Coaches and teams are always looking for a competitive edge. This edge comes in many forms, to include better technique, newer and higher tech equipment, uniforms and other clothing that has less drag or resistance, […]
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Articles
The Getting of Wisdom
I’ll return to my roots as a librarian for this entry. A book came to my notice the other day; “Coaching Wisdom: Champion Coaches and Their Players Share Successful Leadership Principles: How Tony Dungy, Lou […]
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A Mirror to the World: Why Sports Can’t Hope to Hide From the World
There is a common refrain that suggests sports should be separate from events or politics. It is one we often hear. Certainly sports do provide a distraction at times. But to paraphrase the late comedian […]
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UK Grassroots Football Culture
Football is a game that continues to move through generation to generation and it’s important that football can keep its core values especially in the UK where football is one of the most popular sports […]
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Cultural Differences – UK vs US Football
Football in these two countries has always been very different. In the UK, football is the most popular sport by a long way in comparison to any other whereas in the US where it is […]
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The Humble Hero
Tonight, Australia gathered or tuned in to farewell cricketer and sporting icon, Shane Warne. The Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG), where Warney was most celebrated, hosted the momentous event which featured politicians and celebrities and was […]
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Team Fearless!
In an environment where there is clearly a ‘safe space’ for all team members, there is ultimately a proficient leader in place. By establishing the best mindsets, behaviors, and climate, the good leader is building […]
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The Beauty of Sports: Everyone Wins When One Wins
Every athlete influences their team. If an athlete is excited about being at practice or training, their excitement positively influences those around them. If a teammate is injured and is out for a while, the […]
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Culture in Sports: We Focus on Athletic Success
Athletic success – what does that mean to you? The truth is that it likely means many different things to many different people. Think about it … if you were an athlete (or still are) […]
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Living in a Culture of Fear
The saga of Urban Meyer and the Jacksonville Jaguars continues, even four months after he was fired. This is now my third article at Culture in Sports where I specifically discuss Urban Meyer’s toxic and […]
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Winning in the Moment: Sometimes You Need to Be Something You’re Not
Be something you’re not … so easy, right? (Hopefully obvious sarcasm) Any serious athlete has experienced this; you step up to a challenge, evolve as a competitor, overcome a personal barrier, or just (let’s be […]
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Supporting an Injured Athlete
US figure skater and ultimate athlete Nathan Chen had to withdraw from the World Figure Skating Championships due to an injury. It was the right thing to do as Chen did not want to make […]
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Remember When Playing Sports Was Fun?
Do you remember the first time you started playing with a ball? You probably felt an inner joy and enjoyed throwing, kicking, spinning, and juggling that ball. It did not matter what size the ball […]
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Treating Athletes with Respect and Trust
When coaches treat their athletes with trust and respect, it contributes to a positive culture and climate. Coaches should not wait for certain athletes to respect and trust, rather they should trust and respect all […]
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Coaching Is Truly About Helping Others Succeed
I read Jacob Hensh’s article True Coaches: Creating A Happy Sunset For Someone Else for Culture in Sports yesterday and recalled a conversation I had with him recently of why people decide to coach. We […]
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True Coaches: Creating A Happy Sunset For Someone Else
A true Coach is not really in it for themselves, he/she is in it for the athlete and the people they care about. They’re creating a future for the family they’ve chosen, i.e, a happy […]
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Shane Warne: the King of Spin
Few people can claim the title of ‘legend’ in their own lifetime, but Shane Warne was such a robust mix of cricketing knowledge and skill, and Aussie larrikin, as to be able to quite easily […]
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Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
This past NFL season was more entertaining than ever. A couple of weeks ago, the Rams beat the Bengals in Super Bowl XLI. It was a good game, at the end of a historic postseason […]
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Toxicity and Receding Mental Health in the 2022 Winter Olympics
Since the beginning of sport, international competitions such as the Olympic Games have represented so much more than the athletes competing. A handful of contestants bear the weight of a country on their shoulders during […]
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The Soul of Sports: Optimistic Coaching
In the course of reviewing titles for my school library, I have come across a book written by Darrin Donnelly called “Relentless Optimism” This little gem tells the tale of Bobby Kane and his encounter […]
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The Cruelest Devil: Lessons from the Tragic Fall of Matt Harvey
If you’ve followed the news of late, the once heralded baseball phenom Matt Harvey, had to testify in a Texas courtroom last week about his own history of drug use and his sharing of prescription […]
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Values
Values in any sports organization are extremely important. Values of the organization show coaches, staff, and athletes what is important for the organization. CEO, presidents, GMs, and coaches’ values show what they believe, what they […]
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Has Ethical Responsibility Been Left Out in the Cold?
