Our Great Coach on this episode is Carrie Graf.Carrie is a former professional basketball player and coach.She started her professional playing career as a 16 year old in the Australian National League; playing in a team that won multiple championships.She transitioned to professional coaching in 1993; winning the National championship in her first year. 7 Further championships followed in the years leading to 2010.In 2004, she became the first female Australian coach in the WNBA leading thePhoenix Mercury.She also coached the Australian National team to a Bronze medal at 2012 Olympics.In 2015 Carrie was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for her significant service to basketball, particularly as a coach, mentor and athlete, and to the community.She is presently the Director of Sport at University of CanberraCarrie is a coach with a purpose. She believes that girls are capable of anything; and through her coaching she empowers women to, in her words, “ be the Prime Minister, the President, a brain surgeon, a nuclear physicist, an Olympic athlete, an Olympic coach or a football champion”This is a wide ranging interview, and the highlights for were:How she addressed the teams self-doubt by asking them to go back to childhood and list out all the championships they had collectively won as individuals.How team values must be referenced in every training session and during the match if you want them to become part of how you function as a team. And she shares a good a story of how they score themselves on these values during time-outs in a game.The importance of using your voice assertively, so that you can help your team mates see what the next possible decision could be? And she gives examples on why this is important for female athletes to develop.And towards the end she gives great examples of how female and male sports are equal, and how you can affirm this with young girls while watching sport with them.If you would like to send us any feedback or if 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 Ben Ryan. Ben is the most successful men’s rugby sevens coach in history, he is the only coach to have won Continental, World and Olympic titles. He started his international career in 2007 with England 7’s, coaching them in over 300 matches. In 2013 he took over as the coach of Fiji 7’s, and led the team to the gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The gold medal was the first ever medal of any colour, won by Fiji at any Olympics. As a result of that victory he was awarded the Companion of the Order of Fiji and is depicted on the reverse of a circulating 50 cent coin, and on the front of a circulating commemorative $7 banknote. Ben has written a wonderful book about his experience with the Fiji 7’s called Sevens Heaven which I highly recommend. He is also the host of his own terrific podcast called aptly enough, The Ben Ryan Podcast. If you would like to send us any feedback or if 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 Lisa Alexander. Lisa Alexander was the coach of the Australian Netball team, known as the Diamonds, from 2011 to 2020. Her coaching journey started in country Victoria, before she progressed to coach the Melbourne Phoenix in the nationalcompetition, taking the team to two title wins in 2002 and 2003. She was appointed head coach of the Australian U21 netball team in 2006. And then in 2011, she was named as the head coach of the Australia national netball team taking over from the legendary Norma Plummer. She then went on to coach the National team for 102 matches; winning 83 of those games. She oversaw gold medal successes at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 Netball World Cup, as well as silver medals at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2019 Netball World Cup. Lisa is an articulate and passionate coach; who speaks candidly about the issues propelling elite performance. She has high expectations and standards and you will hear here talk about this in the context of team culture; and the “sisters in arms” trademark that she introduced. Other highlights of the discussion for me included: · Expecting her players to not only become leaders on the court but also aspiring to be a Prime Minister off the court · How google look for employees with coaching experience · And how coaches csocializing with athletes can create problems within the team. It is a great conversation with Lisa, and at the end of it I felt confident that we would be seeing her transition into coaching other sports in the near future. I hope you enjoy it.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at 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 Eddie Jones. Eddie is a rugby union coach and former player. He coached Australia from 2001 to 2005, winning the the Bledisloe Cup in 2001 and 2002. The team also reached the 2003 Rugby World Cup Final, losing in extra time to England. He was an assistant coach for South Africa when they won the 2007 Rugby World Cup and from 2012 to 2015 he coached Japan, leading them to their upset win over South Africa in 2015. In 2015, Eddie was appointed as head coach for England. They went on to win the Six Nations in 2016 and 2017 and then in the 2019 Rugby World Cup they defeated defending champions New Zealand in the semi-final before losing the final to South Africa. In 2017 he was awarded world rugby coach of the year. Eddie is an elite coach of the highest level; articulate and philosophical; he talks simply and with depth about the challenges of building cohesion within the team. He talks about choosing a captain who compliments you as a coach; the importance of constantly working on your observational skills so you can see where conflict is within the team and how training at 100% intensity and then stopping when the team falls below that for a full minute, can lead to better performance. I hope you enjoy it. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at 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 Tamsin Greenway. Tamsin is a retired Netball player and now coach. She represented England on 67 occasions and along the way, was part of the team that won bronze medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and at the 2011 and 2015 Netball World Cups. In the English Superleague, she has won 7 championships; 4 as a player, and three others as player-coach, a coach and a Team Director. Tamsin now works as a commentator on Sky Sports and in 2020 she was appointed head coach of the Scottish national netball team. Tamsin is a passionate coach, with a deep appreciation for the influence honesty can have on team dynamics and performance. She is self-reflective, and committed to learning and developing, which is evidenced by her amazing career journey so far. She is also determined, optimistic and a firm believer that, in her words, as a female coach your life doesn’t stop because you have children. The keys parts of this discussion for me were, That good team cultures are always evolving and changing so they are difficult to describe, but they are the places you want to be, even if you have had your worst day. How, her experience as a playing coach taught her about the need to separate herself a little from the players to gain perspective, and then use this to help better manage the players and her own emotions. And that winning is not always the end of the goal for people in the team, and you need to take the time to understand why the athletes are there, and what they want to achieve along the way. This was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at 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 show is Ric Charlesworth.Ric is an Australian sports coach and former politician. He played first-class cricket for Western Australia and international field hockey for Australia winning a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics. He also served as a federal member of parliament from 1983 to 1993.He was appointed coach of the Australian Womens Hockey team in 1993 leading them to Olympic gold medals in 1996 and 2000.He later coached the Australian Men’s Hockey Team leading them to win the World Championship and a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games.He has also worked in consulting roles with the New Zealand national cricket team, the Australian Institute of Sport, and the Fremantle Football Club.Ric has been awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 1987 and an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). And just to top it off was awarded the Australian Team Coach of the Year 1994, 1996, 1997,1998,1999,2000.Ric is an icon of coaching in Australia and it was an honor to interview him. There are many, many nuggets of insight that he shares; but it was his thoughts on mining for and managing conflict and homosexuality in female versus male sport that resonated the most.I hope you enjoy it.