This podcast is on the topic of Competitive excellence, and we are joined for the discussion with one our past guests the Great Coach Hugh McCutcheon who has just written a book called Championship Behaviours.

Hugh played Volleyball for New Zealand national Junior and Senior teams before transitioning into coaching. In 2005 he was appointed as Head Coach of the USA mens team who went to win the Gold medal at the 2008 Olympics. Then in 2008 he was appointed coach of the USA women’s team, and led them to a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics.

Some of the key highlights of our discussion are:

• How a focus on competitive excellence helps you build a life of achievement, and not solely a focus on the winning achievements.
• His core philosophy of preparing your self to be at your best when the best is needed.
• And How you honour your commitment to your own life by trying to the best you can be, and this requires you to look being just performing better than your competitors. Instead it requires you to use use your competitors to improve your own performance.

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 [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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Our Great Coach on this episode is rowing’s, Paul Thompson.

Paul started coaching in his early 20’s when a hand injury impacted his ability to compete as a rower. He’s coached at the last 8 Olympic Games leading teams from Australia, Britain and China, and at each of these games his teams have won medals. He coached the team of Kate Slatter and Megan Still to Australia's first women's Olympic rowing gold at Atlanta 1996. In 2004, he became Great Britain's head coach for the Women and Lightweights squad, and has led the team to win 45 medals at the World Championships including 17 gold medals. While over the Beijing, London and Rio Olympics, the squad won 11 medals including 5 gold. Then at 2021 Tokyo Olympics he led the Chinese women’s quad to Gold.

He has also authored 2 books on Rowing and in 2013 was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).

Paul is the type of person who you feel instantly at ease with. The long arc of his career has given him deep experience with the high and lows of life in elite sport and human endeavor, and this shines through in the way he talks about life and leadership.

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 [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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This podcast is on the topic of Energy amd we are joined for the discussion by Dr Gavin Weeks.

Gavin is a Doctor of Psychology, an Associate Fellow at Oxford Said Business School and a Partner at the consultancy Thompson Harrison.

Gavin can be reached through his company's website: ⁠https://www.thompsonharrison.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 [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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Our Great Coach on this episode is Ben Davison.

Ben is British boxing coach.

At just 29 years of age, he is an outlier in the world of Boxing coaches, who have often toil away for decades before experiencing the type of success Ben has enjoyed.

In 2017 he joined up with Tyson Fury and helped him return to the ring and set out on the journey that would ultimately see him claim the WBC Heavyweight championship.

Ben has gone on to work with other world champions including Billy Joe Saunders the undisputed world champions Josh Taylor, Devin Haney, and Leigh Wood.

Some of the highlights from the interview include:

• How his ability to view each flight as if it is a blank canvas, more than makes up for his lack of experience as an actual boxer.
• How he tries to look beyond the movement of the fighters to understand their decision making.
• How he drives himself to match the commitment that that drives the physical, emotional and mental preparation of his fighters.
• And the importance of managing your ego so that you don’t take unnecessary risk in the ring.

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 [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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In this podcast we discuss the 3rd Ashes Test and in particual the way that Belief and Doubt shape performance.

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 [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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Mike is a renowned basketball coach who is has led teams in US College, 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 |National League before returning to the USA in 1997 to lead Metro State. That team went on to win National Championships in 2000 and 2002. In 2006 he went to the NBA for the first time as an Assistant at Denver, before returning to University of Arizona as Head Coach. In 2011 he was chosen by Michal Jordan to lead the Charlotte Bobcats in the NBA. Then in 2020, Mike returned to the NBA as an Assistant Coach with Milwaukee Bucks and was with them then they defeated the Phoenix Suns to win their first NBA Championship in 2021.

In this terrific interview some of the key highlights were:

•The importance of a leader balancing inclusivity with also moving to a position of clarity where they can see broadly and make decisions for the benefit of the group.

•His belief that the word perfection is dangerous because it is so volatile, and that the quest for perfect practice just makes people miserable.

•How vulnerability is endearing to the people you lead.

•And the wonderful quote he shares, that a master teacher knows the outcome before she or he starts, the good teacher kind of knows the outcome.

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 [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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For today’s podcast we have caught up with Australian cricket coach John Buchanan to get his views on the first 2 of the Ashes Tests.

If you would like to learn more, visit our website: https://thegreatcoachespodcast.com/ where we have exclusive content that can be searched by sport, coach or topic area, for example culture, communication or mental skills.

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Sign up to our newsletter by clicking here or from our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com⁠. This episode focuses on how Coaches refresh their message by using the Voice of other people.

It also introduces our new Insight Database where you can find thousands of video insights from The Great Coaches on topics like Culture, Communication and Conflict that can be filtered by, key word, sport or coach and then downloaded and shared.

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 [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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Today’s episode is on the topic of Championship Habits, and we are joined for the discussion by Allister McCaw, who has just written a terrific new book called Habits that Make a Champion.

Allister 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 Medalists, Grand Slam Champions, Fortune 500 companies, NCAA Colleges, and Professional sports teams. And you will hear him mention some of the these in this terrific interview.

Allister's book can be found here: Habits that Make a Champion.

And his twitter feed: Allistair McCaw

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 [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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Today’s episode is focuses on the topic of Legacy.

We are joined for the conversation by James Kerr the author of the book, Legacy: What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life. James’ book is one of the most referenced by our interview guests, it has over 4000 5 star review on Amazon UK alone. He is a consultant to some of the world’s top sporting and business organisations. And in this interview, he takes us inside his work with these groups and how they go about unlocking high performance.

Some of his ideas that resonated deeply with us were:

• His belief that people will rise to a challenge if it's their challenge, and the quite amazing story he shares to illustrate this about Leicester winning the FA cup in England.
• His view that the story you tell yourself becomes the story that others end up telling about you. And how you can use to set up a team culture.
• And How the culture at the All Blacks New Zealand Rugby team is about stabbing people in the belly not the back.

This is the type of fireside chat that stays with you for a long, long time afterwards.

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 [email protected] or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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