Canterbury Rugby's Coaches Corner

As a coach, I’m sure you’ve spent many hours on the training field trying to help develop your players’ decision-making abilities or you’ve been scratching your head on why a player did one thing, when it was clear they should have done another. Today, I’m joined cognitive psychologist, author and the pioneer of naturalistic decisions making Gary Klein.

Riki sits and chats with Mainland Football Chief Executive Martin Field-Dodgson. They spend a bit of time reminiscing about old times, but at the core of their conversation, it’s about seeing opportunities for their potential, rather than looking for reasons around why you wouldn’t do them. 

How can an Oxford Mathematics professor help with coaching? The world of maths is more than just addition and multiplication and you’ll hear why as Riki talks to author and professors Marcus du Sautoy about his book Thinking Better; The Power of Shortcuts. This eye opening conversation will help you better understand the mindset of a mathematician and that there is a lot of crossover on how they t...

In this episode, Riki’s joined by Performance and Organisational Psychologist Andy Longley from Coach-up about Emotional Intelligence and Psychological Safety. Andy will take you through the steps to build both trust as well as how you can create a psychological safe learning environment to help build your team and coaching staff performance.    Resources  Website - https://www.coachup.academy/our...

What does it take to make players feel like they belong and how can you become a more relationship focused coach, rather than being transactional? Riki unpacks creating a sense of Belonging with performance coach and award-winning author Owen Eastwood. They are also joined by China’s Womens 7’s coach and friend of the show Blair Baxter, who shares his experience using Owens work and how he’s imple...

Compassion and Empathy was the unexcepted theme to this episode when Riki talks with former All Blacks Coach Sir Steve Hansen on why it’s so important to advocate for your players. Sir Steve gives you a great insight to his journey coaching journey and how his experiences have shaped him as a coach and at the heart of it is his love for his players. 

Have you ever wondered why when you’ve introduces a new skill or drill to help improve performance, but the opposite happens? In this episode Riki talking to the creator of the Learning Pit, educator James Nottingham. You’ll hear from James the journey a player will go through when they are learning or developing a new skill and he’ll also give you some great stratagies to help support your player...

Accountability and Self-Motivation are just two of the qualities that it takes to be a jet pilot and, in this conversation, Riki talks to Jet Pilot instructor Theon Te Koeti on how do you train fighter pilots and how important their briefing and debriefing meetings are so important and how he currently implementing this bottom-up approach to the medical industry and how we can adapt it to our spor...

In this episode, Riki chats with New Zealand Rugby's, Participation Development Manager Mike Hester about participation and the importance of why making the game centred around the participants will keep our game growing and moving forward and how being at the edge of innovation and sharing ideas helps that growth.  If you have some feedback or want to join the show, please email Riki on riki....

Today, Riki is joined by Joe Maddock to talk everything attacking rugby and diving deep into everything from setting up your attack to how you can coach it. 

Riki is joined by UC's Sarah-Kate Millar and Susan Dawson to talk about skill acquisition and how this translates into a coaching environment. For feedback on today's show, please email Riki at riki.tahere@crfu.co.nz

Thank you for tuning into today’s episode, as we dip our toes into the world of motivational interviewing and find out how to have better conversations with your players to help get the most out of them and we’ve got no better guest than Dr Joel Porter. Dr Joel Porter is a clinical phycologist and is a Motivational Interviewing Trainer, right here in New Zealand.  

Riki chats to fellow Game Developer Mark Croft on his new role amongst the Canterbury Rugby team, his journey in coaching and what he finds important in the world of coaching, from skill and culture development.

This was meant to be a conversation around leaning into professional development from the most unlikeliness of places, but it quickly turned into a conversation about the art of coaching and how important it is to see the skill within the drill and why asking questions of yourself and your athletes is the key to unlocking your coaching potential. 

Hear from one of the best in the business about how to develop your teams scrum and you don’t need to be a forwards coach. Dan Cron, current Matatū & Black Fern set piece coach takes Riki through how he prepares his forwards to put their heads into the dark places with really easy practical tips and drills you can do with your forwards pack regardless of how many numbers you have and with mini...

Jimmy Sinclair joins Riki once again, this time, in his new capacity as the FPC Head Coach. Hear about how the new season is shaping up, and the excitement that coaching in a new environment brings.

What type of environment have you set up for your players to flourish? Hear from one of the world’s best Kendra Cocksedge talk about what type of environments have helped her be at her best. Kendra and Riki also give some great examples on how you can help establish a similar environment. 

Riki chats to Canterbury NPC Head Coach Marty Bourke on his journey to Canterbury and coaching. The pair also delve into the importance of the club game, being honest in difficult situations and what it's like coaching in the NPC competition.

In this episode, Riki catches up with Crusaders General Manager for High Performance Angus Gardiner, Crusader #7 and Canterbury Man #1401, to talk about his role in building and supporting two of the most successful rugby teams in the world. Angus provides a unique insight into the world of both playing and management, and provides Riki with a insight into the behind-the-scenes operation of High P...

Have you got a good team culture? What makes your culture so great? Struggling to answer this questions? In this episode Riki talks to world renowned Change Phycologist, Best Selling Author and Co-Host of the High Performance Podcast Damian Hughes and why developing a culture built on commitment is the driving force behind long lasting success and why integrity is the key ingredient to being an ef...

What does it take for high performance teams to work effectively together? In this episode Riki takes it to the extreme with Wingsuit Flying, Stuntman extraordinaire and Speeding riding pioneer JT Holmes. They jump into topics like, what does it take to train the unthought of, How to feel confident to perform on the knifes edge of danger, how do you navigate having a cool mind and why is it key to...

How does your brain work? In today's conversation Riki talks with Cognitive Psychologist and Aurthor Chantel Prat.    Chantel breaks everything down for Riki from having lopsided brains, what Hebbian Learning is and what can we learn form the brains of London Taxi Driver, in a super insight way, giving practical examples to help coaches be aware of what might be happening up in the top two inc...

In this episode of the Canterbury Rugby Coaches Corner Podcast, host Riki sits down with legendary rugby coach Wayne Smith to discuss the importance of being a curious coach. With years of experience coaching some of the top rugby teams in the world, Smithy shares his insights into what sets successful coaches apart from the rest.     Smithy explains that curiosity is essential for coaches to keep...

Explore the power of DISC Profiling and why better understanding your own behavioural tendencies and your players could unlock the potential that you know is within. In this episode Riki chats to researcher and CEO of Athlete Assessments Elizabeth Masen. Liz unpacks DISC profiling, as Riki heads back down the rabbit hole of decision making, and the potential power why understanding DISC profiling...

Riki discusses creating a new culture with educational consultant Neill O’Rielly. In their chat, you’ll hear how Neill’s upbringing and a special teacher he had provided a profound impact on him. They also unpack everything from how to combine 2 worlds or in this case 2 schools, what leadership looks like and how understanding your whole story to drive culture is one of the main building blocks to...