The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life

Becky is an American soccer coach who has just retired after leading the University of Florida Gators for 26 years.She was the inaugural coach in 1994, and went on to win the NCAA title in 1998. She retired with a winning percentage of 75, and ranks second in total number of all-time wins among Division I coaches. In her time at Florida she also led the team to 14 SEC championships.With her colleague Brett Ledbetter she also runs the very successful What Drives Winning conferences that bring together Great Coaches from all over the world.In this interview some of the key highlights for me were:·     Her belief that there is no task that is so important or critical that it should stop you from her bringing your best energy to the team.·     Her view on the importance of courage as a coach.·     That the way you treat people is more important that the tactics you deploy.·     And the story she shares about how she controls her emotions during a game. Which I think has great applicability in the work place.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.

As a player, Sean was a Goalie at Springfield and was twice names All American.Sean coached Endicott University from 1998 to 2015, leading them to 8 CCC Championships, as well as taking the Division 3 school to as high as 5 in the National rankings. He has coached 21 All American players. And in 2020 led the the Cannons in the Premier Lacrosse League, to the Championship.Sean is a terrific leader and role model and in this interview some of the highlights for me were:The role that positivity plays in correcting and sustaining cultureThe pillars of respect, trust and accountability that shape his teams; and how he talks about bringing these things to life in everyday actions.And The story he tells about starting as a head coach at 26 years old with a team and writing to each player individually, and then maintaining that connection over the years. 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.

Professor Cliff Mallett, an Olympic-winning coach and sports psychology expert, teams up with Professor Sergio Lara-Bercial, an international basketball coach and renowned educator, to discuss insights from their new book on serial winning coaches. They dive into the importance of building connections before corrections in coaching and cultivating a shared purpose. The conversation also highlights the significance of trust, accountability, and self-reflection in developing strong team dynamics and fostering personal growth within coaching.

Kevin is an American paralympic athlete and now Wheelchair Rugby coach.As an athlete he won 2 Bronze medals at the 1988 Paralympics, before transitioning into coaching Wheelchair Rugby in 1992. His team, Lakeshore then went on to 5 consecutive National Titles. This led to him being appointed Team USA coach where we won a silver at 2002 World Championships and a Bronze at the 2004 Paralympics. In 2009 he was appointed coach of the Canadian National team and led them to a silver medal at the 2012 Paralympics and gold at the 2015 World Wheelchair Rugby Challenge. He is presently the head coach of the Japan Wheelchair Rugby team where he led them to Bronze at the 2022 world Championships.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 rugby's Damian McGrath.Damian started life as a teacher, but then in his words “took a gamble” and moved into professional coaching. He has now coached teams across multiple countries, in both rugby league, Rugby union, as well as Rugby sevens. He has coached at Club level with the Leeds Rhinos in England’s Super League and was England’s Assistant Coach at the 2000 Rugby League World Cup. In 2015 he became Head Coach of the Samoan National 7s team leading them to a Cup success in Paris. He then took over as Head Coach of the Canadian National 7s team leading them to a historic Cup success in Singapore. He also coached national Rugby 7’s teams of Germany and Kenya.He has just released a new book: Can You Be Fluent In Success?The highlights are:  How he uses the play by Thomas Moore, A Man for all season to describe the roles a coach must play.The story she he shares about the bass player Herby Flowers who played the famous riff on Lou Reeds son Walk on the wildside. To illustrate how coaches get the most from the options available to them.His theory on the doubt percentage and how he uses this to find that little bit extra in people.And the idea of a mental highlights reel and how he has used it during his career to fortify his confidence.  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.

Muffet is an American Basketball coach who led the women’s team at Notre Dame for 33 seasons.In all she led the team to 9 final fours, 7 championship games and 2 NCAA champion ships in 2001 and 2018.She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and Legends of Coaching award in 2017. Some of the highlights include: Her thoughts on empowering young women and doing this through a mixture of listening and encouraging them to use their voice to talk about things that are important to them. How believing in people after they fail at something is one of the most important things a leader can do. Her view that women are often not taught that it is not OK to be competitive and ambitious, and the work she does to help women understand that it is OK to be like this on the court.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.

