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Episode 08: The Creative Power of Collaboration with Naomi Clarke
Naomi discusses teamwork, partnerships, and how shared visions lead to remarkable outcomes. 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 […]
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Be the Best Coach You Can Be
Being a coach is not easy. A coach must look out for the safety and well being of the athletes, team, assistant coaches, and support staff. A coach has to provide a safe environment, not only from physical dangers or injuries, but mental and emotional safety as well. In many […]
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Radical Sportsmanship & the U.S. Olympic Trials
Among the most, if not the most, intense and competitive athletic events in the world are the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. The reasons are simple enough, every nation has a limitation on Olympic slots, either through qualification or by invitation. The U.S. is a big nation with a large number […]
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Can Sport Salvage Our Troubled Youth?
The teenaged years are so difficult, there is much to learn to become an independent adult and if there is no one there to help them to understand that mistakes do happen, and to help them learn to cope with the rollercoaster of emotions, that journey becomes overwhelming and fraught. […]
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The Legend of the Lightning Bolt
Taking place in April 2021 is Athletics Australia’s Australian Track and Field Championships. The event will be held in Sydney and is the largest annual athletics event in Australia and the Oceania region, traditionally attracting more than 3,500 athletes from across Australia and the Pacific. When I think of athletics, […]
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In Search of Contextual Fit
It can be said of most human beings, including sports coaches, that they never fully achieve a complete fit with any role they have chosen in their life. It is always under construction – a process of becoming. Although some of the greatest amongst us come very close, being completely […]
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The Power of Positive Thinking
Have you ever been to a yoga class? If not, you should try it sometime. You learn a lot about yourself, mostly about how inflexible you are. It is a place without judgment. At least they say it is. You hear a lot about this journey you are on, about […]
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Sowing the Field of Dreams
This week in the United States we welcome back our national pastime, the sport of baseball. I know, there are some people who may argue that American football should be the national pastime, however, I’m sorry to tell those folks this, but baseball has that locked down. To quote a […]
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Little Major Leagues: The Big Business That is Youth Sports
The other day I spoke with my 15 (and 9 months as she likes to frame it for obvious reasons) year old sister about her most recent soccer tournament. She tells me it was close to Richmond, VA, two hours from our hometown in Silver Spring, MD. I was surprised. […]
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Are Too Many Diversity Boxes Just Being Ticked With No Thought To Inclusion?
There is much talk in business communities in the need to change their practices to attract more employees from diverse backgrounds as well as women – particularly within traditional male dominated industries. More women than ever before, from all economic and ethic backgrounds, are visibly breaking down barriers that once […]
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8 Tips on Creating a More Positive Lifestyle
1. Do the things that make you happy. When I say to do the things that make you happy I do not mean pick up 4 bottles of wine on your way home from work and finish them all. Although wine may make you happy, go deeper than that. Find the […]
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Zuzu’s Petals
“You died on a Saturday morning” No matter how many times I watch Forrest Gump, that line always gets to me. Why did Jenny have to die? She had worked so hard to overcome her demons and redeem herself. She, Forrest, and Forrest should have lived happily ever after in […]
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Dehumanizing Athletes: “I Have Feelings Too”
The nature of sports tends to obscure athletes’ human qualities. We often view them as a source of entertainment, as a distraction from the concerns of the real world. When they step out of their roles as performers, it’s taboo. Athletes using their voices to advocate a cause — a […]
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The Right Time to Make Positive Change
Both NCAA basketball tournaments have been very exciting and have proven that there are always Cinderella stories and games that come down to the final buzzer or whistle. There are heroes, villains, officials, and heartbreak around every corner. There is also at least one feel-good Disney story from each of […]
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Hope For A Great Sea Change?
Nobel winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney authored these lines in his translation of Sophocles’ drama, The Cure at Troy: “History says, Don’t hopeOn the side of the grave,’But then, once in a lifetimeThe longed for tidal waveOf justice can rise upAnd hope and history rhyme. So hope for a great […]
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The Black and White of Ethics
Sport has had a long a varied history with ethics and ethical behaviour from the systematic abuse of gymnasts to the systematic doping in the peloton. Recently there seems to have been a split into two forms of ethical behaviour: not getting caught vs not doing it at all – […]
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Torture on the Track: The Human-Animal Sporting Partnership
Notwithstanding the skills and athleticism of the jockeys, the horses are athletes in the horseracing equation too. The jockey and the horse are teammates in the sport, a combination of muscle, mind, skill, and instinct from both parties. The horseracing industry certainly has its problems, these animals are collateral damage […]
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Tough Coach, Caring Coach
It is self-evident that the most effective sports coaches have a major influence, not only on their athletes but also on the sports organisation in which they coach. For sports coaches, especially those classed as ‘serial winners’, there exists what might be considered something of a paradox – that is, […]
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The Wide World of Sports
We are all from somewhere, and this is important because it is the beginning of our story. We don’t know how our story ends but we know where it started. Everybody has a story. Each story is different, and each one is interesting. People enjoy sports for many different reasons, […]
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Take Risks, Take A Stand
With everything in life, there are risks. Getting out of bed in the morning can be a risky move in some cases. Even driving down the street to the grocery store can be a risky option. However, how you respond to those risks can determine your fate in life. In […]
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The Pitfalls of Player Health and Safety
Player health and safety has always been more of an abstraction than a concrete practice in the sport of football. In an ideal world, “players play and coaches coach”, each relying on a third party (trainers, physicians, administrators, etc.) to set standards and make decisions on player health and safety. […]
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Teasing Out the Talent from the Chaos Within
Talent may not always have character and attitude,however attitude and character will always contain some level of talent. Bill Sweetenham (elite swim coach) swimmingscience.net 23 October 2017 Take a deep look at the eyes of coach John Mosley in Netflix’s Last Chance U: Basketball series as they meet the camera […]
