The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life

Todays episode is on the topic of Culture, and it features audio quotes from 20 Great Coaches that we have interviewed on the 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 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 Indian National Badminton Coach, Pullela Gopichand.As a player Gopichand won his first National Badminton Championship title in 1996, and went on to win the title five times in a row, until 2000.In 1999 he won the Toulouse open championship in France and the Scottish open championship. And then in 2001 he won the prestigious All England Open Badminton Championships.He started coaching in 2004, and in 2008 founded the Gopichand Badminton Academy.In the last 120 years, India has won 35 Olympic medals; Gopichand has coached 3 of these from the Academy he set up.He also coached players to win 4 World Championship medals, including 1 Gold and 15 Super series titles.Gopi is a coach with a deep appreciation of the role that mindfulness, passion and belief can play in shaping individual performance.He believes that your mental strength comes from the efforts you put in to being physically strong , and that this physical strength comes from your training, recovery, nutrition and overall lifestyle decisions.He is also driven to create change in the world around him through, sharing his learning on what is required to be a world champion with whoever is willing to put in the work and make the required sacrifices.Some of the other key parts of this interview were:His belief that science, not the athlete should drive the athletic system in India. And he describes this system as being coach-led, sport science driven and athlete centric.The importance of athletes managing their life outside of their sport, so that their mindset develops in a holistic way.And The importance of having people around you who don’t just tell you good things, but rather the truth that you have to hear.It took a long time to reach Gopi for this interview, and I am so glad I preserved. His approach to life and leadership resonated with me strongly, and I hope you enjoy this interview 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.

Todays episode is on the topic of Resilience and is brought to you by the world record holding Australian cricket coach John Buchanan.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 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 Olympics in 1976, and was then Head Coach for Australia at the 1980, 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games, as well as the 1982 and 1986 Commonwealth Games teams.He then went on to be the Head Coach of the Hong King swimming team in 1991, and the Great Britain team from 2000 to September 2007. In his tenure with the Great Britain team they won as many medals at the World Championships as they had at all previous World Championships back to 1973.In all he has coached at 5 Olympic Games, 8 Commonwealth Games, and 9 World Championships, his swimmers have delivered 27 Olympic and World Championship medals and have broken 9 world records.Bill has an amazing presence, he fills the room with his energy and passion. He is a coaching guru in the truest sense of the word and in this interview we were also joined by 4 other elite coaches, who came to listen to what he had to say.And it was an absolute masterclass. He talks about meeting Nelson Mandela and the Great Boxing coach, Angelo Dundee. He shares stories of his successes and failures and reflects on what he has learnt from each. He is also challenging, forthright and motivating; I left with a soaring sense of energy after this discussion.There were so many highlights:The story he shares about meeting Nelson Mandela and the answer he gave him to the question of what lessons he learned while imprisoned on Robben island.His view that The coach sees what the athlete can't, and the athlete feels, what the coach cant and takes a marriage of both those attributes to produce a winning result.And The importance of investing in your past so that you can see your future.This was a life affirming 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.

Todays episode is brought to you by the world record holding Australian cricket coach John Buchanan.And it is on the theme of authenticity , which I experience as the desire to be my true, genuine self; but at the same time, in a way that is consistent with the role I have to fulfill and the values of the group that I am part of.It’s a tension that I often reflect on when I have decide how to communicate and engage with other people in the organization or 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 episode is Dan Hughes.Dan is an American Basketball coach with over 40 years experience.He started his career as a head coach in 1978, ultimately coaching in the WNBA for 20 years with stops at Charlotte, Cleveland, San Antonio and Seattle. He has coached the second-most games in the leagues history (598) and is tied for third in victories with 286.He has twice coached teams to the WNBA championship, the Seattle Storm in 2018 and 2020, and was twice named WNBA coach of the year in 2001 and 2007.And was an Assistant for the USA womens team that won gold at the 2018 FIBA World Cup and at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.Dan is a coach with both high integrity and empathy. He is a connector of people, finding ways for relationships to form so that the output is greater than the individual could produce alone. And he then takes great joy and satisfaction from seeing how these relationships produce success.He also embodies the critical leadership traits of selflessness, resilience and empowerment and shares some wonderful stories to illustrate these qualities in a way that makes you stop and reflect on your own character.Some of the key highlights of the interview are:His view that statistics can often leave you feeling empty, and its more importance to condense them into priorities that can people can act on.The importance of talking more about what you want people to do; not what they have done, so that it sets an understanding of what is required.And how you can become better at empowering people by being genuinely happy when other people are successful.This was a conversation that had my reflecting deeply on my style afterwards, 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.

