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Feb
9

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Sprint Legend Michael Johnson on Strength and Conditioning and Mental Focus (Rebroadcast)

Category: Olympics, Strength & Conditioning, Track & Field

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Speed endurance, high intensity training, NFL Combine preparation (Rebroadcast)

michael_johnson_runningFor track and field aficionados and followers of Olympic sports in general, the legendary sprinter Michael Johnson needs little introduction. But I’ll say a few words anyway as reminders: Michael is still holder of the 400 meter world record and a former holder of the 200 meter record.

He is the only athlete in history to hold world records and win Olympic gold medals in both those events at the same time. Michael’s breakthrough performances were in Atlanta in 1996 but he also struck gold in Barcelona and Sydney in a career at the very top than spanned over a decade.

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Dec
12

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How Far Along the Autism Spectrum Are You As a Leader?

Category: Empathy, Mental toughness

A provocative discussion on one of my favorite blogs has got me thinking again about Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome.

First of all – in its moderate manifestation Asperger’s Syndrome need not strike fear in the heart of parents, teachers, nor in the heart of the individual directly concerned. There are many relatively happy, ultra high functioning people who fit that description, including the world’s youngest (newly-minted) multi-billionaire

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Dec
6

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Swimming: U.S. Men’s, Florida & Ryan Lochte Coach Gregg Troy (Re-broadcast)

Category: Olympics, Swimming

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Gregg Troy is one the leading swimming coaches in the world, heading up the U.S. Men’s Team that was so dominant in the London Olympics, as well as the boss of the perennial national-leading University of Florida Gators.
Ryan_Lochte_Gregg_Troy
Oh yeah, before we forget, Gregg is the guiding light for the world’s hottest property in the pool right now, Ryan Lochte.
Sports Coach Radio is a weekly audio show providing in-depth insight to the people and passion behind winning performances. It’s hosted by sports and performance psychologist Glenn Whitney, and you can listen to it on this site or on Apple iTunes. You can follow us  on Twitter via @sportscoachtalk.

Nov
29

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Effective Motivation During Your Team Talk Requires Special Words

Category: Motivation

The best sports coaches (and managers) understand that words can mean a lot. But words only take on powerful meanings when they are mutually understood and emotive for the people who are communicating with each other. That’s a very subjective and subtle thing. It is unique from group to group and situation to situation.


Gregg Popovich: Wants some “nasty”

For example, to some people, hearing “I need you to give 110%” on this project can be crystal-clear and motivating. To others, they think it means their manager doesn’t have a grasp of basic mathematics.

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Nov
19

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CrossFit Football’s John Welbourn: High-Intensity Power Training, Paleo Diet (Re-broadcast)

Category: Football, Mental toughness, Strength & Conditioning

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NFL, weightlifting, explosive strength
john_welbourn_chiefsJohn Welbourn is the big man behind CrossFit Football. A nine-year veteran of the NFL, he brings a multi-disciplinary approach to elite strength and conditioning.

If you’re unfamiliar with the phenomenon that is CrossFit, you’ll learn all about it in this in-depth interview.

Sports Coach Radio is hosted by Glenn Whitney, a sports and leadership psychologist. You can subscribe to us on Apple iTunes and follow us on Twitter with the handle: @sportscoachtalk. And if you have a moment, we’d very much appreciate it if you could leave a short review on the Apple iTunes site. Your review will help other people find out about the show.

John played football for U.C. Berkeley and earned a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric before being picked by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1999 draft. He played for five seasons with Philadelphia and then a further four seasons with the Kansas City Chiefs.

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Nov
12

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Dr. Sweat Science Explodes Strength & Conditioning Myths (Re-broadcast)

Category: Motivation, Sports nutrition, Strength & Conditioning Tags:

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Alex Hutchinson – Distance Runner – Sports Scientist – Blogger

Alex_Hutchinson_Sweat_Science_Runners_World

We talk to Alex about a wide range of myths and misconceptions that many coaches have about strength and conditioning, nutrition, stretching, hydration, and altitude training.

