The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life

Today’s episode is on the topic of Thriving.   To help me I have invited 2 special guests.   The first is Dr. Gavin. Gavin is a Doctor of Psychology and Associate Fellow at Oxford Sayyid Business School. We have had Gavin on previously to discuss Energy and Purpose.   The second is Valorie Kondos Field.   Valorie, or Miss Val as she is known, was the head of coach of the U...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Ron Adams. Ron is a basketball coach who started his career as an Assistant with Fresno Pacific College back in 1969. He then honed his craft across multiple Universities and in Belgium before moving in to the NBA in 1992. In the 32 years since then he has worked at San Antonio, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Boston and now Golden State. His tea...

Our great coach on this episode is Shane Jurgensen. Shane is a former cricketer who played for Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and Horsham, Sussex in the UK. He started coaching while still an athlete in his early 20s, eventually becoming the bowling coach for New Zealand in 2008. From there, he had successful roles in high-performance coaching with New Zealand cricket and led the national...

Our great coach on this episode is Scott Roth. Scott is a former basketball player who played 160 NBA games with the Utah Jazz, San Antonio Spurs and Minnesota Timberwolves. His playing career also took him to Spain, Turkey and Greece. As a coach, he has led teams in Spain, the he Dominican Republic and the the NBA G-League as well as being an assistant coach of the Chinese and Turkish nation...

Chantal Vallée completed her masters thesis on Coaching leadership. She then set about putting her knowledge into action by taking over one of the worst basketball programs at a Canadian Univisty, the University of Windsor lancers. Over 6 gruelling years she took the team from, in her words, worst to first; ultimately winning five consuective Canadian National Championships. She has captured...

Our great coach on this episode is Gilbert Enoka. Gilbert is a mental skills coach who has worked with some of the world's great teams, including Chelsea FC, The English Cricket Team, The New Zealand cricket team, The Silver Ferns - the New Zealand Netball team, the Canterbury Crusaders Rugby Team and most notably the New Zealand Rugby Team , known internally as the All Blacks, for 23 years. On th...

Our guest on this episode is Professor Adam R Nicholls.   Adam is based in the Department of Sport, Health, and Exercise Science at the University of Hull, UK. His primary research is related to stress, appraisal, and coping among athletes.   He has published 3 books and more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles. His research has brought him into contact with elite-level Rugby Union, R...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Colm Nally. Colm is a Gaelic Football coach from Ireland. He has coached at the youth and adult levels, from club teams to the top level in Ireland with his County. His teams have won promotion into division one, won numerous inter-mediate titles and competed in provincial All Ireland finals. He is also a designated GAA Master Cocach Tutor, the author of three bo...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Kathy Delaney-Smith. Kathy led the Harvard Womens Basketball team for 40 years. During her tenure she led the team to over 600 career wins, 11 Ivy League championships and six NCAA Tournament berths. She is the winningest coach in the history of the Ivy League — any sport, men’s or women’s. Kathy has just written a booked called Grit and Wit: Empowering Lives and...

Tom Maher is an Australian Basketball coach. He started his career leading the Nunawading spectres ultimately taking them to 5 championships in the Women’s National Basketball League. He would go to win titles with Perth, Canberra and Bulleen making him the most successful coach in the league’s history. He has also led the Australian National team to their first ever Olympic medal, a bronze at the...

Berhard Peters is a field Hockey Coach who started coaching youth teams in the early 1980’s. His career slowly built and he led German National Youth teams to European Chamionships. Then in 200 he took over the German National Mens side and led them to World Champinshiops in in 2002 and 2006. He then transitioned into off field leadership roles in soccer, starting with Hoffenheim in the third tier...

Today’s episode is focuses on the topic of Winning Team Cultures, and to explore the topic I am joined by 2 great coaches. The first is Mike Dunlap. Mike is a basketball coach who has led teams in US Colleges, the NBA and in Australia. He started as a College Assistant in 1980 before becoming the Head Coach of Cal Lutheran in 1989. In 1994 he moved to Australia and led the Adelaide 36ers in the |N...

