And Dr Brendan Meany. Brendan Meany is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant and His work focuses on implementing high-performance skills to optimize human potential in both sport and the corporate space. He is also the Chief Performance Officer of LiveFirstAI.com, he applies sport

psychology principles that manage burnout and elevate functioning.

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Eddie played Rugby at provincial level in Ireland and started coaching after becoming a PE teacher.

He would go on to coach Rugby for 35 years and counting across the USA, France and Ireland.

This journey has led his to coach at 5 Rugby World Cups and to win three triple crowns leading Ireland. That Irish team won 50 tests under his leadership and climbed to the #3 world ranking.

In recent years he has been  Technical Advisor to Brown University and Notre Dame in recent years and currently consulting with a number of Major League Rugby franchises in the US.

Q: What role does leading innovation play in my leadership?

Q: Am I too unemotional as a leader?

Q: Is the idea of one voice at a time, the right idea for my organization?

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Our great coach on this episode is John Aloisi

John Aloisi is a former Australian professional soccer player and now head coach.

He enjoyed a 20-year career across top leagues in Europe and Australia, becoming the first Australian to play and score in La Liga, the Premier League, and Serie A.

Internationally, Aloisi earned 55 caps for the Socceroos, scoring 27 goals, and represented Australia at the 2006 World Cup, three Confederations Cups, and the 2004 Olympics.

After retiring in 2011, Aloisi transitioned into coaching. He managed Melbourne Heart, Brisbane Roar, and since 2021 has led Western United, guiding them to their first A-League Men Championship in 2022.

And it left me with these questions to reflect on:

• Do I verbalise gratitude enough?
• How can I better refine failure for my team?
• What mental strength training can I instigate for the team?

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Sam is a Netball Coach. As a player she represented England but retired at 24 after a knee injury. She then carved out a long career as a lawyer working with the London Metropolitan Police. In 2005 the United Kingdon Netball Super League was formed and Sam started as an Assistant with the London Mavericks. She became the team head coach in 2014. In 2016 she was appointed as the head coach for the new franchise the Severn Stars. In 2019 she then became the Head Coach of the London Pulse leading them to the treble of the Super League title, Super Cup, and NPL tournament in 2025.

3 questions the interview with Sam challenged me with were:

•Is my organization the type of place where people know somebody will have their back if they are having a bad day?

•Am I engaging with me mentors enough to frame challenging questions of myself

•Am I calling out example of ambition and bravery enough?

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Mickey has coached 4 of the 12 test cricket playing nations in the world. South Africa, Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. 

Key highlights from his career include leading the South African team to be number one in all cricket formats. Coaching the South Africans when they scored a record 438 in a One-Day International against Australia. And Taking Pakistan to number one in the T20 and test format while also winning the Champions Trophy with them. 

He was the first non-Australian to coach the Australian Test team, and has been the head coach for Jamaica in the Caribbean Premier League, the Karachi Kings in Pakistan and the Rangpur Riders in Bangldesh. He is presently the head coach of the Derbyshire County Cricket Club and the Rangpur Riders.

Q: I don’t use non-negotiables as a leader and it made me wonder whether I should?

Q: This challenged me to consider whether there are times that I overtalk as a leader?

Q: This made me reflect on who I should be challenging more in my team?

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Their voices will complimemnt and amplify each other and at the end of this episode my hope is that you have a few ideas on how to improve the connection in your own sporting, work or community groups.

·     What are you doing when you are apart, to prepare for the times when you will come together?

·     What can you do to be more authentic with each other?

·     How can you share more information about yourself with each other in a way that deepens your understanding of what drives each of you?

·     How can you use daily, small moments to stay connected?

·     What more could you do to understand the linkages between the people who support you?

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However this is not just a story about Anders, its also about the triumph of his team Mjallby in winning the Swedish top tier football competition in 2025.

Mjallby is a town of 14,000 people with a budget that is only 12% of the richest club in the league, Malmo. Their stadium holds only 6000 people, and many of the players live in flats together and car pool into training.

In 2017 they were in the 4th flight of Swedish football, and now after theirn victory they have qualified to take part in the Champions League qualifiers.

They are led by Anders. A former school principal and miltary officer who has been involved with the club on and off since being a player there in the 1980’s. In 2023 he became the head coach on a full time, professional basis and has led them to a a championship that many believe is one of the greatest underdog stories in European football.

What can I do better to work with people's inner and outmer motivation?

How can I use my voice better to convey a sense of calm?

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The first is Mike Dunlap. Mike is a basketball coach who has led teams in US Colleges, the NBA and in Australia. He was also an assistant with the  Milwaukee Bucks when then they defeated the Phoenix Suns to win their first NBA Championship in 2021.

