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 ..read more

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 s ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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 ..read more

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. His challenge on whether you focus on the setback or the bounce back and how this idea ..read more

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 ..read more

Our Great Coach on this episode is Tim Sheens.   Tim Sheens is an Australian Rugby League coach. He played 166 games for the Penrith Panthers and then moved in to coaching in 1984. He coached the Canberra Raiders to Premierships, in 1989, 90 and 94 and then in 2005 led the Wests Tigers to the premiership. He has also coached the NSW team to the 1991 state or origin series win and the Australian team to the 2013 World Championship. Some of the key highlights are: The philosophy he borrowed from an American coach of “being consistent in treating everybody differently.” And how as a result ..read more

Kelly is an American Volleyball coach. He started coaching volleyball in his teens, helping out at summer camps. He then went on to Assist at High School level before getting his chance as an Assistant at the University of Houston in 1997. He was given his first Head Coaching role at the University of Albany in 2001 and led them to 3 regular season championships. In 2012 he was appointed as Head Coach of the University of Wisconsin and has led them to 5 Big 10 Championships, 4 NCAA Final Fours and the 2021 NCAA Championship. Some of the highlights of our discussion were: His view on the impor ..read more

Becky is an American soccer coach who has just retired after leading the University of Florida Gators for 26 years. She was the inaugural coach in 1994, and went on to win the NCAA title in 1998. She retired with a winning percentage of 75, and ranks second in total number of all-time wins among Division I coaches. In her time at Florida she also led the team to 14 SEC championships. With her colleague Brett Ledbetter she also runs the very successful What Drives Winning conferences that bring together Great Coaches from all over the world. In this interview some of the key highlights for me w ..read more