episode is on the topic of Habits, and we are joined for the discussion by Allistair McCaw, who has just written a terrific new book called Habits that Make a Champion.
Allistair is that rare person who excels across disciplines and industries. In addition to being an author who has sold over 300,000 books, his podcast ranks in the top 1% in the world, and for the last 25 years he has also consulted and worked with Olympic Gold Marriage, Grand Slam Champions, Fortune 500 companies, NCAA Colleges, and Professional sports teams. And you will hear him mention some of the these in this terrific interview.
Allistair also has a fantastic social media presence.
Just a quick message from me to say that if you are want to improve your own leadership skills, then you can reach me and another member of the team Grant, at elevatedleadership.com.au where we coach you towards the leader you aspire to be.
thegreatcoachespodcast.com.au
Our Great Coach on this episode is Doug Maclean.
Doug is a former Ice Hockey Head Coach, GM, and sportscaster.
His coaching career started in his hometown of Summerside in 1977 with High School teams. By 1990 he had his first professional job leading the Baltimore Skipjacks.
A successful stint there, saw him move to the Detroit Red Wings as an assistant coach, and ultimately to the Head Coach role at the Florida Panthers in 1995. In his first season he led them to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
In ‘98 he moved to the Columbus Bluejackets as the GM and commenced the second phase of his career. Then in 2008 he rounded out his career in professional hockey by moving into broadcasting.
Doug is a great story teller and some of the highlights of our discussion were;
• How one of the most rewarding experiences of his life was starting a franchise from scratch.
• His view on being direct and that you can never be too honest, even though he once made a NHL player cry.
• And , how in a healthy team culture, players want to get to practice and they care about doing their bit for the group.
This was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
And just before we go to the interview if you enjoy listening to the podcast and would like to learn more, you can head over to our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com.
In this podcast we discuss the Mens and Womens Ashes with Michelle Goszko and John Buchanan and in particular the way Leadership has influenced both teams. You can learn more at our websitethegreatcoachespodcast.com
This podcast is on the topic of Competitive excellence, and we are joined for the discussion with one our past guests the Great Coach Hugh McCutcheon who has just written a book called Championship Behaviours.
Hugh played Volleyball for New Zealand national Junior and Senior teams before transitioning into coaching. In 2005 he was appointed as Head Coach of the USA mens team who went to win the Gold medal at the 2008 Olympics. Then in 2008 he was appointed coach of the USA women’s team, and led them to a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics.
Some of the key highlights of our discussion are:
How a focus on competitive excellence helps you build a life of achievement, and not solely a focus on the winning achievements.
His core philosophy of preparing your self to be at your best when the best is needed.
And How you honour your commitment to your own life by trying to the best you can be, and this requires you to look being just performing better than your competitors. Instead it requires you to use use your competitors to improve your own performance.
And just before we go to the interview, if you are looking to improve your own leadership skills, then you can reach us at elevatedleadership.com.au, where we coach you towards the leader you aspire to be.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at feedback@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is rowing’s, Paul Thompson.
Paul started coaching in his early 20’s when a hand injury impacted his ability to compete as a rower.
He’s coached at the last 8 Olympic Games leading teams from Australia, Britain and China, and at each of these games his teams have won medals.
He coached the team of Kate Slatter and Megan Still to Australia's first women's Olympic rowing gold at Atlanta 1996.
In 2004, he became Great Britain's head coach for the Women and Lightweights squad, and has led the team to win 45 medals at the World Championships including 17 gold medals. While over the Beijing, London and Rio Olympics, the squad won 11 medals including 5 gold.
Then at 2021 Tokyo Olympics he led the Chinese women’s quad to Gold.
He has also authored 2 books on Rowing and in 2013 was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).
Paul is the type of person who you feel instantly at ease with. The long arc of his career has given him deep experience with the high and lows of life in elite sport and human endeavor, and this shines through in the way he talks about life and leadership.
This interview was a special one for us and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
This podcast is on the topic of Energy amd we are joined for the discussion by Dr Gavin Weeks.
Gavin is a Doctor of Psychology, an Associate Fellow at Oxford Said Business School and a Partner at the consultancy Thompson Harrison.
Gavin can be reached through his company's website: https://www.thompsonharrison.com/
You can reach us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or through our website https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Ben Davison.
Ben is British boxing coach.
At just 29 years of age, he is an outlier in the world of Boxing coaches, who have often toil away for decades before experiencing the type of success Ben has enjoyed.
In 2017 he joined up with Tyson Fury and helped him return to the ring and set out on the journey that would ultimately see him claim the WBC Heavyweight championship.
Ben has gone on to work with other world champions including Billy Joe Saunders the undisputed world champions Josh Taylor, Devin Haney, and Leigh Wood.
Some of the highlights from the interview include:
How his ability to view each flight as if it is a blank canvas, more than makes up for his lack of experience as an actual boxer.
How he tries to look beyond the movement of the fighters to understand their decision making.
How he drives himself to match the commitment that that drives the physical, emotional and mental preparation of his fighters.
And the importance of managing your ego so that you don’t take unnecessary risk in the ring.
And just before we go to the interview if you enjoy listening to the podcast and would like to learn more, you can head over to our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com.
In this podcast we discuss the 3rd Ashes Test and in particual the way that Belief and Doubt shape performance. You can learn more at our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Mike is a renowned basketball coach who is has led teams in US College, the NBA and in Australia.
He started as a College Assistant in 1980 before becoming the Head Coach of Cal Lutheran in 1989. In 1994 he moved to Australia and led the Adelaide 36ers in the |National League before returning to the USA in 1997 to lead Metro State. That team went on to win National Championships in 2000 and 2002.
In 2006 he went to the NBA for the first time as an Assistant at Denver, before returning to University of Arizona as Head Coach. In 2011 he was chosen by Michal Jordan to lead the Charlotte Bobcats in the NBA.
Then in 2020, Mike returned to the NBA as an Assistant Coach with Milwaukee Bucks and was with them then they defeated the Phoenix Suns to win their first NBA Championship in 2021.
In this terrific interview some of the key highlights were:
• The importance of a leader balancing inclusivity with also moving to a position of clarity where they can see broadly and make decisions for the benefit of the group.
• His belief that the word perfection is dangerous because it is so volatile, and that the quest for perfect practice just makes people miserable.
• How vulnerability is endearing to the people you lead.
• And the wonderful quote he shares, that a master teacher knows the outcome before she or he starts, the good teacher kind of knows the outcome.
And just before we go to the interview if you enjoy listening to the podcast and would like to learn more, you can head over to our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com.
There you will find more video and podcast content taken from the 150+ interviews, we have done with some of the world great coaches.
You will also find our Insight Database, where we have snipped out insights from the videos of our interviews on leadership topics like culture, communication, and conflict. You can search through by key word, sport or coach, download, and share them. We will be adding to it regularly as we interview more Great Coaches from around the world.
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For today’s podcast we have caught up with Australian cricket coach John Buchanan to get his views on the first 2 of the Ashes Tests.
If you would like to learn more, visit our website: https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/ where we have exclusive content that can be searched by sport, coach or topic area, for example culture, communication or mental skills.
Sign up to our newsletter by clicking here or from our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com. This episode focuses on how Coaches refresh their message by using the Voice of other people.
It also introduces our new Insight Database where you can find thousands of video insights from The Great Coaches on topics like Culture, Communication and Conflict that can be filtered by, key word, sport or coach and then downloaded and shared.
You can learn more at thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Today’s episode is focuses on the topic of Legacy.
We are joined for the conversation by James Kerr the author of the book, Legacy: What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life
James’ book is one of the most referenced by our interview guests, it has over 4000 5 star review on Amazon UK alone.
He is a consultant to some of the world’s top sporting and business organisations. And in this interview, he takes us inside his work with these groups and how they go about unlocking high performance.
Some of his ideas that resonated deeply with us were:
His belief that people will rise to a challenge if it's their challenge, and the quite amazing story he shares to illustrate this about Leicester winning the FA cup in England.
His view that the story you tell yourself becomes the story that others end up telling about you. And how you can use to set up a team culture.
And How the culture at the All Blacks New Zealand Rugby team is about stabbing people in the belly not the back.
This is the type of fireside chat that stays with you for a long, long time afterwards.
If you enjoy listening to the podcast and would like to learn more, you can head over to our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com.
There you will find more video and podcast content taken from the 150+ interviews, we have done with some of the world great coaches.
You will also find our Insight Database, where we have snipped out insights from the videos of our interviews on leadership topics like culture, communication, and conflict. You can search through by keyword, sport or coach, download, and share them. We will be adding to it regularly as we interview more Great Coaches from around the world.
We also have a newsletter that features information on our latest podcasts, leadership insights from our guests, recommendations they have on books, article or other media, as well as information on how you can engage with other people who listen to the podcasts in our live events.
Our Great Coach on this episode is Andrea Anastasi.
Andrea played volleyball for Italy 141 times, and was part of the team that won the 1990 World Championship.
He transitioned in to coaching in 1994, and in 1999 led the Italian team to gold medals at 2 European Championships, the World League, as well as a Bronze at the 2000 Olympics.
In 2007 he took over the Spanish National team and famously led them to the 2007 European Championship.
He then moved on to coach the Polish national team and in 2011 led the team to their first ever medal in the World League.
He has also coached teams to National Championships in Italy and Poland, and is presently the head coach of the Belgian National Team.
Andrea is a coach with a global perspective and as you will hear in this interview speaks multiple languages that allows him to communicate with his very international teams.
What I found most interesting, and unique, in this interview was the process Andrea goes through when he joins a new team in a new country.
I think anyone who is moving in to a new culture in either a team or new company will find this interesting and helpful.
I also enjoyed the way Andrea talks about using body language to communicate across cultures and again I think this applicable for anyone who is communicating across age or demographic groups.
And finally, the importance he places on listening when it comes to effective leadership.
Andrea was both a champion player and coach, and this combined with his empathetic style made for a terrific interview.
Here at the great coaches podcast we’re working to create one of the world’s best leadership libraries from the lessons our interview guests share with us. You can help support our project, get exclusive content and early access to the Great Coaches Collection by joining our Patreon community.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or us using any of the links by CLICKING HERE
Our Great Coach on this episode is Cheryl Reeve.
Cheryl is a Basketball head coach and general manager for the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA.
She has led the team to championships in 2011,2013, 2015 and 2017. She is one of only 2 coaches in the WNBA history to have a winning % over 60 in regular season games. In addition she has the highest winning % of any coach in the WNBA postseason.
She has also been an Assistant coach for Team USA at the 2016 and 2021 Olympic Games helping them to Gold Medals, and in 2022 was appointed Head Coach of the team that then went on to win the World Championship.
This was a terrific conversation, although a little short as Cheryl was pressed for time, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Here at the great coaches podcast we we’re working to create one of the world’s best leadership libraries from the lessons our interview guests share with us.
You can help support our project and get access to the Leadership Lessons Episodes where we collate insight and wisdom from the Great Coaches on key topics like Culture, Vision or Behaviours as well as other exclusive content by joining our Patreon community.
Join our Patreon community and help us build one of the worlds great leadership libraries at www.patreon.com/GreatCoaches
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Today’s episode is on the topic of Championship Behaviours, and we are joined for the discussion with one our past guests the Great CoachHugh McCutcheon who has just written a book called Championship Behaviours.
Hugh played Volleyball for New Zealand national Junior and Senior teams before transitioning into coaching.
In 2005 he was appointed as Head Coach of the USA men's team who went to win the Gold medal at the 2008 Olympics.
Then in 2008 he was appointed coach of the USA women’s team, and led them to a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics.
He is presently the Assistant Athletics Director at the University of Minnesota.
Join our Patreon community and help us build one of the worlds great leadership libraries at www.patreon.com/GreatCoaches
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Malcolm Blight.
Malcolm is a former Australian Rules Football player and coach, who is the only person in the game’s history to win the Brownlow, Magarey, and Coleman medals.
As a coach he has led multiple teams, notably winning back-to-back premierships with Adelaide in 1997 and 1998.
He was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996 and was elevated to Legend status in 2017
Interviewing Malcolm was a great highlight for us, he was one of the people we wrote on our dream list when we started the podcast.
This was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as we did.
Here at the great coaches podcast we we’re working to create one of the world’s best leadership libraries from the lessons our interview guests share with us.
You can help support our project and get access to the Leadership Lessons Episodes where we collate insight and wisdom from the Great Coaches on key topics like Culture, Vision or Behaviours as well as other exclusive content by joining our Patreon community. All the details on how you can be part of this journey are in the show notes.
And now please enjoy our interview with Malcolm Blight.
Join our Patreon community and help us build one of the worlds great leadership libraries at www.patreon.com/GreatCoaches
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Todays episode is on the topic of Feedback, and it features audio quotes from 14 coaches that we have interviewed on the podcast.
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If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Mike Candrea.
Mike is a Softball coach who after 36 years leading the University of Arizona has retired as one of the most respected coaches of Any sport in the USA.
He is the all-time winningest coach in college softball history and ranked fourth of any coach in any NCAA sport with 1,674 wins.
His teams have won 8 Women's College World Series and 11× Pac 12 or 10 Regular Season titles.
In addition, he led Team USA to 2004 Olympic Gold medal and the 2008 silver medal.
And In 2017 he was inducted into the USA Softball Hall of Fame
Mike is a wise and generous person who openly shares the many lessons he has taken from the extreme highs and lows he has experienced in his life.
Here at the great coaches podcast we we’re working to create one of the world’s best leadership libraries from the lessons our interview guests share with us.
You can help support our project and get access to the Leadership Lessons Episodes where we collate insight and wisdom from the Great Coaches on key topics like Culture, Vision or Behaviours by joining our Patreon community. All the details on how you can be part of this journey are in the show notes.
Join our Patreon community and help us build one of the worlds great leadership libraries at www.patreon.com/GreatCoaches
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Natasha Adair.
Natasha is a former All American High School player and now Head Coach.
Following a successful playing career, she transitioned into coaching and spent 14 years as an Assistant before becoming a Head Coach for the first time with the College of Charleston in 2012. From there she moved to Georgetown where she turned around the program and earned a WNIT invitation.
She then moved to Delaware where she led the team to three Colonial Athletic Association titles and their first NCAA Tournament appearance in nearly a decade.
In 2022 she was announced as the new coach for Arizona State who compete in the Pac 12.
She has also served as an Assistant coach for gold medal winning USA Youth teams at World Cups.
Natasha is an articulate and deeply committed coach who in her words is more focused on the living trophies in her care as opposed to the Big trophies they are pursuing.
Here at the great coaches podcast we’re working to create one of the world’s best leadership libraries from the lessons our interview guests share with us. You can help support our project, get exclusive content and early access to the Great Coaches Collection by joining our Patreon community.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or us using any of the links by CLICKING HERE
Our Great Coach on this episode is Ricky Stuart
Ricky is a former Rugby League player who won 3 premierships with the Canberra Raiders as well as presenting both New South Wales and Australia.
As a Coach he has led Australia, the NSW State of Origin Team, the Sydney Roosters who he led to a Premiership in 2002, and is now the Head Coach of his beloved Canberra Raiders.
Ricky as had a long and celebrated career which includes being the only person to win the Dally M Player of the Year award and the Daly M Coach of the Year award.
He has also started the Ricky Stuart Foundation to help both families and people living with Autism.
Ricky is a passionate and principled leader who balances the ability to be honest and forthright, but at the same time exhibit the type of deep care that helps builds character and changes lives.
Here at the great coaches podcast we’re working to create one of the world’s best leadership libraries from the lessons our interview guests share with us. You can help support our project, get exclusive content and early access to the Great Coaches Collection by joining our Patreon community.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or us using any of the links by CLICKING HERE
Gary Kirsten is that rare breed of person who has been able to reach the pinnacle of his sport as both an athlete and coach, and this lends his story an added layer of credibility, whether it is talking about the deficit of mental skills he experienced as a batsman, or the importance of understanding what the environment requires of you as a leader.
Here he speaks to us on how the worlds top performers mange the anxiety gap between their performance and their actual capability.
You can listen to more from Gary Kirsten and many other Great Coaches from our show links by CLICKING HERE
Tricia Cullop is the Head Coach at Toledo WBBB, she recently led the Rockets to their fourth MAC regular-season championship and a second MAC tournament championship. In 2022, she received the Carol Eckman Award for coaching integrity in women's college basketball.
In our discussions she speaks to us on the importance of hiring the right people.
You can listen to more from Tricia Cullop and many other Great Coaches from our show links by CLICKING HERE
Nancy Lieberman talks about learning from Muhammed Ali about the importance of Love & Kindness.
Muhammad Ali is one of the greatest athletes in history, but he also had an incredible sense of compassion and love for others. He believed that we all have a purpose in this world, and that we need to be kind to others so they can be kind back to us.
You can listen to our full discussion with Nancy along with many Great Coaches from our show links by CLICKING HERE
Eddie Reese is a coaching giant in the swimming world, he speaks with such deep wisdom and humility. Here he talks about the importance of saying positive things everyday.
You can listen to our full discussion with Eddie along with many Great Coaches from our show links by CLICKING HERE
In 2015 Billy Walsh was appointed Head Coach of USA Boxing, and was charged with returning the program to its prior glory.
In our discussion you will hear him speak about how a focus on Mental Health helped him improve as a Head Coach.
You can listen to our full discussion with Billy along with many Great Coaches from our show links by CLICKING HERE
Dr. David Parkin is an iconic coach, with the type of deep-seated wisdom that only comes from experiencing both the highs and lows of elite sport and life.
Here he speaks about the importance of having mentors, or as he calls them, critical friends, who can give you the direct, feedback that you need.
You can listen to more from David Parkin and many other Great Coaches on the topic of Mentors from our show links by CLICKING HERE
Bob Bowman is an American swimming coach, four-time member of the U.S. Olympic Team coaching staff and has guided swimmers to 38 Olympic medals, as well as 43 World Records ... so far !! However he is best known as being the coach of the 23-time Olympic gold medalist American swimmer, Michael Phelps
Bob discusses with us about taking risks in order to get better.
You can listen to our discussion with Bob or any of our other Great Coaches from our show links by CLICKING HERE
Former Australian Men's Cricket Head Coach, Justin Langer speaks about the most powerful form of leadership.
Great insight to share around the dinner table.
You can listen to more from Justin Langer and many other Great Coaches on the topic of Mentors from our show links by CLICKING HERE
Tricia Cullop is the Head Coach at Toledo WBBB, she recently led the Rockets to their fourth MAC regular-season championship and a second MAC tournament championship. In 2022, she received the Carol Eckman Award for coaching integrity in women's college basketball.
In our discussions she speaks to us on the importance of mentors who are not afraid to tell us we’re crazy.
You can listen to more from Tricia Cullop and many other Great Coaches on the topic of Mentors from our show links by CLICKING HERE
Todays episode is on the topic of Mentors, and it features audio quotes from 11 coaches that we have interviewed on the podcast.
Here at the great coaches podcast we’re working to create one of the world’s best leadership libraries from the lessons our interview guests share with us. You can help support our project, get exclusive content and early access to the Great Coaches Collection by joining our Patreon community.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or us using any of the links by CLICKING HERE
Our Great Coach on this episode is Tricia Cullop.
Tricia is a former basketball player and now coach. As a player, she was a High School All-American in 1989, and at Purdue University was part of the team that that won the school’s first ever Big Ten championship in 1991.
After stints as an Assistant coach at Radford, Long Beach State, and Xavier, she was appointed Head Coach of the University of Toledo women's basketball team in 2008. She has led Toledo to three MAC regular-season championships and one MAC tournament championship. She was named MAC coach of the Year in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2022. And also in 2022, was the Carol Eckman Award winner, for coaching integrity in women's college basketball.
Tricia has a passion for coaching in a way that builds a deeper connection not only within her team but across the community it represents. This really was a terrific interview, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Here at the great coaches podcast we’re working to create one of the world’s best leadership libraries from the lessons our interview guests share with us. You can help support our project, get exclusive content and early access to the Great Coaches Collection by joining our Patreon community. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or us using any of the links by CLICKING HERE
In celebration of International Women’s Day we decided to do an episode that features some of the Great Female Coaches that we have interviewed talking about Empowerment.
A topic that so many of our guests talk about in the context of preparing women, for the choices that they will either make for themselves or influence in others.
We chose this as a topic as it is one that frequently comes up around our dinner tables; whether discussing the groups assigned in school sports classes, society’s views around clothing or the roles that we all play at home and work.
It's also a topic that comes up around boardroom or meeting room tables that we sit and work at.
We both have daughters, and so putting this episode together gave us chance to reflect on what we are learning as parents, podcasts hosts; managers and leaders ourselves about this topic. and we hope you enjoy it and get the same sense of reflection that we did.
Here at the great coaches podcast we're working to create one of the world's best leadership libraries from the lessons our interview guests share with us. You can help support our project, get exclusive content, and early access to the Great Coaches Collection by joining our Patreon community.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or us using any of the links by CLICKING HERE
Our Great Coach on this episode is Nancy Lieberman.
Nancy is that rare individual who has had both a successful playing and coaching career. And her career highlights are so many that this introduction is a long one!
She grew up in Queens in New York, learning to play basketball on the courts of Harlem and then as a High School senior she represented the USA at the Olympics and won a silver medal.
From 1976 to 1980, she attended Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and played on the team that won 2 National Championships.
In 1980 she was selected with the first pick in the Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL) draft by the Dallas Diamonds. Then in 1981, she played for the Los Angeles Lakers Mens Summer Pro League team under the future hall of famer Pat Riley. In 1986 she signed with the Springfield Fame of the men's professional United States Basketball League. Later, she toured with the Washington Generals, who served as the regular opponent of the Harlem Globetrotters.
In the newly formed WNBA's inaugural year in 1997, she played for the Phoenix Mercury and At the age of 39, she was the WNBA's oldest player
She transitioned in to coaching in 1998 as the Head Coach of the WNBA team the Detroit Shock.
In 2009, she then became the coach of the Texas Legends in the NBA Development League, an affiliate of the Dallas Mavericks, thus becoming the first woman to coach a professional men's basketball team..