In celebration of International Womens Day we decided to do an episode that features some of the Great Female Coaches that we have interviewed.It features wisdom and leadership advise from 14 Great Coaches, that is applicable to all of us. 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 Alyson Annan.Alyson is a Australian field hockey player who represented her country 228 times and won gold medals at the 1996 and 2000 Sydney Olympics.She transitioned into coaching in 2003, and she led the Netherlands women team to a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil and a gold medal at 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo as well as gold medals at the 2017 , 2019 and the 2021 Women's EuroHockey Nations Championship and the 2018 Women’s World Cup.This interview was recorded in late January 2022, and then in mid February 2022, Alyson resigned as a coach of the Dutch national team after a dispute with administration about the team culture. Listening back I think some of Alyson’s dissatisfaction and self-reflection comes across in the interview.What is indisputable though is that Alyson is that rare individual who has won an Olympic Gold medal as both an Athlete and a coach, and from these experiences she believes that if you are confronted and challenged by a coach then you will be a better athlete. The key to challenging in the right way is through the use of observation skills and heightened communication delivered as best as you can at the right time and location.And it seems these challenging skills may be one of the reasons some of the team felt dissatisfied with her. However as many of the great coaches have said in these interviews, the role of the coach is to challenge, in fact the iconic Ric Charlesworth says ot best with this quote: Sometimes you have to trouble the comfortable, and comfort the troubled.Alyson also believes that when you create your own pressure, you will perform better than when pressure is put on you from outside. And you achieve this through reflection on your behaviour in response to the performance challenges you are facing.Other key highlights from this interview were:How she uses failure as a positive criteria when selecting the team.How she had to learn to not coach as she played when she first started coaching, but instead go back and think about how you need to communicate to impart knowledge.Her focus on learning and growing, and in particular making mistakes and using them as motivation to keep going.Also listen out for her explanation of the Ringelman effect and she uses it with the team.This was a deep conversation, with a rare individual and 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.

In late July 2021, I had the opportunity to interview Justin, he was very generous with his time and we had an hour together while he was on tour with the team with the West Indies. It also soon after the first reports of discomfort about his intense style had emerged from some of the players via the media. When we finished the interview, we talked a little about intensity, about what it meant and why it was not necessarily a bad thing given the brief he had to repair the team culture and return the team back to its winning ways. The team went on to win the T20 world cup and retain the Ashes beating England 4-0 in Australia. By any measure this was surely a sign that the team was doing well. It was a shock then, when he was only offered a 12 month contract by Cricket Australia. The reports were that players wanted a more calm and composed presence as a coach. Last week I heard, John Buchanan, the former Australian cricket coach who lead the team to team to 3 consecutive World Cups wins, a world record 16 consecutive Test Victories, speak about the role of coach, and I thought it summed up perfectly why Justin was successful. In light of this I thought it was a good time to revisit the interview with Justin, we can never know what the team environment was like, but we can view the results, listen to Justin's words, and those of one of his players, Usman Kwaja, who said; “He brought humility back to the Australian team … I know what we played like before he was coach and I know what we played like hen he was coach.” And form an opinion of just what the role of a coach is. I hope you enjoy it second time around 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 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 Rodger Schmidt.Rodger is a former a Curling champion and now coach.He was the European men's curling champion in 1985 and two-time German men's curling champion in 1987 and 1992.In 1994 he founded the "Rodger Schmidt Curling Academy" based in Switzerland. From this base he has coached at 5 Olympics and multiple World championships, leading the National teams of 8 nations including Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Russia and the USA.He is also the author of the definitive book on Curling coaching; The five elements of curling technique which was published in 2011.Rodger has coached all over the world and so has a broad perspective on the dynamics of teams and human behaviour. He believes that there is more that unites us than separates us; and that fundamentally good habits make good teams, and also help the individual build the self-belief needed to clear your mind and focus on the execution of the required skills.He sees the inter-connectedness of our actions, and how we transfer energy from one moment to the next through the way we chose to think and move. He is quiet, under stated and conscious of the need to keep a certain distance from his athletes so they can work effectively together, but not be so close that the athletes efforts are mis-directed into pleasing him.I found this interview to be just as graceful as the actual sport of curling, and some of the key parts for me were:His focus on building deep seated self-belief in his teams so that they take to the ice confident that they are going to win every single time.His desire for all athletes to actually have a big ego, and to use it for the benefit of the team, and the slogan Wego, that he uses to illustrate this.His experience of failure at the Vancouver Olympics and how this shaped his philosophy of ensuring athletes can perform multiple roles within the team.And The importance of routines and mental keys to ensure your that you don’t over think when you are under stress.This was an insightful conversation, and 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 paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.