The second is Rugby Union coach Franco Smith. As a player Franco represented South Africa as well as playing for clubs in South Africa, Italy, France and Wales. As a coach he has led teams to National Championships in Italy and South Africa and is presently the head coach of the Glasgow Warriors.

Q: How do you mitigate the loneliness you might feel as a leader?

Q: What philosophy guides you as a leader

Q: What did you do today to lead by example?

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John is a rugby union coach who started coaching in the 1980’s. He rose through the ranks and eventually led the Queensland Reds to the Super 6 title in 1992, and then back-to-back Super 10 titles in 1994-94. 

He then went on to coach in in Ireland, France, Wales and England, before returning to coach the Australian National team, the Wallabies for 2 years.

In 2021 John became a quadriplegic. However, he did not let this define him or slow him down and he now uses his energy to raise money for others with spinal injuries.

His adventures are captured in his book Bare Knuckles it’s a terrific read and all the money raised from it go to the Perry Cross Foundation

Q: What role does pride play in your teams identity?

Q: How do you find the balance between single mindedness and being open to new ideas?

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Dell is an American Football Coach.

He played for the college powerhouse Auburn before a professional career that included stints with the Arizona Cardinals, and the Detroit Lions.

The year after retiring he started coaching as an Assistant at High School level. He eventually became a Hih School head coach and won the 2007 state championship.

He eventually went on to join the Georgia Bulldogs as the run game coordinator and running backs coach under Kirby Smart, helping them national championships in 2021 and 2022.

After 8 years with the Bulldogs he was announced as the Georgia State Head Coach in 2024. 

Q: What are the pillars that define your teams’ culture?

Q: What are some of the purpose’s that drive the people in your team?

Q: How well are you able to regulate emotional ups and downs during tough times?

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The first is Lisa Alexander.

Lisa was the coach of the Australian Netball team, known as the Diamonds, from 2011 to 2020. During that time 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.

And the second is John Kessel

John was the 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.

He is the author of over 12 books, including the IMPACT coaching manual, which is now in its 33rd edition. in 2024, he was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame and today travels around the world talking about coaching, particularly in the youth space.

Q: how do you describe great team work?

Q: How often do you catch people doing good; versus calling out areas for improvement? 

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As a player, he was part of the team that won the World Cup in 2002. He then retired and transitioned into coaching. He progressed through youth teams, eventually leading national youth teams. He was then an assistant for Markus Weise when the German women won the Gold medal at the Champions trophy. He then started to cosch the German women, with whom he won bronze at the Rio Olympics 2016, before after five years, he went on to coach the Chinese women’s national team. After a break from coaching, he returned as interim Headcoach to the Dutch women's national team, with whom he won the World Cup in 2022, and became 2023 again a world champion as an assistant to the German men's team. A silver medal at the Paris Olympia with the German men was the last medal before transition to become a youth performance manager. He is presently the youth performance manager Dutch federation.

Q: What routines do you have in place to deliver tough messages?

Q: To what extent do you agree with the idea of being a servant to the group as the leader?

Q: Has there been times when you have been ‘blind-spotted’ by a goal?

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To help me I have invited 2 special guests.

The first is Dr. Gavin. Gavin is a Doctor of Psychology and Associate Fellow at Oxford Sayyid Business School. We have had Gavin on previously to discuss Energy and Purpose.

The second is Valorie Kondos Field.

Valorie, or Miss Val as she is known, was the head of coach of the UCLA gymnastics team from 1991 to 2019, leading the team to seven 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 Ted Talk, titled Why winning doesn’t always equal success, has been viewed over 4 million times, and she recently released a best selling book called Life is Short, Don't Wait to Dance

Q: How does your organization experience thriving? What can you do to facilitate this?

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Ron is a basketball coach who started his career as an Assistant with Fresno Pacific College back in 1969. He then honed his craft across multiple Universities and in Belgium before moving in to the NBA in 1992. In the 32 years since then he has worked at San Antonio, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Boston and now Golden State. His teams have reached the the postseason 17 times, including four Finals and three championships in his time with Golden State.

Q: What role does Joy play in your organisation?

Q: What support do you have to help you discern well?

Q: To what extent does fealty exist in your team?

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Shane is a former cricketer who played for Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and Horsham, Sussex in the UK. He started coaching while still an athlete in his early 20s, eventually becoming the bowling coach for New Zealand in 2008. From there, he had successful roles in high-performance coaching with New Zealand cricket and led the national teams of Bangladesh, Scotland, and Fiji. He then had a second stint with New Zealand as the Bowling coach and Head Coach and was part of the team that won the inaugural World Test Championship in 2019. Then in 2023, he led the Wellington Firebirds to the Plunket shield in New Zealand.