We start by talking about the latest research on the effect coaches have when they praise and criticize their athletes – a hugely important issue, of course.

Alex writes the deservedly popular blog Sweat Science on the Runner’s World website and he’s the author of the wide-ranging fitness book Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights?

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Oct
19

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Top 10 Signs You’re a Great Teammate

Category: Team dynamics

great_team_soccer_celebration10- You’re willing to play any role that helps the team

9- You would rather score less & win than score a lot & lose

8- When the team scores, the first people you congratulate are teammates

7- You love practice as much as you love games

6- You respect your opponents but don’t fear them

5- You listen, are coachable & respects your coaches & officials

4- You are quick to pick up a teammate who is having a bad day

3- You help younger teammates who have less experience

2- You learn & grow from your mistakes as well as others’

1- You’re confident but not arrogant

(Attribution unknown)

Oct
10

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Making Mistakes Can Become Your Competitive Advantage

Category: Uncategorized

It’s a nearly unanimous truth in leadership – mistakes are often the most powerful way to learn. This includes you as a leader and you helping those who report to you learn from their mistakes as well.

But pointing out the mistakes of others is a tricky business, usually requiring some advanced planning and scripting, a calm, quiet environment and a bit of compassionate courageousness.

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Aug
17

By

A Glorious Injection of Testosterone

Category: Uncategorized

The video linked at the bottom is a bit on the macho side, I know. Or as a good female friend responded when I sent the link to her: “What a glorious injection of testosterone!” I think she meant it (mostly) in a good way.

We at Sports Coach Radio generally believe in a non-judgmental,  going with the flow approach to coaching. In letting things happen at their own pace. Yes, sometimes the best approach to a difficult day, month or year is simply to “chop wood, carry water.”

And sometimes action is needed. Right Action. The Right Way. And the Right Way is often the most difficult way, the way the requires the most discipline, the most focus, the most delaying of gratification and with no guarantee of reward. Read More

Aug
11

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Butterfly Gold Medallist Misty Hyman Transitions to Elite Coaching (Re-broadcast)

Category: Mental toughness, Olympics, Swimming

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Swimming, Pursuit of Perfection, Mental toughness (Re-broadcast)

Misty_Hyman_pool_embrace

Misty Hyman is a young swimming coach with a bright future and a glorious past. Her gold-medal winning 200 meter butterfly at the Olympic Games in Sydney 2000 was an iconic tour de force, combining superb technique, optimal conditioning and a giant dose of mental toughness, not the least because she blew away her heavily favored Australian rival.

Sports Coach Radio is hosted by Glenn Whitney, a coaching and leadership psychologist. You can follow us on Twitter, where we post useful articles and coaching tips just about every day of the week. The handle is @sportscoachtalk. And we’d be grateful if you’d leave a short review of the show on the Apple iTunes page.
misty_hyman_h&sMisty has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to overcome setbacks and limitations, including asthma as a very young child and measuring 5 foot 7, meaning she was rarely one of the taller competitors in the pool.

After post graduate studies in Switzerland, she’s again based in her home state of Arizona, coaching a wide range of swimmers as well as triathletes.

http://mistyhyman.com/ @mistyhyman

Aug
3

By

Continuous Compassionate Criticism: The Essence of the Art of Coaching

Category: Motivation, Values & Principles

When you make a mistake in typing or in spelling, it’s good that an icon doesn’t flash all over your screen with a green monster sticking it’s tongue out and screaming at you that you’re a total idiot. Those kinds of frequent attacks on your self-esteem are unlikely to motivate you to produce more and increase the quality of your work. It’s an overwhelming, debilitating form of feedback.

coach-petra-kvitova-smile

However the opposite of this is also a problem. Most people can merrily type away while their word processing program automatically fixes mistakes that the person never realizes he made. This is not blissful ignorance. This is the kind of cluelessness that leads to arrogance and complacency.

To stay on top of our game, and especially to get better at what we want to be excellent at – we need continuous compassionate criticism. It’s hard to find sources for that, but absolutely essential.