In 2015, she was hired by the Sacramento Kings as an assistant coach, becoming the second female assistant coach in NBA history.
And then in 2018 she was hired as the Head Coach of the Power in the Big3 league and led the team to the championship in her first year.
We were very lucky to get this interview with Nancy, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Here at the great coaches podcast we’re working to create one of the world’s best leadership libraries from the lessons our interview guests share with us. You can help support our project, get exclusive content and early access to the Great Coaches Collection by joining our Patreon community.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or us using any of the links by CLICKING HERE
Our Great Coach on this episode is Eddie Reese.
Eddie is an American swimming coach.
As a swimmer he was the first Florida University swimmer to win five SEC individual titles in a single season.
He transitioned into coaching in 1965 and became a Head Coach for the first time in 1972.
In 1978 he became Head Coach at the University of Texas and has gone on to win 15 NCAA championships, and 41 consecutive conference titles.
He was also the Head Coach of the USA swimming team at the 1992, 2004 and 2008 Olympics. And has coached a total of 29 Olympians who have collected 39 gold medals, 16 silver medals and eight bronze medals
He is considered the greatest swimming coach in the history of the sport and at 81 years of age is still actively coaching.
This was a great conversation, with a true giant in the swimming world and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Here at the great coaches podcast we’re working to create one of the world’s best leadership libraries from the lessons our interview guests share with us. You can help support our project, get exclusive content and early access to the Great Coaches Collection by joining our Patreon community.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or us using any of the links by CLICKING HERE
Our Great Coach on this episode is the legendary Celtic Football Club coach Jock Stein.
Jock was a Scottish football player and manager.
As a player he also represented Celtic, and was part of their side that won the Scottish league and Scottish Cup double in 1954.
He retired in 1957 and began his career as a Coach, or as said in Football a Manager, in 1960. In 1965 he returned to Celtic as manager and over 13 years led them to ten Scottish league championships including 9 in succession, eight Scottish Cups and six Scottish League Cups.
However, he is most famous as the first manager of any side from Great Britain to win the European Cup, with Celtic in 1967.
He then went on to manage the Scottish national team from 1978 until his death in 1985.
Unfortunately, Jock Stein died on the pitch on September 10th 1985. Scotland were playing Wales in a World Cup qualifier and with the score 1-1, Jock collapsed on the sidelines and was pronounced dead soon afterwards in the stadiums medical room.
There is not a lot of recorded footage of Jock, and in what there is he does not talk a lot about himself.
But in this podcast, we have tried to recreate an interview with Jock about his coaching and leadership style using his own words as read by an actor.
We used multiple books and sources to find the words you will hear:
Celtic: Pride and Passion by Jim Craig and Pat Woods
Jock Stein: The Celtic Years by Tom Campbell , David Potter, et al.
Celtic: The Official History by Brian Wilson
Jock Stein: The Definitive Biography by Archie Macpherson
Here at the great coaches podcast we're working to create one of the world's best leadership libraries from the lessons our interview guests share with us. You can help support our project, get exclusive content, and early access to the Great Coaches Collection by joining our Patreon community.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or us using any of the links by CLICKING HERE
Our Great Coach on this episode is Bob Bowman.
Bob is an American swimming coach, who is a four-time member of the U.S. Olympic Team staff, including being the Head Coach of the Men’s team at the 2016 Rio Olympics. He has so far guided swimmers to 38 Olympic medals, as well as 43 World Records.
Bob is presently the coach of the swim and dive team at Arizona State University. However he is best known as being the coach of the 23-time Olympic gold medalist American swimmer, Michael Phelps.
Bob has great energy, he is fun and engaging and brings a wide array of ideas from the world of music and books to his coaching.
This was a great conversation, with a coach who has worked side by side with the greatest ever Olympian, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Here at the great coaches podcast we’re working to create one of the world’s best leadership libraries from the lessons our interview guests share with us. You can help support our project, get exclusive content and early access to the Great Coaches Collection by joining our Patreon community.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or us using any of the links by CLICKING HERE
Our Great Coach on this 'best of' episode is Billy Walsh.
Billy is the current head coach of the USA Boxing team. He started boxing at age seven in a Christian Brothers gym in Wexford Ireland. He went on to win seven Irish Senior titles, participated in European and World Championships and represented his country as a welterweight in the 1988 Olympics.
He then transitioned into coaching and was appointed Irish Head Coach in 2003. He was the head coach for 12 years and from 2008 to 2014 the team won 7 Olympic medals, at that point it was 25% of all Olympic medals Ireland has ever won.
In 2015 and again in 2016 he won the Amateur International Boxing Associations World Coach of the Year.
In 2015 he was appointed head coach of USA Boxing, and was charged with returning the program to its prior glory. So far this century only 1 male and 1 female boxer has won gold at the Olympics this century, despite the fact that American boxing is the most decorated program in Olympic history and produced champions like Cassius Clay, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Leonard, Spinks, and Oscar De La Hoya.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
You can find more of our Great Coaches content or follow us on your favourite social media platforms by CLICKING HERE
Today’s episode is something a little different, Grant and Paul are joined by Dr. Gavin Weeks to discuss Purpose.
Gavin is a Doctor of Psychology, an Associate Fellow at Oxford Said Business School and a Partner at the consultancy Thompson Harrison. And why is it a little different? Because today in our conversation, we discuss the overlap between coaching, the corporate world and psychology when it comes to the topic of Purpose; a topic that is gaining significant attention and discussion in all of these spheres are present.
And as this is something new, please let us know how you feel about it. You can reach us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or through our website https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/
Gavin can be reached through his company's website: https://www.thompsonharrison.com/
You can find more of our Great Coaches content or follow us on your favourite social media platforms by CLICKING HERE
Our Great Coach on this 'best of' episode is Sue Enquist.
Sue played softball at UCLA from 1975 to 1978. She was a part of the team that won the 1978 Women's College World Series and became UCLA's first All-American softball player.
In 1980 she transitioned into coaching and retired with a career winning percentage of 83. As a coach her teams won 10 national championships, and produced 65 All-Americans and 15 Olympians.
She was also a coach for 1996 Olympic Gold medal winning team.
In 2008 she was inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame
Sue is a coach who believes in the type of transformational leadership where, in her words, you are more collaborative, truthful and positive in developing skills. She believes that when people feel safe they will go for it when it comes to courage, and that your role as a coach is to be the eyes of the athletes development, and feed them with what she is seeing in their progress.
She is also highly articulate, passionate and a firm believer in the importance of curiosity as a leader to ensure that your program is always changing and developing. She also explains that High performing teams have high standards, expectations, accountability and efficient failure recovery routines.
This was a thought provoking conversation, and we hope you enjoy it as we did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
You can find all of our Great Coaches content and social media links by Clicking Here
Our Great Coach on this 'best of' episode is Gary Kirsten.
Gary played 101 Test matches and 185 One Day Internationals for South Africa between 1993 and 2004. He retired as the first ever South African to play in 100 tests, and the first Test batsman to make hundreds against each of the other 9 Test nations.
He became the coach of the Indian cricket team in 2008 and led them to win the World Cup 2011, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy vs Australia in 2009, the first ever test series win in New Zealand and to become the become the top-ranked team in Test matches.
In 2011 he was appointed as head coach of South Africa, and led them to also become the #1 ranked test team.
He has also coached the Hobart Hurricanes in the Australian Big Bash League and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.
Gary is a coach who is deeply authentic, and comfortable expressing both his own vulnerabilities, and heightened expectations.
He believes that the quality of his coaching is determined by the effectiveness of his facilitation skills, and so is reflective and philosophical about the techniques needed to reach the athletes he leads.
He is that rare breed of person who has been able to reach the pinnacle of his sport as both an athlete and coach, and this lends his story an added layer of credibility, whether it is talking about the deficit of mental skills he experienced as a batsman, or the importance of understanding what the environment requires of you as a leader.
This was a great interview, a real highlight for me, and I hope you enjoy it as much we did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Thomas Frank
Thomas is the Head Coach of Brentford FC in the English Football League Championship.
He started his career coaching youth teams in Denmark. His success with the National Under 17 team led to his first senior appointment with Brondby in the Danish Superliga in 2013. He turned their performance around delivering top four performances in successive years.
In 2016 he joined Brentford as an Assistant Coach before becoming their manager in 2018.
At the end of 2019 season he was awarded Manager of the Year and in May 2021, Brentford beat Swansea for promotion into to the English Premier League for the first time in 74 years.they are in the play-off to win elevation to the Premier League.
Thomas is an emotionally intelligent coach with an innate understanding of the dynamics that shape the culture of teams.
His beliefs about the importance of humility, and the value of hard work and standards are timeless. He understands that to experience the joy of success, you must endure long periods of struggle, and yet through care and what he calls, appreciative enquiry, you can sustain the energy needed to continue on.
This was a wonderful conversation with a coach on the rise, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Today’s episode is on the topic of Underdogs and we are joined for the discussion by Sean Murray who has just written a terrific book about the 1984 USA Volleyball team that won the Olympic Gold medal. His book is called, If Gold Is Our Destiny: How a Team of Mavericks Came Together for Olympic Glory.
If you would like to join us for a future episode to discuss a topic that is close to your heart, then please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or through our website https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/
Sean can be reached through his website: https://www.realtimeperformance.com/ or email: seanm@realtimeperformance.com
Todays episode is on the topic of Values, and it features audio quotes from 22 coaches that we have interviewed on the podcast.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is American women's basketball coach Brenda Frese
While injured as a player at the University of Arizona, Brenda volunteered as an assistant coach at Pima Community College. After graduation in 1994 she started as an assistant coach at Kent State.
In 1999 she was appointed into her first Head Coach role at Ball state and then in 2002 to the University of Maryland. Her success with Maryland places her in the elite levels of women’s basketball, the highlights of which are:
· 2006 NCAA Championship
· the 2009 and 2012 ACC Championships
· Big Ten champions in 2015
· 4x Big Ten Coach of the Year (2002, 2015, 2019, 2021);
National Coach of the year awards in 2021, 2013 and 2002
· And a winning % of 78 at the end of the 2021 season.
Brenda is the type of calm, spirited leader who can see a clear path forward when the anxiety within the team is at its apex.
She is able to regulate her emotions, and response in such a way that it matches the moment and helps to build self-belief in others. She demands a lot from her athlete and support team, but you have the impression that she also gives more than she gets.
There were many key parts of this interview but some of the key points that stayed with me afterwards were:
Her view that great coaches are able to connect with people in a way that makes the person feel like they are worth a million dollars.
Her view that women in leadership positions need to move beyond being grateful and lead the change they want to see.
Her focus on positivity and bringing confident energy into practices and game day; as she this enables you to produce the best performance that you are capable of.
This was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is the Vince Lombardi.Vince Lombardi was an American Football coach who is best remembered as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers in the 1960’s, where he led the team to 5 National Football League championships, including the first ever Superbowl in 1966.He finished his coaching career in the NFL with a winning % of 74, and a post season winning rate of 90%.He is considered to be one of the greatest coaches in American Football history, and the trophy awarded to the Super bowl winner is named in his honor.Vince Lombardi passed away in 1970, however we are going to reconstruct an interview with him, by using his exact words.I used 4 key books to find the words you will hear, and the words are 99% Vince Lombardi’s, with the occasional addition of a conjunctive word, or pronoun to connect phrases.What It Takes to Be #1: Vince Lombardi on Leadership, by Vince LombardiWhen Pride Still Mattered : A Life Of Vince Lombardi Paperback by David MaranissVince: A Personal Biography of Vince Lombardi Paperback by Michael O'brienVince Lombardi on Leadership: Life Lessons from a Five-Time NFL Championship Coach Paperback by Pat Williams and Jim DenneyIf you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is NBA coach Jenny Boucek.
Jenny is a former WNBA player, Assistant Coach and Head Coach. The first person to hold all 3 roles in the league’s history.
She began her coaching career in the WNBA during the 1999 season as an assistant with the Washington Mystics.
In 2000, she joined the Miami Sol, also as an assistant coach, for three seasons.
Jenny was an Assistant Coach with the Seattle Storm when they won the WNBA Championship in 2004 and 2010 and the Head Coach for the Sacramento Monarchs and Seattle Storm.
In 2017 Jenny became the player development coach for the Sacramento Kings, becoming the third female assistant coach in NBA history.
In 2018 she became an Assistant Coach for the Dallas Mavericks and since this interview was originally released, Jenny was named an assistant coach of the Indiana Pacers in July, 2021.
Jenny is a coach with a deep sense of purpose, and belief in the power of intrinsic motivation to drive you to become the best version of yourself. Her career is a study in perseverance and risk that has resulted in redefining paradigms. She is self-reflective, empathetic and focused on helping those in her circle of influence become, in her words, a better me for a better we.
This was a wonderful conversation, with a coach who transcends what it means to lead in both elite mens and womens competitions, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Damien Hardwick.
Damien is an Australian rules football coach and former player.
As a player, he played 207 games for Essendon and Port Adelaide, winning premierships with each club in 2000 and 2004 respectively.
He was appointed to his first head coach role in 2010 with Richmond; and led them to premierships in 2017, 2019 and 2020. He is now the longest tenured coach in the clubs 136 year history.
In 2017 he voted Coach of the Year by his peers. And is also a member of a small and elite group of people who have both played in and coached an AFL premiership.
Damien’s journey as a coach has been documented in books and in documentary’s, and in this interview he takes us through the key inflection points that led to him changing his philosophy, and then ultimately leading his team to 3 premierships.
It’s a terrific story, there are so many highlights and here are just a few that stayed with afterwards:
His descriptions of the effort that went into building the championship environment that eventually led to 3 premierships.
How it was a leadership course on Authenticity at Harvard that led him to change his style, and ultimately unlock improved performance in the team.
And the use of the triple H framework: hero, hardship and highlight to encourage his team to become more open and vulnerable with each other; and how this deeper level of connection translated into improved performance.
And just before we go to the interview, If you're a first time listener, you can check out our library of interviews with other great coaches at our website; the greatcoachespodcast.com
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is John Wooden
Coach Wooden was an American basketball coach who led the UCLA Bruins to 10 NCAA Championships, including a record 7 titles in a row.
Over a 29-year coaching career, his teams won a record 88 consecutive games, and he was voted coach of the year on 7 occasions. As a player he was names a collegiate All American on 3 occasions and was the first person to be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and coach.
He is one of the most revered coaches in history and is by far the coach mentioned most by the Great Coaches we have interviewed.
John Wooden wrote 13 books on coaching and leadership; but it is his opus from 2005, the Pyramid of Success through which he has become internationally recognized. In that book he lays out his key principles to leadership and success in life.
Unfortunately Coach Wooden passed away in 2010 at the age of 99. However, he left so much rich material behind that we are going to recreate a posthumous interview with him.
Much of the footage of him is copyrighted and so not able to be reproduced without a lot of cost and bureaucracy, so we have ordered his words around key coaching and leadership themes hired an actor to read those words. And that is what you will be listening to today.
We used multiple books to find the words you will hear:
Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success
Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court
Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization
The Essential Wooden: A Lifetime of Lessons on Leaders and Leadership
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is basketball coach Sandy Brondello.
Sandy is a former professional basketball player and the current coach of the New York Liberty in the WNBA.
She started playing for Australia at the age of 18 and went on to represent the national team at four Olympics winning three medals. She has played Basketball for teams in America, Australia and Germany.
In 2003 she began her coaching career as an assistant with the San Antonio Silver Stars
She became a Head Coach of the Phoenix Mercury in 2010 and in 2014 won the National Title and the Coach of the Year.
In 2017, Sandy was appointed head coach of the Australian women's national basketball team, The Opals.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Tom Ryan.
Tom Ryan is a former All-American college wrestler, and now coach of the Ohio State Wrestling team.
During his collegiate wrestling career, he was a member of the University of Iowa 1991 and 1992 NCAA and Big Ten championship teams.
He became a Head Wrestling coach at Hofstra University in New York in 1995 leading them to six consecutive conference titles from 2001 to 2006. He then moved to Iowa to coach, and in 2015 Led the wrestling program to the NCAA National Championship.
He has won multiple coach of the year awards, and at present is the owner of a 76% match winning ratio.
From the highs of winning championships and coaching Olympic Gold medalists to the unimaginable loss of his own child; Tom Ryan is a coach with a deep appreciation for the pain that can either de-rail or elevate your life.
His coaching philosophy is infused with a focus on truth and love, Truth to help you see the areas where you can develop; and love so you have the confidence that you will be supported as you develop and grow.
I chased Tom for 6 months to get this interview, and I am so glad I did. His lessons on leadership and life are truly universal; and some of the key ones for me were
How the coaches role is to reduce stress through controlling their emotions. This reduces tension in the athlete and allows them to focus on the task at hand.
Giving feedback the moment a skill is not being executed properly in a way that is productive . And how great athletes truthfully assess themselves in a way that allows an accurate development plan to put in place.
The great story he shares about the prisoner of war James Stockdale and the importance of combining optimism with realism.
And wanting to leave a legacy of helping people to learn to love deeply; and with a few Olympic and World Champions along the way.
This was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Today’s episode is on the topic of Mental Health for Coaches and we are joined for the discussion with one of our listeners, Mads Claussen.
If you would like to join us for a future episode to discuss a topic that is close to your heart, then please contact us us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Mads can be reached through his website: www.madsclaussen.dk or Email: coach@madsclaussen.dk
Our Great Coach on this episode is Bill Sweetenham.
Bill is an Australian swimming coach, who first started training athletes in the 1970’s in the rural Australian town of Mount Isa.
His coaching career progressed quickly and he coached at his first Olympics in 1976, and was then Head Coach for Australia at the 1980, 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games, as well as the 1982 and 1986 Commonwealth Games teams.
He then went on to be the Head Coach of the Hong King swimming team in 1991, and the Great Britain team from 2000 to September 2007. In his tenure with the Great Britain team they won as many medals at the World Championships as they had at all previous World Championships back to 1973.
In all he has coached at 5 Olympic Games, 8 Commonwealth Games, and 9 World Championships, his swimmers have delivered 27 Olympic and World Championship medals and have broken 9 world records.
Bill has an amazing presence, he fills the room with his energy and passion. He is a coaching guru in the truest sense of the word and in this interview we were also joined by 4 other elite coaches, who came to listen to what he had to say.
And it was an absolute masterclass. He talks about meeting Nelson Mandela and the Great Boxing coach, Angelo Dundee. He shares stories of his successes and failures and reflects on what he has learnt from each. He is also challenging, forthright and motivating; I left with a soaring sense of energy after this discussion.
There were so many highlights:
The story he shares about meeting Nelson Mandela and the answer he gave him to the question of what lessons he learned while imprisoned on Robben island.
His view that The coach sees what the athlete can't, and the athlete feels, what the coach cant and takes a marriage of both those attributes to produce a winning result.
And The importance of investing in your past so that you can see your future.
This was a life affirming conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
And just before we go to the interview, If you're a first time listener, you can check out our archive with of interviews with other great coaches at our website; the greatcoachespodcast.com
And while you are there, if you would like to help our podcast, which is fully independent and free from ads, you can follow the link to our Patreon page where we offer exclusive content to our supporters.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
On this episode we discuss skills and what the Great Coaches have to say about them when it comes to individual and team dynamics. Applicable to all leaders.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Kathy Delaney-Smith.
Kathy is a recently retired American Basketball coach who for 40 years led the Harvard Womens Basketball team.
During her tenure she led the team to over 600 career wins, 11 Ivy League championships and six NCAA Tournament berths, and between 1986 and 2011, every senior class except one, won at least one conference championship
Outside of Basketball she has also received numerous awards and recognition for her services to the community and improving gender equality.
In this terrific interview some of the key highlights were:
Her belief that sports is the greatest classroom and if you can educate the whole person then winning is the end result.
The way she manages the very fine line of having deep relationships with her athletes but also maintaining a safe zone where respect is required.
How your body language affects your thoughts, and how she uses this belief to encourage her team to act as it.
And how the great coaches are authentic and they care about their athletes as much as they care about winning.
I thoroughly enjoyed this interview with Kathy, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did
And just before we go to the interview, “This episode is brought to you by BREAKTHRU Brands, a brand-building agency empowering female leaders and founders to lead people, ideas, and movements with clarity and confidence.
Visit www.breakthrubrands.com to learn more.”
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Roy Hodgson.
Roy has been coaching football since 1976, and over 46 years has led 21 teams in 8 different countries.
His achievements are quite lengthy, but here is a summary.
He led the Swiss national team to the last 16 of the 1994 World Cup, a tournament they had not qualified for since the 1960;s.
He coached the Finnish national team to their highest ever FIFA ranking.
He led the English National team to the #3 rank in the world,
He led Hamstead in Sweden to the league championship in 1976 and 1979.
In 1985 he took over Malmo in Sweden and led them to five consecutive league championships
In 2000 he led FC Copenhagen to the Superliga championship
In 2009 he led Fulham to their highest finish in the English Premier League and a UEFA Europa League qualification
And has also coached Inter Milan, Blackburn Rovers, , Udinese, , Liverpool, West Bromwich Albion, Crystal Palace and Watford.
He is by far the most global coach we have interviewed so far, and in fact speaks 5 different languages.
This was a wonderful conversation with a truly iconic coach, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Graham Reid.
Graham is a is a former Australian Field Hockey player that was part of the team that won the silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. And Gold at the 1990 World Cup.
He became Head Coach of the Australian National Team in 2012 and lead them to the Champions Trophy, the Oceania Cup, a Commonwealth Games Gold Medal and the World League final.
Then in 2019 he became the Head Coach of the Indian National team and lead them to the Bronze medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics breaking the teams 41 year drought without a Mens Hockey medal.
Graham is a that rare leader, who has had success both in the corporate and sporting worlds. He brings a sense of perspective and long-held wisdom to his leadership; that helps his team focus on the activities that make a difference.
Our Great Coach on this episode is Graham Reid.
Graham is a is a former Australian field hockey player that was part of the team that won the silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. And Gold at the 1990 World Cup.
He became Head Coach of the Australian National Team in 2012 and lead them to the Champions Trophy, the Oceania Cup, a Commonwealth Games Gold Medal and the World League final.
