The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life

Our Great Coach on this episode is Alan McConnel. Alan is a former Australian Rules Football and now coach. In 1996 he was appointed as the coach of the Fitzroy Football club for the final 8 games in their 113 year history before they were merged with the team who were then known as the Brisbane Bears. After Fitzroy he joined Geelong under Mark Thompson and was then appointed Head Coach at the Australian Institute of Sport leading Australian best male youth. From there he moved to the newly formed GWS Giants as the Director of Football. Then in 2017 he was appointed the senior coach of the Giants' AFL Women's side becoming the first person to coach both a Men's and Women’s side at the highest level. At present he is a member of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) High Performance Coach Development team where he mentors and supports some of the nations best emerging and elite high-performance coaches. In 2022 he was awarded the Neale Daniher Lifetime Achievement Award, which is awarded to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the game over a 'footy' lifetime. 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.

Today’s episode is focuses on the topic of 2 great soccer coaches Jose Mourihno and Arsene Wenger, and its led byDr David Turner David at Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching at ARU in Cambridge in the UK. We unpack the background of both coaches and how it shaped who their style, critical incidents in their careers and the key lessons that come out of their journeys. We have had Dr David on before and he always brings an interviewing perspective to the aer ans science of elite level coaching. And to that end, listen out for his thoughts on hubris syndrome towards the end of the podcast. 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.

Andrej Lemanis is a former professional basketball player and now coach. As a player he won the Australian National championship with the South East Melbourne Magic in 1992. He then transitioned into coaching holding various assistant roles until he was appointed head coach of the New Zealand Breakers in 2005. That team would ultimately go on to win 3 consecutive Championships, helping Andrej to be appointed to as the Australian Men’s coach in 2013. He would go on to take the Australian team from a world ranking of 11 to 3, its highest ever and go to become the winningest national coach ever. He is presently the coach of Altria Chiba in the Japan league. 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.

Today’s Episode is on the topic of Chasing Influence. And I am joined for the discussion by my friend Murray Noble who is the President of the Melbourne Baseball club and Dr Troy Urdhal who has just written a terrific book called Chasing Influence. The books is half story and half reflection on his learning as an educator and coach, with a deep-rooted passion for inspiring positive change in the lives of others. Troy has a doctorate in Educational Leadership and boasts over two decades of experience in leadership and coaching in the U.S. Troy's details are: Substack: www.chasing-influence.com X: @TroyUrdahl X: @chaseinfluence email: troyurdahl@chasing-influence.com 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 Glenn Pocknall Glenn is a cricket coach with over 20 years experience at the elite level. He started coaching in 2002, learning through coaching youth representative teams. He eventually joined the Wellington Firebirds in the New Zealand National league as an Assistant coach. He then went to England, Ireland and the Netherlands to gather international experience and in eventually returned to New Zealand and became the Wellington Head Coach. In that role he led the team to win all 3 domestic titles, Ford Trophy (50over) in 2019, Plunket Shield (four day) in 2020 and back-to-back Super Smash (t20) titles in 2020 and 2021. In 2021 he was given his first chance to lead the New Zealand National team in a T20 series. Glenn has a deep commitment to self development and the craft of coaching and in this gem of an interview some of the key highlights were: 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 thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s episode focuses on the topic of Legendary Coaches and I am joined for the discussion by Dr David Turner at Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching at ARU in Cambridge in the UK, and Valorie Kondos Field, universally known as Ms Val. Both have been on the podcast before Dr David in his role as a leading academic on coaching and Ms Val as a Great Coach. Ms Val led the t UCLA gymnastics team from 1991 to 2019, collecting the seven national Championships along the way and she now leads the course “Transformative Coaching. Introduction to Philosophies of Coaching and Leadership” at UCLA. I have been looking forward to getting Dr David and Ms Val together for a long time now to talk about the Great Coaches they lecture on in their programs and today is a master class in what they have learnt on their teaching journeys. 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.

Sir Matt Busby was the Head Coach or as they say in Soccer, Manager, for Manchester United from 1945 until 1969. He was the first manager of an English team to win the European Cup which he did in 1968. As a player he won the FA cup with Manchester City and as Manager, won it twice. He also won the League title on 5 occasions. But as you will hear in this podcast, it’s not necessarily the titles that make him a Great Coach. It’s the way he helped Manchester rebuild after the second world war. And then, the way he and his team responded to the tragic events of 1958. When the team were traveling home from a European Cup match when their plane crashed on the runway. In total 23 people died, including 8 Manchester United payers, while 2 other players were injured so badly they never played again. Matt Busby died in 1994, and in this episode, I am going to create a posthumous discussion with him based on his words as read by a voice actor. I used 3 books to create this discussion, 2 of which he wrote. Sir Matt Busby by Patrick Barclay Soccer At The Top: My Life in Football by Matt Busby Matt Busby My Story as told to David R. Jack This episode was challenging to put together, but it was also fascinating given the present state of his beloved Manchester United in 2024 season and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 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.