The principles of ethical leadership include honesty, justice, respect, community and integrity, these are of foremost importance in any environment and are perhaps even more important than having knowledge of the sport in which an individual […]
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Early Greatness: Is It Bad For Mental Health?
Greatness, no matter how long, sticks with a man. (Yes, I used the Gene Hackman reference from The Replacements again) But what is seldom thought about is, “What about greatness at an athlete’s early age?” […]
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Quicksand
Quicksand is a serious issue, and not one of folklore. It has been around since sports began in our civilization. It does not matter what level or type of sport that is being played, quicksand […]
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Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together?
The Beijing Olympics are underway, and I have settled into my usual Olympic stance. I ask myself questions. Do I care? Should I boycott? What is the Russian Olympic Committee? I’m curious, so I watch. […]
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Owning Your Role: How To Build A Team And Accept Help
Toughness and camaraderie in Sport Team Culture comes down to whether one is either “The Leader,” “The Soldier,” or “The Supporter.” Everyone plays a role. Leaders, soldiers, and supporters – they all create “The Team.” […]
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Mean Girls
I was reading a social media post about bad behavior in relationships and I was astounded by the statement “boys will be boys”. Is this perhaps a sterling example of poor or toxic behavior being […]
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Recovery After an Extremely Toxic and Abusive Culture
Is your organization at rock bottom? There is no trust, little communication, people are scared and confused, employees are bracing for the worst, employees and athletes trust nobody, and athletes are looking elsewhere because of […]
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Toxic Leadership In Work Settings
As our culture in sports starts to refine itself we gradually begin to fade away from traditional standards and start introducing new and fresh ideas. When a coach comes in a new setting and isn’t […]
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Clouds around the Olympic Rings: The Opening of the Beijing Winter Games
The Olympic Winter Games opened in Beijing in the midst of gathering clouds. Whether these clouds are a prelude to coming storms or will merely block the metaphoric sunshine of global peace, understanding, and transformative […]
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Drawing A Line In The Sand: Athletes Do Not Stop Fighting, They Challenge Each Other
When I was in the 5th grade at Hatfield Elementary School (Uniontown, PA) I met a lifelong brother and the truest of friends, Joseph Spinuzza. The first thing we did was have a rubber-band gun […]
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Retiring from Perfection
This week is a celebration. The Greatest of All Time, the GOAT, has decided to retire from professional football. After winning 243 NFL games, including seven Super Bowls, and passing for 84,520 yards and 624 […]
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Leading Change
Combining my studies, my job, this crazy condition we find ourselves in globally, and the topics I explore for Culture in Sports, I have found that the most prevalent unifying issue is the constancy of […]
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Empathy and Greatness: The Altruistic Lifestyle of a Great Coach
“Greatness, no matter how brief, stays with a man.” (A quote from the great actor Gene Hackman at the end of the superb Sport drama The Replacements, yeah I am indeed “fanboying” that performance) But […]
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Not a Circus Show
The San Francisco 49ers are on a roll. They are piling up wins with the greatest of ease, just like the man on the flying Trapeze. This month, they have been traveling from town to […]
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Sometimes It Is Just Not a Good Fit
Sometimes it is not just a good fit and that is okay. Russell Westbrook was recently benched by the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and all reports point to Mr. Westbrook’s poor play. While […]
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Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act: The precedent will be set, but will it be the right one?