Key Questions:

·     What routines do you use to open team meetings? How they can be used to deepen seflessness within the group?

·     What is the level of dispersed leadership across your team?

·     How are your development plans spread across improving base capabilities versus growing new ones?

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Scott is a former basketball player who played 160 NBA games with the Utah Jazz, San Antonio Spurs and Minnesota Timberwolves. His playing career also took him to Spain, Turkey and Greece. As a coach, he has led teams in Spain, the he Dominican Republic and the the NBA G-League as well as being an assistant coach of the Chinese and Turkish national teams. He was also an Assistant with the the Mavericks, Golden State, Piustons and Raptors, and with the Perth Wildcats in Australia.

In 2021, he was appointed Head Coach of the NBA’s expansion Team, the Tasmanian Jack Jumpers. He led them to a Grand Final in his first year and the Championship in his third.

Some of the ther highlights for me included:

Scott’s view that allowing the outside influence of social media into your mind can stop you from being vulnerable enough to dare greatly.

Question: How do you manage the outside influences that can, in Scotts words “drag dirty feet through your mind?”

How he uses vulnerability to illustrate the role that care plays in his leadership style, and how he uses this to coach hard and challenge people.

Question: How do you find the balance between telling people the truth, but also exhibiting care?

The fascinating story of how he taught his new players and club what it meant to be Tasmanian by sending them to work on an Apple Orchard. And the bloodlines group he set up of people that have shaped Tasmanian Basketball, to help the team stay connected to its heritage.

Question: What routines do you use to connect your team to the identity that shaped it?

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The way Scott talks about his evolution as a leder, from

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Gilbert is a mental skills coach who has worked with some of the world's great teams, including Chelsea FC, The English Cricket Team, The New Zealand cricket team, The Silver Ferns - the New Zealand Netball team, the Canterbury Crusaders Rugby Team and most notably the New Zealand Rugby Team , known internally as the All Blacks, for 23 years. On that journey he has been with the team for over 300 matches while  they have won back-to-back Rugby World Cups, 21 consecutive Bledisloe Cups, three Grand Slams, eight Tri Nations and Nine Rugby Championships.

He has just captured his learning and insights from this career in a book called Become Unstoppable.

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Adam is based in the Department of Sport, Health, and Exercise Science at the University of Hull, UK. His primary research is related to stress, appraisal, and coping among athletes.

He has published 3 books and more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles. His research has brought him into contact with elite-level Rugby Union, Rugby League players, as well as golfers who have won majors, where he has “learned a great deal about what it takes to perform under pressure.”

He also posts terrific content on LinkedIn which is where the Great Coach John Buchanan first brought Adam to my attention.

Much of our discussion today is based on his latest book: Psychology in Sports Coaching: Theory and Practice. Which I highly recommend.

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Colm is a Gaelic Football coach from Ireland. He has coached at the youth and adult levels, from club teams to the top level in Ireland with his County.

His teams have won promotion into division one, won numerous inter-mediate titles and competed in provincial All Ireland finals.

He is also a designated GAA Master Cocach Tutor, the author of three books on Gaelic Football training, and the owner of a YouTube channel that offers Gaelic Football Coaching tips and has been viewed more than one million times.

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Kathy led the Harvard Womens Basketball team for 40 years. During her tenure she led the team to over 600 career wins, 11 Ivy League championships and six NCAA Tournament berths. She is the winningest coach in the history of the Ivy League — any sport, men’s or women’s.

Kathy has just written a booked called Grit and Wit: Empowering Lives and Leaders. The book is co-authored with one of her players, Laura Barnard who is now a sought after leadership consultant.

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Tom Maher is an Australian Basketball coach. He started his career leading the Nunawading spectres ultimately taking them to 5 championships in the Women’s National Basketball League. He would go to win titles with Perth, Canberra and Bulleen making him the most successful coach in the league’s history.

He has also led the Australian National team to their first ever Olympic medal, a bronze at the 1996 Olympics and then silver at the 2000 Games. He has also coached the national teams of New Zealand, China and Great Britain. In all he coached at 6 consecutive Olympic Games. He was also the first ever foreign coach in the WNBA and was inducted in the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2021. 

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He then transitioned into off field leadership roles in soccer, starting with Hoffenheim in the third tier of German soccer. He was part of the transformation of that club which took them all the way to the top German league in 2008.