Todays episode is on Emotional Control And I am joined for the discussion by 3 Dr’s. Dr. Michael Mantell who among many things has been the Chief Psychologist for San Diego’s Children’s Hospital and the San Diego Police Department, as well as working with elite athletes. Website: https://drmichaelmantell.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drmichaelmantell Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drmichaelmantell/ Email: drmantell@me.com Dr. Darin Davidson, an Orthopedic surgeon who also coaches professionals in high demand, high pressure environments. Website: www.darindavidson.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darin-davidson-md-mhsc-frcsc-1478a974 Email: darin@darindavidson.com And Dr. Brendan Meany a sport and performance psychology, whose work focuses on optimizing individual and group performance Website: UpDocYoga.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendan-meany-edd-54a99393/ Email: brendanmeany44@gmail.com Together they are known as the performance doctors and pool their talents to help teams and individuals improve their emotional control. 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.

Linn Dunn is an American basketball coach. She coached for 25 seasons at the college level, winning 447 games and going to the NCAA championships on 7 occasions. She then went on to be first coach and GM of the Seattle Storm in the WNBA, bringing superstars Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird into the team. In 2009 she was then appointed head coach of the Indiana Fever, and in 2012 that team go on to win the WNBA championship. She has also coached at the Olympics and World Championships with the USA women's team. Has been named coach of the year on 4 occasions and is a member of seven different athletic halls of fame. At 74 years of age she has now returned to the Indiana Fever as the GM. 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.

In this podcast we explore the Leadership traits that we have found from analyzing the transcripts of the 200+ Great Coaches we have interviewed. If you would like to test your leadership against theres you can take our free, anonymous diagnostic here: https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/survey-intro/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ante Milicic is an Australian soccer Coach and former professional player. As a player he represented Australia and won National Championships and was the first player to score a hat-trick in the A-League. After retiring he moved in to coaching straight away with becoming player/coach for Sydney United in 2009. At the same time he became an Assistant coach for the Australian U20 team. From there he was an assistant coach to Ange P at the 2014 WC in Brazil and the 2015 victorious Asian Cup as well as assistant to Bert Van Marjwick at the 2018 WC in Russia. In 2019 he was appointed as the Australian Womens National Coach and led them to the Round of 16 at the World Cup. In 2020 he was then named as the inaugural Head Coach for the new National league Mens team Macarthur. Some of the key highlights are 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.

Brian Bohannon is an American Football coach. He started as an Assistant with Gardner-Webb in 1996, and then over the next 17 seasons progressed through roles with Georgia Southern, Navy and Georgia Tech. In 2014 he started as the inaugural Head Coach for Kennesaw State. That team has gone on to become the the best five-year start-up program in college football history. Along the way he has won 3 Big South Coach of the Year, the AFCE Coach of the Year as well as leading the team to two Big South Conference championships. Some of the key highlights are: 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.

This week, my co-presenter the gold medal winning coach Hugh McCutcheon and I continue our exploration of Thriving Teams with the American Football coach Mike Bloomgren. Mike started his career in 2000 as a graduate assistant and the the University of Alabama.. He then held various assistant roles before starting at the New York Jets in 2007. From there he moved to Stanford under David Shaw where he was part of the coaching staff that won the Pac 12 championship in 2012, 2013 and 2015. In 2017 he was appointed head coach of Rice University. Mike has terrific energy and some of the highlights of our interview were: 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.

This week my co-host, Professor Eric Knight and I are joined by Kevin Eastman. Kevin is an American Basketball coach. He started coaching in 1978 progressing through assistant roles to become the Head coach of Belmont Abbey College. He then went on to lead the lead Washington State University and then the University of North Carolina Wilmington. In 2003 he was Nike’s Basketball National Director of Skills and through that role met Doc Rivers who invited him to become an Assistant with the Boston Celtics. That team went on to win the 2008 NBA championship. These days Kevin is an in demand public speaker and the author of the terrific book: Why the Best Are the Best: 25 Powerful Words That Impact, Inspire, and Define Champions Some of the key highlights are: You can learn more about Thriving Teams at https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/thriving-teams/ 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.

