The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life

Today’s episode is on the topic of Strength and Conditioning coaching, and we are joined for the discussion by Dean Benton.Dean has worked with an amazing number of elite sporting clubs such as RUGBY AUSTRALIA, Japan Rugby and England Rugby, The Rugby league teams: Brisbane, Melbourne, Newcastle and Canberra and the Australian Rules Football teams, Essendon, and Adelaide, as well as the Australian netball team.He has also written and published extensively on topics related to strength and physical conditioning. He is a true authority on this important element elite level sporting teams.Dean can be reached through his website: https://www.atletico.com.au/ If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact usthrough our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rhonda Revelle is an American softball coach and former collegiate pitcherAs 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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s episode is something a little different, we are joined by Samantha Rockey to look at the ways psychology, teams and high-performance overlap. Sam has just co-authored the book: The Social Brain: The Psychology of successful groups. She is an Associate fellow at the Oxford University said Business school, is one of the co-founds of the consultancy Thompson Harrison, and also co-hosts one of my favourite podcasts, Ghost Lights. Some of the highlights from the interview are Sam's thoughts that: Its through team membership and in particular the teams leader that people experience the culture of the organisations they belong to. How the focus of leaders should be to create other leaders so that they can create a ripple effect throughout the organisation. The research that says 60% to 70% of people are stressed because of the behaviour of their superiors. And the implications of this for you as a leader. And The importance of disrupting your teams by bringing in ideas and stimulus from outside, and making sure that the membership is diverse. Samantha can be reached here.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Great Coach on this episode is Don Showalter. Don is a basketball coach who over 32 years coached in High Schools in America, in that time he led teams to 601 wins 8 conference titles and 11 district championships. In 1998 he served as head coach of the youth USA Team at the 1998 Nike Hoop Summit. Then in 2001 he became chair of the USA Basketball Cadet and Youth Committee.He was then appointed coach of the USA under 16 and under 17 teams, and led those teams to 10 Gold medals at 62 straight victories.He is considered one of the best youth basketball coaches of all time and has lectured all over the world. He also has a new book called Cornfields to Gold medals.Some of the highlights from our discussion were:The communication circle his teams use to finish training where they hold hands and focusing on connecting with each other.The importance of quote being where your feet are end quote as you cant be a coach 24/7.And How he mentors the way he was, and that means not telling people what to do, but laying out the facts for them so they can make their own decisions. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Great Coach on this episode is Tom Reeves.Tom is a rodeo rider who won the USA National High School championship twice. Then from 1985 as a pro rider, he qualified for his first National Rodeo finals, going on to win the event in 2001. He was captain of the 2002 of the USA team for the 2002 Olympic Command Performance Rodeo where they won a silver medal. He retired in 2005, and took up coaching and led Ranger College to the men's Rodeo championship in 2007, a fact even more impressive given that the team had been in hiatus for the 23 years prior.He is a two times winner of ProRodeo Hall of Fame Mentoring Award and in 2009 was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame. He has also founded the Wild Horses Building Champions charity whose focus is the prevention of suicide and drug abuse for local youths through equine therapyIf 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.

10 Great Coaches reflect on their lessons on starting with new teams and organisations.These insights will help you prioritise the key tasks when starting with a new team.Key Terms•Leading new teams•First tasks•Taking over successful teamsif you would like to listen to the rest of this podcast you can access it here: Starting with New TeamsIf 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.

Our Great Coach on this episode is Matt Thornton.Matt is a Brazilian Ju Jitsu coach, who has coached some of the greatest Mixed Martial Arts fighters in the world.He is the founder of the Straight Blast Gym, where he has developed cross training in several martial arts as well as boxing and wrestling.The gym now has over 50 affiliate academies located around the world.Fighters he has coached include Randy Couture, Forrest Griffin, and Dan Henderson while he has also helped develop the careers of coaches like John Kavanagh and Karl Tanswell.He is also a guest lecturer on philosophy and has recently published a book called The Gift of Violence: Practical Knowledge for Surviving and Thriving in a Dangerous World.In this philosophical and insightful interview some of the highlights for me were:•His core philosophy of Aliveness, which emphasizes training on timing, energy and motion through competing to deliver repeated experiments.•The idea that you can't acquire meaningful skill in Brazilian Ju Jitsu without submitting 1000’s of times. And through this approach to testing and learning through failure you achieve progress•And his belief that "frustration in the moment is almost always a useless emotion. So you run into a problem in a fight, or you run into a problem in a match. That's something that we're here to solve. That's a puzzle that will admit to a solution."Here is the link to Matt's new book: https://amzn.asia/d/asci4hFIf 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.

Jeff Traylor is an American Football coach.Jeff started his coaching career in 1989 as a High School Assistant coach. He would eventually return to be the Head Coach at his own High School. Gilmer High and would go on to lead the team to 3 state titles. His impact at the school was so profound that they would eventually name the stadium after him. He then took assistant positions at University of Texas, Southern Methodist University, and the University of Arkansas before being appointed as Head Coach at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) in 2020. In his first year he led them to the best start in the school’s history for a season, winning their first eleven regular season games. They went on to win their first conference championship, a feat they achieved again in 2022.This is one of our favourite interviews we have ever done. Jeff has great authenticity, and some unique ideas around building culture.Some of the highlights were:How the great coaches are self aware enough to know where they are great and where they are. Not. And they hire people to take the place of where they’re weak.The wonderful way he started with his new team and won their confidence by listening and working with their ideas on how to improve the team.How is history as a teacher and coach has taught him about the power of hands on learningAnd 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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hugh McCutcheon, Olympic gold-winning coach, discusses high functioning teams vs high performing teams. He highlights the importance of teamwork and collaboration, balancing individual achievement with team success. The significance of truth, compassion, effective communication, and fostering friendships in team dynamics is emphasized.

Our Great Coach on this episode is Peter Eriksson .Peter is an Athletics coach who was formerly the head coach of the Olympic and Paralympic programs for both British Athletics and Athletics Canada.He started coaching in the early 80’s after a reaching the world championships as a Speed Skater for his native Sweden.Under his leadership as Performance Director and Head Coach, the nations that he has worked with has generated over 240 medals at major International Competitions.He is also the most successful Canadian Athletics coach in modern history.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.