He hads gone on to build a successful career helping clubs transform themselves into high performing organisations, most recently with the start up club St Louis FC in the American Major League.

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The first is Mike Dunlap. Mike is a basketball coach who has led teams in US Colleges, 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, and then 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.

And my 2nd guest is Gareth Taylor.

Gareth played as a professional football player for 18 seasons. 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.

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She played in the Australian National league for the Queensland Firebirds, Perth Orioles and Westcoacg Fever before retirning in 2009. She transitioned as an Assistant for the legendary Norma Plummer in 2012. In 2014 she was appointed head coach of the Westcoast Fever, guiding them to their ever grand final. In 2020 she was appointed as the head coach of the Australian National Team and led them to a gold medal at the 2022 Commenwealth Games and the 2023 Netball World Cup.

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I am joined by Dr David Turner, who is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge in the United Kingdom and some of his students and a fellow teacher. David takes the lead in this episode and we share learning we have all taken from Great Coaches as well as how some the students intend to apply what they have learned in the world. The tables were turned at times as the students and David asked me questions as well; something which I found enjoyable but also quite challenging!

A special thanks to Wleed Mazhar, Kye Buckle, Becky Marshall, Beth Parsons and Eloise Pemberton for taking part.

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Tara is a retired American basketball coach who led the Stanford Womends bascketball team for 38 years. In that time she led the Cardinals to NCAA championships in 1990, 1992 and 2021 and 13 final fours. In 1996 she also led the US national team to the gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics. In january 2024 she surpassed both Path Summit and Mike Mike Krzyzewski as the winningest coach in college basketball history. Eventually retiring with a record of 1218 wins at a ratiopn of 81.8%.

Tara was voted the Naismith National coach of the year on 3 occaasions and the Pac 12 coach of the teas on 18 occasions. She was unducted into the Womens Basketball Hall of fame in 2002.

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Ken played college football as a quarterback at the University of Hawaii. After graduating he became an assistant at his alma mater , eventually becoming an offensive coordinator at the Naval Academy in 1995. His career progressed and he eventually became the Head Coach of Navy in 2007 and would lead them for 15 years, accumulating the most wins of any coach in the programs history. Along the way, he won 6 Commander-in-Chief trophies, 4 bowl game trophies and 3 AAC West Division titles.

In 2023 he left Navy and spent a season as the Director of Leadership at UCLA, and then in 2024 took on the head coach role at San Jose State.

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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 1970 and led teams to National titles in 1986 and 1987. He was the 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.

He has had the most profound impact on the game, though, as a coach and administrator. He worked for over 30 years at Volleyball USA and 20+ years at World ParaVolley.

He is the author of over 12 books, including the IMPACT coaching manual, which is now in its 33rd edition. In 2007, the Institute for International Sport named him a Sport Ethics Fellow, and in 2024, he was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame.

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John consults with other Olympic Sports, well over 20 in fact, and travels around the world talking about coaching, particularly in the youth space.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 1970 and led teams to National titles in 1986 and 1987. He was the 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.

He has had the most profound impact on the game, though, as a coach and administrator. He worked for over 30 years at Volleyball USA and 20+ years at World ParaVolley.

He is the author of over 12 books, including the IMPACT coaching manual, which is now in its 33rd edition. In 2007, the Institute for International Sport named him a Sport Ethics Fellow, and in 2024, he was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame.

John consults with other Olympic Sports, well over 20 in fact, and travels around the world talking about coaching, particularly in the youth space.

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Anna played in the UK Netball Superleague for Team Bath and the Celtic Dragons. She represented Wales on the international stage before transitioning into coaching in 2008. She then served as an Assistant with Team Bath and helped them to the Superleague titles in 2009 and 2010. She also served as an Assistant for the UK National team before taking over in 2011 and leading them to 2011 World Netball Series. In 2022 she stepped down as the Head Coach of Team Bath.

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Then in 2014 he was appointed as Head Coach of the Western Bulldogs and led them to the premiership in 2016. For the way he condusted himself on the day they won the premiership he was awarded the Spirit of Sport at the Sport Australia Hall of Fame Awards.

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Brian is a basketball coach. He was born in California but came to Australia as a 24-year-old to teach high school and play basketball in the late 1970s. In 1984, he was the inaugural captain of the Melbourne Tigers in the NBL and then transitioned into coaching after retirement. In a career that has spanned over 20 years in the National Basketball League, he has won 6 championships: two with the South East Melbourne Magic, three with the Sydney Kings and one with the South Dragons. He also spent time coaching in China, Japan and the Philippines. He also had two stints leading the Australian national team, known as the Boomers, and he famously led them to a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

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Rocco is a swimming coach from South Africa. He started out coaching in 1988 and by 1997 was the national coach director with the brief to develop internationally competitive swimmers; his first success came when Terence Parkin won a silver medal at the Sydney Olympic Games. He then coached the dual Olympic Gold medallist and world record holder Tatjana Schoenmaker. These days, he leads the Tuks Swimming Club in South Africa, including world junior champion Pieter Coetze.