Then in 2019 he became the Head Coach of the Indian National team and lead them to the Bronze medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics breaking the teams 41 year drought without a Mens Hockey medal.
Graham is a that rare leader, who has had success both in the corporate and sporting worlds. He brings a sense of perspective and long-held wisdom to his leadership; that helps his team focus on the activities that make a difference.
I chased Graham for over a year to get this interview and I am very happy that I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Doug Beal.
Doug is an American volleyball player, coach and former CEO of USA volleyball.
As a player he was a five time All American at Ohio State University, and then from 1970 to 1976 and played over 200 games for the USA Volleyball team.
He became coach of the USA Men’s Volleyball team in 1977, and eventually led the team to a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics.
He also coached the Gonzaga team in Italy and led them to the World Club championship in 1991.
In 2005 he became the CEO Of USA Volleyball and served in that role until his retirement in 2017.
Doug was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1989 and was USA Volleyball's first recipient of the All-Time Great Coach Award in 1995.
Doug is a leader with a deep sense of humility, and an equally impressive ability to connect a far reaching vision with the critical steps needed to progress today. He has been part of a lineage of coaches that developed USA Volleyball into the powerhouse it is today.
This was a terrific conversation, with an inspiring human being and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Petr Kotik
Petr is the holder of a 5th dan in kickboxing and is the Head Coach of the Czech Republic Kickboxing team.
He is a 14 time World Champion, a 5 time world cup winner, and 3 time winner of the USA open.
He has also coached more than 10 amateur world champions.
Petr is a coach with a deep focus on helping his athletes with the specific mental and physical skills they require, to master their fear, and enter the tatami confident that they are able to perform at their very best.
He is a student of coaching, and searches for learning from a broad array of sports and people to ensure that that he has the skills he needs to be the best possible coach he can be for every individual. In fact he describes his role a s a coach, as figuring our what his role needs to be for each person.
I always enjoy learning from Combat coaches, their focus on learning to master fear and build confidence is applicable to so many parts of life, and some of the highlights of this conversation for me were:
The importance of being calm, as when your emotions are under control you are able to more easily adapt your strategy. And the advice he gives on practicing to be calm by focusing on the combination of physical actions in front of you in that moment.
That great coaches are partners with their athletes, and they work together to make the necessary changes to achieve success.
And that you overcome self doubt by focusing on your strengths and the successful moments you deploy them, and making sure that these are a key part of your training programme.
This was a terrific conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Julie Fitzgerald.
Julie is a Australian Netball coach.
From 1997 until 2007 she coached the Sydney Swifts leading them to premierships in 2001, 2004, 2006 and 2007.
She then became coach of NSW in 2008 in the new ANZ Championship and in the inaugural season won the championship.
She has also coached the World 7 team in a series win over New Zealand, The Australian Institute of Sport team and in 2015 and 2016 coached Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic to conference titles
In 2017 she became the inaugural coach of the GWS Giants and has led them to 2 minor championships.
In 2020 she was made a a member of the order of Australia.
It was a lot of fun to interview Julie, she has great energy, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Today’s episode is on the topic of Motivation and we are joined for the discussion with one of our listeners, Dr Brian Hite.
If you would like to join us for a future episode to discuss a topic that is close to your heart, then please contact us us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our guest Dr. Brian Hite can be reached through his website: www.beginagainperformancepsychology.com or Email: brian@beginagainperformancepsychology.com. He also co-hosts a podcast www.PokingHolesInBlinders.org
Our Great Coach on this episode is Trevor Gleeson
Trevor is an Australian basketball coach who transitioned into coaching in 1984 at the age of 18 after an industrial accident.
Over the next decade he rose through the coaching ranks leading men's and women's teams in regional competitions.
In 1997 he started coaching in the National Basketball League in Australia in Assistant roles before taking similar positions in America and South Korea.
In 2006 he returned to Australia as the Head Coach of the Townsville Crocodiles in the National Basketball League, and for 5 years led them to the post season, ultimately leading to him being named the Coach of the year in 2011.
In a move that illustrates his coaching prowess, he then switched sports and was a skills coach in the Australian Football League for 3 years under the legendary Alastair Clarkson.
In 2013 he returned to Basketball as the Head Coach of the Perth Wildcats and led them to 5 Championships in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020.
In 2021 he moved to the NBA as an assistant with the Toronto Raptors.
Trevor is the type of coach that makes the individual feel like they are contributing to something bigger than themselves, through the behaviour and attitude choices they make every day. He is unflinchingly honest and a believer in the merits of a strong work ethic to succeed both on and off the court.
He is also that rare breed of coach, who has worked at the elite level in 2 different sports; and this dexterity, re-enforces his credentials as a teacher, leader and importantly; life-long learner. And in this interview you will hear him talk about being driven by curiosity to find the best treatments, ways to communicate and skills and techniques.
Other key highlights include:
How a close relationship with players allows him to have quick, heated conversations during the game without fear of it derailing the players performance. And that building this relationship takes time and isn’t something you can short cut.
How one of the major change he has seen over 30 years of coaching is that when he first started, when he told players to jump they would ask how high, whereas now they ask why.
And how we believes that there should be only one ego in the team, and that is the teams collective ego.
This was a terrific conversation, it was one of the first we did for the podcast, and we hope you get as much out of it as we did.
And just before we go to the interview, If you're a first time listener, you can check out our library of interviews with other great coaches at our website; the greatcoachespodcast.com
And while you are there, if you would like to help our podcast, which is fully independent and free from ads, you can follow the link to our Patreon page where we offer exclusive content to our supporters.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
This interview pulls together the thoughts that over 100 Great Coaches from around the world; men and women who have won multiple Olympic medals and championships both regionally, nationally and on the world stage; have shared with us on the topic of Leadership.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Steve Glasson.
Steve represented Australia in Lawn Bowls over 300 times, and won the Australian championships 19 times. In 2004 he became the first Australian to be world number one in men's singles.
He then transitioned into coaching and from 2011 until 2021 he was the coach of the Australian Lawn Bowls team where he oversees the Mens, Womens, Youth and Physically impaired teams. His achievements as coach are lengthy, when I asked him to list them he simply said numerous gold, silver, and bronze medals at the Commonwealth Games, World Championships, Asia Pacific Games, World Cup and other International Events.
In 2012 Steve was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.
Steve is a calm, pragmatic coach who understands the values of trust and hard work when it comes to unlocking improved performance in individuals and teams. He is also selfless and tireless in the way that the very best coaches are, and believes in the enduring importance of athletes aspiring to be wonderful ambassadors for their own last name.
As a former world champion himself, Steve approaches his coaching through the lens of the athlete, and in fact considers it a privilege to be in a position where he is able to have the type of deep conversation with an athlete that allows you to understand more about their motivations, dreams and insecurities.
Other key highlights in this discussion for me were:
How lawn Bowls is often perceived as a sport for older people but as Steve points out early in this interview, the average age of the Australian Bowls team is less than the average age of the Australian cricket team.
The importance of focusing on the process and not the end outcomes if you want to win championships. And making sure that the process if flexible enough to allow you to learn from your failures
And how confidence can be re-built by taking the athlete back to their strengths and what they are able to execute best.
This was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
On this episode we feature advice from 8 Great Coaches on developing Mental Skills.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Gareth Baber.
Gareth is a Welsh, former rugby player, and now a rugby coach.
As a player he represented Oxford University and Pontypriff in their European Shield victory in 2001.
He transitioned into coaching in 2008, becoming an Assistant for the Wales Under 20 side, before eventually becoming the Head Coach of Cardiff Blues.
In 2013 he became head of Hong Kong men's rugby sevens and also directed the senior men's, women's and youth programs.
In 2016 he became the coach of the Fiji Men 7’s, ultimately leading them to 11 tournament victories, including the 2019 World championship and the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the 2nd Olympic medal in the nation’s history.
Gareth is a coach who takes great pride and satisfaction in seeing people release their potential. And to achieve this, he focuses on challenging his players and staff to think differently about themselves and the process they are involved in.
His is also organized, thoughtful and empowering, and sees himself as being more than just a rugby coach, but rather someone who is also responsible for building the culture that surrounds people both on and off the field.
Some of the other key highlights of the interview were Gareth’s thoughts on
The importance of mental skills coaches in helping you maintain consistency and focus your attention. And how as a leader he used this to ensure the team embraced accountability.
The importance of being able to have self-leadership and put yourself in a position where you are able to fulfil your potential.
And how it is the people who are chasing a better version of themselves, who normally go on to place themselves in the best position possible to realise their potential.
This was a great conversation, my first with a Welsh coach.
And just before we go to the interview, If you're a first time listener, you can check out our archive with of interviews with other great coaches at our website; the greatcoachespodcast.com
And while you are there, if you would like to help our podcast, which is fully independent and free from ads, you can follow the link to our Patreon page where we offer exclusive content to our supporters.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
We explore leadership through the lens of high-performance sport by interviewing Great Coaches. On this episode we feature advice from 11 Great Coaches on building Resilience.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is swimming coach Michael Bohl.
Michael Bohl has been a swimming coach for 33 years and counting.
He has been the coach of Australian swimmers who have been on the podium at every summer Olympics between the 2008 to 2021.
Some of his most notable athletes include 5 time Olympic Gold medalist Emma McKeon and 3 time Olympic Gold medalist Stephanie Rice.
In 2000 he received the Australian Sports Medal and in 2010 was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for service to swimming .
Michael is the type of leader that puts you at ease as soon as he says hello. He has an infectious energy that draws people to him; and he couples this with a style that emphasizes personal accountability and the importance of character when it comes to elite performance.
He is also able to zoom in and focus on the small things, and then step back and and engage with each athlete on a vision for their future. He is just a terrific bloke, and in this wonderful interview some of the highlights for me were:
His view that failure is the fertilizer of success.
How swimming coaching is a combination of art and science.
And The analogy he uses about a stage coach and the horses that drive it to illustrate what is required in preparation for a major event.
I hope you enjoy this interview as much as we did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
On this episode 3 Great Coaches talk about Adversity and how they see it as an opportunity to grow.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website
Our Great Coach on this episode is Slavomir Lener.
Slavomir is presently the director of the Czech National Ice Hockey Team, and the Union Coach who leads the development of all coaches in the Czech Republic.
However he is most known as the co- head coach of the teams that won gold at the 1996 World Cup
and 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, this win being one of the greatest sporting successes in the history of the country.
He has also coached in the National Hockey League in America, with the Calgary Flames and Florida Panthers, in the Swedish Elite League with Lulea and Linkoping and in Germany with Dusseldorf.
Slavomír is a master coach whose insight transcends ice hockey and is applicable in any endeavor where groups of people are trying to come together to produce a better outcome than they can alone.
He is self reflective, driven and passionate about using the sport of ice hockey to make a difference in the lives of youth. He has also been involved in coaching long enough to see how the craft has evolved, and how it needs to remain fresh and spontaneous if it is to remain relevant.
He is a legend in his own country and so it was a great privilege to interview him, and some of the key points that stayed with me afterwards were
The role that learning and development plays in his growth as a coach and the story he shares about heart surgeons to illustrate this.
How the first task when you are traying to improve a team culture is to set up the guard rails that will shape the atmosphere in the dressing room, and that these rules must be positive and not necessarily strict.
And The story he shares about winning the gold medal in 1998 and how the team did not go to the Olympics with the expectation of winning but, rather just playing good hockey and proving to people that they were the best team on the planet.
This was a great conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Baseball Coach Jon Deeble.
Jon represented Australia as a Baseball pitcher at the 1988 Olympics. He transitioned into coaching in 1994 in America as a minor league manager and hitting coach with the Florida Marlins and Boston Red Sox.
In 2000 he became the Head Coach of the Australian team eventually leading them to the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics. Then in 2011 he led the team to 5th place at the World Baseball classic, the country’s highest ever placing.
He became the first Australian to coach in the Majors when he became Boston's first-base coach in 2005. And from 2002 to 2016 he was the Head Scout for the Boston Red Sox in the Pacific Rim. In 2016 he joined the Los Angeles Dodgers' in the same role.
Jon was born with a mitt in his hand, thanks to both parents representing Australia at baseball. The sport has taken him all over the world, and allowed him to cross paths with some of the biggest names in baseball.
He is passionate about developing young talent; and global enough in his perspective, to know that you have to treat people as individuals if you want to help them succeed.
He is honest about his shortcomings as a coach and at the same time proud of his teams achievements, and the role that culture and leadership played in delivering them.
The other key parts of the interview were:
His use of player psychological profiling to allow him to find the best way to communicate with individuals.
How he encourages his teams to focus on the execution of their particular role in service of the greater goal of perfect execution for the team.
Hs views on self-doubt, and how has a coach he knows there can be a problem when he expects more from someone than they expect from themselves.
And how the great coaches are honest, are excellent communicators and not afraid to make hard decisions.
This was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
You can also follow us and comment on all our Great Coaches here
Twitter @CoachesGreat
Facebook @TheGreatCoaches
Instagram @the_great_coaches_podcast
YouTube The Great Coaches Podcast
LinkedIn The Great Coaches Podcast
On this episode we discuss the advice the Great Coaches have on dealing with Tough Times, and how it is applicable in the sporting and business world.
If you would like to send us any feedback or join us for the next discussion, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Sean Dyche.
Sean is a former player who most recently managed Premier League club Burnley.
Sean made his professional debut in 1990 and played for 6 different clubs until he retired in 2007. He transitioned immediately into coaching eventually becoming the Burnley head coach, or as they say in soccer, their manager in 2012.
During his time there Sean guided the club to two promotions to the Premier League in three seasons, and the 2016 Championship League title. As well as their first European qualification in 51 years.
In early 2022 Sean left Burnley and at the time was the longest serving manager in the Premier League.
Sean is the type of resourceful leader who can find a way to organize and motivate his tribe nomatter what the challenge. He does this by marrying tried and tested values like work ethic and respect, with a communication style that is disarmingly honest and cuts right to the heart of the matter.
In this terrific interview some of the key highlights were:
His view that leadership is about knowing what to do, when you don’t know what to do.
The fascinating difference he describes between winning as a manager versus as a player.
And How he used what he referred to as positive realities to help motivate his team to compete with bigger and more resourced competitors, and how this mindset led Pep Guadiola to describe playing Burnley like having to go to the dentist.
We were very lucky to get this interview with Sean, and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
And just before we go to the interview, If you're a first time listener, you can check out our library of interviews with other great coaches at our website; the greatcoachespodcast.com
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
On this episode 8 Great Coaches talk about Motivation and how and how they nurture and inspire it in others.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Basketball coach Cori Close.
Cori is presently the head coach of the UCLA Womens Basketball team where she has just completed her 10th year.
Before UCLA, Cori spent time as an assistant coach at Florida State University and her alma mater, UC Santa Barbara.
In total she has worked as a coach on teams that have advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 16 seasons, won at least 20 games in 16 of the previous 18 seasons and won or shared a total of 11 conference championships.
She has also helped the USA to a gold medal as an Assistant coach at the 2019 U19 World Cup and the 2018 FIBA Americas U18 Championship,
In addition she was voted Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2019
Cori is passionate and energetic coach who is on a mission to, in her words, lead an uncommon transformation in the players she leads.
She believes in the power of gratitude, of making the lifestyle choice to be consummate learner and of looking at the world through the lens of what I can give, not; what can I get.
Cori is a force for change, who thinks deeply and strategically about the specifics of the program she leads.
There were many key points in this interview that I reflected on afterwards;
How the great coaches invest in the lives of their athletes from the inside out, as this allows the athlete to find gears that they didn’t even know they had.
The focus she has on people's response, which she describes as their R , being stronger than the E, the event, and the story she shares about one of her injured athletes to illustrate this.
And how your actions as a coach must be consistent with your own unique personality and principles. And how from this she talks about her choice to coach hearts, which lead to deeper character, better team work and ultimately better habits.
This was an energizing conversation for me; at the end of a long week, and I hope you get the same sense of energy from it that I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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On this episode 18 Great Coaches talk about Commitment and how and how it connects passion with your goals.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Simon Jones.
Simon is a cycling coach who started working with British cycling in the mid 1990’s.
In 1998 he was appointed the British National Track Endurance Coach and then in 2003 he was promoted to the Head Coach role of British Cycling. During this period he coached Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish. And in 2004, 2005 and 2007 the team came top of the medal tally at the Track Cycling World Championships.
In 2007 he moved to the Western Australian Institute of Sport in coaching roles for racing sports.
This then led him to a coaching and innovation role with Team Sky under Sir David Brailsford in 2014, and 2 victories in the Tour De France, in 2015 and 2016.
And from there to the top role at Australian Cycling as the Performance Director from 2017 to 2021.
Simon puts athletes at the very centre of his coaching approach. He believes that attention to detail and a focus on, in his words, planning not the plan, help the cyclist unlock their potential and adjust accordingly in a complex world.
He believes in the human ability to synthesize information, summarize, find patterns and adjust and in this this interview, recorded before the Tokyo Olympic Games, you will hear him talk about:
His description of working with Sir David Brailsford at team sky, and how they applied a focus on marginal gains to win the tour de France.
How on race day you have to be mindful of not having a negative impact as a coach, and so you need to stand back and give the athlete space.
And his view that legacy is for your ego, and so he doesn’t focus on it, but instead tries to just do his job and enjoy the role.
This was an enjoyable interview with a coach who believes in empowerment and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Jon Rudd.
Jon started coaching swimmers in 1989 and is presently the National Performance Director for Swim Ireland.
Along the way he has coached on international teams for seven different nations - Great Britain, England, Ireland, Netherlands, Lithuania, Turkey & Kenya at World and Continental Championships events.
He is also the first and only swimming coach worldwide to achieve the International Coaching ‘Grand Slam’; which coaching at least one athlete to all 14 major international gold medals at both senior and junior levels.
He has also helped over 30 different athletes break 100 British and English Senior, Junior & Youth records.
Jon is one of those rare breed of coaches who is able to bring both the science and art of high performance into his philosophy in equal measure. He is passionate about success, and yet pragmatic enough to know that, in his words,
coach with integrity knows that they have a duty to protect and honor an athlete's future in the sport.
Some of the key highlights from our discussion included:
His philosophy that the journey is always more honorable than the outcome of the journey.
How athletes have to allow all pieces of their jigsaw to be put on the table before you can help them.
And The F1 car analogy he uses to describe the difference with high performance athletes, and how they are human beings with an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, and not just simply human doings.
This was a wonderful conversation, that had me smiling all the way through and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
And just before we go to the interview, If you're a first time listener, you can check out our archive with of interviews with other great coaches at our website; the greatcoachespodcast.com
This was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
On this episode 9 Great Coaches talk about Listening and how they use it build trust and connect with their teams.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is John Wooden
Coach Wooden was an American basketball coach who led the UCLA Bruins to 10 NCAA Championships, including a record 7 titles in a row.
Over a 29 year coaching career, his teams won a record 88 consecutive games, and he was voted coach of the year on 7 occasions. As a player he was names a collegiate All American on 3 occassions and was the first person to be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and coach.
He is one of the most revered coaches in history, and is by far the coach mentioned most by the Great Coaches we have interviewed.
John Wooden wrote 13 books on coaching and leadership; but it is his opus from 2005, the Pyramid of Success through which he has become internationally recognized. In that book he lays out his key principles to leadership and success in life.
Unfortunately Coach Wooden passed away in 2010 at the age of 99. However he left so much rich material behind that we are going to recreate a posthumous interview with him.
Much of the footage of him is copyrighted and so not able to be reproduced without a lot of cost and bureaucracy , so I have ordered his words around key coaching and leadership themes hired an actor to read those words. And that is what you will be listening to today.
I used multiple books to find the words you will hear:
Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success
Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court
Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization
The Essential Wooden: A Lifetime of Lessons on Leaders and Leadership
And just before we go to the interview, If you're a first time listener, you can check out our library of interviews with other great coaches at our website; the greatcoachespodcast.com
This episode is on the topic of Self Doubt and how the Great Coaches help their athletes and themselves overcome it.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is James Wade.
James is a retired American basketball player and now Coach.
He played for 13 years as a professional in France, Spain, Czech Republic and Belgium. After retiring he stepped into coaching eventually working as an Assistant in Russia and in the WNBA with Minnesota and San Antonio.
He became head coach of the Chicago Sky in the WNBA in 2018, and went on to lead them to their first championship in 2021. He was also voted the 2019 WNBA coach of the year.
James is a coach with a strong sense of purpose; from humble beginnings his sense of curiosity has taken him all over the world and ignited his drive to learn, evolve and in his words, “be a role model for the black or minority kid that feels different.”
He is authentic in the way he communicates and connects with people, and this allows him to find the right balance between applying the necessary pressure to help people perform; while also being mindful of their overall wellbeing.
James and I spoke before Christmas 2021, he was back in France where he lives, and the time and space away from the season in the USA gave him time to reflect, and added to the depth of the discussion.
Some of this parts of our chat that stayed with me afterwards were
His twin focus on the values of accountability and communication, and he uses this to understand each player as a human.
The role that sacrifice has played in his life, and how he uses it priorities collective over individual happiness.
And the need to identify things that are important to winning, building standards around those things, and not settling when they are not met, but at the same time not fighting for every little detail.
This was a terrific conversation; fueled by a little Christmas spirit, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
And just before we go to the interview, If you're a first time listener, you can check out our library of interviews with other great coaches at our website; the greatcoachespodcast.com
And while you are there, if you would like to help our podcast, which is fully independent and free from ads, you can follow the link to our Patreon page where we offer exclusive content to our supporters.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
This episode is on the topic of Trust and how the Great Coaches view it as the currency that makes the team work.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Helene Wilson.
Helene is a New Zealand Netball coach.
She started coaching in her teens and progressed to coaching the New Zealand Secondary Schools team to wins over Australia and leading the Northern Zone under 23s to a national title.
She went on to work High Performance Sport NZ and was involved in the Rugby 7’s and Hockey teams. And then in 2017 she was appointed coach of the Northern Mystics and in 2021 the team goes on to win the National Premiership.
In 2022 she was then appointed to a role at High Performance Sport NZ to help grow female coaches and leaders across all sports.
