Our Great Coach on this episode is Bill Sweetenham.

Bill is an Australian swimming coach, who first started training athletes in the 1970’s in the rural Australian town of Mount Isa. His coaching career progressed quickly and he coached at his first Olympian in 1976. His swimmers have delivered 27 Olympic and World Championship medals and have broken 9 world records.

I first interviewed Bill in early 2022, and the discussion was a complete masterclass. He talked about meeting Nelson Mandela and the Great Boxing coach, Angelo Dundee. As well as sharing insights from his long and successful career. We stayed in contact after that interview, and Bill would occasionally add me to emails that he sent to friends containing his observations on sport and life. There was one particularly special one he shared which was a book he had written for his grandchildren after visiting Africa.

I recently had the opportunity to visit the part of Australia where Bill lives and I asked him if he would be open to another interview, where we could discuss some of the ideas he had shared in those emails with me. Todays podcast is that conversation recorded in June 2024. We cover mental health, team collaboration and the value of volunteering. Bill was very open and introspective as he was in the throws of finishing a book called ignorance screams whilst wisdom listens. It was agreat experience for me to spend this time with Bill and I hope you enjoy the interview 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 [email protected] 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 Barry Dancer.

Barry Dancer is a is a former Australian field hockey player and coach of Australian men's national field hockey team. As a player he competed in 48 international matches for Australia between 1973 and 1979. he was a member of the men's hockey team that won a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics. He began coaching late in his career as a player eventually going on to lead the Great Britain men’s team at the 2000 Olympics. In 2001 he was then appointed the Head Coach of the Australian men’s team and led them to 2 Commonwealth Games gold, 2 Champions Trophies and an Olympic Gold in 2004 and Bronze in 2008.

Barry is a coach with a deep well of wisdom, built from many years of success and failures.

The highlight so our interview were:

•  How he challenges himself each day with the questions: what have I done today to improve the way that I or my people do things?
•  The learnings he has on managing workload and obsession as a coach and finding a balance that allows you to maintain your energy.
•  And The way he talks about the idea of Belonging and he uses it to remind people of the privilege of being part of something that has a long history, and a bright future. And how this became a motivating factor not something that weighed people down.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s episode is on the topic of Mindset as a superpower, 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, Grand Slam Champions, Fortune 500 companies, NCAA Colleges, and Professional sports teams.

He has a new book out called Mindset is Your Superpower and today we delve into it.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our Great Coach on this episode is Shane Beamer.

Shane is an American Football Coach. He started as a coach in 2000 after finishing as player with Virginia Tech. He then held positions with the University of Tennessee, Mississippi State, the University of Georgia and then University of Oklahoma where they won 3 Big 12 Championships. He was then appointed head Coach for the University of South Carolina In 2020. IN his first year he won the Duke's Mayo Bowl and is the first South Carolina coach to back-to-back games against top 10 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 [email protected] 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 having a Billion Dollar Mind

And my good friend and co-host Jonathan Cole who is himself an Executive Coach are joined by the great tennis coach Rick Macci, who has worked with players like Venus and Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova Andy Roddick, and Jennifer Capriati. He is also a 7 times USPTA national coach of the year and in 2010 was inducted into the USPTA Hall of Fame. and If you have seen the move King Richard his character was played by Jon Bernthal.

And Dr. Nivedita Jerath, a Harvard-educated neurologist, who together have written a book called A Billion Dollar Mind that addresses the core issues behind negative thought patterns, and helps reshape your mindset with neuroscience-backed techniques and proven strategies.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gail Goestenkors is a former All American player and Coach. At just 29 years of age she was appointed as Head Coach of the Duke Womens program and led them for 15 seasons including 4 final fours and 2 national runners up. She was the ACC coach of the year on 7 occasions, and on 3 occasions led the team to undefeated regular seasons. She has also led the University of Texas and been a Coach on the USA Women's team.

Her teams have gone on to win five ACC tournament championships and eight ACC regular season titles. Gail also holds the ACC record for fewest games required to achieve 300 wins (387 games). In 2007 she was the Associated Press National Coach of the Year (2007) and in 2006  USA

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jess Thirlby is a former England netballer and now coach. As a player she represented England in youth teams all the way to the senior team. She began coaching England National Youth teams while still a player and then retired at 26 to take up coaching full time. She went on to lead Bath to 3 super league titles and in 2019 was appointed England Head Coach.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Andrej Lemanis on Authentic Coaching, Player Engagement, and Building Championship Programs

There is no algorithm for leadership. So we ask the world's great coaches how they do it.

On the Great Coaches podcast, Andrej Lemanis joins from Chiba, Japan, where he is in his third season coaching Altia Chiba, a new club aiming for promotion to Japan’s B1 after winning B3 and falling short in the B2 semifinals.

Lemanis reflects on lessons from coaches like Brian Goorjian and Brett Brown, emphasizing that great coaches are authentic, consistent, and trust-building rather than imitative. He describes how his father’s WWII refugee journey shaped a process-focused, resilient leadership style, and explains the New Zealand Breakers’ multi-year strategic plan under owners Paul and Liz Blackwell, including academy investment and improved recruiting, that helped underpin later championships.

He outlines why coaching is fundamentally influence and connection, how “giving up control” through player engagement increased accountability, and how skill acquisition principles led him to design game-relevant, adaptive practice environments. He also discusses the drawbacks of win-at-all-costs pressure, communication challenges in Japan, and the legacy goal of making a positive difference in players’ lives.

Q. Are you being who you truly are, or who you think you should be?

Q. What could you gain by letting go of control?

Q. When pressure mounts, do you focus on the process or 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

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.