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‘The Soloist’ Secures International Distribution
This is some dummy copy. You’re not really supposed to read this dummy copy, it is just a place holder for people who need some type to visualize what the actual copy might look like if it were real content. If you want to read, I might suggest a good […]
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Overtraining
When I was a young coach, I used to push athletes to their limits and beyond during practices thinking that it was the best way to physically prepare them for competition. It was a learned behavior from coaches when I was an athlete and as an assistant coach. Sure, my […]
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The Inequity in Equality
The new strategic roadmap Olympic Agenda 2020+5 will highlight the importance of gender-equality and fair portrayal practices in communications about the Olympic Games as a priority in the new objectives. “To encourage the entire Olympic Movement and its stakeholders to entrench gender-equal portrayal practices in all forms of communication.” “The […]
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Selection & Rejection
“Life is not always fair, but you must always appeal if you have been wronged.” – Emma Carney Is it fair to assume that you should be selected just because you feel you’ve earned it? Hundreds of hopefuls all feel that they’ve earned it, they can’t all be selected. Perhaps […]
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There Can Be Only One, Or Maybe Not
The Highlander movies and television shows were known for the saying, “There can be only one,” when it came to the titular character who was an immortal being and needed to defeat other immortals in combat in order to stay alive and maintain his immortality. Because of the rule about […]
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Theories of Motivation: The 3 Big Myths
If the sardonic artist Harland Miller was to design a book cover to highlight an uncomfortable truth about motivation it would state something like: ‘Motivation Ain’t All It’s Hyped Up To Be.’ Most publications you read on the subject tend to refer to two types of motivation, extrinsic and intrinsic. […]
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Sting Like a Bee
This past Thursday was World Bee Day, honoring the birthday of the world’s first beekeeper. Its purpose is to acknowledge bees and other pollinators in the ecosystem. It’s a good reminder for us to be more like bees. Each bee only makes a small amount of honey in its lifetime. […]
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Parents Behaving Badly
How disappointing is it when it’s the parents behaving badly and ruining the fun for the children? Last Sunday an under 13s rugby league game left a 35-year-old father requiring facial surgery. A wild brawl is said to have broken out in which up to 20 people were involved. The […]
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All Is Not Lost
Have you ever coached a team in a game where their brains or hearts were not in it? Maybe your team looked lethargic while playing or in a fog. Or has a team that you ever coached been down by what seemed like an insurmountable amount? In every single case […]
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The Impact of Trust
Trust is key in team sports. For optimal team performance, trust should be second nature between coaches and teammates. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, as big egos and the fear of failure can cause a rift within a team’s culture. Trust is not a given, nor should it […]
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Eat ‘Em Up, Kats!
Congratulations to the Sam Houston State Bearkats for winning the NCAA Football FCS Division championship last week. It was a strange game that ended a peculiar football season, and, in many ways, it may have been a sign of things to come. In Huntsville, Texas, Sam Houston State University is […]
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The Power of One
We know there is no I in team, but there can be one (or sometimes a few) player that heavily influences the team. I recently read about Miami Heat veteran player, Udonis Haslem, and his tenure on the team more so as a mentor than a player. The Heat organization […]
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Extreme E: Racing Toward Culture Change for the Planet
Whether you believe in ‘climate change’ or whether you are a denier, it has to be agreed that climactic conditions in recent years have impacted on sporting events and this is happening now not in some far-off dystopian future and its global – we’re all in it together. The success […]
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Getting Comfortable In the Status Quo
I had a coach recently reach out to me to ask if I had any suggestions for her, as she felt stuck in her coaching journey. Upon some great discussion and learning for both of us, it was identified that she was not stuck in her coaching journey, but she […]
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Five Mistakes Coaches Will Make This Summer and How To Avoid Making Them
Picking up where we left off last week in “Five Harmful Trends to Watch As Sports Restart Post-Covid,” and building off Culture in Sports colleague’s Paul Robbins “The 5 Essentials for Becoming a Professional Sports Coach,” this week, we want to speak directly to coaches. Hopefully, athletes and parents will […]
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Inclusive Culture in Sports
“If you can play, you can play.” – Miami University men’s hockey team We’ve talked a lot about sexism, racism, even classism in sports, but of course there are many ways to exclude and disenfranchise people, and surprisingly in our seemingly enlightened times, it’s still very much an issue. I’m […]
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“It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye”
The larrikin is praised in Australian culture as iconic, Peter Lalor of Eureka Stockade notoriety, the infamous bushranger Ned Kelly, television’s Chips Rafferty and Paul Hogan, even our own one-time Prime Minister Bob Hawke. It’s thought that this idolatry of the larrikin arose as a reaction to the corrupt constabulary […]
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The 5 Essentials for Becoming a Professional Sports Coach
The road to becoming a professional sports coach is a challenging one. There are many amateur sports coaches operating today without any formal qualifications. There have been, mainly in the past, some sports coaches at the highest level who have achieved outstanding results without being formally qualified. The question is, […]
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Testing is Failing
The Tokyo Olympics are in trouble. The immediate issue is COVID-19. Case rates in Japan are rising while vaccination rates are low. It will take a logistical miracle to figure out protocols and rules on how to follow them effectively. Public pressure is mounting to cancel them altogether. However, there […]
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Flying Like A Hawk
Come on, Marty, let’s jump in the DeLorean, get up to 88 miles per hour, and head back to the 80s! As we make this jump, or perhaps a better term considering the subject of this article would be “ollie,” back in time, we’re going to see the start of […]
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The Real Champions: a Culture of Courage & Charity
We read about all the magnanimous generosity of sports stars in the world; giving of themselves because they have the means to help or because the cause touches them in a special or personal way. LeBron James is giving back to his hometown of Akron, Ohio to the tune of […]
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Comradery and Competition: a Delicate Dichotomy
Triple world champion surfing superstar Mick Fanning was famously attacked by a shark in the middle of competition at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa in 2015. Spectators watched on as the Australian fought off the three-meter shark with a punch to the back on live television. The highly praised event […]