Helene has terrific energy, and some hard fought wisdom that she shares on this episode.
Just a few of the many highlights are
The importance of mentors to help you reflect and process the information you are receiving
And, that if you don't have a process for self-reflecting, then you're not going to grow your awareness around what you're doing as a coach
How a coach doesn't need to be able to do what they're coaching, but they need to understand all the different parts and the dynamics of putting a performance together
And that Great Coaches are not afraid to admit if they've made mistakes, as they're not afraid to speak the truth
Helene is an inspiring leader, making a difference in peoples lives and I hope you enjoy this as much as we did.
And just before we go to the interview, If you're a first time listener, you can check out our library of interviews with other great coaches at our website; the greatcoachespodcast.com
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
This episode is on the topic of Care and how the Great Coaches use it in their approach to Leadership, and it features audio quotes from 13 Great Coaches.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Damien Hardwick.
Damien is an Australian rules football coach and former player.
As a player, he played 207 games for Essendon and Port Adelaide, winning premierships with each club in 2000 and 2004 respectively.
He was appointed to his first head coach role in 2010 with Richmond; and led them to premierships in 2017, 2019 and 2020. He is now the longest tenured coach in the clubs 136 year history.
In 2017 he voted Coach of the Year by his peers. And is also a member of a small and elite group of people who have both played in and coached an AFL premiership.
Damien’s journey as a coach has been documented in books and in documentary’s, and in this interview he takes us through the key inflection points that led to him changing his philosophy, and then ultimately leading his team to 3 premierships.
It’s a terrific story, there are so many highlights and here are just a few that stayed with afterwards:
His descriptions of the effort that went into building the championship environment that eventually led to 3 premierships.
How it was a leadership course on Authenticity at Harvard that led him to change his style, and ultimately unlock improved performance in the team.
And the use of the triple H framework: hero, hardship and highlight to encourage his team to become more open and vulnerable with each other; and how this deeper level of connection translated into improved performance.
And just before we go to the interview, If you're a first time listener, you can check out our library of interviews with other great coaches at our website; the greatcoachespodcast.com
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Todays episode is on the topic of Self Reflection, and it features audio quotes from 10 Great Coaches.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Hugh McCutcheon.
Hugh played Volleyball for New Zealand national Junior and Senior teams before transitioning into coaching. He started as an Assistant at Brigham Young University and was part of the team when it won the the NCAA championships in 1999 and 2001.
He became a head coach for the first time in 2001, leading the Austrian Hotvolleys, In his first season there, the team won the Inter-Liga, the Austrian Cup and the Austrian League championships.
In 2005 he was appointed as Head Coach of the USA mens team and the team went on to win gold medals at the America's Cup in Brazil, the NORCECA Continental Championship in Canada and then ultimately the Gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.
In 2008 he was appointed coach of the USA womens team, and led them to three World Grand Prix golds and a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics.
And in 2011, he was named head coach of the University of Minnesota's volleyball team.
Hugh is a coach with a strong sense of purpose; and the kind of deep-seated wisdom that comes through living and succeeding in multiple countries and cultures. He is articulate and passionate about the importance of coaching in a way that is tailored to the individual.
As a father, he is also aware that the role of sport can play in young peoples lives as it allows them to, in his words, learn life lessons without incurring the same kind of colletral damage you get if you screw up in life.
Some of the key highlights from our discussion were:
The false narrative that anything less than perfection is worth celebrating.
The mission statement he wrote with the USA Mens team that guided them on the path to the 2008 Olympic Gold medal.
And His views on the 3 types of trust needed within high-performing teams, the first being the athletes ability to trust themselves, the 2nd being their ability to trust their teammates and the third focused on the trust between athlete and coach. And the role that relationships play in each of these areas.
I enjoyed this conversation a lot, I actually chased Hugh for quite a while to do it, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Todays episode is on the topic of Communication, and it features audio quotes from 16 Great Coaches.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this show is Brenda Kirkpatrick Brown.
Brenda is a former College Basketball player and Head Coach at the University of North Carolina.
Brenda was an assistant for 10 years at Georgia Tech, Charlotte and Florida before becoming head coach at UNC Asheville in 2012.
In her 8 years at UNC the team won back-to-back Big South Conference Tournament crowns in 2016 and 2017, an elite 8thand sweet 16th in the NCAA Tournament, four consecutive postseason berths and one Big South Conference regular-season title.
In 2016 she was named Big South Conference Coach of the Year.
Brenda is presently taking a sabbatical and so we caught here when she had the time and space to reflect on her coaching journey. This meant that she was philosophical but also reflective on the things she could have done better, and like all the great coaches she is lifelong learner and thinking about what she will do differently next time.
She believes that you coach the individual and not just the athlete, and that you can never be the type of coach that the athlete has to overcome in order to perform at their best. This means that you have to guard against your passion interfering with your emotions and the way you communicate.
She has great positivity and talks about using belief and positive language to help people overcome their own doubt. And she shares the great quote from Billie Jean King on pressure being a privilege and how this influences her approach to leadership.
Other highlights for me included:
Her view that when choosing a captain, you should look for someone who consistent in their work ethic, and is not afraid to take accountability and sacrifice themselves for others.
And Her advice to other female leaders on communicating your passion but also explaining how you are coping in the role and achieving the life balance that will be important to other women who may be considering a leadership position.
It was a lot of fun interviewing Brenda, she has great energy and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
You can also follow us and comment on all our Great Coaches here
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Todays episode is on the topic of Psychological Safety , and it features audio quotes from 7 Great Coaches.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
If you would like to send us any feedback or join in our live webinars, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is soccer coach Beverly Priestman.
Bev grew up in England where she completed a bachelor's degree in science and football from Liverpool University.
In her early 20’s she moved to New Zealand as head of development for the national football federation.
She then moved to Canada as an Assistant to the National Womens team coach, as well coaching the Canadian Womens team at the FIFA U-17 World Cups. From there she returned to the UK to work as an Assistant for Phil Neville who was coaching the National Womens team and helped guide them to fourth place at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup in France.
Then in 2020 she was appointed Head Coach of the Canadian Womens team and famously led them to a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
Bev is a coach, who at only 35 years old, already has almost 20 years experience across 3 countries. This perspective, coupled with her energy gives her a depth of wisdom that is motivating and inspiring.
She is strongly values led, and she talks a lot about the role that bravery has played in her life and how it helped shape the focus of her team, so that they could fulfill their mission of changing the colour of the medal, at the Tokyo Olympics.
She is also confident, and yet still humble enough to talk about her to talk about her emotional and intellectual development as a coach.
Some of the other highlights of the interview for me were:
How in high-pressure situations she sees her job as lightening the mood so that people can perform at their optimal level, and the story she shares around how she did this in the Olympic village the day before the gold medal match.
How getting herself out of her comfort zone, and diversifying her experiences allowed her to grow in confidence and belief.
How she used the pandemic lock down to self-develop by focusing on who she was a person, her values and the team culture she wanted to develop.
Bev is a coach with what I expect will be a long and successful career ahead of her, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
Todays episode is on the topic of Coaching Philosophy, and it features audio quotes from 18 Great Coaches.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Danny Kerry.
Danny is an English international field hockey coach
Danny became the head coach of the Great Britain women's national field hockey team in 2003, eventually leading them to a Bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics, a 2015 EuroHockey Championship and a Gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
In 2016 he awarded the FIH Coach of the Year, and in 2017 received an MBE from the Queen for his services to sport. In 2018, he was appointed as the head coach of the Mens side, and led them their first ever FIH Hockey Pro League Grand Final in 2019.
Danny is a coach whose success has been built on his ability to self-reflect, learn and evolve. His story contains several pronounced inflection points and in this interview he discusses both in detail.
His style is intense, and couples both the science of physical and mental development with a player-first philosophy that places the individual and their unique needs ahead of team development.
His also innovative and not afraid to try and fail to find a way to step change performance.
Some of the many highlights in this interview include:
How he focuses on density of decision making in training to help the team regulate their emotional response in games.
The process his athletes go through to raise their self-awareness and discover their own sense of purpose. And how this in turn leads to greater mutual understanding between the players and staff,
And how helping athletes deal with self doubt or their inner critic is an under reported aspect of the role of the Head Coach.
This was a deep and insightful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Todays episode is on the topic of Coaching Philosophy, and it features audio quotes from 16 Great Coaches.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is the Vince Lombardi.
Vince Lombardi was an American Football coach who is best remembered as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers in the 1960’s, where he led the team to 5 National Football League championships, including the first ever Superbowl in 1966.
He finished his coaching career in the NFL with a winning % of 74, and a post season winning rate of 90%.
He is considered to be one of the greatest coaches in American Football history, and the trophy awarded to the Super bowl winner is named in his honor.
Vince Lombardi passed away in 1970, however we are going to reconstruct an interview with him, by using his exact words.
I used 4 key books to find the words you will hear, and the words are 99% Vince Lombardi’s, with the occasional addition of a conjunctive word, or pronoun to connect phrases.
What It Takes to Be #1: Vince Lombardi on Leadership, by Vince Lombardi
When Pride Still Mattered : A Life Of Vince Lombardi Paperback by David Maraniss
Vince: A Personal Biography of Vince Lombardi Paperback by Michael O'brien
Vince Lombardi on Leadership: Life Lessons from a Five-Time NFL Championship Coach Paperback by Pat Williams and Jim Denney
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Todays episode is on the topic of Behaviours, and it features audio quotes from 13 coaches that we have interviewed on the podcast.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Tim Jankovich a former player and now basketball coach.
As a player he was one of the winningest players in Kansas State history. In each of his seasons at KSU, his team ranked in the National top-20 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
He has been a College Assistant or Head Coach for 38 years and in that time his teams have won seven regular season conference championships, five league tournament titles and made 10 NCAA appearances.
He is presently the Head Coach of the Division 1 Southern Methodist University Mustangs. In his 4 years at the helm the team has won the 2016-17 American Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championships and made the 2017 NCAA Tournament.
In 2017 he was named American Athletic Conference Coach of the year.
Tim Jankovich is the type of coach we all hope our own children get to experience one day. The long arc of his coaching journey gives him a broad and balanced view on life, and has taught him that as a leader, winning is never as satisfying as seeing people succeed in life.
He believes in taking your time, and not letting the moment speed you up or disrupt your decision making. And that quite often the best way to enable this as a coach is to step back, be calm and not try to exert undue influence on the game.
Tim has a great way of people, and some of the key parts of this interview for me were,
How great teams find a way to win when they have statistically below average games, and this is in fact how successful seasons are built.
The importance or relaxing as a coach and portraying a sense of calm to the team as they will take their cue from you when it comes to dealing with emotional pressure.
And that we are all born with a certain amount of self-belief or insecurity at birth, but this doesn’t have to dictate your life, you can develop self-belief through the choices you make about the environment you choose to place yourself in.
This was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
You can also follow us and comment on all our Great Coaches here
Twitter @CoachesGreat
Facebook @TheGreatCoaches
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Todays episode is on the topic of Vision, and it features audio quotes from 12 Great Coaches.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Rod Macqueen.
Rod is an Australian Rugby Union Coach.
Rod started coaching in the 1980’s before taking over the NSW Waratahs in 1991. From there he went on to become the inaugural coach for the Brumbies in the newly formed Super Rugby competition.
In 1997 he was appointed as the Head Coach of the Australian Wallabies, and the team goes on to win the 1999 World Cup, the Tri Nation series for the first time, the Bledisloe Cup 3 years in a row and then it culminates with being the first Australian team to win over the British & Irish Lions in 2001.
Rod is also successful business owner and in this interview talks about the similarities between sport and business when it comes to leadership, culture and strategy.
Some of the other key highlights of our discussion include:
The journey of the Australian team towards winning the World Cup, and how he laid out the path to that victory by focusing the on 3 key elements of the journey; the beginning , the journey and the destiny.
His views on the fine line between arrogance and confidence.
How he used business plans to outline the vision for this teams, and a key part of that plan was the coaching succession plan to replace him.
And The importance of empowering the players to make decisions, so that as the coach can look forward and try to see what is going to happen next.
This was a terrific conversation with Rod, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Todays episode is on the topic of Learning , and it features audio quotes from 11 coaches that we have interviewed on the podcast.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is English cricket coach Kevin Sharp.
Kevin Sharp is an English cricket coach and a former first-class cricketer.
He played 432 professional games and scored nearly ten thousand first-class runs.
After retirement, he became a batting coach at his former team Yorkshire where he helped to develop a number of players who have gone on to represent England including the current Test captain, Joe Root.
He was also the batting coach for the English Womens Team which won the World Cup in 1993.
In 2018 he was appointed as Head Coach of Worcestershire and that year they won T20 Championship.
Kevin is a coach with a deep passion for helping others overcome, in his words, the mental anguish and pain that he felt as a young batsmen. He talks about the pain of living with the thought of underachievement in his career, and how this has spurred him on to become the type of coach who can talk confidently on both physical and mental techniques. In fact, it was another great coach, Anthony McGrath, who introduced me to Kevin, and shared his own experience of using Kevin’s tools as a player and now as a coach himself.
He is spiritual and yet pragmatic, self-effacing, and yet assured enough to talk about the techniques he teaches and how they have helped people succeed at the most elite level.
They key highlights for me in this interview are
How anxiety can be a good thing if it helps you focus your mind.
The importance of finding a mentor or person that you can trust and talk to, to help you deal with the unexplored territory that might be holding you back.
The self-talk diary that he now uses with players to help them exert control over their inner critic and build self-belief.
And his love of developing junior talent, and the terrific story he shares about meeting and training the now England captain Joe Root for the first time.
Kevin is the type of wise and calm mentor we all wish we could have in our life and I hope you get as much from this discussion as I did.
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Todays episode is on the topic of Values, and it features audio quotes from 22 coaches that we have interviewed on the podcast.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Sue Enquist.
Sue played softball at UCLA from 1975 to 1978. She was a part of the team that won the 1978 Women's College World Series and became UCLA's first All-American softball player.
In 1980 she transitioned into coaching and retired with a career winning percentage of 83. As a coach her teams won 10 national championships, and her produced 65 All-Americans and 15 Olympians.
She was also a coach for 1996 Olympic Gold medal winning team.
In 2008 she was inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame
Sue is a coach who believes in the type of transformational leadership where, in her words, you are more collaborative, truthful and positive in developing skills. She believes that when people feel safe they will go for it when it comes to courage, and that your role as a coach is to be the eyes of the athletes development, and feed them with what she is seeing in their progress.
She is also highly articulate, passionate and a firm believer in the importance of curiosity as a leader to ensure that your program is always changing and developing. She also explains that High performing teams have high standards, expectations, accountability and efficient failure recovery routines.
Other key parts of the interview were:
Her view on the importance of a next event mindset, in keeping failure small relative to your integrity and character.
Her advice on managing our weak voice that comes up from our subconscious, and building on our strong voice.
And How, as a white women of privilege, she feels that she must advocate for people who didn’t have the access to excellence that she did.
This was a thought provoking conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as I did.
And just before we go to the interview, If you're a first time listener, you can check out our archive with of interviews with other great coaches at our website; the greatcoachespodcast.com
And while you are there, if you would like to help our podcast, which is fully independent and free from ads, you can follow the link to our Patreon page where we offer exclusive content to our supporters.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Todays episode is on the topic of Culture, and it features audio quotes from 20 Great Coaches that we have interviewed on the podcast.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Indian National Badminton Coach, Pullela Gopichand.
As a player Gopichand won his first National Badminton Championship title in 1996, and went on to win the title five times in a row, until 2000.
In 1999 he won the Toulouse open championship in France and the Scottish open championship. And then in 2001 he won the prestigious All England Open Badminton Championships.
He started coaching in 2004, and in 2008 founded the Gopichand Badminton Academy.
In the last 120 years, India has won 35 Olympic medals; Gopichand has coached 3 of these from the Academy he set up.
He also coached players to win 4 World Championship medals, including 1 Gold and 15 Super series titles.
Gopi is a coach with a deep appreciation of the role that mindfulness, passion and belief can play in shaping individual performance.
He believes that your mental strength comes from the efforts you put in to being physically strong , and that this physical strength comes from your training, recovery, nutrition and overall lifestyle decisions.
He is also driven to create change in the world around him through, sharing his learning on what is required to be a world champion with whoever is willing to put in the work and make the required sacrifices.
Some of the other key parts of this interview were:
His belief that science, not the athlete should drive the athletic system in India. And he describes this system as being coach-led, sport science driven and athlete centric.
The importance of athletes managing their life outside of their sport, so that their mindset develops in a holistic way.
And The importance of having people around you who don’t just tell you good things, but rather the truth that you have to hear.
It took a long time to reach Gopi for this interview, and I am so glad I preserved. His approach to life and leadership resonated with me strongly, and I hope you enjoy this interview as much I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Todays episode is on the topic of Resilience and is brought to you by the world record holding Australian cricket coach John Buchanan.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Bill Sweetenham.
Bill is an Australian swimming coach, who first started training athletes in the 1970’s in the rural Australian town of Mount Isa.
His coaching career progressed quickly and he coached at his first Olympics in 1976, and was then Head Coach for Australia at the 1980, 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games, as well as the 1982 and 1986 Commonwealth Games teams.
He then went on to be the Head Coach of the Hong King swimming team in 1991, and the Great Britain team from 2000 to September 2007. In his tenure with the Great Britain team they won as many medals at the World Championships as they had at all previous World Championships back to 1973.
In all he has coached at 5 Olympic Games, 8 Commonwealth Games, and 9 World Championships, his swimmers have delivered 27 Olympic and World Championship medals and have broken 9 world records.
Bill has an amazing presence, he fills the room with his energy and passion. He is a coaching guru in the truest sense of the word and in this interview we were also joined by 4 other elite coaches, who came to listen to what he had to say.
And it was an absolute masterclass. He talks about meeting Nelson Mandela and the Great Boxing coach, Angelo Dundee. He shares stories of his successes and failures and reflects on what he has learnt from each. He is also challenging, forthright and motivating; I left with a soaring sense of energy after this discussion.
There were so many highlights:
The story he shares about meeting Nelson Mandela and the answer he gave him to the question of what lessons he learned while imprisoned on Robben island.
His view that The coach sees what the athlete can't, and the athlete feels, what the coach cant and takes a marriage of both those attributes to produce a winning result.
And The importance of investing in your past so that you can see your future.
This was a life affirming conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
And just before we go to the interview, If you're a first time listener, you can check out our archive with of interviews with other great coaches at our website; the greatcoachespodcast.com
And while you are there, if you would like to help our podcast, which is fully independent and free from ads, you can follow the link to our Patreon page where we offer exclusive content to our supporters.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Todays episode is brought to you by the world record holding Australian cricket coach John Buchanan.
And it is on the theme of authenticity , which I experience as the desire to be my true, genuine self; but at the same time, in a way that is consistent with the role I have to fulfill and the values of the group that I am part of.
It’s a tension that I often reflect on when I have decide how to communicate and engage with other people in the organization or team.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Dan Hughes.
Dan is an American Basketball coach with over 40 years experience.
He started his career as a head coach in 1978, ultimately coaching in the WNBA for 20 years with stops at Charlotte, Cleveland, San Antonio and Seattle. He has coached the second-most games in the leagues history (598) and is tied for third in victories with 286.
He has twice coached teams to the WNBA championship, the Seattle Storm in 2018 and 2020, and was twice named WNBA coach of the year in 2001 and 2007.
And was an Assistant for the USA womens team that won gold at the 2018 FIBA World Cup and at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
Dan is a coach with both high integrity and empathy. He is a connector of people, finding ways for relationships to form so that the output is greater than the individual could produce alone. And he then takes great joy and satisfaction from seeing how these relationships produce success.
He also embodies the critical leadership traits of selflessness, resilience and empowerment and shares some wonderful stories to illustrate these qualities in a way that makes you stop and reflect on your own character.
Some of the key highlights of the interview are:
His view that statistics can often leave you feeling empty, and its more importance to condense them into priorities that can people can act on.
The importance of talking more about what you want people to do; not what they have done, so that it sets an understanding of what is required.
And how you can become better at empowering people by being genuinely happy when other people are successful.
This was a conversation that had my reflecting deeply on my style afterwards, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
In celebration of International Womens Day we decided to do an episode that features some of the Great Female Coaches that we have interviewed.
It features wisdom and leadership advise from 14 Great Coaches, that is applicable to all of us.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Alyson Annan.
Alyson is a Australian field hockey player who represented her country 228 times and won gold medals at the 1996 and 2000 Sydney Olympics.
She transitioned into coaching in 2003, and she led the Netherlands women team to a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil and a gold medal at 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo as well as gold medals at the 2017 , 2019 and the 2021 Women's EuroHockey Nations Championship and the 2018 Women’s World Cup.
This interview was recorded in late January 2022, and then in mid February 2022, Alyson resigned as a coach of the Dutch national team after a dispute with administration about the team culture. Listening back I think some of Alyson’s dissatisfaction and self-reflection comes across in the interview.
What is indisputable though is that Alyson is that rare individual who has won an Olympic Gold medal as both an Athlete and a coach, and from these experiences she believes that if you are confronted and challenged by a coach then you will be a better athlete. The key to challenging in the right way is through the use of observation skills and heightened communication delivered as best as you can at the right time and location.
And it seems these challenging skills may be one of the reasons some of the team felt dissatisfied with her. However as many of the great coaches have said in these interviews, the role of the coach is to challenge, in fact the iconic Ric Charlesworth says ot best with this quote: Sometimes you have to trouble the comfortable, and comfort the troubled.
Alyson also believes that when you create your own pressure, you will perform better than when pressure is put on you from outside. And you achieve this through reflection on your behaviour in response to the performance challenges you are facing.
Other key highlights from this interview were:
How she uses failure as a positive criteria when selecting the team.
How she had to learn to not coach as she played when she first started coaching, but instead go back and think about how you need to communicate to impart knowledge.
Her focus on learning and growing, and in particular making mistakes and using them as motivation to keep going.
Also listen out for her explanation of the Ringelman effect and she uses it with the team.
