Talking Performance

My guest this week is Rachel VickeryRachel competed in the commonwealth games representing NZ in GymnasticsAnd is now a performance coach helping high performing teams and athletes the world over. She can walk the walk and like so many coaches has been on a journey trying to uncover how to help others.Now I used to get nervous on the first tee but listening to Rachel describe the start of her beam routine makes my nerves seem ridiculousAll of us have fear and doubt and try these silver bullet techniques to get through them, like thinking positive, but usually to no avail. Rachel helps us look with a little more detail in to the performance world I hope you enjoy this chat, I have split it up over two episodes as we spoke for 2 hours and we pick up part 1 with Rachel talking about her early career as a gymnast.Send us a textSupport the showhttps://talkingperformancepod.com/

This week I am joined by one of the best coaches in NZ, Mike Hesson. Mike has had an impressive career coaching Argentina, Kenya, Otago, New Zealand and most recently in the IPL, and having success in most environments. He took over the NZ team when they were ranked 8th in the world and achieved huge success not only at the 2015 world cup but in many ways set them up for the success that would follow his reign.But equally impressively was the way in which the men went about that, they brought some strong kiwi values to the team and were able to bring these values to life with the way they played. I hope you enjoy this chat with Mike HessonSend us a textSupport the showhttps://talkingperformancepod.com/

This week I am joined by Volleyball Coaching Legend and now Author Hugh McCutcheon. Hugh played for NZ in Volleyball at both Junior and Senior level before heading to the States to play college Volleyball. He has become a celebrated coach not only at University level but also international level where he coached the US Men's and Women's teams to Gold and Silver respectively at the Beijing and London Olympics.He has recently written a book called "Championship Behaviors"  which is a lovely piece of work which I have recently read. It was great to have Hugh on the Pod and cool to see a Kiwi doing great things on the international stage. Send us a textSupport the showhttps://talkingperformancepod.com/

This week is part 2 of my chat with Jonathan "Jock" Paget Jock is a New Zealand equestrian rider who won a bronze medal in Team eventing at the 2012 Summer Olympics.In 2013 he became only the second rider to win the Badminton Horse Trials on debut after fellow New Zealander Mark Todd.He is now general manager of High Performance at Equestrian Sports NZ, which is how I got to meet him on a hectic car ride up to Auckland on a way to a HPSNZ residential On this ride I got to hear from someone who I believe to be incredibly skilled in coaching, his understanding of human (and horse) behaviour is outstanding and I’m sure this is why he is held in such high regard. I could talk to Jock for hours, and quite frankly did, I reckon he was stoked when the residential was over and he got away from me!Send us a textSupport the showhttps://talkingperformancepod.com/

This week I am joined by Jock PagetJonathan "Jock" Paget is a New Zealand equestrian rider who won a bronze medal in Team eventing at the 2012 Summer Olympics.In 2013 he became only the second rider to win the Badminton Horse Trials on debut after fellow New Zealander Mark Todd.He is now general manager of High Performance at Equestrian Sports NZ, which is how I got to meet him on a hectic car ride up to Auckland on a way to a HPSNZ residential On this ride I got to hear from someone who I believe to be incredibly skilled in coaching, his understanding of human (and horse) behaviour is outstanding and I’m sure this is why he is held in such high regard. I could talk to Jock for hours, and quite frankly did, I reckon he was stoked when the residential was over and he got away from me!Send us a textSupport the showhttps://talkingperformancepod.com/

This week I am joined By Cr Craig Harrison for Part 2 of our chatCraig is a postdoctoral research fellow at Auckland University of Technology, founder of The Athlete Development Project and host of a great podcast, The Athlete Development ShowCraig is passionate about the youth sport space, both in the way we educate coaches and the experience that the youth have when playing sportI thoroughly enjoyed this chat with Craig and would encourage you to go over to his Podcast “The Athlete Development Show” and check out his great work.On a slightly different note, I mentioned a couple of podcasts ago that I am a fan of the “Coach Your Brains Out Podcast” and I have tried something new here with this epsidoe based on that show. The relaes their shows in roughly half hour segments which I like as it keeps me both entertained and wanting more so I have split this chat up in to two parts. Send us a textSupport the showhttps://talkingperformancepod.com/

This week I am joined By Cr Craig HarrisonCraig is a postdoctoral research fellow at Auckland University of Technology, founder of The Athlete Development Project and host of a great podcast, The Athlete Development ShowCraig is passionate about the youth sport space, both in the way we educate coaches and the experience that the youth have when playing sportI thoroughly enjoyed this chat with Craig and would encourage you to go over to his Podcast “The Athlete Development Show” and check out his great work.On a slightly different note, I mentioned a couple of podcasts ago that I am a fan of the “Coach Your Brains Out Podcast” and I have tried something new here with this epsidoe based on that show. The relaes their shows in roughly half hour segments which I like as it keeps me both entertained and wanting more so I have split this chat up in to two parts. Send us a textSupport the showhttps://talkingperformancepod.com/

This week I am joined by Allan BuntingAllan has a certain presence about him, he is a strong leader who has worked really hard on his coaching skills and he speaks to this during the conversation and shows why he is the outstanding coach that he is. In 2021 Allan and childhood friend Cory Sweeney lead the NZ Womens 7s team to Olympic Gold in Tokyo and in February this year was appointed to replace Wayne Smith as Director of Rugby of the Black Ferns ProgramThis was a cool chat for me as Allan is someone who I looked up to as a kid and now as a coach and I was buzzing after recording this. Send us a textSupport the showhttps://talkingperformancepod.com/

This week I tried something a little different. I am often asking mates for podcast recommendations and assume that other people do that too, so I thought I would share a couple that I have listened to recently that I really enjoyed and my thoughts on them.The podcasts I have reviewed are Coach Your Brains Out with Jonathan FaderI Am .... Jonny Wilkinson with Michael GervaisThe Headliners with Rick RubinI hope you enjoy this little episode and I would be keen to hear any podcast recommendations that you might haveSend us a textSupport the showhttps://talkingperformancepod.com/

This week on the podcast I am joined by Marianne Davies, Marianne is a PhD Candidate Developing a Nonlinear Pedagogy in Equestrian Coaching at Sheffield Hallam UniversityMarianne has a podcast called river tiger the equestrian podcast and a website which is dynamics-coaching.comI reached out to Marianne after listening to a couple of her podcasts which were titled “Learning in the Ugly zone” which  I loved and then listened to “Snow, Rabbits and Pooh Sticks” which links in nicely to the prior podcast.These actually started as blog articles on her aforementioned website and it will surprise many of you of know me that I actually read them. They are beautifully written, really engaging and they make you feel like you are there with her.As always I hope you enjoy the conversation, I loved it, I got to scratch my itch with regard to ecological dynamics which I keep coming back to and enjoy trying to make sense of it with some really cool people and Marianne is definitely one of themWe start this chat talking about her writing as I mentioned how I thought she did an amazing job with it. If you know anyone who you think would get value from this podcast then please share it with them and don’t forget to hit the subscribe buttonSend us a textSupport the showhttps://talkingperformancepod.com/