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He began coaching in the early 1990s and went to lead the German women's Team to gold at the 2004 Olympics and the German Men to gold at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. This made him the first person in field hockey history to win gold with Men and Woemns teams. He also led the German Men's team to the 2011 and 2013 European Championship and twice led the Men's Indoor team to world and European championships.

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Guy is an Australian Basketball coach who started his professional career in 1989, coaching the Canberra Capitals in the Australian Women's National League.

He then coached the Perth Breakers and was named coach of the year in 1995. During this time, he also served as an Assistant for the Australian National Team.

He then coached the Cairns Taipans in the Australian Men's National League. In 2013, he returned to the Australian Women's National LeWomen'sd led the Melbourne Boomers to the championship in 2022. In 2018, he became Head Coach of the New Zealand women's National team, the Tall Ferns, leading them to the bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. He is presently the coach of the Sydney Flames in the WNBL.

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As the 2024 season draws to a close I was doing a review and reflecting on some of the things the coaches I have interviewed over the last 4 years have said that have stayed with me afterwards.

As I was scribbling them down, I thought I would turn it into a short podcast. And so here are my top 10 and a short description of why this resonated with me.

For some of you, listening to these audio grabs might not be so surprising, but for me, coming from the corporate world, they challenged my thinking and, in some instances, altered my behavior.

They are not in order of impact. I tried to rank them like that, but it was too hard.

I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know how you feel about it and, if you are a regular listener, whether there is a sound bite or particular interview that resonated with you. I will gather these and do a listener version of this podcast format next season.

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Roy is an Australian sports journalist and former rugby league football coach.

He started life as a schoolteacher in the NSW countryside coaching school sides and by 1974 had been appointed as the Australian coach of the Australian School boys’ team. He then became coach of a youth team at the professional club Penrith Panthers before becoming the Head Coach of the Western Suburbs Magpies in 1978. He was a Head Coach for 10 years, and on three occasions, he was coach of the year and twice runner-up on Grand Final Day. He then walked away from Coaching and started life as a journalist. In 2012, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for services to sport and journalism.

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As a player, Nicole reached a career-high ranking of #35 and won 4 ITF singles titles. As a doubles player, she reached a doubles ranking high of No.18 (September 2001) and captured nine WTA doubles titles and nine ITF doubles titles. She then switched to coaching with the Australian Institute of Sport and worked with players and coaches transitioning onto the WTA tour. She has worked with a long list of players, including Daria Saville, Ashleigh Barty, and Casey Dellacqua, and is presently the Women’s Coach lead and National Teams coach at Tennis Australia.

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Professor Sophia Jowett, who teaches at Loughborough University, joins me for the discussion. Sophia is also a Psychologist, and her work focuses on interpersonal relationships in sports, particularly the impact of the athlete-coach partnership. Dr David Turner, who has been on the podcast many times before, is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching at ARU in Cambridge, UK.

These are the links Professor Sohpia refers to:

Empowering the athlete: The coach-athlete partnership - NCSEM-EM

Working together for performance excellence | Tandem (tandemperformance.com)

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As an athlete, he represented Great Britain in 3 Paralympic Games, 3 World Games, and 3 European Championships.

Rob was part of the coaching team that won gold in Tokyo 2021, the head coach for the inaugural low-point World Championships, which won gold in 2022, and the gold-winning team at the Women’s Cup in 2023. These days, he is an assistant for the men's Wheelchair Rugby Team and works in Coach Development for World Wheelchair Rugby in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Central America.

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Dean Smith is an American Basketball coach who led the the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill men's team for 36 years. When he retired in 1997 he had 879 career victories, which was the NCAA Division I men's basketball record at that time. During his tenure as head coach, North Carolina won two national championships and appeared in 11 Final Fours.

This is a posthmous interview and I used these books to create it.