This was a deep conversation, with a rare individual and hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
In late July 2021, I had the opportunity to interview Justin, he was very generous with his time and we had an hour together while he was on tour with the team with the West Indies. It also soon after the first reports of discomfort about his intense style had emerged from some of the players via the media. When we finished the interview, we talked a little about intensity, about what it meant and why it was not necessarily a bad thing given the brief he had to repair the team culture and return the team back to its winning ways. The team went on to win the T20 world cup and retain the Ashes beating England 4-0 in Australia. By any measure this was surely a sign that the team was doing well. It was a shock then, when he was only offered a 12 month contract by Cricket Australia. The reports were that players wanted a more calm and composed presence as a coach. Last week I heard, John Buchanan, the former Australian cricket coach who lead the team to team to 3 consecutive World Cups wins, a world record 16 consecutive Test Victories, speak about the role of coach, and I thought it summed up perfectly why Justin was successful. In light of this I thought it was a good time to revisit the interview with Justin, we can never know what the team environment was like, but we can view the results, listen to Justin's words, and those of one of his players, Usman Kwaja, who said; “He brought humility back to the Australian team … I know what we played like before he was coach and I know what we played like hen he was coach.” And form an opinion of just what the role of a coach is. I hope you enjoy it second time around as much as I did.
Our Great Coach on this show is Rodger Schmidt.
Rodger is a former a Curling champion and now coach.
He was the European men's curling champion in 1985 and two-time German men's curling champion in 1987 and 1992.
In 1994 he founded the "Rodger Schmidt Curling Academy" based in Switzerland. From this base he has coached at 5 Olympics and multiple World championships, leading the National teams of 8 nations including Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Russia and the USA.
He is also the author of the definitive book on Curling coaching; The five elements of curling technique which was published in 2011.
Rodger has coached all over the world and so has a broad perspective on the dynamics of teams and human behaviour. He believes that there is more that unites us than separates us; and that fundamentally good habits make good teams, and also help the individual build the self-belief needed to clear your mind and focus on the execution of the required skills.
He sees the inter-connectedness of our actions, and how we transfer energy from one moment to the next through the way we chose to think and move. He is quiet, under stated and conscious of the need to keep a certain distance from his athletes so they can work effectively together, but not be so close that the athletes efforts are mis-directed into pleasing him.
I found this interview to be just as graceful as the actual sport of curling, and some of the key parts for me were:
His focus on building deep seated self-belief in his teams so that they take to the ice confident that they are going to win every single time.
His desire for all athletes to actually have a big ego, and to use it for the benefit of the team, and the slogan Wego, that he uses to illustrate this.
His experience of failure at the Vancouver Olympics and how this shaped his philosophy of ensuring athletes can perform multiple roles within the team.
And The importance of routines and mental keys to ensure your that you don’t over think when you are under stress.
This was an insightful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Rikard Grip.
Rikard was the national coach of the Swedish cross-country skiing team between 2010 and 2019.
At the age of only 32 he led the national team to their best performance ever at the 2014 Winter Olympics, where they finished equal top on the medal table with Norway winning 11 medals.
As a result he was named the Swedish coach of the Year in 2015.
In 2019, he resigned as coach having led the team to 35 Olympic and World Championship medals and took up a position as the Swedish Olympic Games Preparation Director, and now as Secretary General of the Swedish Biathlon Federation.
Rikard is a driven and committed leader, who at only a young age was able to find an effective balance between challenging and caring for his athletes. He talks with deep sincerity about meeting athletes where they are, of partnering with them and brining energy into the relationship so that they succeed.
Building self-belief is at the centre of his coaching philosophy which he summarizes by saying that its important to help the athletes feel like they can walk on water. He is also inclusive, and believes that the athletes and the supporting staff come together to create the environment that delivers high-performance.
Other key highlights from this interview are:
The importance of being yourself as a coach and not trying to imitate other great mentors or leaders that you have experienced.
How body language is much more important that actual language when it comes to communicating with athletes.
The story he shares about offering calm instruction about techniques in the final stages of the race and not emotional cries referring to the competition.
And The importance of looking people in the eye when you are giving positive feedback so that they feel it is genuine and not offered purely to cheerlead the athlete into believing in themselves.
I enjoyed this conversation with a coach who I am sure we will hear much more from in the coming years, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Mark Lebedew.
Mark is an Australian volleyball coach and former player.
He started coaching in the early 90’s eventually joining the Australian Institute of sport as a coach in 1997, where he also served as an assistant coach of the Australian men’s team at the Sydney 2000 Olympics
In 2010 he became a head coach of Berlin Recycling Volleys and in 2012, 2013 and 2014 he won the German Champion title. In 2015 the team also won the Bronze medal in the European Champions League.
While In 2017 he led Jastrzebski Wegiel to the bronze medal in the Polish league, and
From 2017 to 2019 he was also the coach of the Australian National Team and led them to a silver medal at the 2019 Asian Championships.
He has also coached teams in Italy, Belgium and Poland and is currently the head coach of German club VfB Friedrichshafen.
Mark is a coach with a truly global perspective, his teams are made up of many different nationalities, his present one has 8, and he has coached 5 different countries as well as in the Olympics, World Championships, World League, Volleyball Nations League, and this gives him a unique insight into the dynamic that shapes and propels high-performance.
He is both a student and practioner of the craft of coaching, in fact he helped translate one of the greatest texts on volleyball coaching from Russian to English, and believes that the great coaches are playing a game inside their heads 24 hours a day.
He believes that team work from the 6 players, all usually well over 6 feet tall on the 9*9 court, is more important than jumping 2 centimeters higher or hitting with 5kmh more of attack speed. And to achieve this, he is focused on helping players understand their role and execute it to best of their best of ability.
Some of the other key highlights from this discussion were:
His views on how human history has evolved through the act of getting better, and how he applied this to his own views on innovation and developing new techniques.
The importance of controlling your emotions so the team members can have faith in you to lead them through any situation they may be facing.
How he doesn’t mind people having egos as it is an intrinsic motivator, as long as they don’t lose the ability to work with others within the team.
This was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Andy Friend.
Andy is an Australian rugby union coach and former player who is currently the head coach of Irish province Connacht.
He was previously head coach of the Australia Sevens team, the Brumbies in Super Rugby in Australia, English club Harlequins, and Canon Eagles and Suntory Sungoliath in the Japanese Top League.
He also coached the Australian Under-21 team to the final of the 2005 World Championships. And was an assistant to Eddie Jones within the Wallabies setup for the 2002 Tri Nations Series and 2003 Rugby World Cup.
Andy is an articulate and calm coach who speaks with authenticity and simplicity on the fundamentals of elite level leadership.
He has spent both his childhood and adult life traveling the world, and this gives him a deep appreciation of the needs that unite people; and how you can communicate emotion and intent despite language barriers.
He is the type of person you feel immediately at ease with, and his ability to find a balance between the leadership and care for his players and staff, and family life, which also makes him a good role model for all of us who try to juggle the competing priorities in our life.
Some of the key highlights of this interview for me were:
How Great coaches have a strong sense of purpose that both motivates and guides them. This is matched with a natural inquisitiveness that fuels their ongoing development.
How being sacked as a coach helped him realise the need of not imposing your own values on the team, but rather co-creating the right team values for that organisation.
And His learning around not trying to do everything, but rather to invest time in building, in his words, the bank account of trust, with his athletes. And how this translates to him spending 70% of his time working with individuals within the team.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach on this episode is Jackie Carson.
Jackie Carson is the Head Coach of the Furman University Womens Basketball team.
She also played there as a student athlete, and still hold the conference record for most free throws made. In 1999 she was honored as Furman’s Female Athlete of the Year and in 2009 she became on the third player in the programs history to have their jersey retired.
She started her coaching career in 2003, progressing through Assistant Coaching Positions at Bucknell and Madison which included postseason appearances at the 2007 and 2010 NCAA tournaments.
In 2010, she returned to Furman as the 9th Head Coach in the college’s history.
In her 11 seasons leading the team they have earned four postseason berths and 2 Women’s National Invitational Tournament appearances.
In 2014 she was awarded Conference Coach of the Year.
Jackie is a coach with an Infectious energy that inspires you to have the confidence to, in her words, walk into the room or the gym knowing you are going to win. Building this confidence in her players is a key part of what she strives to achieve as a coach.
After the interview, the keys parts I shared with my own family around the dinner table were, How she believes that as a woman, you have to be better than the male that's going for the same job, and importantly show why you're better. And explaining this is not something you should shy away from, in fact she says you should demand what you want in the future.
How some of the things you say in your head to yourself, you would never say out loud to anyone else. And that the best way to deal with negative self-talk is to talk to someone else about how you are thinking, and through that, talk yourself into the tasks that are causing you to doubt.
And wanting to leave a legacy, where people learn that you can do things the right way, you can be a mom that works, a black female that is successful and beats the odds, you can do whatever it is that people say that you can't do.
As a father of 2 daughters, I found this interview educational and inspiring and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Paul Roos.
Paul is a former professional Australian Rules Footballer and coach.
Paul began his professional playing career in 1982, eventually retiring with 356 games, 5 Best and Fairest awards, 7 All Australian selections and the 1986 Leigh Matthews Medal under his belt.
He began coaching in 2002 with the Sydney Swans. It was here that he implemented his high performance dialogue philosophy, and in 2005 he coached the Swans to their first premiership in 72 years.
Paul is a wonderful Coach and Leader, who has managed to find a balance in life that also makes him a great role model.
This conversation spans his experience Coaching elite level Football teams, doing his best as a father to be present for his family and his latest work with organisations helping them build the right behaviours so that they don’t leave culture to chance.
The highlights for me were:
· His thoughts on what he calls “Real Talk” and how this is the cornerstone of accountability and taking teams from Good to great.
· How you act your way into a culture, and so behaviors across the group are critical to make sure new people enter and build on the culture in the right way.
· And the idea of starting meetings with a gratitude session to shout out to someone who has made a difference however big or small.
I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Carrie Graf.
Carrie is a former professional basketball player and coach.
She started her professional playing career as a 16 year old in the Australian National League; playing in a team that won multiple championships.
She transitioned to professional coaching in 1993; winning the National championship in her first year. 7 Further championships followed in the years leading to 2010.
In 2004, she became the first female Australian coach in the WNBA leading the
Phoenix Mercury.
She also coached the Australian National team to a Bronze medal at 2012 Olympics.
In 2015 Carrie was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for her significant service to basketball, particularly as a coach, mentor and athlete, and to the community.
She is presently the Director of Sport at University of Canberra
Carrie is a coach with a purpose. She believes that girls are capable of anything; and through her coaching she empowers women to, in her words, “ be the Prime Minister, the President, a brain surgeon, a nuclear physicist, an Olympic athlete, an Olympic coach or a football champion”
This is a wide ranging interview, and the highlights for were:
How she addressed the teams self-doubt by asking them to go back to childhood and list out all the championships they had collectively won as individuals.
How team values must be referenced in every training session and during the match if you want them to become part of how you function as a team. And she shares a good a story of how they score themselves on these values during time-outs in a game.
The importance of using your voice assertively, so that you can help your team mates see what the next possible decision could be? And she gives examples on why this is important for female athletes to develop.
And towards the end she gives great examples of how female and male sports are equal, and how you can affirm this with young girls while watching sport with them.
This was a wonderful conversation, one of my favorites so far, and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
Our Great Coach on this episode is Ben Ryan. Ben is the most successful men’s rugby sevens coach in history, he is the only coach to have won Continental, World and Olympic titles. He started his international career in 2007 with England 7’s, coaching them in over 300 matches. In 2013 he took over as the coach of Fiji 7’s, and led the team to the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The gold medal was the first ever medal of any colour, won by Fiji at any Olympics. As a result of that victory he was awarded the Companion of the Order of Fiji and is depicted on the reverse of a circulating 50 cent coin, and on the front of a circulating commemorative $7 banknote. Ben has written a wonderful book about his experience with the Fiji 7’s called Sevens Heaven which I highly recommend. He is also the host of his own terrific podcast called aptly enough, The Ben Ryan Podcast. Ben is an authentic coach with deep reserve of hard-won wisdom. He is calm, thoughtful, and committed to being the type of leader who can juggle the high care high challenge coaching style that many aspire to, but few manage to master. He is honest about his shortcomings, and humble about his achievements, and secure enough in himself to be able to build rapport easily. The parts of our conversation that stayed with me long afterwards were his view that great coaches create a safe psychological space, within an agreed set of guardrails, that let people be the best versions of themselves. And that you create psychological safety within a team, by giving the members a voice in defining the expectations they aspires to. How his core philosophy is not making people ever feel that they're the runt of the litter, or they're anything other than valued. And wanting to leave a legacy of redefining what is possible for the small nations, and teams, on the world stage. This is a terrific discussion and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com You can also follow us and comment on all our Great Coaches here Twitter @CoachesGreat Facebook @TheGreatCoaches Instagram @the_great_coaches_podcast YouTube The Great Coaches Podcast LinkedIn The Great Coaches Podcast
Our Great Coach on this episode is Lisa Alexander. Lisa Alexander was the coach of the Australian Netball team, known as the Diamonds, from 2011 to 2020. Her coaching journey started in country Victoria, before she progressed to coach the Melbourne Phoenix in the nationalcompetition, taking the team to two title wins in 2002 and 2003. She was appointed head coach of the Australian U21 netball team in 2006. And then in 2011, she was named as the head coach of the Australia national netball team taking over from the legendary Norma Plummer. She then went on to coach the National team for 102 matches; winning 83 of those games. She oversaw gold medal successes at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 Netball World Cup, as well as silver medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2019 Netball World Cup. Lisa is an articulate and passionate coach; who speaks candidly about the issues propelling elite performance. She has high expectations and standards and you will hear here talk about this in the context of team culture; and the “sisters in arms” trademark that she introduced. Other highlights of the discussion for me included: · Expecting her players to not only become leaders on the court but also aspiring to be a Prime Minister off the court · How google look for employees with coaching experience · And how coaches csocializing with athletes can create problems within the team. It is a great conversation with Lisa, and at the end of it I felt confident that we would be seeing her transition into coaching other sports in the near future. I hope you enjoy it. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com You can also follow us and comment on all our Great Coaches here Twitter @CoachesGreat Facebook @TheGreatCoaches Instagram @the_great_coaches_podcast YouTube The Great Coaches Podcast LinkedIn The Great Coaches Podcast
Our Great Coach on this episode is Eddie Jones. Eddie is a rugby union coach and former player. He coached Australia from 2001 to 2005, winning the the Bledisloe Cup in 2001 and 2002. The team also reached the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final, losing in extra time to England. He was an assistant coach for South Africa when they won the 2007 Rugby World Cup and from 2012 to 2015 he coached Japan, leading them to their upset win over South Africa in 2015. In 2015, Eddie was appointed as head coach for England. They went on to win the Six Nations in 2016 and 2017 and then in the 2019 Rugby World Cup they defeated defending champions New Zealand in the semi-final before losing the final to South Africa. In 2017 he was awarded world rugby coach of the year. Eddie is an elite coach of the highest level; articulate and philosophical; he talks simply and with depth about the challenges of building cohesion within the team. He talks about choosing a captain who compliments you as a coach; the importance of constantly working on your observational skills so you can see where conflict is within the team and how training at 100% intensity and then stopping when the team falls below that for a full minute, can lead to better performance. I hope you enjoy it. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com You can also follow us and comment on all our Great Coaches here Twitter @CoachesGreat Facebook @TheGreatCoaches Instagram @the_great_coaches_podcast YouTube The Great Coaches Podcast LinkedIn The Great Coaches Podcast
Our Great Coach on this episode is Tamsin Greenway. Tamsin is a retired Netball player and now coach. She represented England on 67 occasions and along the way, was part of the team that won bronze medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and at the 2011 and 2015 Netball World Cups. In the English Superleague, she has won 7 championships; 4 as a player, and three others as player-coach, a coach and a Team Director. Tamsin now works as a commentator on Sky Sports and in 2020 she was appointed head coach of the Scottish national netball team. Tamsin is a passionate coach, with a deep appreciation for the influence honesty can have on team dynamics and performance. She is self-reflective, and committed to learning and developing, which is evidenced by her amazing career journey so far. She is also determined, optimistic and a firm believer that, in her words, as a female coach your life doesn’t stop because you have children. The keys parts of this discussion for me were, That good team cultures are always evolving and changing so they are difficult to describe, but they are the places you want to be, even if you have had your worst day. How, her experience as a playing coach taught her about the need to separate herself a little from the players to gain perspective, and then use this to help better manage the players and her own emotions. And that winning is not always the end of the goal for people in the team, and you need to take the time to understand why the athletes are there, and what they want to achieve along the way. This was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com You can also follow us and comment on all our Great Coaches here Twitter @CoachesGreat Facebook @TheGreatCoaches Instagram @the_great_coaches_podcast YouTube The Great Coaches Podcast LinkedIn The Great Coaches Podcast
Our Great Coach on this show is Ric Charlesworth.
Ric is an Australian sports coach and former politician. He played first-class cricket for Western Australia and international field hockey for Australia winning a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics. He also served as a federal member of parliament from 1983 to 1993.
He was appointed coach of the Australian Womens Hockey team in 1993 leading them to Olympic gold medals in 1996 and 2000.
He later coached the Australian Men’s Hockey Team leading them to win the World Championship and a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games.
He has also worked in consulting roles with the New Zealand national cricket team, the Australian Institute of Sport, and the Fremantle Football Club.
Ric has been awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 1987 and an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). And just to top it off was awarded the Australian Team Coach of the Year 1994, 1996, 1997,1998,1999,2000.
Ric is an icon of coaching in Australia and it was an honor to interview him. There are many, many nuggets of insight that he shares; but it was his thoughts on mining for and managing conflict and homosexuality in female versus male sport that resonated the most.
I hope you enjoy it.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Gary Kirsten.
Gary played 101 Test matches and 185 One Day Internationals for South Africa between 1993 and 2004. He retired as the first ever South African to play in 100 tests, and the first Test batsman to make hundreds against each of the other 9 Test nations.
He became the coach of the Indian cricket team in 2008 and led them to win the World Cup 2011, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy vs Australia in 2009, the first ever test series win in New Zealand and to become the become the top-ranked team in Test matches.
In 2011 he was appointed as head coach of South Africa, and led them to also become the #1 ranked test team.
He has also coached the Hobart Hurricanes in the Australian Big Bash League and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.
Gary is a coach who is deeply authentic, and comfortable expressing both his own vulnerabilities, and heightened expectations.
He believes that the quality of his coaching is determined by the effectiveness of his facilitation skills, and so is reflective and philosophical about the techniques needed to reach the athletes he leads.
He is that rare breed of person who has been able to reach the pinnacle of his sport as both an athlete and coach, and this lends his story an added layer of credibility, whether it is talking about the deficit of mental skills he experienced as a batsman, or the importance of understanding what the environment requires of you as a leader.
Gary is a master coach and human being, and there were many highlights for me in this interview, some of the key ones were
The story he shares about winning the World Cup with India, and how it was a change in behaviours that helped achieve this result.
How as a player he always thrived in an environment where there was deep psychological safety.
And, how the best athletes in the world are able to separate the result from their performance, and how this helps them manage their anxiety and expectations.
This was a great interview, a real highlight for me, and I hope you enjoy it as much I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Conor O’Shea.
Conor was capped 35 times for Ireland and represented them at the 1995 and 1999 Rugby World Cups.
After his playing career ended, he became Director of Rugby at London Irish and was awarded Zurich Rugby Director of the Season in 2002.
He then joined Harlequins as Director of Rugby in 2011 leading them to win the premiership in 2012.
Conor then became Head Coach of the Italian National Team in 2016 and had immediate impact leading the team in the first ever win over South Africa. He also led the team to the 2019 World Cup in Japan.
He is presently the England Rugby Union's director of performance.
Conor is that rare breed of person who has played and coached Rugby at the most elite level, the World Cup, and been able to succeed in off-field leadership positions such as the National Director of the English Institute of Sport. He succeeds through his ability to empathize with people at all levels in the organisation, and communicate with them in a way that engenders action and alignment.
He is charismatic, engaging, and believes, in his words, in being all in, on what you are passionate about. This translates into an innovative view of coaching, where he pushes his teams to move beyond the fear of failure, and try and ultimately achieve things they haven’t done before.
This was a fun conversation, and some of the key highlights for me were:
The need to look beyond your own ego and focus on the contribution you are making to the future success of the team or organisation you are a part of for that brief moment.
The importance of a mix of personalities within the team, and this includes the Mavericks; where everyone’s individuality is embraced but their energy is united behind the teams goals.
And the way he summarized the team values at Harlequinnes using the word TRUE, which stood for Tempo, Ruthless, Unpredictable and Enjoyment. And how enjoyment was crucial to fueling their success as a team.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our great coach on This episodes is Peter Giles. Peter is currently the Australian under 19 Head Coach. A role he has had since 2011. He started playing baseball in 1969, finished in 1994; and began coaching in 1995. He won a championship in 1998 with Sandringham; and then led Essendon in the Victorian State league to 6 successive championships from 2011 to 2018. He has also coached the Australian U17 Baseball Team in 2015 was voted baseball Victoria Coach of the year. In 2020 he launched the Academy of Baseball Excellence that he now heads up. Peter is coach with a heightened focus on leading his club, not just the team of players who suit up each week. He is comfortable in his leadership philosophy in the way that only coaches with a long history of success and failure can be; and believes that his role is to be as fair as possible to everyone. His background in teaching enables him to communicate in way that engenders both belief and motivation and this translates into a mantra of asking his players to know their role and do it to the best of your ability, which you actually also hear him say in the opening theme for this podcast. This discussion with Peter is a masterclass in the art of coaching, it was actually one of the first interviews we did when we started this podcast, and his ideas have shaped many of the questions we have gone on to ask other Great Coaches. Some of those ideas include: The importance of not being afraid of bringing in support staff who are more knowledgeable or better than you in certain areas. His advice on building culture by firstly have shared belief across the coaching group in the game plan, then ensuring that every member of the team, either playing or in a supporting role, feels valued, and then thirdly connecting the teams mission to something bigger than the present team or season. Where culture is driven by the coach it is not sustainable, instead It must be led by the senior group of players in the team, and the example he gives of the All Blacks and Richmond Football Club to illustrate this. And his view that the role of the coach is to ensure that the players have a good work life balance so that they don’t burn out or have their motivation diminished. I am very excited to share this interview with you and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com You can also follow us and comment on all our Great Coaches here Twitter @CoachesGreat Facebook @TheGreatCoaches Instagram @the_great_coaches_podcast YouTube The Great Coaches Podcast LinkedIn The Great Coaches Podcast
Our Great Coach on this episode is American women's basketball coach Brenda Frese
While injured as a player at the University of Arizona, Brenda volunteered as an assistant coach at Pima Community College. After graduation in 1994 she started as an assistant coach at Kent State.
