Shaun Caven was born in Scotland and started coaching canoeing when he was 16 years old. He progressed until he was the coach of the national team in 1997.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.If you would like to send us any feedback or if 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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Great Coach on this episode 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.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:XInstagramLinkedInIf you would like to send us any feedback or if 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 Andy Shay. Andy is a former Lacrosse player who started coaching as an assistant for four years under Greg Cannella at the University of Massachusetts where he helped the team win three New England titles. Then in 2003 he was named the Head Coach of Yale where he has gone on to lead the team to the 2018 NCAA Championship, five Ivy Tournament Titles and three regular-season Ivy League Championships. Under his leadership the team also regained the #1 National ranking for the first time since 1883.If you would like to send us any feedback or if 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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Great Coach on this episode is Sjoerd Marijne. Sjoerd is a Dutch former field hockey player and now coach. As a player he twice won the Dutch National Championship and EuroHockey Club Champions Cup. He then transitioned into coaching, first with youth teams, eventually leading the Netherlands U21 women to the gold medal at the World Cup and the U21 men to a Bronze at the World cup. In 2015 he was appointed Head Coach for the Dutch Women, then in 2017 led the Indian Men to gold at the Asia Cup, before leading the Indian Women’s to their momentous 4th at the Tokyo Olympics. In 2021 he was voted 'best coach in the world of a women's team' by the international hockey association. If you would like to send us any feedback or if 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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pat Summitt was an American basketball player who won a silver medal at the 1976 Olympics and then transitioned into coaching leading the USA team to a Gold at the at the 1984 Olympics. However its as the coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team from 1974 to 2012 that she is most famous. Over her career she amassed 1098 wins and led the team to 8 NCAA championships.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 PerspectiveReach for the Summit: The Definite Dozen System for Succeeding at Whatever You DoRaise 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.If you would like to send us any feedback or if 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    Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Great Coach on this episode is Alf Galustian. 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.  If you would like to send us any feedback or if 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.

Nell Fortner is a former basketball player and now coach. As a player she went to the University of Texas and led them to the #1 National ranking and played for the USA. As a coach she has over 40 years of coaching experience at high school, college, pro and international level.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, If you would like to send us any feedback or if 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 on the topic of Leadership Identity and we are joined for the discussion by Allister McCaw, 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Great Coach on this episode is Al Scates. 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 wereThe 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.If you would like to send us any feedback or if 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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Great Coach on this episode is Bill Sweetenham. Bill is an Australian swimming coach, who first started training athletes in the 1970’s in the rural Australian town of Mount Isa. His coaching career progressed quickly and he coached at his first 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, If you would like to send us any feedback or if 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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.