The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching

It's How You Play the Game: The 12 Leadership Principles of Dean Smith 

Dean Smith

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Vesteinin is an Icelandic Olympic discuss thrower who is now considered the most successful discus coach in the history of the sport. He represented his native country at 4 summer Olympic games and five world championships. As a coach he has worked with World and Olympic champion Gerd Kanter and Olympic silver medalist Joachim B. Olsen and is currently coaching Daniel Ståhl and Simon Pettersson the gold and silver medalists at the Tokyo Olympics. In all his athletes have won 19 international championships medals including five medals from in the Olympic Games. Vesteinn sounds a lot like Arnsold Sw and as a result I was on my toes for this terriric interview with a coach who has a deep fuctiponal specialization.

some of the key highlights were:

• His view that athletes are owned by society and so must be good role models.
• How he lays out the path to an Olympic medal requiring 70 training campes, 200 meets and 4000 training sessions.
• The role that speed and rhythm play in his training. And how describes how this must come together in the 1 second when someone throws a discuss.
• And The importance of happiness and calmness and how he helps his athletes find this so that they can perform at their best.

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As a rower he represented Ireland at 2 Olympics and won 5 medals at the World Championships in the men's lightweight pair.

After retiring he took up coaching and now lives in New Zealand where he is also a school teacher. In 2021 he was appointed the coach for the New Zealand men's eight, which won gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

As part of this, he also featured in a documentary called The Rowing Teacher.

This interviee was recorded in May 2024, and the the gold medal team Tony talks about has disbanded and did not go on to compete in Paris 2024.

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And I'm joined in the discussion by two great coaches.

The first is Valorie Kondos Field. Ms. Val, as she is known, led the UCLA gymnastics team from 1991 to 2019, collecting seven National Championships along the way. She now leads the course "Transformative Coaching: Introduction to Philosophies of Coaching and Leadership" at UCLA.

Kirk Walker, the Associate Head Coach of the UCLA Bruins softball team, has a career that started in 1984 and has contributed to six Women's College World Series championships.

We cover a lot of ground in this podcast, and some of the highlights for me were:

The alter-ego coaches can let their worst side come to the fore. This alter-ego is the person who thinks they have to have all the answers, is black and white on issues, and does not encourage discussion. Keeping this person in check requires you to focus on what success is, and that is Coach Woodens' success: the piece of mind that comes from knowing you did your best and grounding your team in fun.

Using sport as a metaphor to educate people about life supersedes the importance of the X's and O's and wins or losses. Therefore, your role as an educator is your "major mission."

Influencing people is perhaps the fundamental role of leadership, and when you do this, you are educating people.

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Tom is An American Football coach. After graduating univsierity he began his coaching career in 1998 at Texas Lutheran as a receivers coach. He then took a position in 1999 at the University of Texas at Austin as a graduate assistant under the mentorship of Greg Davis. He then joined Texas State as the offensive coordinator in 2005.From there we went to Rice where he helped set up the program. Then in 2011, Urban Meyer selected Herman as his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Buckeyes. He was then hired by by Houston as its new head football coach in 2014, before joining power house Texas as Head Coach in 2016. Then in 2022 he was announced as the Florida Atlantic Owls head coach.

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Fred is a swimming coach. He started his career as a coach in France with the club Racing Paris. He then headed over to the USA and took jobs working for people like Greg Troy to gain deeper knowledge if the sport. This would lead to him to eventally being appointed as the Head Coach for the City of Edinbourgh in Scotland in 2004, and then in 2008 the Head Coach of the Great Britain Olympics team. From there he moved to Spain and became the Spanish team head coach in 2010, and in 2022 was appointed the Head Coach of the Belgium swim team.

His athletes’ accomplishments:

• 8 World records
• 11 European records
• 3 Commonwealth records
• 9 South American records
• 6 Olympic medals
• 22 World Championship medals
• 38 European Championship medals

The importance of surprising people in traiing , so that they can see how they are progressing through different activities that shake them out of their routine.

The way he talks about athletes renting space in your head, and why its so important to take breaks and time away to keep yourself fresh and connected to your family.

How the key to success is the relationship between the athlete and the coach.

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And we put this episode together because we wanted to hear from you. If there is a coach who had had an impact on your life then we would like to hear from you. Grab your phone and send us a recording explaining who they are and what they did it that resonated with you and we will put them together into a listener episode.

Send your audio to paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com

 And just before we go the podcast, this episode is dedicated to John Rea who recently passed away. John is the father of Caitie who works with us in the podcast.

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Shaun is a former Rugby League player and now coach. He started coaching with his old club Wigan in 2003, leading the youth academy team to 7 Academy Grand Finals and 6 League Leaders’ Shields. Then in 2011 he became the clubs Head Coach and went on to win three Super League Grand Finals, a Challenge Cup and a World Club Challenge. In 2020 he was then appointed as the England Rugby League team.