In 1999 she was appointed into her first Head Coach role at Ball state and then in 2002 to the University of Maryland. Her success with Maryland places her in the elite levels of women’s basketball, the highlights of which are:
· 2006 NCAA Championship
· the 2009 and 2012 ACC Championships
· Big Ten champions in 2015
· 4x Big Ten Coach of the Year (2002, 2015, 2019, 2021);
National Coach of the year awards in 2021, 2013 and 2002
· And a winning % of 78 at the end of the 2021 season.
Brenda is the type of calm, spirited leader who can see a clear path forward when the anxiety within the team is at its apex.
She is able to regulate her emotions, and response in such a way that it matches the moment and helps to build self-belief in others. She demands a lot from her athlete and support team, but you have the impression that she also gives more than she gets.
There were many key parts of this interview but some of the key points that stayed with me afterwards were:
Her view that great coaches are able to connect with people in a way that makes the person feel like they are worth a million dollars.
Her view that women in leadership positions need to move beyond being grateful and lead the change they want to see.
Her focus on positivity and bringing confident energy into practices and game day; as she this enables you to produce the best performance that you are capable of.
This was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this show is Philip Sutcliffe Sr.
Philip is a former boxer, who represented Ireland at 1980 and 1984 Olympic Games. He is the winner of four national titles in Ireland, as well as bronze medals in two successive European Amateur Boxing Championships.
In 1992, he and 2 friends; Paddy Wheelan and Gary Griffin took over the derelict Crumlin Boxing Club. Today that club has produced over 30 champions at local, national and Olympic level; and is notable as the club where Conor McGregor trained through his teenage years.
Philip is a coach with a strong vocation to improve the lives of people through teaching them about discipline, self respect and belief through the sport of boxing.
He believes in learning every day in the pursuit of trying to be better and in the merits of trying, of keeping on despite setbacks, so that you develop and grow. And in this conversation he talks about boxers who have risen to champion level through employing this approach to life.
Philip is the type of coach who raises your expectations and then holds that line and encourages you toward it.
Some of the other key highlights are:
The role that self-belief plays in helping the fighter as they walk to the ring for their fight and the big difference a coach can make on that walk.
The importance of physical and mental toughness in order to be able to move up the grades in boxing, and how he goes about developing strength in these areas for his fighters.
And The stories he shares about 3 of the greats that he has helped train, Katie Taylor the two-time world champion and the current undisputed lightweight champion, world champion Michael Conlan and Ultimate Fighting Championship Connor Mcgregor.
I loved this interview, there is something in the way that boxing coaches approach life that connects with me very deeply, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is the Australian cricket coach Justin Langer.
Justin represented Australia in 105 Tests, and in 2009 surpassed Sir Donald Bradman for the most runs scored at first-class level by an Australian.
He retired in 2009 and transitioned into coaching, first as the Australian team batting coach, before becoming the head coach of Western Australia in 2012. over the next 6 years he led the team to victory in the One-Day Cup in 2015, and back to back Big Bash victories in 2014 and 2015.
In 2018 he was appointed Coach of the Australian Mens team and led the team to an Ashes victory in 2019, their first on English soil since 2001
Justin is an authentic leader, and believes that great team cultures have an environment where people are allowed to be themselves.
He blends physicality and spirituality in his approach to life, and brings both into his coaching philosophy. And is driven by the desire to not only lead a successful cricket team but also to make Australians proud of the team.
He is also a coach with a strong set of ethical principles, but also as a father of 4, he understands that you can’t treat all your children the same, and so sometimes you have to be flexible to connect with an individual and help them realise their potential.
Some of the key parts of this interview that resonated with me were:
The role that mentors have played in his life, and the stories he shares about the times these people have given him advice that has changed his mindset and behaviours.
How he describes the values of the Australian cricket team honesty, professionalism, humility, learning, and mate ship. And how it’s the last one, mateship that glues the team together.
And How great leaders are clear on the path the team is going to take , and how ongoing honest conversations ensure that the team continues to stay true to this path.
This interview left me inspired and self reflective and I hope you get as much out of it as I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Norma Plummer.
Norma played Netball for Australia and was part of the 1975 team that won the World Netball Championships. In 1996 she coached the Melbourne Pumas to win the inaugural Super League Grand Final and Victorian Open Championship.
In 2003 she was appointed coach of the Australian Team, leading them to 67 victories from 89 Tests, including the 2007 and 2011 the Netball World Championship.
In 2015 she took on the job as Head Coach of South Africa and retired in 2019 having taken them from a world ranking of 8th to 4th.
In 2013 Norma was s awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for her services to the sport of Netball.
Norma is iconic coach whose influence has spread far beyond the sport of netball. She is unflinchingly honest, and passionate in her belief of treating all athletes fairly and equally.
Her coaching career has spanned 6 decades and representative teams from 4 countries, and from this experience she is able to distill deep truths on human effort and collaboration which are still fresh and relevant today.
We spoke while Norma was in lockdown in her home in Australia, and she was frustrated by this as she wanted to be courtside in NZ watching Jess Thrilby, the coach of the England team, who she mentors take on the silver ferns. However this trapped energy provided the impetus for a great conversation, so of the highlights of which were:
The importance of bringing your own personality and style as a coach, but also understanding the history of the team so that you can identify the right change that is needed. And how this change might only just be one thing, but if it’s the right thing it can make a big difference.
The importance of training under pressure so that it improves your decision making in the game.
And The positive impact you can have on the team as a coach, if you are able to manage your emotions.
This was a great conversation, with a master coach and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Sir Gordon Tietjens.
Gordon is the former coach of the New Zealand men's national team in rugby sevens; the All Blacks Sevens.
He started coaching the team in 1994 and had immediate success winning the Hong Kong 7’s.
He then went on to win the 7’s world series on a record 12 times. Along the way the team also won the world cup in 2001 and 2013, and 4 Commonwealth Games gold medals.
He stepped down as the coach in 2016 and took on the head coach of Somoa.
He has been inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame and in 2013 was knighted for his services to Rugby.
Gordon is a coach with a life-long commitment to the service of people development. As the coach of the All Black 7’s for 22 years, he helped 47 of his players go on to represent New Zealand Rugby Union. And on that list are some of the all time greats like Jonah Lomu and Christian Cullen.
He is fiercely determined and fired by a deep sense confidence that comes from the effort that goes into the preparation and planning of his teams.
He also believes in the importance of nutrition, and intense training regimes that are intended to be tougher than anything they would face in an actual match as this prepares the athletes for better decision making when they are in the heat of battle on the field.
After interviewing Sir Gordon, I can see why New Zealand is considered one of the most proud sporting nation on the planet.
In this discussion some of the key highlights for me were:
How he helps people build self-belief by encouraging them to express themselves as individuals and not be afraid of making mistakes.
His views on mental toughness and the traffic light system he uses to classify players.
The terrific story he shares about Roger Federer crying to illustrate his point that losing although painful, does not necessarily mean failure when you've given it your all.
And How the onus is on the coach to select the right people who believe in the teams culture. And the importance of character and coachability in selecting these team members.
This was a terrific and intense conversation with a master coach and I hope you enjoy it as much I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Rodney Eade.
Rodney is a four time premiership player in the Australian Football League.
After retiring he started his coaching apprenticeship, and within 5 years was elevated into his first head coach role at the Sydney Swans, taking over from the legendary Ron Barassi in 1996
In his first year he took the time to the Grand Final, only for them to lose to the Kangaroos; as a result he was awarded as the AFL Coach of the year in. He went on to take the team into the finals for 4 of the next 5 years.
In 2005 he was appointed Head Coach of the Western Bulldogs, and in 2006 the team played finals for the first time in 6 years.
In 2011 he was appointed Football and Coaching Strategist by the Collingwood Football Club, replacing the iconic coach Mick Malthouse.
And in 2014 was appointed Gold Coast Suns coach.
He has coached 377 AFL games, and owns the record of the longest serving coach without a premiership.
Rodney Eade has played for some of the most iconic coaches that the game of Australian Football has ever produced. He has also coached players who have gone on to lead their own teams to Premierships.
As a leader, he strives to find the balance between challenge and care, in order to, in his words, get the best our of the individual. He is self-reflective and mindful of some of the things he could have done better as a coach. But he is also firm in his belief, that change comes through hard work and an open and curious mind where the individual takes ownership of their own learning and problem solving.
Rodney is a great example of perseverance, and some of the key parts of this interview that connected with me were:
The importance of innovation and change to team performance, and how the leader needs to create the mindset within the group for this to happen.
How culture is displayed through the teams habits, which are in turn formed by the values that the team sets themselves. And where culture is self-regulating it is much more effective as it works against negativity.
And how Great coaches have a consistency of message; are honest, have integrity and are not afraid to make hard decisions.
This is a terrific conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is basketball coach, and former All-American point guard Pokey Chatman.
Pokey started her coaching career as a student assistant in 1991 while finishing her degree at Louisiana state university. She then became an assistant coach, before becoming the teams head coach in 2004. As a head coach she had an immediate impact leading the team to 3 consecutive NCAA final fours.
In 2007 she moved to Russia to coach Spartak Moscow, and in 2010 led them to the Euroleague title.
In 2010 she moved back to the USA to coach the Chicago Sky in the WNBA, taking the team into the playoffs for the first time in their history.
She then went on to coach the Indiana Fever.
She has also coached the Slovakian National team, been an assistant for USA teams and won numerous coach of the year awards., including the Black Coaches Association's Coach of the Year in 2004 and 2005.
Pokey is a coach who epitomizes resilience. Her story is marked by second chances and the hard work needed to rise above the challenges you face.
She is humble and yet determined, and believes that you should never let your ego get in the way of what the moment needs.
The key parts of this interview that I reflected on afterwards were
Her view that Great coaches are authentic leaders who are able to create, cultivate, maintain, and manage relationships in an emotionally intelligent way.
Her advice on improving your team tomorrow by ensuring the that everyone on the organisation has a personal development plan and that the staff commit 20 minutes everyday to helping individuals with this plan.
The power of asking questions of both yourself and the player in a bid to improve.
I loved this conversation with Pokey, it left me feeling grateful and mindful of my own humility. I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Stuart Lancaster.
Stuart played Rugby for Leeds and was the first player to reach 100 games for the club. He transitioned into coaching in 2000 initially leading youth teams until he was appointed Head Coach of Leeds in 2007. From there he moved into coaching ngland teams before being appointed England Head coach in 2011. He took the team to the Rugby World Cup in 2015 where they were unfortunately eliminated in the group stage.
Stuart now coaches for Leinster Rugby in Dublin, where he has had great success winning the European Champions Cup in 2018, and the Pro 14 in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021; and the Celtic Cup in 2019 and 2020.
Stuart is a coach with a deep passion for his craft. He is driven to learn and develop, and has visited some of the worlds great sporting and leadership organisations in a bid to share his knowledge and acquire theirs.
Stuart has experienced some wonderful highs and disappointing lows in his career and this also infuses his story with a healthy dose of humility and unflinching honesty. His philosophy is player centered, and focuses on balancing teaching with in the moment feedback, and through this he develops strong relationships with his players and the staff around him.
The key parts of the interview that connected with me were
How the great coaches have the capacity to pick the right tool out of the bag at the right time, alongside technical excellence, integrity and a good dose of honesty.
How he first deals with disruptive influences within a team by trying to lift their self awareness, through gathering feedback from across the team and presenting it to the athlete.
The importance of humility in the teams culture.
And wanting to leaving a legacy where his focus on development has been an inspiration to others, and helped them go on to become coaches.
This was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Tom Ryan.
Tom Ryan is a former All-American college wrestler, and now coach of the Ohio State Wrestling team.
During his collegiate wrestling career, he was a member of the University of Iowa 1991 and 1992 NCAA and Big Ten championship teams.
He became a Head Wrestling coach at Hofstra University in New York in 1995 leading them to six consecutive conference titles from 2001 to 2006. He then moved to Iowa to coach, and in 2015 Led the wrestling program to the NCAA National Championship.
He has won multiple coach of the year awards, and at present is the owner of a 76% match winning ratio.
From the highs of winning championships and coaching Olympic Gold medalists to the unimaginable loss of his own child; Tom Ryan is a coach with a deep appreciation for the pain that can either de-rail or elevate your life.
His coaching philosophy is infused with a focus on truth and love, Truth to help you see the areas where you can develop; and love so you have the confidence that you will be supported as you develop and grow.
I chased Tom for 6 months to get this interview, and I am so glad I did. His lessons on leadership and life are truly universal; and some of the key ones for me were
How the coaches role is to reduce stress through controlling their emotions. This reduces tension in the athlete and allows them to focus on the task at hand.
Giving feedback the moment a skill is not being executed properly in a way that is productive . And how great athletes truthfully assess themselves in a way that allows an accurate development plan to put in place.
The great story he shares about the prisoner of war James Stockdale and the importance of combining optimism with realism.
And wanting to leave a legacy of helping people to learn to love deeply; and with a few Olympic and World Champions along the way.
This was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is John Buchanan.
John started his coaching career in 1978 with minor county side Oldham in England. In his first year they won the league and cup double for the first time in 40 years.
He then went on to coach the Queensland Bulls to 2 Sheffield Shields, the first the state had ever won in their 69 years in the competition.
And then in 1999 was appointed coach of the Australian cricket team. In 8 years leading the team they won 3 consecutive World Cups, a world record 16 consecutive Test Victories, Ashes victories 2001 and 2003 and winning a test series in India for the first time in 36 years.
He finished in 2007 with a winning % of 77, a number higher than Phil Jackson, Alex Ferguson or Vince Lombardi.
He has also held coaching and consulting positions with the Kolkata Knight Riders, and both the England and New Zealand cricket teams.
John is a master coach; his record places him alongside the greats in all sports.
He is calm, insightful and with the rare ability to combine building a dynamic vision, with the innovation and the daily practice required to achieve it.
It was an immense highlight for me to spend some time with him, and the key things that stayed me with afterwards were:
His belief that Great coaches try to take people beyond their horizons, and out of their comfort zones.
The importance of creating a vision that gives the team a competitive advantage. And how your technical, physical, mental, and tactical skills come together to determine your leadership skills
The story he shares about the creation of the Invisibles term to both motivate and define the record breaking test team that he led.
And The importance of history, and how that can create a sense of belonging and energy within a team.
This was a wonderful conversation, with a master coach and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is pioneering Australian Rules Football coach, Peta Searle.
Peta played football for ten years in the Victorian State Womens league, where she was named in the all Australian team three times.
She then began her coaching career in 2005 with the Darebin Falcons and in 2006 she coached the first of her 5 successive premierships with the team.
This led to her being awarded the Victorian Female Coach of the Year in 2010.
In 2011 and 2013, she was the head coach of Victorian State Team in the AFL Women's National Championships and was named the All Australian Coach in 2011.
In 2012 she was an Assistant coach for the Port Melbourne men’s team, and in 2013 led the Western Bulldogs in the first ever AFL women's exhibition game
In 2014 she joined the St Kilda Football club in the AFL as a development coach, making her the first full-time female assistant coach in the league's history.
Then In 2019, Searle was appointed the head coach of the St Kilda Football Club women's team,
In addition, Peta received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2019.
Peta is a coach with a unique combination of resilience, and the type of steely persistence, that only true pioneers possess.
She is articulate and authentic; and focused on leaving a legacy that inspires others.
At the start of this interview, Peta was guarded, almost distrusting, but as it progresses, she talks more deeply about the facets of coaching that are important to her.
And some of the key parts that resonated with me were:
How Great coaches care for you as a human first and want to grow and develop you, and they do this through both challenging and supporting you.
How she focuses on understanding the barriers that are stopping someone from succeeding and then tries to help them remove them. And, in women's sport this can mean removing many years of socialized biases.
There is always something that can be learned from sad or low times, if you are able to change the narrative you use to understand it.
Peta is a coach that is changing the way we think about about coaches in elite sport; it’s a terrific interview, for me someone we are going to hear a lot more from in the future and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Frank Dick.
Frank Dick is the current President of the European Athletics Coaches Association.
From 1970 until 1979 he was Scottish National Athletics Coach. Then in 1979 he was appointed as the British Athletics Federation's Director of Coaching. In this position Frank led the British Athletics team into its "golden era" with Olympic gold medalists such as Daley Thompson, Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe. And ultimately victory in the European Cup in 1989.
His contribution to sport and coaching was recognized with the awarding of an OBE in 1989 and an induction to the UK Coaches Hall of Fame in 1999.
He has also coached athletes from other sports such as F1 driver Gerhard Berger, Ice Skater Katarina Witt, Tennis player Boris Becker and Golfer Justin Rose.
Amongst the many other successes on his impressive resume are a Fulbright Scholarship in 1965, the publication of 4 books, stints as chair of the British Association of National Coaches, and British Institute of Sports Coaches , the appointment as High Performance Director for the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, and strategic planning consultant for the England Rugby Leadership Team under Eddie Jones.
Frank is a master coach, and a fabulous story teller and some of the key parts of this interview for me were
His view that the great coaches have curiosity and try to look at the world differently to learn new things. They are also challenging and do this through asking good questions.
His thoughts on learning faster than the competition, and holding your self to the same expectations around learning that you have for your athletes.
And that Teams are selected for their diversity, and from that you must create harmony and so your job as a coach is often as the conductor of the orchestra.
This was a great conversation, I left feeling inspired and educated. And I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Bas Du Bruin.
Bas is a Dutch paratriathlon coach.
He started his coaching in the late 1990’s eventually becoming the coach of the National Para-triathlon team in 2013.
At the 2016 Olympics the paratriathlon team won a gold and silver medal, Bas has also coached athletes who have won World and European championships, as well as Geert Schipper, who famously won the Hawaiian ironman in 2018.
Bas hates the word para, he believes that it is just sport with equipment, and he loves the interaction of human performance and technology and using that to help people with a disability perform better.
Bas believes in trust, he offers it unconditionally and his athletes respond by pushing themselves beyond their comfort zone to find where their boundaries are.
His communication style is in his words, from the heart, and offers it in the moment, free from nuance. And focuses on helping athletes embrace their own responsibility and fixing their own flat tyres, because in the end the benefit for the athlete is greater if you don’t help.
In fact, he doesn’t even see himself as a coach, for him it is not a job, its just fun.
This is a terrific interview with a coach that has a deep passion for making a difference in peoples lives and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Surf coach Andy King.
Andy says he that started walking, talking and surfing all at the same time so it wasn’t surprising that he became a professional surfer in 1996. His career lasted for 8 years but then on a night out with his girlfriend and now wife, Nadene; he was hit from behind and fell to the round smashing his cochlear. When he woke he was deaf and had lost his sense of equilibrium.
With the help of other pro surfers he was able to receive a cochlear implant so that he could hear again. He re-learnt to walk and was eventually able to surf again, but his days as a professional were over. This led him into coaching.
He started as a coach for young surfers on the Red Bull circuit in America, and went on to coach Mick Fanning on his way to 3 World Championships in 2007, 2009 and 2013.
Then in 2013, with surfing confirmed as an Olympic Sport at the 2020 games, he was appointed as National Surfing Australia based at the Hurley High Performance Centre on the Gold Coast.
Today he is a professional coach for many surfers on the world tour.
In our interview we talk about the shark attack that Mick Fanning experienced in 2015; and the memory was particularly emotional for Andy as just 2 days prior a surfer had been killed at Greenmount Beach in Coolangatta, a place he surfs at on the weekends with his children.
Andy blends a deep appreciation for life with a desire to be the type of coach that can help improve the lives of others and the culture of the sport he loves.
This was a terrific interview, with a human that has embraced the 2nd chance life has given him and I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
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Our Great Coach on this show is Briony Akle.
Briony is a former professional netball players and now coach.
Briony played for the New South Wales Swifts in the Australian Super Netball League and was part of their premiership team in 2001 and 2004.
After retiring she transitioned into coaching, and progressed through roles with junior and senior representative sides. In 2016 she became Head Coach of the Netball NSW Waratahs and led them to the Australian Netball League Grand Final.
This result led to her appointment as head coach of her old club the Swifts in 2018. In her 2nd season the Swifts won the championship and Briony was awarded the coach of the year.
We recorded this interview at the start of 2021 season, and now the team is about to enter the finals series, where they hope to emulate their 2019 championship.
Briony is a calm and empowering coach; the type of person who is able to both develop the confidence and resilience of individuals and at the same time, shape the type of team that thrives under pressure.
She is a caring and insightful coach, who is in tune with the issues that both propel and hamper high-performance. And the type of coach who you would hope your own children can experience one day.
There are many highlights in this interview, but the key ones that resonated with me afterwards were:
How great coaches take a holistic approach and know the athlete both on and off the court. This allows them to understand what motivates the person and also what holds them back.
Her use of role plays to prepare her team for the difficult conversations needed to build both team cohesion and to address issues with self-doubt and confidence.
And wanting to leave a legacy where female participation in sport grows by addressing body image and confidence issues in young women.
This was a terrific discussion with a coach who I have no doubt will one day be leading her country, I hope you enjoy it as much as Jim and I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Brad Dubberley.
Brad is the Australian wheelchair Rugby Head Coach and former player.
Brad took up wheelchair rugby at the age of 14 as part of his rehabilitation process from an injury. Within a year he was representing Australia in a Test against New Zealand. He then won a silver medal as an athlete at the 2000 Sydney Games.
After retiring Brad transitioned into coaching and led the Australian team to a silver medal at the 2008 Olympics. He then went on to coach the team to back to back gold medals at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games.
