The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life

Today’s episode focuses on Pep Guardiola, and 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, UK. 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 get in touch with us at paul@thegreatcoac...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Roy Masters.   Roy is an Australian sports journalist and former  rugby league  football coach. He started life as a schoolteacher in the NSW countryside coaching school sides and by 1974 had been appointed as the Australian coach of the Australian School boys’ team. He then became coach of a youth team at the professional club Penrith Panthers bef...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Nicole Pratt.   As a player, Nicole reached a career-high ranking of #35 and won 4 ITF singles titles. As a doubles player, she reached a doubles ranking high of No.18 (September 2001) and captured nine WTA doubles titles and nine ITF doubles titles. She then switched to coaching with the Australian Institute of Sport and worked with players and coaches tran...

This episode focuses on the athlete-coach relationship and how the quality of the coach-athlete relationship will influence measurable performance. I also found this fascinating through the lens of the corporate world and how relationships there can impact cohesion and results.     Professor Sophia Jowett, who teaches at Loughborough University, joins me for the discussion. Sophia is als...

Rob Tarr is a Wheelchair Rugby Coach. As an athlete, he represented Great Britain in 3 Paralympic Games, 3 World Games, and 3 European Championships. Rob was part of the coaching team that won gold in Tokyo 2021, the head coach for the inaugural low-point World Championships, which won gold in 2022, and the gold-winning team at the Women’s Cup in 2023. These days, he is an assistant for the men's...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Dean Smith.   Dean Smith is an American Basketball coach who led the the  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill men's team for 36 years. When he retired in 1997 he had 879 career victories, which was the  NCAA Division I  men's basketball record at that time. During his tenure as head coach, North Carolina won two national championships...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Vésteinn Hafsteinsson. Vesteinin is an Icelandic Olympic discuss thrower who is now considered the most successful discus coach in the history of the sport. He represented his native country at 4 summer Olympic games and five world championships. As a coach he has worked with World and Olympic champion Gerd Kanter and Olympic silver medalist Joachim B. Olsen and...

Tony OcConnor is a rowing coach. As a rower he represented Ireland at 2 Olympics and won 5 medals at the World Championships in the men's lightweight pair. After retiring he took up coaching and now lives in New Zealand where he is also a school teacher. In 2021 he was appointed the coach for the  New Zealand  men's  eight , which won gold at the Tokyo Olympics. As part of this...

Today's episode focuses on the topic of Coaches as Educators.   And I'm joined in the discussion by two great coaches.   The first is Valorie Kondos Field. Ms. Val, as she is known, led the UCLA gymnastics team from 1991 to 2019, collecting seven National Championships along the way. She now leads the course "Transformative Coaching: Introduction to Philosophies of Coaching and...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Tom Herman.   Tom is An American Football coach. After graduating univsierity he began his coaching career in 1998 at  Texas Lutheran  as a receivers coach. He then took a position in 1999 at the  University of Texas  at  Austin  as a graduate assistant under the mentorship of  Greg Davis . He then joined Texas State  ...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Fred Vergnoux.   Fred is a swimming coach. He started his career as a coach in France with the club Racing Paris. He then headed over to the USA and took jobs working for people like Greg Troy to gain deeper knowledge if the sport. This would lead to him to eventally being appointed as the Head Coach for the City of Edinbourgh in Scotland in 2004, and then i...

Today’s episode focuses on the coaches, who the Great Coaches we have interviewed, have called out for praise or recognition.   And we put this episode together because we wanted to hear from you. If there is a coach who had had an impact on your life then we would like to hear from you. Grab your phone and send us a recording explaining who they are and what they did it that resonated with y...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Shaun Wane.   Shaun is a former Rugby League player and now coach. He started coaching with his old club Wigan in 2003, leading the youth academy team to 7 Academy Grand Finals and 6 League Leaders’ Shields. Then in 2011 he became the clubs Head Coach and went on to win three Super League Grand Finals, a Challenge Cup and a World Club Challenge. In 2020 he w...