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After graduating he spent time as an Assistant at Stony Brook before becoming Head Coach at his alma mater the University of Massachusetts in 1993.

Since then, he has gone to achieve eight NCAA Tournament berths, Eight New England Championships, 4 ECAC Championships, five New England Coach of the Year honors and was named National Coach of the Year in 2006, when he guided the Minutemen to the program's first NCAA Championship Game appearance.

In 2019 he was inducted int the USA Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

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He then went on to lead the British Junior and Senior teams before moving to the USA in 2008 to lead the program at Oklahoma City University team. That team went on to win National Championships leading to him being appointed coach of the USA team at the 2009 World Championships.

He then transitioned into coaching para-canoe and lead the USA team to 2016 Paralympics. In 2019 he moved to Australia and now leads the National Para-canoe team.

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Lisa was the coach of the Australian Netball team, known as the Diamonds, from 2011 to 2020.  During that time 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.

We first interviewed Lisa in June 2020, soon after she had finished with the Diamonds. And since then, she has been a great supported of the podcast, encouraging us, offering feedback and introducing us to some other great coaches along the way. Recently however she started worked with Code sports interviewing some of the top netball countries in Australia as well as a recent deep dive with Eddie Jones. The interviews go a lot further and deeper than what you often get when coaches are interviewed about their teams and so we asked her to come back on to the podcast to talk about what she has learnt through that series of intervies.

You can follow Lisa here:

X

Instagram

LinkedIn

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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

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She was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of fame in 1999, was named the Naismith Basketball coach of the century in 2000and in 2012 was awarded the Presidential medal of freedom in 2012. After 38 years leading to Tennessee, she retired from coaching at the age of 59 due to a diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. She would eventually pass away in 2016 at the age of 64.

She is mentioned so frequently by the Basketball coaches that we interview that I have decided to learn more about her life and this led me to put together a posthumous interview with her based on her words. I used 3 books to create this discussion all of which she wrote.

Sum It Up: A Thousand and Ninety-Eight Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective

Reach for the Summit: The Definite Dozen System for Succeeding at Whatever You Do

Raise the Roof: The Inspiring Inside Story of the Tennessee Lady Vols' Groundbreaking Season in Women's College Basketball 

This episode was fascinating to put together, Pats coaching style was, by her own admission, very challenging and but in the context of her background and the times in which she was coaching I can also understand why it was this way. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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Alf started his career playing for Wimbeldon in the UK. Knee injuries cut short his career and he transitioned into coaching. In 1984 he founded Coerver® Coaching, along with Chelsea great, Charlie Cooke. He has gone on to work as a Coach with 17 national federations including France,Brazil, England and Japan. As well as a coach instructor with over 50 top professional clubs including Bayern Munich , Manchester City, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Benfica, Roma, AC Milan,Newcastle United, Juventus and Arsenal.

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The highlights of her career are a Big Ten champion (1997) and a SEC champion (2009). She also led the USA National Team to gold medals at the 1998 FIBA World Championship and 2000 Olympic Games.[7] and was named the 2000 USA Basketball Coach of the Year. She is preselty the Head Coach of Georgia Tech,

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Alistair 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.

We love the interaction with the people around the world who listen, and so if you have any feedback or comments please let us know. And if their positive ones, then please let your friends know too! All the details on how to connect with us, are in the show notes or on our website, thegreatcoachespodcast.com.

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Al is  a former American volleyball player and volleyball coach. As a player, he was selected as a collegiate All American, and also represented the USA National Team. He transitioned into coaching in 1964, and went on to be the head coach of UCLA for 48 years. He went on to become the winningest volleyball coach in the history of the NCAA, securing 19 NCAA titles, which ties him for the most NCAA titles won by a coach in a single sport.

Al was selected as the NCAA coach of the year in 1984, 1987 and 1993. His teams hold ten NCAA records, including most consecutive victories (48), most consecutive home wins (83) and most consecutive tournament wins (14). He was inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1993.

At 84 Al is still sharp and insightful, and with a positive an optimistic view of the world. In our interview some of the highlights for me were

The training method he used that encouraged players to move up and down across capability groups that were separated by a blue curtain. And how this encouraged work ethic and produced an egalitarian approach to selection.

The quotes he reads from the book by John Wooden that he influenced him so greatly as a young coach. In particular the four law of learning and the stories he tells about the winning teams he had across each of 5 consecutive decades.

This was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

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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 Olympian in 1976. His swimmers have delivered 27 Olympic and World Championship medals and have broken 9 world records.

