Wandering Bear Podcast

This weeks guest on the Podcast has played Super Rugby for The Waratahs, Rebels and the Brumbies as well as representing the Maori All Blacks. Currently playing for Auckland in the New Zealand National Provincial Championship Robbie Abel has experienced a lot is his Rugby Career. He has experienced the highs and the lows and has one hell of a perspective on a career in professional sport.

This week on the podcast we sit down with the General Manager of Budgy Smuggler Brenden Hartmann. BJ (as he’s more commonly known) goes into some great detail on how the little Manly based Swim Wear company has slowly started to take over the world.

This weeks amazing guest on the podcast is the Wallabies Mental Performance coach Dave Diggle. Dave Diggle is a veteran of the sporting arena with over 40 years of competitive and hands-on experience at the top level. After representing Great Britain as an International Gymnast, Dave has channelled his passion into the next generation of elite performers.

With a background as a high-performance coach, Dave turned his attention to helping athletes, coaches, Business people and Organisations with their mental performance and the psychological battles that all high performers tackle in the current competitive environment.

His website is packed full of useful information and I couldn’t recommend it enough

Todays guest on the Podcast is multiple time Shute Shield Winning Athletic Performance coach Clint Hill. Clint has over 20 years experience as a coach in a variety of sports and has coached athletes from all levels including a couple of athletes who are competing at the Tokyo Olympics. In addition to coaching, Clint runs a mentoring, education, and coaching business based out of Maroubra Beach in Sydney and is a brand ambassador for Australian company Body Science. Clint also hosts a podcast on all aspects of strength, conditioning, health and wellbeing called the Hill Strength and Performance Podcast.

This weeks episode is with NSW Waratah Backrower Rahboni Vosayaco. Rahboni has trod a different path to most on the journey to the top of professional rugby. Starting his career in Japan with NTT under coach Rob Penney, Boni was 1 week short of qualifying to Play for Japan in the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Because of this and the success of his childhood friend Brandon Paenga- Amosa, Boni decided he would give Australia another chance and has signed a 2 year deal to play for the NSW Waratahs.

This weeks guest on the Podcast is 2021 Waratahs Interim Co-head coach Jason Gilmore. A former Australian Under 20s Head Coach and Assistant Coach at the Queensland Reds Jason has a huge amount of experience as a coach at all levels of the game. For me it was particularly interesting to hear about the lessons that Jase has learnt from the many challenges 2020-2021 has thrown at the Waratahs. I really enjoyed picking this brain, and if you are a young coach like me there are a lot of valuable takeaways from this discussion .

In this weeks episode my brother, known as the Dennis Rodman of Hong Kong Rugby , Lachlan Chubb, Interviews me over a couple of pints of Guinness.

Todays episode is with Ben Alexander. Ben played 72 tests for the Wallabies and 154 Games for the Brumbies over the course of his career. After transitioning from Rugby, Ben started a nutrition and energy tracking app known as Alfred with the goal of helping the average person maximise their energy levels.

During the podcast we talk about gratitude, life after sport, transitioning into start up founder, reflections on his career and much much more.

Todays guest on the podcast is Southern Districts Head Coach Todd Louden, during his career which has taken him all over the rugby world, Todd has won a Super Rugby Title as the attack coach for the Bulls and has made the final as the attack coach for the Waratahs. During his Shute Shield career he has won the Shute Shield with Sydney University. Working with him at Southern Districts has been an eye opening experience for myself. As someone who has always been interested in coaching, when I made the transition this year I can honestly say I would have taken a year off if Todd wasn’t coaching there

How I treated this discussion, was that I took it as an opportunity to go into greater detail on subjects that Todd talks about regularly with the coaching staff at Southern Districts that we don’t necessarily have the time to cover in great detail during the week.

We touch on things like

• Tactical Periodisation

• Game Model

• Perception, Action, Coupling

• Learning styles

• Helping people make the most of their potential.

If anything, whilst this podcast certainly answered a lot of my questions, in reality its given me a whole heap of new questions to ask and areas to explore. Todd and I both agreed we would go into more detail around some of these subjects down the track.

If anyone reading this has questions, please feel free to reach out to me anytime as a lot of coaches already have.

Ive been enjoying this whole new world of coaching that I have found myself in and todays guest has played a major role. Please enjoy

oday’s very special guest is a 5 time super rugby champion for the canterbury crusaders, he’s also just been named as captain of manu samoa for their upcoming world cup qualifiers and in my opinion is one of the best tight head props in the world.

mike gives some great insights into what makes the crusaders one of the worlds greatest sporting teams and was very open about what he’s learnt from being there and being around some of the worlds best.

Considering just before he left Australia Mike was considering retiring, to now go on and represent his country and do what he’s done is nothing short of amazing. This is a great story of persistence and working hard to make the most of his potential.

Ladies and gentlemen please enjoy this conversation with Mike Ala'alatoa