Doug is a former Ice Hockey Head Coach, GM, and sportscaster and he has just written a terrific new book called Draft Day: How Hockey Teams Pick Winners or Get Left Behind.  Doug is a great story teller and some of the highlights of our discussion were;The importance of scouting staff, and how in Hockey they have to cover Canada, the USA. And key parts of Europe like Czech, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden, Finland and Russia. How he talks about the tension between scouting and analytics, and describes analytics as the salt and pepper you put on your meal. The way he talks about trading for the future, not the past. And the story he tells about his biggest draft mistake and how it ended up costing him personally 30 million.If you have any comments or feedback you can reach us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mike Hesson is New Zealand cricket coach.He started his coaching career in his early 20’s while playing in the UK. From there he progressed through Assistant coaching before accepting a the role as Argentina’s head coach in 2003. He returned to New Zealand and became Head Coach of Otago and leading them to the 2008 one-day trophy and the 2009 T20 championship.In 2011 he took on the job of Head Coach of Kenya before being appointed the Head Coach of the New Zealand national team, the Black Caps in 2012. He went on to take them from a One-Day international ranking of 8th to 2nd by the time he left the role in 2018. He finished his tenure as one of the most successful coaches I the nations history with highlights including a record breaking 13 game winning streak. He has gone on to coach the Kings in the IPL and Islamabad in the Pakistan Super League.Some of the highlights include: On being comfortable with silence and not feeling like you have to always fill it as a coach with information. But instead using it as a space to observe and gather information so you can be helpful later on.The way he uses questions to help lead people, as he believes that the majority of the team the player has the answer they just haven’t been asked the right question.The importance of authenticity and in his words “if I want my players to believe in me and trust me and have relationship with me, they need to know that it's actually me rather than me trying to be somebody else.”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.

Vern is that rare individual who has coached at the elite level across multiple sports. His foundation is in Track & Field coaching, however over a career that spans almost 50 years he has worked in Major League Soccer, Major League Baseball, the NBA, Cricket, the NHL, Softball, Swimming and with San Francisco Forty Niners. Kansas City Chiefs. He is also the author of 9 books and over 100 articles. By any sense of the definition he is a coaching polymath.In this terrific interview some of the key highlights were:Verns view on The importance of pointing out an athlete’s negative self-talk and working with them on reframing it. How he defines mental training as mind plus muscle equals life. The importance of rhythm when it comes to analyzing elite performance. And How he describes his philosophy of trying to help the best be better. And how he tries to achieve this as a coach by helping prepare the athlete for the path ahead, not preparing the path for 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.

Anson is an American soccer coach (in the USA it is referred to as soccer not Football) who is currently the Head Coach of the Womens Team at the University of North Carolina. Under his leadership the team has won 21 of the 31 NCAA Championships. His teams have a winning record of 91%. He has been named the NCAA coach of the year on 8 occasions. In 1991 he also led the USA team to the first Womens World Cup. The USA have gone on to win the World Cup and 4 occasions and one-third of the players in those teams have come through Ansons team at North Carolina. Another notable alumna from his team is Sarina Weigman who led the UK to the Women's Euro 2022. Anson has firm and challenging philosophies that he has hones over many many years, and listenting to him made me reflect on the way I parent and lead. In this fantastic interview some of the highlights for me were: How coaching men and women the same was a mistake. And his associated learning that women are better at making moral judgements based on how people are affected, and he personally would prefer to be led by someone like that. The concept of the competitive cauldron which shapes the culture in his team, and is based on rankings for performance on a multitude of ares at training and in games. His fantastic idea that "And if you're a female, and you're competitive, you are excoriated by your own culture, like there's something wrong with you. No, there's nothing wrong with you." And How the first step on any leadership journey is learning to lead yourself, and this is where most people fail because it requires action that scares people. 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.