I first interviewed Bill in early 2022, and the discussion was a complete masterclass. He talked about meeting Nelson Mandela and the Great Boxing coach, Angelo Dundee. As well as sharing insights from his long and successful career. We stayed in contact after that interview, and Bill would occasionally add me to emails that he sent to friends containing his observations on sport and life. There was one particularly special one he shared which was a book he had written for his grandchildren after visiting Africa.

I recently had the opportunity to visit the part of Australia where Bill lives and I asked him if he would be open to another interview, where we could discuss some of the ideas he had shared in those emails with me. Todays podcast is that conversation recorded in June 2024. We cover mental health, team collaboration and the value of volunteering. Bill was very open and introspective as he was in the throws of finishing a book called ignorance screams whilst wisdom listens. It was agreat experience for me to spend this time with Bill and I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did,

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Barry Dancer is a is a former Australian field hockey player and coach of Australian men's national field hockey team. As a player he competed in 48 international matches for Australia between 1973 and 1979. he was a member of the men's hockey team that won a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics. He began coaching late in his career as a player eventually going on to lead the Great Britain men’s team at the 2000 Olympics. In 2001 he was then appointed the Head Coach of the Australian men’s team and led them to 2 Commonwealth Games gold, 2 Champions Trophies and an Olympic Gold in 2004 and Bronze in 2008.

Barry is a coach with a deep well of wisdom, built from many years of success and failures.

The highlight so our interview were:

•  How he challenges himself each day with the questions: what have I done today to improve the way that I or my people do things?
•  The learnings he has on managing workload and obsession as a coach and finding a balance that allows you to maintain your energy.
•  And The way he talks about the idea of Belonging and he uses it to remind people of the privilege of being part of something that has a long history, and a bright future. And how this became a motivating factor not something that weighed people down.

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Alistair 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.

He has a new book out called Mindset is Your Superpower and today we delve into it.

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Shane is an American Football Coach. He started as a coach in 2000 after finishing as player with Virginia Tech. He then held positions with the University of Tennessee, Mississippi State, the University of Georgia and then University of Oklahoma where they won 3 Big 12 Championships. He was then appointed head Coach for the University of South Carolina In 2020. IN his first year he won the Duke's Mayo Bowl and is the first South Carolina coach to back-to-back games against top 10 teams.

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And my good friend and co-host Jonathan Cole who is himself an Executive Coach are joined by the great tennis coach Rick Macci, who has worked with players like Venus and Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova Andy Roddick, and Jennifer Capriati. He is also a 7 times USPTA national coach of the year and in 2010 was inducted into the USPTA Hall of Fame. and If you have seen the move King Richard his character was played by Jon Bernthal.

And Dr. Nivedita Jerath, a Harvard-educated neurologist, who together have written a book called A Billion Dollar Mind that addresses the core issues behind negative thought patterns, and helps reshape your mindset with neuroscience-backed techniques and proven strategies.

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Her teams have gone on to win five ACC tournament championships and eight ACC regular season titles. Gail also holds the ACC record for fewest games required to achieve 300 wins (387 games). In 2007 she was the Associated Press National Coach of the Year (2007) and in 2006  USA

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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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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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.
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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 paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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.
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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 paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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.
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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 paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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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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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.
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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 paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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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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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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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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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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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 paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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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

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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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 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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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 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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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 paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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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 paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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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 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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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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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.

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 discuss the Mens and Womens Ashes with Michelle Goszko and John Buchanan and in particular the way Leadership has influenced both 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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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.

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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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.

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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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/⁠

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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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.

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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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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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.

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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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.

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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.

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 Championship Habits, and we are joined for the discussion by Allister McCaw, who has just written a terrific new book called Habits that Make a Champion.

Allister 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 Medalists, 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.

Allister's book can be found here: Habits that Make a Champion.

And his twitter feed: Allistair McCaw

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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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 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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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.

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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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.

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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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.

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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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.

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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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 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.

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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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.

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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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

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Ricky is a former Rugby League player who won 3 premierships with the Canberra Raiders as well as representing 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.

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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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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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.

Some of the highights for me were:

The way Dean talks about the things that can destabilize a team if not addressed.

Question: Which led me to reflect on what might be the potentially unaddressed issues percolating below the surface with my team?

The way he describes the teams trademarks and in particular why it’s important that they try to make someone else in the team better at each practice.

Question: Which challenged me to think how I am incorporating selflessness into my work practices?

And the power of trust which he illustrated through the story of there is 1.7 seconds left on the clock in a championship game to illustrate this.

Question: Trust is often mentioned as the currency which fuels high performing teams, and after listening to Dean I reflected on what more I can to develop 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 paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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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. 

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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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.

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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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.

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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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.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.