Brad is a calm and inspiring coach, the type of person you feel at ease with as you soon as you meet them. He speaks with deep insight about the rewards that come from taking athletes and their families on a journey towards both team success and individual improvement.
You will also hear him talk about the need to keep coaching messages simply so that athletes can understand and not doubt themselves if they forget or scramble the instructions. How laughter, can relieve pressure and give the team a sense of confidence; and how his key message to everyone is Don't let the chair, stop you from doing anything
Brad is a terrific coach, and I hope you enjoy listening to him as much as Jim and I did.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Australian Basketball coach, Rob Beveridge.
Rob began coaching state representative sides at the age of 19. Over the next 27 years his career steadily progressed, with some of the key highlights being a Gold medal leading Australia at the World U20 Championships, a Paralympic silver medal, a Commonwealth Games gold medal, and a coveted National Championship with the Perth Wildcats in 2010.
Rob has also coached in China, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates the Scottish national team and for 6 years coached the World team at the annual Nike Hoops Summit in the USA.
And along the way he picked up 14 coach of the year awards from various governing bodies.
Rob is a coach with a deep focus on teaching people to become elite athletes, and to achieve this he tries to help them be the best possible version of themselves.
He is a humble, self-reflective and with enough experience under his belt to know that great team cultures take time, patience and dedication to build.
The key parts of this interview that resonated with me were:
How to be a successful coach of an elite level team, you need to be able to understand every single role within the club, so that you can match the theory with how it is actually applied, and this why serving an apprenticeship to develop your craft is so important.
The importance in re-enforcing athlete strengths in building their confidence, and getting them to focus during games.
And that if you create a positive and fun culture, people will thrive, but if you micromanage, players they start to look over their shoulder, and this ultimately impacts their performance.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Alan Smith.
Alan is the former football manager of Dulwich Hamlet, Crystal Palace, and Wycombe Wanderers.
In 1994 Alan coached Crystal Palace to the Division One Championship and was also awarded the League Manager's Association ‘Championship Manager of the Year’. In 1995, he led the team to the semifinals of both the League and FA Cups.
In 1997, he was appointed by Kevin Keegan to join his beloved Fulham Football Club as the club's new Academy Director, a role he held until 2000.
In a career that spans over 40 years he has worked with some amazing coaches, and helped develop players like Gareth Southgate and Chris Coleman who have gone on to have successful coaching careers of their own.
Alan is a positive and energizing person, with a lifelong passion for helping others develop. He is also a strong advocate for finding a mentor as a Head Coach to help you be the most effective leader you can possibly be.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Olympic Gold medal winning coach Tim Walsh.
Tim is a coach with a deep passion for learning and development, and in this interview, you will hear how he used this to transform a group of athletes from different sports into an Olympic Gold medal winning team that changed the way people think about female participation in contact sports.
Tim is a former professional Rugby player who played for teams in Australia, England, New Zealand and Italy.
He also played for the Australian Sevens team from 2002 to 2009.
He began his coaching career with the Australian Women’s Rugby 7’s team in 2013 leading them to both the inaugural gold medal at the Rio Olympics and the World championship in 2016. He left the team in 2019 with an 85% winning ratio to take on the job as the coach of the Australian Men's Rugby 7’s team.
Video link Tim Walsh's epic Australian coaching journey
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Basketball coach Felisha Legette-Jack.
Felisha graduated from Syracuse in 1989 as the all-time leader for points and rebounds.
She transitioned quickly into coaching and in 2002 was appointed Head Coach at Hofstra University. In 2006 she became the Head Coach of Indiana University in the Big Ten conference. During her six years there, the Hoosiers won 18 or more games three times and made postseason appearances in each of those years. After a six-win season though she was fired.
She was given a second chance as a head coach at the University of Buffalo, and has led the Bulls to a period of sustained success, winning the Mid-American Conference in 2018 and getting through to the Sweet Sixteen at that year’s NCAA tournament.
Along the way she has also served on two USA Basketball gold medal-winning coaching staffs.
Felisha is a coach with a deep reservoir of resilience and wisdom that comes from the long and winding road she has taken from the tenements of New York City to being courtside at the NCAA championship.
She believes in redemption and second chances, and the power of authenticity to bridge the divide with the people around you.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Mark Robinson.
Mark is a former English cricketer, who played for three different English counties; Northamptonshire, Yorkshire, and Sussex.
He served as the coach of Sussex from 2005 to 2015 leading them to 2 county cricket championships. During this time he also coached English youth cricket teams. In 2015 he became the coach of the English Women's Cricket Team, famously leading them to their World Cricket Cup victory in 2017, and then to the final of the World T20 cricket championship in 2018.
He was awarded an OBE in the Queen's 2018 New Year Honours.
And is presently coaching Warwickshire County Cricket Club in the UK National League.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Dr David Parkin (OAM) who is a former coach, and former player in the Australian Football League.
David played 211 games for the Hawthorn Football Club captaining the club from 1969–1973, and was a part of their 1971 premiership winning side.
He started coaching with his old side in 1976, leading them to a premiership in 1978. He then coached Carlton Football Club to successive Premierships in 1981 - 1982, and again in 1995.
He is one of just six coaches to have coached over 500 games.
He is also a noted academic and author. He received an Australian Sports Medal in 2000 and a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2013. And in 2010 was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.
David is an iconic coach, with the type of deep-seated wisdom that only comes from experiencing both the highs and lows of elite sport and life. And in this interview, he talks about both.
He is philosophical and self-reflective, and yet possessive of the pragmatism needed to turn this into action. He is also a life-long learner, and sharer; always available to offer mentoring, or as he calls it, being a critical friend, to those that ask.
David is the author of 5 books on the topics of Leadership, Coaching and Teams, his seminal book looks at the lessons on leadership from the sporting arena that can be applied to corporate teams.
Captain-coach leadership : performance strategies from professional sport.
Winning With Pumped Up People
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Valorie Kondos Field.
Valerie, or Miss Val as she's more affectionately known, was the head of coach of the UCLA Gymnastics team from 1991 to 2019, leading the team to 7 national and 18 Pac 12 Championships.
She was voted NCAA Coach of the Year four times by her peers and in 2016 was voted the Coach of the Century by the PAC12 Conference.
Her 2019 TED Talk, titled Why winning doesn’t always equal success, has been viewed over 3 million times, and she recently released a best selling book called Life is Short, Don't Wait to Dance.
Valerie is a passionate, warm and inspiring person and in this discussion she shares her hard won wisdom on topics ranging from the beauty of imperfection to beating cancer with a mindset focused on gratitude.
She embraces her vulnerability and uses it to reflect on her career as a coach where, in her words, shes wishes her athletes could have been led by the coach she was in the last 10 years of her career.
Valorie's Book on Amazon | Life Is Short, Don't Wait to Dance
TED Women 2019 | Why Winning Doesn't Always Equal Success
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Thomas Frank
Thomas is the Head Coach of Brentford FC in the English Football League Championship.
He started his career coaching youth teams in Denmark. His success with the National Under 17 team led to his first senior appointment with Brondby in the Danish Superliga in 2013. He turned their performance around delivering top four performances in successive years.
In 2016 he joined Brentford as an Assistant Coach before becoming their manager in 2018.
At the end of 2019 season he was awarded Manager of the Year and in May 2021, Brentford beat Swansea for promotion into to the English Premier League for the first time in 74 years.they are in the play-off to win elevation to the Premier League.
Thomas is an emotionally intelligent coach with an innate understanding of the dynamics that shape the culture of teams.
His beliefs about the importance of humility, and the value of hard work and standards are timeless. He understands that to experience the joy of success, you must endure long periods of struggle, and yet through care and what he calls, appreciative enquiry, you can sustain the energy needed to continue on.
In this interview you will hear him talk about;
How he shapes the team around the core values of Hardwork, Performance, Attitude and Togetherness
How he works with a mentor every week who uses constructive cynicism to help him stay focused on his vales and energy levels.
How he believes football is art and when create a specific picture on the pitch it gives him so much joy.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is NBA coach Jenny Boucek.
Jenny is a former WNBA player, Assistant Coach and Head Coach. The first person to hold all 3 roles in the league’s history.
She began her coaching career in the WNBA during the 1999 season as an assistant with the Washington Mystics.
In 2000, she joined the Miami Sol, also as an assistant coach, for three seasons.
Jenny was an Assistant Coach with the Seattle Storm when they won the WNBA Championship in 2004 and 2010 and the Head Coach for the Sacramento Monarchs and Seattle Storm.
In 2017 Jenny became the player development coach for the Sacramento Kings, becoming the third female assistant coach in NBA history.
In 2018 she became an Assistant Coach for the Dallas Mavericks
Jenny is a coach with a deep sense of purpose, and belief in the power of intrinsic motivation to drive you to become the best version of yourself. Her career is a study in perseverance and risk that has resulted in redefining paradigms. She is self-reflective, empathetic and focused on helping those in her circle of influence become, in her words, a better me for a better we.
This was a wonderful conversation, with a coach who transcends what it means to lead in both elite mens and womens competitions, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Heyneke Meyer.
Heyneke is a South African rugby coach. He started his coaching career in 1988 and by 1998, was a Head Coach for the South Western Districts Eagles. From the 2000 until 2007 he coached the Blue Bulls, and in that time the team won the South African championship 4 times.
He also coached the South African based Bulls in the Super Rugby competition at that time, played between New Zealand, South African and Australian based teams. And in 2007, led his beloved Bulls to a Championship victory.
In 2012 he was appointed head coach of the South African National rugby team, the Springboks, leading them to a 3rd place in the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
He has recently published his second book, My Notes on Leadership and Life (available on Amazon here)
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Mirel Rădoi.
Mirel was the former captain and now Head Coach of the Romanian National Football team.
He retired in 2015 and was immediately appointed as head coach of his old side FCSB. He was sacked because of the sides under-performance however in 2018 he was appointed coach of the Romanian under-21 side, and led them to the semi-finals of the 2019 UEFA Championship.
As a result of this, Romania qualified for the Olympics for the first time in 56 years.
Due to this success, he was named coach of the Romania senior team in November 2019.
Mirel is a passionate and trusting coach who demands the same from his players and staff. He is in an elite club of sport people who have both captained and coached their country; and in this interview you can hear the deep pride he has for Romania, and his desire to take them back to the top levels of world football.
He is also a self-reflective leader who is keen to engage the players in the way the team prepares and performs. And as you will hear, he has a strong desire to continue to learn and develop as a coach so that he can be the best he possibly can be for the club, the players and the staff.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is the coach of the Italy National Football team, Roberto Mancini.
We were lucky enough to get a few minutes with Roberto as he prepares the Italian National team for the 2021 European Football Championship.
Roberto had a successful playing career winning the Serie A, Coppa Italia and the European Cup with both Sampdoria and Lazio. He also represented Italy as a player on 36 occasions.
He started his coaching career with Fiorentina in 2001 winning the Coppa Italia. He then moved to Lazio and won it again in 2004.
More success followed when he moved to Inter Milan where he won three Serie A titles and the Coppa Italia twice more before taking over at Manchester City in late 2009.
He led Manchester City to win the FA Cup over Stoke City at Wembley in 2011. And in 2012 they were crowned Premier League champions for the first time in 44 years.
He left Manchester City, having achieved the fourth-best win percentage in Premier League history, behind only José Mourinho, Alex Ferguson and Carlo Ancelotti.
From there he joined Galatasaray in the 2013/14 season, and they won the Turkish Cup.
In 2018, he took over as the Italian national coach.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is football coach Tanya Oxtoby.
Tanya is an Australian soccer coach who is the current Bristol City Women Football Club Manager in the English Women's Super League, as well as the Under 19's England Women's assistant coach.
As a player, Tanya captained Perth Glory in their first four seasons in the W-League in Australia where she was the first indigenous captain in the league. She also played in the UK with the Doncaster Belles.
Prior to being appointed as Bristol City Coach, she had assistant positions with Perth Glory Women and the Australian Women's Under 20s team, as well as with Birmingham City.
Tanya is a calm and deliberate coach with a firm belief in the values of honesty and trust, and how these can galvanize a team under a shared vision. She believes that as a coach the trophies you win will fade, but the impact you have on people lasts a lifetime.
She is also a strong believer in focusing on the attributes that set you apart within the team and making those your super strengths. And, she shares her views on the importance of mentors, and the story about how important her own mentor, a former olympian, has become to her.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Bill Curry.
Bill is a retired American Football player and coach. He played for Georgia Tech and then spent 10 seasons in the NFL, most notably playing in first super bowl and winning with the Green Bay Packers in 1966.
He retired in 1974 and transitioned into coaching and by 1980 was head coach of Georgia Tech, leading them to the 1985 All American Bowl, for which he was also named Coach of the Year. In 1988 he was the coach of the University of Alabama and led them to the Sugar Bowl win over Army, and a tie for the SEC title with Auburn and Tennessee.
He then went on to coach the University of Kentucky and was the inaugural coach of Georgia State University in 2008.
Bill radiates humility, wisdom and optimism. He represents the bright side of human potential, and in this interview talks about the long and winding road of his playing and coaching journey, and what it has taught him about life, love and the ripple effect of our actions.
His insights are timeless, and run very deep; and he personalizes them in a way that makes the distance between us, whether we are, in his words, a guy from South Central LA or a mountain boy from the hills of North Georgia, seem much smaller.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Tamsin Greenway.
Tamsin is a retired Netball player and now coach. She represented England on 67 occasions and along the way, was part of the team that won bronze medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and at the 2011 and 2105 Netball World Cups.
In the English Superleague, she has won 7 championships; 4 as a player, and three others as player-coach, a coach and a Team Director. She now works as a commentator on Sky Sports and in 2020 she was appointed head coach of the Scottish national netball team.
Tamsin is a passionate coach, with a deep appreciation for the influence honesty can have on team dynamics and performance. In this interview she talks about;
Good team cultures are always evolving and changing so they are difficult to describe, but they are the places you want to be, even if you have had your worst day.
Helping an athlete build self-confidence requires you to first understand what is causing their self-doubt; and then working with them on a method to improve it that is tailored to their needs.
The importance of self-reflection to be honest with yourself about the things you are good and not so good at.
How the great coaches develop a culture where honest communication is a central behaviour.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com
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Our Great Coach on this episode is rugby coach Ben Ryan.
Ben is the most successful men’s rugby sevens coach in history, he is the only coach to have won Continental, World and Olympic titles.
He started his international career in 2007 with England 7’s, coaching them in over 300 matches.
In 2013 he took over as the coach of Fiji 7’s, and led the team to the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The gold medal was the first ever medal of any colour, won by Fiji at any Olympics.
As a result of that victory he was awarded the Companion of the Order of Fiji and is depicted on the reverse of a circulating 50 cent coin, and on the front of a circulating commemorative $7 banknote.
Ben has written a wonderful book about his experience with the Fiji 7’s called Sevens Heaven. Avail on Amazon UK here
He is also the host of his own terrific podcast The Ben Ryan Podcast. Listen on Apple here
In this interview he talks about:
How great coaches create a safe psychological space, within an agreed set of guardrails, that let people be the best versions of themselves and that they create psychological safety within a team, by giving the members a voice in defining the expectations they aspires to.
How his core philosophy is not making people ever feel that they're the runt of the litter, or they're anything other than valued.
The story of the Fiji 7’s team, his role as the leader and how the team was able to embrace cultural change to transform their mindset and their performance.
And wanting to leave a legacy of redefining what is possible for the small nations, and teams, on the world stage.
Video Links:
Rugby sevens team takes first ever gold for Fiji
Mercurial, Adaptable, Box Office | Fiji's Gold Medal Story | Olympic Day
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Lisa Fallon.
Lisa is a Northern Ireland Football player and now coach. She played in England as a central midfielder before a knee injury ended her career. Her coaching career began at the early age of 14, but it wasn’t until 2013 when she gained prominence as the coach of the Lakelands Men’s team in County Dublin, Ireland.
From there, she went on to coach Cork Men’s in the Irish First Division, Chelsea in the Women’s Super League in England, the London Lionesses, also in the Women’s Super League, and most recently as first team Head Coach at Galway Men’s in the Irish First Division.
In addition, she has worked as a team analyst and coach with the Northern Ireland side that reached the last 16 of the Euro Championship, and with Jim Gavin’s history-making Dublin Gaelic Football side.
Lisa is a coach with a sharp analytical mind, and a deep appreciation of the power of pointed, insightful questions. In this interview, you will hear her turn these skills both on herself as a leader, and the players and support staff within the team.
Her coaching philosophy is to facilitate each player to reach their own potential through guided discovery, and this comes across in the way she reflects on both the limits, and potential, that the role of a Head Coach provides.
She believes that Great Coaches create an environment where everybody can excel and can feel secure, and have the opportunity to feel vulnerable in order to stretch without being overexposed.
How, in high performance sport, the times never get slower, new records are always higher, and so the goal is improvement and as a coach this is something that you must commit to doing as well.
And wanting to create a legacy where a treasure chest of potential is realised as people feel free to be themselves even if they do not fit the norm.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Anthony McGrath
Anthony is an English cricket coach and former England team cricketer. He played first class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1995 to 2012, and captained the team in the 2003 and 2009 seasons. During that time, he scored more than 23,000 runs and took 240 wickets in all formats of the game. Between 2003 and 2004 he also played playing four Tests and 14 one-day internationals for England.
Anthony is currently Head Coach at Essex County Cricket Club. In 2019 Essex won the T20 Blast competition and the County Championship, the first time this has ever been achieved by any club.
Anthony is a coach with an openness and humility that transfers into a boldness in the way his teams carries themselves and performs.
In this interview Anthony talks in depth about his use of a self-talk diary, to build awareness of how your inner voice influences your confidence and performance, and then using that to build more positive self-talk.
He also discussed how being self-aware and analyzing decisions in relation to the game plan is the foundation from which you build mental toughness
And towards the end he shares how more often than not, under performance on the pitch is caused by things that are happening in the athlete’s life off the pitch.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is rugby's Damian McGrath.
Damian started his career a teacher before moving into coaching and has now coached teams across multiple countries in Rugby League, Rugby Union, as well as Rugby Seven's.
At Club level, he coached the Leeds Rhinos in England’s Super League and was England’s Assistant Coach at the 2000 Rugby League World Cup.
He has also been the Head Coach of Germany, Samoa, Canada and Spain Rugby 7’s teams winning many international tournaments.
He is the author of three books and is an Associate at Ashridge Business College.
Key topics he discusses with us include:
- Living your stated values as a coach to remain authentic and gain team trust.
- People who are successful tend to be self-reflective.
- Dealing with defeat is far more important than dealing with winning
Damian's books
- 101 Rugby Training Drills
- Almost 101 Small Sided Games and Relays for Rugby
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Our Great Coach on this episode is basketball coach, Jackie Carson.
Jackie Carson is the Head Coach of the Furman University Women's Basketball team. She also played there as a student athlete, and still hold the conference record for most free throws made. In 1999 she was honored as Furman’s Female Athlete of the Year and in 2009 she became on the third player in the programs history to have their jersey retired.
She started her coaching career in 2003, progressing through Assistant Coaching Positions at Bucknell and Madison which included postseason appearances at the 2007 and 2010 NCAA tournaments.
In 2010, she returned to Furman as the 9th Head Coach in the college’s history. Across her 11 seasons leading the team they have earned four postseason berths and 2 Women’s National Invitational Tournament appearances.
In 2014 she recognised for her contribution to the sport by being awarded Conference Coach of the Year.
Key topics she discusses with us include:
- As a woman, female coaches have to be better than the males going for the same job, and importantly show why they're better.
- Offers advice on dealing with negative self-talk and how some of the things you say in your head, you would never say out loud to anyone else.
- She believes that that winning is a byproduct of the standards and values within the team.
- Wants to leave a legacy, where people learn that you can be a mom that works, be a black female that is successful and, you can do whatever it is that people say that you can't do.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is cricket coach, Mark Coles.
Mark grew up playing competitive level cricket in New Zealand. He then started coaching both men’s and women’s teams progressing to being appointed High Performance Manager for the pacific island nation of Vanuatu in 2010.
He then became the head coach for Scarborough Cricket Club in Western Australia, before moving back to New Zealand to be the coaching coordinator and specialist coach for the Wellington Blaze in the new, national T20 league.
In 2017, he was appointed head coach of the Pakistan women's national cricket team. During this time Pakistan won nine of the 28 Women's One Day Internationals, and 12 of their 30 Women's Twenty20 International matches, and also finished fifth in the 2017–20 ICC Women's Championship.
He left in 2019 to spend more time with his family and in 2021 was appointed head coach of the Scottish women’s cricket team.
Key topics he discusses with us include:
- Focusing on the simple of task of trying to be 1% better each day through experimentation and learning
- Taking risks and building confidence by pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone
- Being vulnerable as a coach so that players aren’t afraid to come to them with their own imperfections and problems
- How winning was just getting the Pakistan National Women's team on the field given the animosity and resistance there was to the idea of a women’s team.
Article link:
Cricket coach Mark Coles moved to Pakistan for a job that paid nothing - it changed his life | Stuff.co.nz
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Our Great Coach on this episode is legendary American Football Coach, Bill Snyder.
Bill started his coaching career in 1966. In 1979 he became the offensive coordinator under Hall of Fame coach Hayden Fry at the University of Iowa. Over the next 10 years, he and Fry turned a program that had not had a winning season since 1961, into a two-time Big Ten champion.
In 1989, he became the 32nd head coach of Kansas State University. He would go on to coach them for 25 seasons. In this time, he would lead them to more than 200 wins, 18 bowl games, and two Big 12 championships.
The development of the Kansas State program is considered the greatest turnaround in college football history. And led Hall of Fame football coach Barry Switzer to famously once state "He's not the coach of the year, he's not the coach of the decade, he's the coach of the century."
Bill was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2015.
Key topics he discusses with us include:
- How Great Coaches have a prominent understanding of the environment that they happen to be in.
- When athletes believe you have a genuine interest in them, they will trust you and make the required sacrifices for the team.
- The challenges he faced in turning Kansas State Football into one of the greatest programs in college history.
- Leaving a legacy to have influenced people's values so they live a happy and successful life.