As a player Greg Cannella was a High School All American, and a an All American while at Nassau Community College. After graduating he spent time as an Assistant at Stony Brook before becoming Head Coach at his alma mater the University of Massachusetts in 1993. Since then, he has gone to achieve eight NCAA Tournament berths, Eight New England Championships, 4 ECAC Championships, five New England...

As a player Franco Smith represented South Africa as well as playing for clubs in South Africa, Italy, France and Wales. He started his professional coaching career in 2006 with the South African team the Cheetahs. Then in 2008 he became Head Coach of Benneton in Italy, guiding them to 2 National Championships, a Coppa Italia and a Supercup. In 2015 he became Head Coach of the Cheetahs and lead th...

On this episode, my firend Jonathan Cole and I are joined by owen Jordan who has just written a terrific new book called Wise Words: Thoughts and Beliefs of Great Coaches . And today we talk about some of the key things he has learned about coaching and leadership while putting the book together.   If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story...

Shaun Caven was born in Scotland and started coaching canoeing when he was 16 years old. He progressed until he was the coach of the national team in 1997. He then went on to lead the British Junior and Senior teams before moving to the USA in 2008 to lead the program at Oklahoma City University team. That team went on to win National Championships leading to him being appointed coach of the USA t...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Lisa Alexander.   Lisa was the coach of the Australian Netball team, known as the Diamonds, from 2011 to 2020.  During that time She oversaw gold medal successes at the  2014 Commonwealth Games  and  2015 Netball World Cup , as well as silver medals at the  2018 Commonwealth Games  and  2019 Netball World Cup . We first int...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Andy Shay. Andy is a former Lacrosse player who started coaching as an assistant for four years under Greg Cannella at the University of Massachusetts where he helped the team win three New England titles. Then in 2003 he was named the Head Coach of Yale where he has gone on to lead the team to the 2018 NCAA Championship, five Ivy Tournament Titles and three regu...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Sjoerd Marijne. Sjoerd is a Dutch former field hockey player and now coach. As a player he twice won the Dutch National Championship and EuroHockey Club Champions Cup. He then transitioned into coaching, first with youth teams, eventually leading the Netherlands U21 women to the gold medal at the World Cup and the U21 men to a Bronze at the World cup. In 2015 he...

Pat Summitt was an American basketball player who won a silver medal at the 1976 Olympics and then transitioned into coaching leading the USA team to a Gold at the at the 1984 Olympics. However its as the coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team from 1974 to 2012 that she is most famous. Over her career she amassed 1098 wins and led the team to 8 NCAA championships. She was inducted into t...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Alf Galustian.   Alf started his career playing for Wimbeldon in the UK. Knee injuries cut short his career and he transitioned into coaching. In 1984 he founded Coerver® Coaching, along with Chelsea great, Charlie Cooke. He has gone on to work as a Coach with 17 national federations including France,Brazil, England and Japan. As well as a coach instructor w...

Nell Fortner is a former basketball player and now coach. As a player she went to the University of Texas and led them to the #1 National ranking and played for the USA. As a coach she has over 40 years of coaching experience at high school, college, pro and international level. The highlights of her career are a Big Ten champion (1997) and a SEC champion (2009). She also led the USA National Team...

Today’s episode is on the topic of Leadership Identity and we are joined for the discussion by Allister McCaw,   Alistair is that rare person who excels across disciplines and industries. In addition to being an author who has sold over 300,000 books, his podcast ranks in the top 1% in the world, and for the last 25 years he has also consulted and worked with Olympic Gold Marriage,...

Our Great Coach on this episode is Al Scates.   Al is  a former American  volleyball  player and  volleyball  coach. As a player, he was selected as a collegiate All American, and also represented the USA National Team. He transitioned into coaching in 1964, and went on to be the head coach of UCLA for 48 years. He went on to become the winningest volleyball coach in...