This week my co-host, Professor Eric Knight and I continue our exploration of Thriving Teams with Shane Mcleod. Shane is a former New Zealand hockey player and now coach. He transitioned into coaching while still playing, and coached teams in Europe before becoming the Belgium Women’s team coach in 2002. In 2007 he moved back to New Zealand and led the Men's team at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. He then moved back to Belgium winning 2 National titles before becoming the Men's National team coach in 2015, and took them from a world ranking of 15 to #1. Along the way they won silver at the 2016 Olympics, the 2017 and 2019 European Championship, the 2019 and 2020 FIH Pro League. As well as gold at the 2018 Men’s Hockey World Cup, and the 2020 Olympic Games Some of the key highlights are: To find out more about Thriving Teams visit https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/thriving-teams/ 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.

This week my co-host, Professor Eric Knight and I continue our exploration of Thriving Teams with Ben Darwin. Ben is a former Australian Rugby Union player who represented his country 28 times. He retired at the age of 27 after a neck injury and moved in to coaching before co-founding Gain Line Analytics, a company that has uses empirical analysis to understand the way professional sports teams work and succeed with each other. It is one of the more fascinating interviews we have had on the podcast because of the challenging views he has on the traditional drivers of success. Some of the key highlights are: If you would like to know about more Thriving Teams or use the diagnostic we have created to understand how close to Thriving your teams is you can check out our tools here: https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/thriving-teams/ 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.

This week my co-host, Professor Eric Knight and I continue our exploration of Thriving Teams with the Great Coach Jill McIntosh Jill McIntosh is a former Australian National netball player and team coach. As a player she won the 1983 World Championship and then coached the national team to the championship in 1995 and 1999, as well as gold medals at the 1998 and 2002 Commonwealth Games. She has also coached the National teams of Singapore, Northern Ireland and Jamaica. And is presently the coach of the Cardiff Dragons in the UK Super League. In 2020 she was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame The key highlights from the interview are: You can find out more about Thriving Teams here: https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/thriving-teams/ 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.

In 2022 we were talking with 2 of the great coaches we have interviewed over a coffee, Eddie Jones and Neil Craig, as we got up to leave they challenged with an idea; so many sports coaches have models to illustrate what they think high performing teams do, why not compare them against what the coaches you are interviewing are saying? It was an interesting idea that stayed with me afterwards and in early 2023 I found some time to do this. I looked at models from Coaches, Academics and Consultants. I printed them off and laid them out on a table and started to compare them against the insight database that we have built up. That database has 1500 one to two minute videos from the coaches and is coded into buckets like culture, communication and mental skills. You can find it here: https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/individual-insights/ The model that I thought best reflected the messages I was hearing from the Great Coaches , was the Thriving Teams model developed by the consultancy Thompson Harrison in conjunction with Oxford professor Robin Dunbar. Their model builds from the idea that organisation only thrive when people do. And they identify six dimensions that enable this; Belonging, Purpose, Connection, Culture, Values and Learning. In this podcast I will talk about their model and use audio from the Great Coaches to bring it to life. If you would like to know more about Thriving Teams you can find the information here: https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/thriving-teams/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Liam is a former Irish Hurling player and now Coach. Liam played 13 senior games with Tipperary over 10 years. He retired in 1999 and in 2002 began coaching Tipperary youth teams. In 2007 he was appointed senior coach, and in 2010 he led to team to their 26th All Ireland Victory. Liam then took a year break from coaching at the highest level to spend more time with his family, as well as to coach local teams. In 2018 he returned to coach Tipperary and in his 2nd year won the All Ireland final again. 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.

Graham is a Rugby Union Coach. He started coaching in 1975 while teaching at Auckland Grammar school. His coaching and teaching continued and in 1993 he was to win the first of 4 consecutive Provincial Championships with Auckland. In 1996 he resigned as a headmaster to take up full time coaching with the Auckland Blues, leading them to back to back Super 12 titles in 1996 and 1997. He then took on the role as Head Coach of Wales and In 2000 led them to the 6 Nations Championship and the Grand Slam. While coaching Wales he also led the British and Irish Lions on a tour of Australia. In 2003 he was appointed coach of the All Blacks and went on to lead them to the 2011 World Cup. In 2012 he was awarded a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (KNZM) in services to rugby.[17] In this terrific interview some of the key highlights are: 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.