Books:
Leadership Lessons with Bill Snyder
Bill Snyder: They Said It Couldn't Be Done
Take It from Me
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Our Great Coach on this episode is rugby's Alana Thomas.
Alana was the 88th player capped to play for the Australian Women’s Rugby team, the Wallaroos representing them between 2006 to 2010.
She then transitioned into coaching, progressing through coaching club and state representative teams. Winning the Victorian premiership with Melbourne Unicorns in 2017. An achievement that led to her winning the Rugby Australia Community Coach of the year.
In 2017 she was appointed coach of the Melbourne Rebels team in new National competition, the Super W, and she is still in that role today.
In addition she has coached Australia A teams and in 2020 was also appointed as an Assistant Coach for the Fiji Women's Rugby team to help them prepare for the 2021 Women's Rugby World Cup.
Key topics she discusses include:
• building a team culture, and how the team came up with the words “I want to be a rebel like her” to describe it.
• the importance of knowing the athlete as a person first, because if you don't know the person, you won't know what motivates them.
• that it used to be that you had to perform to feel like you belonged in a team, whereas now you have to feel like you belong in order to perform.
• creating sustainable pathways and opportunities for others to follow.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Peter Moores.
Peter had a long first class career as a wicket keeper with Worcestershire and Sussex, and retired in 1998 with over 800 dismissals to his name.
He became coach of Sussex in 1999, and led them to their first ever Division 1 Championship in their 164 year history in 2003.
He went on to coach England Youth and development squads, before being appointed coach of England Men’s team in 2007.
Peter was appointed coach of Lancashire, and delivered their first championship in 77 years, making him the only coach to have won the championship with two different counties.
This lead to him being appointed as England Men's cricket coach again in 2014.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Salliann Briggs.
Salliann has represented England Women's cricket at U17, U19 and U21 level. Captaining the teams on international tours.
In 2013 she retired and began coaching, quickly progressing to Head Coach for both the England Women U15 and U19 squads.
Then in 2016 she began coaching Loughborough Lightning in the Kia Super League in the UK, taking them to the semi-final in her first year.
In March 2018, she moved to Australia as she was named as the head coach for the Hobart Hurricanes in the Women’s Big Bash League and the Tasmanian Tigers in the Women’s National Cricket League.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Joe Prunty.
Joe is an American professional basketball coach with 22 years’ experience in the NBA. He was a High School coach who joined the San Antonio Spurs as a an assistant video coordinator in 1996, progressing quickly to be an Assistant Coach under the legendary Head Coach Greg Popovich in 2000. In his time with the Spurs they won 3 NBA championships.
Joe has also coached with Cleveland, Portland, Dallas, Milwaukee and Phoenix.
He spent 4 years as the Head Coach of the Great Britain men’s basketball team.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Jan Kodeš.
Jan is a former professional tennis player and coach.
He won a total of 25 international singles and 31 doubles tournaments, the highlights were singles victories at the 1970 and 71 French Open and Wimbledon in 1973.
In 1980 he was part of the winning Czechoslovakian Davis Cup team that featured Ivan Lendl, Tomáš Šmíd and Pavel Složil.
From 1982-87 he was the non-playing Davis Cup captain.
And in 1990 he was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Dorette Badenhorst.
Dorette is the head coach of the South African Netball team, the SPAR Proteas.
She started her coaching journey at 13 coaching grassroots tennis with her father.
Whilst working as a Teacher at Auckland Park Primary School, she started coaching the schools Netball teams.
At University, Dorette was selected to play for the South African Under-21 team.
In 2012, she was appointed Head Coach of North West University (NWU) winning the Varsity Netball title back to back in 2015 and 2016.
In 2017 NWU won the University Sport South Africa (USSA) tournament.
Dorette has coached both the South African Under-19 and under-21 team.
She was part of the coaching technical team as an assistant coach where South Africa placed 4th at the 2019 Netball World Cup
Dorette was appointed as Head Coach of the SA National Netball team in October 2019
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Billy Walsh.
Billy is the current head coach of the USA Boxing team. He started boxing at age seven in a Christian Brothers gym in Wexford Ireland. He went on to win seven Irish Senior titles, participated in European and World Championships and represented his country as a welterweight in the 1988 Olympics.
He then transitioned into coaching and was appointed Irish Head Coach in 2003. He was the head coach for 12 years and from 2008 to 2014 the team won 7 Olympic medals, at that point it was 25% of all Olympic medals Ireland has ever won.
In 2015 and again in 2016 he won the Amateur International Boxing Associations World Coach of the Year.
In 2015 he was appointed head coach of USA Boxing, and was charged with returning the program to its prior glory. So far this century only 1 male and 1 female boxer has won gold at the Olympics this century, despite the fact that American boxing is the most decorated program in Olympic history and produced champions like Cassius Clay, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Leonard, Spinks, and Oscar De La Hoya.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Julia Price.
Julia is a former Australian Cricketer, and now coach. She started playing cricket in 1988, and just 8 years later was debuting for Australia against England in her first Test.
A specialist wicket keeper she played 84 One-day Internationals and was part of the world cup winning team in 1997 and 2005.
Julie started coaching in 1999 while still playing, traveling to developing cricket nations like Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands and Argentina to coach both men and women. She retired as a player in 2012 and transitioned into full time coaching.
In 2013 she coached the Tasmanian Women’s Cricket team. And then in 2018 she became the first female coach in the Men's T20 League in Australia where she was an assistant to Darren Lehmann.
Then in 2019 she was appointed Head Coach of the USA Cricket team to help them prepare for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Charlie Walsh.
Charlie was the coach of the Australian National Cycling team from 1980 until 2000. During that time he took the Australian team from a world rank of 25 to number 1. He coached cyclists to 10 World and 12 Olympic Games records winning 43 gold medals, 31 silver medals and 43 bronze medals.
He has multiple coach of the year awards, and was recognised for his services to cycling when he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1987.
Charlie is a master coach with a legendary reputation in the world of cycling.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Joanna Gamper Cuthbert.
Joanna is a trained dancer, a former cheerleading athlete, a head coach, and the current Chair of the Board at SportCheer England, the National Governing Body for competitive Cheerleading
She was a founding member of ParaCheer International where she was instrumental in helping develop the Adaptive Abilities division for the sport of competitive cheerleading.
In 2017, Joanna led Team England ParaCheer to their first Gold medal at the ICU World Cheerleading Championships.
Joanna has spent over 15 years working extensively as an education manager for dance companies and conservatoires in the UK,
She is also is a freelance consultant offering safeguarding and child protection training through Squad Safe.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Paul Roos.
Paul is a former professional Australian Rules Footballer and coach.
He began his professional playing career in 1982, eventually retiring with 356 games, 5 Best and Fairest awards, 7 All Australian selections and the 1986 Leigh Matthews Medal under his belt.
Paul began coaching in 2002 with the Sydney Swans. It was here that he implemented his high performance dialogue philosophy, and in 2005 he coached the Swans to their first premiership in 72 years. He was the senior coach of the Melbourne Football Club from 2014 to 2016
Paul was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2005.
In 2008 he was named Australian Father of the Year in recognition of his ability to balance the needs of his family with the responsibilities of managing a high-profile sports team
He is currently a director at Performance by Design
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Our Great Coach on this episode is basketball coach Sandy Brondello.
Sandy is a former professional basketball player and the current coach of the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA.
She started playing for Australia at the age of 18 and went on to represent the national team at four Olympics winning three medals. She has played Basketball for teams in America, Australia and Germany.
In 2003 she began her coaching career as an assistant with the San Antonio Silver Stars
She became a Head Coach of the Phoenix Mercury in 2010 and in 2014 won the National Title and the Coach of the Year.
In 2017, Sandy was appointed head coach of the Australian women's national basketball team, The Opals.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is basketball coach Olaf Lange.
Olaf has won 2 Euroleague titles as a coach, as well as 12 national championships across Germany, Russia and Spain.
He has coached both the German and Russian Women’s National team as well as presently being an assistant for the Australian team.
He has also had numerous stints as an Assistant Coach in the WNBA in America, where he is presently an Assistant at the Chicago Sky
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Our Great Coach on this Episode is Penny Cula-Reid.
Penny is a former player who played for the Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Rules Football League Women's competition
She has also represented Australia in the International Rules series against Ireland, as well as playing cricket at a high level.
After retiring in 2017, she was appointed senior coach of the Collingwood Women's Football team for the 2018 season, she was coach of the year in that first year, and the year after in 2019, led her team to a premiership.
She is also credited with changing the trajectory of female sport in Australia through winning a sex discrimination case that forbid girls from playing in mixed sex teams after the age of twelve. The rules were changed and girls could continue playing until the age of 14.
The documentary, Even Girls Play Footy, was made about the case (click here to watch).
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Our Great Coach on this Episode is one of the world's most successful golf coaches Steven Bann.
Steve became a professional golfer in 1979, and played on the Australian PGA Tour until 1996.
His coaching career started in 1990 when he was appointed the founding Head Coach of the Victorian Institute of Sport.
Steve has coached at over 40 majors including 19 US Masters and 6 Presidents Cups.
Along the journey Steve has coached Stuart Appleby, KJ Choi, Robert Allenby, Cameron Percy, Nick Flanagan, Hee Young Park, Jennifer Johnson and Danny Lee.
Steve has also written 4 golf instructional books, the most popular, Simply Golf: Back to Basics, which has sold more than 300K copies Worldwide.
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Our Great Coach on this Episode is Joanne P. McCallie, or as she is called by her athletes, Coach P.
Joanne played Big Ten collegiate basketball at Northwestern University from 1984 – 1987.
In 1990 she transitioned into coaching as an Assistant at Auburn University.
In 1993 she became head Women’s team coach at the University of Maine. The team made six-straight NCAA Tournament appearances, and won 9 conference championships.
In 2001, she became head Women’s team coach at Michigan State University and led them to five straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
In 2007, she was appointed head Women's coach at Duke University.
Joanne became the first Division I head coach to win a conference title in four different conferences, and the first Division I coach to be named conference coach of the year in four different conferences.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Neil Craig.
Neil has coached at the elite level across 3 sports; Australian Rules Football, Cycling and Rugby Union;
He played 319 games of Australian rules football for Norwood, Sturt and North Adelaide in the South Australian Football League before becoming Norwood's coach in 1991. He then joined the Adelaide Crowsin 1997 as an Assistant coach,
Neil was the Sports Science Coordinator for the Australian Olympic cycling team for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games
He was appointed Head Coach of the Adelaide Football Club in 2004 taking the team to 5 successive finals campaigns and a minor premiership.
Neil then worked for 6 years as a Director of Coaching, at Melbourne, Essendon and Carlton in the Australian Football League.
Since 2017 he has been high performance manager for the England rugby team, working with head coach Eddie Jones.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Carrie Graf AM.
Carrie is a former professional basketball player, coach and is presently the Director of Sport at University of Canberra.
She started her professional playing career as a 16 year old in the Australian National League and transitioned to professional coaching in 1993.
She won the National Basketball Championship in her first year, a further 7 championships followed in the years leading to 2010.
In 2004, she became the first female Australian coach in the WNBA leading the Phoenix Mercury.
She also coached the Australian National team, The Opals, to a Bronze medal at 2012 Olympics.
In 2015 Carrie was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for her significant service to basketball, particularly as a coach, mentor and athlete, and to the community.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is W.V. Raman.
WV is a former Indian cricketer and current coach of the Indian women's cricket team.
He made his Test debut for India in 1987 going on to play in 11 tests and 27 One Day Internationals.
During his career his most notable feat was becoming the first Indian to score a century in South Africa which he did in 1992.
He began his coaching career in 2006 with Tamil Nadu and in 2008 the side won the domestic one-day tournament.
He has since gone on to coach Bengal, the Indian U/19 team and as an assistant with Kings XI Punjab and Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.
In 2019, he was appointed the head coach of the India women's team and led them to 2nd place in the T20 World Cup.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Jan Stirling.
Jan is the current General Manager of High Performance at Basketball Australia.
Jan played 163 games in the Australian National League between 1982 and 1991. She started her coaching career in 1993 guiding the Adelaide Lightning to 12 straight finals appearances and five consecutive Grand Final appearances resulting in four Championships.
She became Head Coach of the Australian Women’s team, The Opals, in 2001. The first time a former Australian player, and a woman, had ever taken charge. Jan had immediate success winning a bronze medal at the 2002 World Championships, the silver medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and then gold at the 2006 world championship in Brazil.
She has also held high-performance coaching roles with the South Australian Men's Cricket team, and the Port Adelaide Power AFL team.
In 2008 Stirling was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her contribution to sport.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Eddie Bolger.
Eddie is the current coach of the German National Boxing team.
Born in Wexford, Ireland, Eddie won national titles at underage and senior levels before moving into coaching.
He joined the Irish boxing program in 2008 and was appointed one of Ireland's national coaches for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
He became coach of the German National Boxing Team in 2017.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Chris O’Brien.
Chris O’Brien is Australia’s most successful rowing coach, with 2 gold and 2 silver medals over the last four Olympic regattas.
And 6 gold with numerous rowers at the annual World Championships.
In August 2012 Chris was appointed Head Coach of Rowing Australia, leading the team to a much improved performance at the 2016 Rio Olympics where they won 1 Gold and 2 Silver medals.
After the Rio Olympics Chris left Rowing Australia and joined the Australian Institute of Sport where today he is the Lead Performance Consultant across a variety of sports.
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Our Great Coach for this episode is Tracey Menzies Stegbauer
Tracey is high performance swimming coach. For ten years she worked at the Australian Institute of Sport and with Swimming Australia coaching at both World Championships and Olympic Games.
For 15 years, Tracey coached at the renowned Sutherland Leisure Centre taking over as Head Coach in her final five years.
She has coached internationally recognised swimmers such as Craig Stevens, Ky Hurst, Simon Cowley,and Kirsten Thomson however Tracey is best known as the coach of five-time Olympic champion Ian Thorpe.
Today, Tracey coaches at Rackley, Parkinson in Queensland Australia.
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Our Great Coach for this episode is Paul Gustard.
Paul is Head Coach at Harlequins Rugby club in the United Kingdom. In a ten year career, he played more than 150 rugby Premiership games for Leicester Tigers, London Irish and Saracens.
He started coaching in 2009 at his old club Saracens guiding them to Premierships in 2013, 2015, 2016 and a European Championship in 2016. Paul was appointed England Rugby's Defense Coach in 2015, under Eddie Jones, where more success followed; two Six Nations titles, one Grand Slam, a series win for the first time in Australia and two series wins in Argentina.
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In this episode we take a seat in the boardroom with Cameron Schwab, CEO at Design CEO
Cameron, grew up as the son of an Australian Rules Football CEO and spent his childhood mixing with his football heroes. His career started in Australian Football at the age of 20 overseeing talent identification and player recruitment at the Melbourne Football Club.
In 1998, he was appointed CEO of the Richmond Football Club at just 24, the youngest in the history of the League. For the next 25 years, he was CEO of three AFL clubs, Richmond, Melbourne,and Fremantle.
Cameron holds a MBA, is a talented artist, has battled cancer and depression, and in our discussion talks openly about the parenting challenges of supporting a transgender child.
He now runs Design CEO where he helps organisations build COURAGEOUS, CONFIDENT & CREATIVE LEADERS.
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Our Great Coach for this Episode is Dr István Görgényi
Istvánrepresented Hungary as a Water polo player 96 times and was a member of teams that won the silver medal at 1972 Munich Olympics, the gold medal at the 1973 World Championships, the silver medal at the 1975 World Championships.
From 1984 to 1990, he was Head Coach of Ujpest in the Hungarian National League, leading them to a championship in 1986. From 1991 to 1994, he was Head Coach of CACEL Nice Water Polo Club in the French National League, winning the championship 3 times.
He then moved to Australia and in 1998, was appointed the Australian women's national water polo team Head Coach. That team went on to win the inaugural water polo gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. We have released this interview to coincide with the 20th anniversary of this historic win.
In 2004 he retired from coaching and set up a consultancy based on his 'Hunting Territory ' philosophy, which he created based on more than 20 years of research into team dynamics and group performance.
Dr István Görgényi TEDx Talk Deep Water Horizon: How Hunting Territory Made an Oil Rig Sink
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Our Great Coach for this episode is Mercedas Taaffe-Cooper.
Merc, as she likes to be called, has won European and World Championships in kickboxing. She is also a registered Psychologist, has a degree in Sports and Exercise Science and is an International Boxing Coach with over thirty-five years of coaching experience, having worked with numerous boxers ranked in the top 10 in their world in their weight divisions.
Born in Ireland but now living in Australia, Merc runs the very successful CounterPunch program.
CounterPunch utilises a mix of performance psychology, sports science and boxing to teach teenagers the life skills needed to manage emotions such as stress, anxiety, anger and depression. You can find more information about the CounterPunch program here
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Eddie Jones is one of the most experienced and decorated coaches in world rugby.
He has been the head coach of the England national rugby team since 2015, leading them to win the Six Nations in 2016 and 2017 and then reaching the final of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
He previously coached the Australian Wallabiesbetween 2001 and 2005, taking the team to the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final and winning the Bledisloe Cup in 2001 and 2002 against the mighty All Blacks of New Zealand.
He was an assistant coach for the South African Springboks when they won the 2007 Rugby World Cup and from 2012 to 2015 he coached the Japanese Brave Blossoms, leading them to their upset win over South Africa in 2015.
His autobiography is called "My Life and Rugby: The Autobiography" by Eddie Jones
In this discussion Eddie references the book "The Courage to Be Disliked" by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga
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Our Great Coach for this episode is Dr. Richard Charlesworth AO
Ric is an Australian sports coach, author, medical doctor, and former politician. He played first-class cricket for Western Australia and international field hockey for the Kookaburras winning a silver medal at the 1976 Olympics. He served as a federal member of parliament in Australia for 10 years. After leaving politics, he was appointed coach of the Hockeyroos, one of the most successful international sporting teams during his reign. He later coached the Kookaburras from 2009 to 2014 and has worked in consulting roles with the New Zealand national cricket team, Indian hockey, the Australian Institute of Sport and the Fremantle AFL Football Club.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com
Our Great Coach for this episode is Rohan Taylor
Rohan is a high performance swimming coach and the current National Head Coach of the Australian Swim Team, The Dolphins.
His coaching career started at the Shoalhaven Academy and moved through Carey Aquatic, Saddleback Valley Aquatics, Laguna Hills High School, Irvine Novaquatics and in 2000, he joined the coaching staff at the Nunawading Swimming Club.
Over his career he has produced and worked with some of Australia's top swimming talent; most notably Olympic swimmers Leisel Jones, who won the 100 m event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and dual Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Belinda Hocking
In 2008, he was appointed as high performance coach at Nunawading and in 2017 was appointed State Head Coach for Victoria and Tasmania.
The key highlights in this interview were
Rohan's openness in explaining his coaching philosophy of collaboration, commitment, communication and consistency.
How he describes resetting the culture of his swimming squad with a simple act at every training session to deeply reinforce that individual's are part of something far greater than just themselves.
How reflective he becomes discussing the mentoring of other coaches, and how he deals with managing moments of self doubt, replacing that with a purpose.
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Our Great Coach on this episode is Lisa Alexander.
Lisa Alexander was the coach of the Australian Netball team, known as the Diamonds, from 2011 to 2020. She finished her tenure with an 81% winning record.
Her coaching journey started in country Victoria, before she progressed to coach the Melbourne Phoenix in the national competition, taking the team to two title wins in 2002 and 2003.
She was appointed head coach of the Australian U21 netball team in 2006.
Lisa coached the Australian National team for 102 matches; winning 83 of those games. She oversaw gold medal successes at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 Netball World Cup, as well as silver medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2019 Netball World Cup.
Lisa is an articulate and passionate coach; who speaks candidly about the issues propelling elite performance. She has high expectations and standards and you will hear here talk about this in the context of team culture; and the “sisters in arms” trademark that she introduced.
Other highlights of the discussion for me included:
- Expecting her players to not only become leaders on the court but also aspiring to be a Prime Minister off the court
- How google look for employees with coaching experience
- And how coaches csocializing with athletes can create problems within the team.
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Our Great Coach on the Episode is rugby's Dwayne Nestor
Dwayne is an Australian professional rugby coach with over 14 years coaching elite level rugby. He's the current Head Coach of the Australian Women’s International Rugby Team, the Wallaroos.
In 2016, he coached the Perth Spirit to a Championship and joined the coaching staff of the Wallaroos, the Australian Women’s International Rugby Team in 2017 becoming their Head Coach in 2018.
Outside of Rugby, Dwayne is a strong advocate for the development of coaches and individuals through his organisation SiSu Life, where he specialises on the mental development of athletes and professionals in creating high performance mindsets.
Dwayne's website: https://www.sisulife.com.au/
The key highlights of this interview were
His insights in creating a suit of armour to protect yourself against self-doubt by doing the hard work in training and preparation,
Getting the very best out of his players to execute consistently under pressure
and, after so many years of elite coaching he can still be surprised by the high levels of self-awareness in his playing group.
The books Dwayne references;
'Rebel Ideas: The Power of Diverse Thinking' by Mat Syed
'Freakonomics' by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J Dubner
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Our Great Coach on this show is Dean Vickerman.
Dean is an Australian professional basketball coach and former player, who is currently the head coach of Melbourne United in the Australian National Basketball League.
He started his coaching career in 1997, progressing through roles across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Between 2007 and 2012, he served as an assistant coach for the New Zealand Breakers helping them win 3 championships in a row. In 2013, he became head coach of the New Zealand Breakers. And in the 2014–15 season, he guided the Breakers to their fourth NBL Championship in five years.
In March 2017, Dean was appointed head coach of Melbourne United and a year later they won the NBL Championship.
And in 2018 and again in 2019 he was voted NBL Coach of the Year.
Dean was wonderful to talk and very generous with his time. The highlights of our discussion are his description of their team trademarks and why it’s important that they try to make someone else in the team better. How he trusts and works with his assistants, and he shares a great story from their championship game when there is 1.7 seconds left on the clock to illustrate this; and the way he uses Blue zone thinking to remain calm.
If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com