Today's episode focuses on the topic of Coaches as Educators.

And I'm joined in the discussion by two great coaches.

The first is Valorie Kondos Field. Ms. Val, as she is known, led the UCLA gymnastics team from 1991 to 2019, collecting seven National Championships along the way. She now leads the course "Transformative Coaching: Introduction to Philosophies of Coaching and Leadership" at UCLA.

Kirk Walker, the Associate Head Coach of the UCLA Bruins softball team, has a career that started in 1984 and has contributed to six Women's College World Series championships.

We cover a lot of ground in this podcast, and some of the highlights for me were:

The alter-ego coaches can let their worst side come to the fore. This alter-ego is the person who thinks they have to have all the answers, is black and white on issues, and does not encourage discussion. Keeping this person in check requires you to focus on what success is, and that is Coach Woodens' success: the piece of mind that comes from knowing you did your best and grounding your team in fun.

Using sport as a metaphor to educate people about life supersedes the importance of the X's and O's and wins or losses. Therefore, your role as an educator is your "major mission."

Influencing people is perhaps the fundamental role of leadership, and when you do this, you are educating people.

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 get in touch with us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website, thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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Our Great Coach on this episode is Tom Herman.

Tom is An American Football coach. After graduating univsierity he began his coaching career in 1998 at Texas Lutheran as a receivers coach. He then took a position in 1999 at the University of Texas at Austin as a graduate assistant under the mentorship of Greg Davis. He then joined Texas State as the offensive coordinator in 2005.From there we went to Rice where he helped set up the program. Then in 2011, Urban Meyer selected Herman as his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Buckeyes. He was then hired by by Houston as its new head football coach in 2014, before joining power house Texas as Head Coach in 2016. Then in 2022 he was announced as the Florida Atlantic Owls 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 paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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Our Great Coach on this episode is Fred Vergnoux.

Fred is a swimming coach. He started his career as a coach in France with the club Racing Paris. He then headed over to the USA and took jobs working for people like Greg Troy to gain deeper knowledge if the sport. This would lead to him to eventally being appointed as the Head Coach for the City of Edinbourgh in Scotland in 2004, and then in 2008 the Head Coach of the Great Britain Olympics team. From there he moved to Spain and became the Spanish team head coach in 2010, and in 2022 was appointed the Head Coach of the Belgium swim team.

His athletes’ accomplishments:

• 8 World records
• 11 European records
• 3 Commonwealth records
• 9 South American records
• 6 Olympic medals
• 22 World Championship medals
• 38 European Championship medals

The importance of surprising people in traiing , so that they can see how they are progressing through different activities that shake them out of their routine.

The way he talks about athletes renting space in your head, and why its so important to take breaks and time away to keep yourself fresh and connected to your family.

How the key to success is the relationship between the athlete and the 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 paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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Today’s episode focuses on the coaches, who the Great Coaches we have interviewed, have called out for praise or recognition.

And we put this episode together because we wanted to hear from you. If there is a coach who had had an impact on your life then we would like to hear from you. Grab your phone and send us a recording explaining who they are and what they did it that resonated with you and we will put them together into a listener episode.

Send your audio to paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com

And just before we go the podcast, this episode is dedicated to John Rea who recently passed away. John is the father of Caitie who works with us in the podcast.

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Our Great Coach on this episode is Shaun Wane.

Shaun is a former Rugby League player and now coach. He started coaching with his old club Wigan in 2003, leading the youth academy team to 7 Academy Grand Finals and 6 League Leaders’ Shields. Then in 2011 he became the clubs Head Coach and went on to win three Super League Grand Finals, a Challenge Cup and a World Club Challenge. In 2020 he was then appointed as the England Rugby League team.

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 paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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As a player Greg Cannella was a High School All American, and a an All American while at Nassau Community College.

After graduating he spent time as an Assistant at Stony Brook before becoming Head Coach at his alma mater the University of Massachusetts in 1993.

Since then, he has gone to achieve eight NCAA Tournament berths, Eight New England Championships, 4 ECAC Championships, five New England Coach of the Year honors and was named National Coach of the Year in 2006, when he guided the Minutemen to the program's first NCAA Championship Game appearance.

In 2019 he was inducted int the USA Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

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 thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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As a player Franco Smith represented South Africa as well as playing for clubs in South Africa, Italy, France and Wales. He started his professional coaching career in 2006 with the South African team the Cheetahs. Then in 2008 he became Head Coach of Benneton in Italy, guiding them to 2 National Championships, a Coppa Italia and a Supercup. In 2015 he became Head Coach of the Cheetahs and lead them to two Currie Cup titles in 2016 and 2019. In 2019 he was appointed Head Coach of the Italian National Team, and then in 2022 was appointed Coach of the Glasgow Warriors. In his first year with them team he led them a top-four URC finish as well as guiding them to their first European final.

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 thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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On this episode, my firend Jonathan Cole and I are joined by owen Jordan who has just written a terrific new book called Wise Words: Thoughts and Beliefs of Great Coaches. And today we talk about some of the key things he has learned about coaching and leadership while putting the book together.

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 paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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