UK Coaching Podcasts

Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Gloucestershire Will Roberts, County Coach Developer at the Football Association Sally Needham and UK Coaching's Nick Levett explore a range of games-based approaches to coaching Being able to design practices that utilise games and support athletes' movement and thinking skills has the potential to accelerate learning and enjoyment. Will, Sally and Nick explore why it is valuable to utilise a range of games-based approaches to coaching and share some examples of how they can be brought to life in your sessions. Want to be part of the Curious Coaches' Club? Fuel your curiosity by joining our experts every Monday for an engaging and insightful online coaching discussion at ukcoaching.org/curious. Whatever your role, if you're helping people to be active and improve, we're here for you. Visit UKCoaching.org to grow your coaching skills and be part of the community.

Derek O'Riordan is a coaching partnership manager with sportscotland, a coach developer with Scottish Rugby and Hearts FC, as well as being deployed more broadly with sportscotland. In this podcast, Derek shares his perspectives on the current changes in coach development and coach education in Scotland. He explores several topics, including the need for an understanding of the socio-cultural influences in coach development in different sports, and the need to meet people where they currently are. He goes on to look at the challenge of transitioning to more contemporary coaching pedagogies and more flexible coach development options, and how to assess the impact and effectiveness of coach development and make it representative of the coaching it supports. Derek also weighs in with his hopes for the future of coaching and the coach development landscape over the next few years. Whatever your role, if you're helping people to be active and improve, we're here for you. Visit UKCoaching.org to grow your coaching skills and be part of the community.  

Paddlesports athlete, Team Coach and Team Psychologist at Team GB Johnathan Males and Performance Coach Developer at England Netball Sarah Green explore the concept of a maverick and the impact they have on the people around them. What makes someone a maverick? Is a maverick jut the disruptive, audacious player who thinks the rules are for other people? Are some mavericks those athletes who see and interact with their performance world a little differently from the expected norms of a specific situation? If so, what and how can we learn from them? What impact do mavericks have on the people around them? As coaches, are there some ways in which we can understand and be more effective at coaching mavericks? Listen another great discussion. Want to be part of the Curious Coaches' Club? Fuel your curiosity by joining our experts every Monday for an engaging and insightful online coaching discussion at ukcoaching.org/curious. Whatever your role, if you're helping people to be active and improve, we're here for you. Visit UKCoaching.org to grow your coaching skills and be part of the community.

High jumper-turned coach Simon Phelan, currently a sports coaching lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, joins UK Coaching’s Tom Hartley to discuss his research and his interest in coach development. Despite gaining a coaching qualification whilst he was still an athlete, and when injury pointed Simon towards the coaching pathway, he quickly realised he wasn’t fully ready to coach. His response was to dive deeper into the research behind coaching: What leads an exceptional coach to become just that? Now a lecturer and PhD graduate, Simon shares his journey and what he’s learnt about developing great coaches. Whatever your role, if you're helping people to be active and improve, we're here for you. Visit UKCoaching.org to grow your coaching skills and be part of the community.

Giving advice and feedback is a critical part of coaching, and how we do that matters. It is natural to be apprehensive about having those honest conversations, but when carried out properly, they can be motivational, encouraging the people you coach to take ownership of personal goals, address problems on and off the field and enhance performance and teamwork. So how do you go about having those conversations? In this session, Professor Steve Rollnick and UK Coaching's Andy Bradshaw discuss the art of giving advice and feedback, and provide insight and guidance about how to structure your conversations so that your feedback is heard and counts. Want to be part of the Curious Coaches' Club? Fuel your curiosity by joining our experts every Monday for an engaging and insightful online coaching discussion at ukcoaching.org/curious. Whatever your role, if you're helping people to be active and improve, we're here for you. Visit UKCoaching.org to grow your coaching skills and be part of the community.

Coaches are often told that they need to review or reflect as part of the plan-do-review model, yet they may not be shown how to approach it. Have you ever wondered how you should reflect, and reflect well? It's not always a simple or easy process! In this session, UK Coaching's Mark Scott and Andy Bradshaw explore the topic of reflective practice and how to engage it in more effectively. Want to be part of the Curious Coaches' Club? Fuel your curiosity by joining our experts every Monday for an engaging and insightful online coaching discussion at ukcoaching.org/curious. Whatever your role, if you're helping people to be active and improve, we're here for you. Visit UKCoaching.org to grow your coaching skills and be part of the community.

Rachel Lofthouse is a Professor of Teacher Education at the Carnegie School of Education and in this podcast she shares her insight into how teachers learn; how they can be supported to put that learning into practice, and she explores how this links to coach development. Presented by UK Coaching's Andrew Bradshaw, the podcast covers his and Rachel's discussion around coaching and mentoring in education and disentangling these two roles. They also explore the process of 'lesson study' - how it works in practice and how it could be applied with coaches and coach developers. Whatever your role, if you're helping people to be active and improve, we're here for you. Visit UKCoaching.org to grow your coaching skills and be part of the community.  

Following Michael Jordan and his Chicago Bulls teammates as they embarked on their journey towards their sixth NBA title, the Netflix series, The Last Dance, unraveled some of the behind the scenes footage and interviews from that fateful season. The series has captivated the world. UK Coaching’s Nick Levett and Jenny Coady (a former international basketball player and now coach) are joined by Regional Talent Manager at Basketball England Matt Johnson and former LA Lakers player and Performance and Technical Manager Steve Bucknall to discuss The Last Dance and how it has placed a spotlight on elite sport, highlighting some of the ups and downs, and encouraging some great debate. Want to be part of the Curious Coaches' Club? Fuel your curiosity by joining our experts every Monday for an engaging and insightful online coaching discussion at ukcoaching.org/curious. Whatever your role, if you're helping people to be active and improve, we're here for you. Visit UKCoaching.org to grow your coaching skills and be part of the community.

UK Coaching’s Marianne Davies talks to Lucy Moore (Sport England) about the complexity of attempting to understand why there is a lack of female coaches, coach educators and coach developers in most sporting workforces. In this podcast, Marianne and Lucy discuss how a lack of female representation in the coaching workforce should be viewed as a ‘red flag’. What is happening in the wider coaching eco-system? Who else is missing? The conversation starts by framing some elements of the current situation as a reflection on both Lucy’s blog article - Where are all the female coaches? - and the conversations that have happened since it has been published. These include discussions on the UK Coaching Coach Developer Conversation webinars. This podcast extends the conversations and highlights the need to be curious, listen, engage with other ideas and perspectives, investigate your own environment, and be creative with solutions. Whatever your role, if you're helping people to be active and improve, we're here for you. Visit UKCoaching.org to grow your coaching skills and be part of the community.  

Performance Nutritionist at Yorkshire Rugby Academy Sarah Chantler shares her knowledge and experience of sports nutrition with UK Coaching's Chris Chapman, exploring how nutrition fits into the holistic development of athletes. What are the dietary considerations for athletes on the move? Travelling creates additional challenges that can easily lead to unhealthy choices, so it’s important to encourage athletes to be proactive, to have healthy habits and plan correctly. Sarah discusses the importance of integrating nutrition into a match/game/event plan, offering advice about how to ensure your athletes give it their due consideration. Whatever your role, if you're helping people to be active and improve, we're here for you. Visit UKCoaching.org to grow your coaching skills and be part of the community.