A key reason great athletes become great, stay great and get even better is that they have an insatiable appetite for improvement. They are highly receptive to feedback and being challenged. They believe in themselves and their pervasive superiority over their competitors but they are almost always open to improving and recognizing what they are doing now might not be optimal.

This is less true in the case of top-level executives. Most I have worked with and know about are hyper-sensitive about criticism. They are thin-skinned and they avoid it. That may be an important reason that the average time at the top for a chief executive in most developed countries is about 3.5 years. Eventually all those blind spots and delusions of superiority (and even infallibility) catch up with these arrogant executives and they are deposed.

The art of the coach is to deliver this continuous compassionate criticism in a highly individualized way; tailoring the feedback and leavening it with humor and warmth so that the athlete – and ideally the top business leader – can receive it willingly, hear it fully, internalisz it completely and put the improvement into action consistently.

Topics: The art of coaching, reslience, focus, discipline

Jun
6

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If You’re Not Making Mistakes, You’re Not Taking Enough Risks

Category: Mental toughness

That’s a great quote from writer-designer Debbie Millman cited by Daniel Dennett’s in his book: Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking.

The chief trick to making good mistakes is not to hide them — especially not from yourself. Instead of turning away in denial when you make a mistake, you should become a connoisseur of your own mistakes, turning them over in your mind as if they were works of art, which in a way they are. … The trick is to take advantage of the particular details of the mess you’ve made, so that your next attempt will be informed by it and not just another blind stab in the dark, Dennett writes.

He continues: “We have all heard the forlorn refrain ‘Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!’ This phrase has come to stand for the rueful reflection of an idiot, a sign of stupidity, but in fact we should appreciate it as a pillar of wisdom. Anyone who says, ‘Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!’ is standing on the threshold of brilliance.
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May
2

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Triathlon and Cycling Coach Joe Friel On Being Fast After 50 (Rebroadcast)

Category: Cycling, Sports nutrition, Triathlon

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Cycling, Triathlon, Fat-Adapted Nutrition, Paleo Diet (Rebroadcast)
Cycling-coach-Joe-Friel
Master endurance coach Joe Friel is back, this time to talk about a subject near and dear to many coaches I know – being Fast After 50. So whether you’re coaching older athletes or you are an older coach-athlete yourself, this interview is for you. We cover a wide range of topics – cardio vascular performance, strength training, mobility and agility and, of course, nutrition.

Coach Friel is the cofounder of software company Training Peaks and the author of numerous books including The Cyclist’s Training Bible, The Triathlete’s Training Bible and co-author of the ground-breaking Paleo Diet for Athletes. He’s been a coach for nearly 35 years and is past chairman of the USA Triathlon National Coaching Commission.
Fast50_frontcover
Sports Coach Radio is a series of weekly in-depth interview with world-class sports coaches, leaders and scientists, hosted by Glenn Whitney, a coaching adviser and leadership consultant. Follow us on Twitter, where we post coaching tips and links to interesting articles just about every day of the week. The handle is @sportscoachtalk. And we’d be grateful if you’d leave a short review of the show on the Apple iTunes page.

Topics: Endurance expert, triathlon, cycling coach Joe Friel on cardio vascular performance, strength training, mobility and agility, and nutrition, Paleo Diet.

Feb
17

By

Talent Code Skill Specialist & Cycling Author Daniel Coyle (Rebroadcast)

Category: Motivation, Talent ID & Development

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Lance Armstrong ex-teammate Tyler Hamilton (Rebroadcast)
daniel_coyle_portraitThis week we welcome one of the world’s leading experts on skill acquisition, perfecting technique and performing under pressure: Daniel Coyle.

Daniel is the author of The Talent Code, an absolutely indispensable book for coaches. He also knows quite a bit about the controversial world professional cycling, having written Lance Armstrong’s War, released in 2006 and The Secret Race, a brilliant expose about doping, co-written with Armstrong’s former teammate Tyler Hamilton, which was released last year. He also published the extremely practical Little Book of Talent, in 2012.
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Jan
27

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Brain Training to Boost Endurance Performance With Samuele Marcora (Re-broadcast)

Category: Mental toughness, Sports psychology

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Mental Fatigue; Brain Endurance Training; Re-broadcast 
samuele-marcora-2Can brain training make substantial improvements in endurance performance? Is self-talk really effective? The results from preliminary research are highly encouraging. This week’s guest is the man leading the studies, Professor Samuele Marcora. He is director of research at the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Kent, in England.