History was made last week. Well, history is made every week, but on January 12th, the United States Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York filed the first ever charges under the Rodchenkov […]
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Then There Was One: The Shameful Retention & Hiring of Minority Coaches in the NFL
There is little job security for NFL head coaches. It has been said NFL stands for Not For Long, rather than National Football League. But the league which has struggled to promote African American and […]
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A Delay of Game is No Reason to Celebrate
On Martin Luther King Day, the Minnesota Vikings interviewed Catherine Raiche for their vacant general manager position. A cheeky sportswriter described it as the current Philadelphia Eagles executive “chatting” with Vikings executives. Other media accounts […]
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Who’s Club Is It Anyway?
To say that English people love their football would represent a well-known and generally accepted statement. Over the past two decades, foreign ownership in English Football’s top flight has done nothing but increase. Football is […]
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Making Your Mark: PA Best In History, Justin “Jolly” Rogers
Yeah guys and gals, you read the headline accurately, we actually call him “Jolly.” (Jolly Rogers … get it? Credit to Mr. Mark Morris for a hilarious nickname) Jolly is a 17-year-old Senior from Hershey, […]
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Cleaning the Rivers
Last week, Georgia beat Alabama 33-18 in the College Football Playoff championship game. It was a rematch of a game played a month ago, featuring teams from bordering states in the corner of the country […]
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All Madden: Life and Coaching Advice from the Life of John Madden
The life of John Madden, who died on December 28, 2021, is a compelling story of a quintessential teacher and coach. It leaves us some clear lessons though to be drawn from his long, good, […]
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How Do You Deal With Blowups?
When it comes to team sports, it’s common knowledge that athletes have to fight for the team and support their teammates at all times, even if situations may be dire (losing by double digits, losing […]
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Happy Birthday Bob: a True Mentor in Ethical Sport Culture
Hey guys and gals, today is quite special to a lot of us, and we at #CultureInSports would be remiss if we didn’t recognize our dear friend and mentor, Robert Aflred Boland … Bob … […]
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The Not-So-Great Resignation
Something strange and unique happened while I was watching NFL Red Zone last Sunday. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was because it wasn’t clear. Something was going down, and everybody needed to stop and […]
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When in Rome…
It would be fantastic for professional tennis and for its promotion in Australia if Novak Djokovic plays in the Australian Open this year … but at what point should the very talented among us be […]
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Sport Anxiety and Mental Health: An Olympian’s Perspective
Let’s face it, Sport Culture doesn’t shine if the athlete doesn’t shine internally. I always have believed that when one has conquered their own mind, then and only then will achieve true athletic brilliance. Unfortunately […]
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It Happened This Week: Curt Flood & Bowie Kuhn and the Battle for Freedom
It happened last week, 52-years ago, Christmas week of 1969, when two of the most consequential letters in the history of North American sports were exchanged. So much of what has followed in the history […]
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A Culture of Support
In Australia on Boxing Day, there are two main sporting events that stir the nation’s interest, these are the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, and the Boxing Day Cricket Test. My English friends like to […]
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Lessons from a Great Teacher
The week between Christmas and New Years Day is a time of quiet reflection on the past year. It’s a time where the world seems to slow down after the buildup to the holiday and […]
Read More Fragile Athletes and Coaches
I recently wrote an article about When Coaches Are Unwilling to Adapt or Change. In that article I discussed that “Coaching strategies that may have worked at one level may not work at another” and […]
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Lockouts Defined
I read Greg Steiner’s December 6th contribution to Culture in Sports “Locked Out”, expecting to be critical of it. Instead, I loved it and it very accurately reflects how fans feel about the zero-sum game […]
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Sports, Sponsorships, and Stadiums, Oh My!