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at 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 Gary Kirsten.Gary played 101 Test matches and 185 One Day Internationals for South Africa between 1993 and 2004. He retired as the first ever South African to play in 100 tests, and the first Test batsman to make hundreds against each of the other 9 Test nations.He became the coach of the Indian cricket team in 2008 and led them to win the World Cup 2011, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy vs Australia in 2009, the first ever test series win in New Zealand and to become the become the top-ranked team in Test matches.In 2011 he was appointed as head coach of South Africa, and led them to also become the #1 ranked test team.He has also coached the Hobart Hurricanes in the Australian Big Bash League and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.Gary is a coach who is deeply authentic, and comfortable expressing both his own vulnerabilities, and heightened expectations.He believes that the quality of his coaching is determined by the effectiveness of his facilitation skills, and so is reflective and philosophical about the techniques needed to reach the athletes he leads.He is that rare breed of person who has been able to reach the pinnacle of his sport as both an athlete and coach, and this lends his story an added layer of credibility, whether it is talking about the deficit of mental skills he experienced as a batsman, or the importance of understanding what the environment requires of you as a leader.Gary is a master coach and human being, and there were many highlights for me in this interview, some of the key ones wereThe story he shares about winning the World Cup with India, and how it was a change in behaviours that helped achieve this result.How as a player he always thrived in an environment where there was deep psychological safety.And, how the best athletes in the world are able to separate the result from their performance, and how this helps them manage their anxiety and expectations.This was a great interview, a real highlight for me, and I hope you enjoy it as much I did.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at 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 Conor O’Shea.Conor was capped 35 times for Ireland and represented them at the 1995 and 1999 Rugby World Cups.After his playing career ended, he became Director of Rugby at London Irish and was awarded Zurich Rugby Director of the Season in 2002.He then joined Harlequins as Director of Rugby in 2011 leading them to win the premiership in 2012.Conor then became Head Coach of the Italian National Team in 2016 and had immediate impact leading the team in the first ever win over South Africa. He also led the team to the 2019 World Cup in Japan.He is presently the England Rugby Union's director of performance.Conor is that rare breed of person who has played and coached Rugby at the most elite level, the World Cup, and been able to succeed in off-field leadership positions such as the National Director of the English Institute of Sport. He succeeds through his ability to empathize with people at all levels in the organisation, and communicate with them in a way that engenders action and alignment.He is charismatic, engaging, and believes, in his words, in being all in, on what you are passionate about. This translates into an innovative view of coaching, where he pushes his teams to move beyond the fear of failure, and try and ultimately achieve things they haven’t done before.This was a fun conversation, and some of the key highlights for me were:The need to look beyond your own ego and focus on the contribution you are making to the future success of the team or organisation you are a part of for that brief moment.The importance of a mix of personalities within the team, and this includes the Mavericks; where everyone’s individuality is embraced but their energy is united behind the teams goals.And the way he summarized the team values at Harlequins using the word TRUE, which stood for Tempo, Ruthless, Unpredictable and Enjoyment. And how enjoyment was crucial to fueling their success as a team.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at 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 episodes is Peter Giles. Peter is currently the Australian under 19 Baseball Head Coach. A role he has had since 2011. He started playing baseball in 1969, finished in 1994; and began coaching in 1995. He won a championship in 1998 with Sandringham; and then led Essendon in the Victorian State league to 6 successive championships from 2011 to 2018. He has also coached the Australian U17 Baseball Team in 2015 was voted baseball Victoria Coach of the year. In 2020 he launched the Academy of Baseball Excellence that he now heads up. If you would like to send us any feedback or if 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 American women's basketball coach Brenda FreseWhile injured as a player at the University of Arizona, Brenda volunteered as an assistant coach at Pima Community College. After graduation in 1994 she started as an assistant coach at Kent State.In 1999 she was appointed into her first Head Coach role at Ball state and then in 2002 to the University of Maryland. Her success with Maryland places her in the elite levels of women’s basketball, the highlights of which are:· 2006 NCAA Championship· the 2009 and 2012 ACC Championships· Big Ten champions in 2015· 4x Big Ten Coach of the Year (2002, 2015, 2019, 2021); National Coach of the year awards in 2021, 2013 and 2002· And a winning % of 78 at the end of the 2021 season.Brenda is the type of calm, spirited leader who can see a clear path forward when the anxiety within the team is at its apex.She is able to regulate her emotions, and response in such a way that it matches the moment and helps to build self-belief in others. She demands a lot from her athlete and support team, but you have the impression that she also gives more than she gets.There were many key parts of this interview but some of the key points that stayed with me afterwards were:Her view that great coaches are able to connect with people in a way that makes the person feel like they are worth a million dollars.Her view that women in leadership positions need to move beyond being grateful and lead the change they want to see.Her focus on positivity and bringing confident energy into practices and game day; as she this enables you to produce the best performance that you are capable of.If you would like to send us any feedback or if 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.