Stacey Marinkovich is a Netball coach. She played in the Australian National league for the Queensland Firebirds, Perth Orioles and Westcoacg Fever before retirning in 2009. She transitioned as an Assistant for the legendary Norma Plummer in 2012. In 2014 she was appointed head coach of the Westcoast Fever, guiding them to their ever grand final. In 2020 she was appointed as the head coach of the...

This episode is something a little different.   I am joined by Dr David Turner, who is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge in the United Kingdom and some of his students and a fellow teacher. David takes the lead in this episode and we share learning we have all taken from Great Coaches as well as how some the students intend to apply what they have...

Our great coach on this episode is Tara Ann VanDerveer. Tara is a retired American basketball coach who led the Stanford Womends bascketball team for 38 years. In that time she led the Cardinals to NCAA championships in 1990, 1992 and 2021 and 13 final fours. In 1996 she also led the US national team to the gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics. In january 2024 she surpassed both Path Summit and Mike...

Ken Niumatalolo is an American College Football coach. Ken played college football as a quarterback at the University of Hawaii . After graduating he became an assistant at his alma mater , eventually becoming an offensive coordinator at the Naval Academy in 1995. His career progressed and he eventually became the Head Coach of Navy in 2007 and would lead them for 15 years, accumulating the most w...

Today’s episode is focuses on NBA Championship wining coach Joe Mazzulla. I am joined for the discussion by Dr. David Turner who has been on the podcast many times before and is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching at ARU in Cambridge in the UK. Joe Mazzulla is the latest subject in his learning from legendary coaches series.   If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a gr...

Our Great Coach on this episode is John Kessel.   As a volleyball player, John participated in 16 U.S. Open Championships and played professionally in Europe.   He started coaching at the Collegiate level in the USA in 1970 and led teams to National titles in 1986 and 1987. He was the Team Leader for the 2000 USA Olympic Beach Volleyball Teams in Sydney, which brought home one gold medal...

Anna Stembridge is a former netball player and coach.  Anna played in the UK Netball Superleague for Team Bath and the Celtic Dragons. She represented Wales on the international stage before transitioning into coaching in 2008. She then served as an Assistant with Team Bath and helped them to the Superleague titles in 2009 and 2010. She also served as an Assistant for the UK National team bef...

Luke Beveridge is an  Australian rules football  coach and former player who played for  Melbourne ,  Footscray  and  St Kilda  in the . He retired in 1999 and, came back to play and coach for his alma mater, St Bedes. He was eventually appointed the teams Head Coach and won 3 consecutive premierships taking them team from C to A grade. After this, he s...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Brian Goorjian. Brian is a basketball coach. He was born in California but came to Australia as a 24-year-old to teach high school and play basketball in the late 1970s. In 1984, he was the inaugural captain of the Melbourne Tigers in the NBL and then transitioned into coaching after retirement. In a career that has spanned over 20 years in the National Basketbal...

Our great coach in this episode is Rocco Meiring. Rocco is a swimming coach from South Africa. He started out coaching in 1988 and by 1997 was the national coach director with the brief to develop internationally competitive swimmers; his first success came when Terence Parkin won a silver medal at the Sydney Olympic Games. He then coached the dual Olympic Gold medallist and world record hold...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Markus Weise. He began coaching in the early 1990s and went to lead the German women's Team to gold at the 2004 Olympics and the German Men to gold at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. This made him the first person in field hockey history to win gold with Men and Woemns teams. He also led the German Men's team to the 2011 and 2013 European Championship and twice led t...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Guy Molloy. Guy is an Australian Basketball coach who started his professional career in 1989, coaching the Canberra Capitals in the Australian Women's National League. He then coached the Perth Breakers and was named coach of the year in 1995. During this time, he also served as an Assistant for the Australian National Team. He then coached the Cairns Taipans in...

On this episode something a little different.   As the 2024 season draws to a close I was doing a review and reflecting on some of the things the coaches I have interviewed over the last 4 years have said that have stayed with me afterwards.   As I was scribbling them down, I thought I would turn it into a short podcast. And so here are my top 10 and a short description of why this reson...