At this point, large companies becoming the title sponsors of large sporting arenas and stadiums have become commonplace in today’s sporting world. In the highly commercialized and capitalistic economy of the United States, the American […]
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Sport Motherhood: An Athletic, Personal, and Professional Lifestyle
A common perception and statistic is that only 1% of high school athletes become collegiate athletes, well, maybe that’s true. However, they achieve such success because of a support system – usually their Mother. If […]
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TKR and the Road to the Perfect Season
The Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR) in the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) ended up having a perfect season in 2020, winning all 10 of their regular-season games as well as two playoff games, including the final. […]
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Sporting Ethics in the New Paradigm
In the latest Culture in Sports podcast, Mike and Wes discuss all things sporting ethics with Bioethics expert and author Art Caplan. Having suffered from Polio as a young person, Art became interested in the […]
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Taking on NFL Ownership
As the NFL season winds down, its league-wide social responsibility initiative “Inspire Change” will be on display in stadiums around the country. Yet it’s easy to imagine a familiar scene on Super Bowl Sunday, a […]
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When Coaches Are Unwilling to Adapt or Change
Over time, there have been many athletes that could not adapt to higher level competition for a variety of mental, physical, or emotional reasons. Sometimes athletes choose to pursue other directions in their lives or […]
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A Tale of Two Coaches: Obligation and Responsibility vs. Growth and Love
There is a quote from Hall of Fame college football coach Lou Holtz making the rounds on the internet that goes… “Today’s athletes talk about rights and privileges. And the players 50 years ago talked […]
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Culture and Inclusiveness in Sports
The Culture in Sports podcast recently had Sam Marchiano on as a guest. Sam Marchiano is an award-winning content creator, equality advocate, adjunct assistant professor at NYU’s Tisch Institute of Global Sport, and is recognized […]
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The Tiger Effect: The Lasting Impact of Tiger Woods
“Making Progress” These two words along with a simple 3 second video of a man hitting a golf ball were powerful enough to send ripples across the world of Twitter. Simply because the man hitting […]
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Equestrian: Passion, Love, and Respect for Animals, a Beloved Sport
In keeping the same theme with my last article about my Brother, I have something truly beautiful for everyone, an interview with Equestrian Cynthia Kowalsky, my Mother. Cindy is a University of Pittsburgh Graduate and […]
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Locked Out
There are a lot of problems in the world today. We are wrapping up the second year of a global pandemic with no apparent end in sight due to a new variant named after a […]
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Collaboration, Compliance, and Cohesion
Penn State’s first Director of Ethics and Compliance, Chief Ethics Compliance Officer, former FBI Special Agent, and long-standing member of the Board of Directors for the US Center for Safe Sport, Regis Becker joins Wes […]
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Traditions In Sport Culture: Call it “Brotherly Love”
Sports Culture isn’t always demonstrated in the flesh; occasionally, there are traditions that exemplify how sports can bring people together otherwise … for example … a game of Madden Football every Thanksgiving Morning for 16 […]
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Trying A New Lens
As a coach, team organizer, or administrative representative you are constantly looking for ways to improve, be more efficient, and spend less time and energy on things you don’t have to. In this mindset you […]
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A True Life Coach: How to Light a Fire in Yourself
What is Sports Culture? Well, as my good friend, Coach of 33 years, and accomplished distance runner Bob Costello puts it, “When you really start to understand it, you understand that it’s about the team, […]
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Cultivating an Ethical Culture
In the latest Culture in Sports podcast Mike and Wes interview Sports Attorney, Penn State Law Professor, Athletic Integrity Officer, and President of Culture in Sports Bob Boland. Bob discusses his views of the establishment […]
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College Shouldn’t be the End: How Swimming and Running have Built a Winning Adult Community
You see it numerous times every year at every high school, college, or university around the country. Senior night. Athletes on rosters across the country are playing their last (home) game at their respective level. […]
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Focus! Engaging in mental warm-ups increases intentionality