Prepare for a little brain pain. In this episode we’re going to dive deep into Sam’s cutting edge work integrating exercise physiology with motivation psychology and cognitive neuroscience. This psychobiological approach has generated several innovative studies including the effects of mental fatigue on endurance performance and brain training for endurance athletes (Brain Endurance Training). Sam has also been a research consultant for MAPEI Sport Service in Italy where he contributed to highly cited research on soccer and mountain biking physiology.

Sports Coach Radio is a series of weekly in-depth interviews with world-class sports leaders, coaches and sports scientists. It’s hosted by Glenn Whitney, a coaching adviser and leadership consultant. Follow us on Twitter, where we post coaching tips and links to interesting articles just about every day of the week. The handle is @sportscoachtalk. And we’d be grateful if you’d leave a short review of the show on the Apple iTunes page.

Key topics:Brain training to improve endurance performance; self-talk for athletes, mental fatigue, training to exhaustion, Central Governor Theory, Timothy Noakes, endurance training for cycling, cognitive stimulation

Jan
13

By

Tim Noakes: Sports Scientist Extraordinaire, Redefining the Limits of Human Performance (Re-broadcast)

Category: Featured posts, Ironman, Mental toughness, Motivation, Track & Field

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Re-broadcast

From Ironman triathletes, marathon runners, Tour de France cyclists to rowing, rugby and football – Tim Noakes’ research shakes up the consensus and opens the path to new, higher performance horizons.

We cover dehydration and water intoxication, optimal training methods, and what coaches need to know about the connections between the brain and the body. There’s even some information about how to swim nearly naked at the North Pole. The show is hosted by sports psychologist Glenn Whitney.

“It would be easy to train athletes if they were just bodies without brains.” – Tim Noakes

Tim is the author of The Lore of Running, considered by many to be one of the definitive works on the subject, plus he has written and co-written about a dozen other books and over 100 scientific papers.

His latest book is called Waterlogged: The Serious Problem of Overhydration in Endurance Sports. It’s an impressively comprehensive examination of the subject and one that is making many executives in the sports drink industry squirm.

Tim also practices what he preaches, having competed in over 70 endurance and ultra-endurance running races and he’s still highly active now that he’s passed his 60th birthday.

His ideas and research shake up the conventional wisdom and break open new, more creative and effective ways of thinking about human performance.

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Nov
23

By

Duke’s Coach P. Inspires Fierce Competitors in Basketball and Life; Re-broadcast

Category: Basketball, Motivation

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Choices, not chances; re-broadcast
coach_p_duke3This week we have one of the leading  women’s basketball coaches in NCAA. Not just a coach but a thought leader and an eloquent proponent of how sports can be a powerful force for social good.

Joanne P. McCallie, or Coach P. as she is widely known, has headed up the Duke University Blue Devils, in Durham, North Carolina since 2007, where she has an 82% win record. Prior to that she lead the women’s basketball program at Michigan State and before that the University of Maine.

This interview was carried out in August, 2013.

Coach P . has led teams into three National Championship game appearances in her career, and has been named conference coach of the year five times. This season, which starts in just a few weeks, looks like it might be truly epic.
coach_p_duke2She is the author of Choice Not Chance: Rules for Building a Fierce Competitor, an inspiring book that helps young athletes, their parents and their coaches focus on the key moments in life when success or failure are built.
choice_not_chance_coach_p_duke_book
Sports Coach Radio is hosted by Glenn Whitney, a coaching and leadership psychologist. You can follow us on Twitter, where we post useful articles and coaching tips just about every day of the week. The handle is @sportscoachtalk. And we’d be grateful if you’d leave a short review of the show on the Apple iTunes page.