When we think about the beginning a sport season, enthusiasm is high. Athletes and coaches are so excited to get things going. Effort is off the charts and everyone is supportive. Fast forward a couple […]
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Liars and Cheaters
Carlos Correa is in the news a lot these days. He had an excellent year for the Astros, leading them to the American League pennant. He won the Gold Glove award as the best defensive […]
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Driving Change in Artistic Swimming Culture
The latest podcast from Culture in Sports features Californian coach, mentor, and elite athlete Ali Williams. Ali discusses her views on toxic culture within her sport of synchronized swimming, now known as artistic swimming, with […]
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Risk and Camaraderie: How to Support Your Competitors
Sports Culture is often unique as you move from sport to sport. I know, this is news to everybody. (Sarcasm) But sometimes you come across certain individuals that express Sport Culture so uniquely that it […]
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The Future Olympians on the Sidelines: Collegiate Cheerleaders
If you tune into any collegiate football or basketball game at some point the camera man will pan over to the cheerleading team on the sideline and show a cheerleader. You have seen it a […]
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Sports don’t build character – You do
When I teach about character development with coaches and teachers, the first thing we do is to dispel myths. Myths such as the 10,000 hour rule and how participating in sports helps build character. THIS […]
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Culture & Climate in a Learning Environment
I recently had the pleasure of listening to a podcast for Culture in Sports. Jeremy Piasecki discusses with Wes and Mike the origins of the organization and the influences that shaped his perceptions on sport […]
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Falling Off the Hedonic Treadmill
November 3rd had all the makings of a terrible day for me. The skies were gloomy as a cold front approached. I was hobbling around on a painful knee I had injured the week before. […]
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Responsibility On and Off the Field
A couple days ago some shocking news was delivered to us by the NFL. Las Vegas wide receiver Henry Ruggs III had been traveling 156 mph near a residential area where he hit and killed […]
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Goal-Setting: Focusing on skills behind the performance promote a growth mindset
At this point, SMART goals are everywhere. SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, etc. It was originally designed to help individuals and groups focus on processes. The challenge – it doesn’t because we have lost perspective on what actually […]
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Row the Boat
Two months ago, I wrote about the efforts of my hometown NFL team and my college alma mater to rebuild their teams by changing their cultures. Now we are halfway through the football season, and […]
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Are Enforcers Making a Comeback?
This past weekend, Kevin Durant was ejected from a game for shoving an opposing player three times, the last time elbowing and shoving him in the neck. This came a game after where the Brooklyn […]
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Older Siblings: The Best Kind of Coaches In The Business
Older siblings can be tough, especially when it comes to athletics. The younger sibling is usually called too short … or too slow … or too weak; okay fine, that was him talking to me. […]
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Compassion Fatigue: The silent challenge of resiliency in leadership
Leaders who are invested in their teams carry an additional burden that seldom gets discussed. The stressors of those they lead. How do we know this? It’s called “emotional contagion”. We often can carry the […]
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Watching, Fast and Slow
Baseball and football are different in many ways. They represent different cultures, different lifestyles, customs, and traditions. The mere presence of a timeclock, or lack thereof, defines separate ways of life. Football is fast, and […]
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Why I Love Coaching
I am a coach. I have been coaching for a very long time, since I was a young teenager. It is something that I love to do. I love being on the field, pitch, deck, […]
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Sports Culture: It’s An Education, Not Only Entertainment
Sometimes, culture and sportsmanship don’t manifest themselves in competition, they are embodied more so in practice and helping the athletes. Zack McBride, the Head Cross Country Coach and Assistant Track and Field Coach at Limestone […]
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The New Landscape of College Football: The Impact of NIL Laws
Over the past few years we have seen a drastic change in the fabric of college football. This is partially in thanks to the addition of the NCAA Transfer Portal, which was instituted on October […]
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Compassion vs Judgement
We need to cultivate a culture that judges (evaluates) process, not people. The Reality Whether in a corporate or athletic setting, we do not explicitly discuss what we should or want to judge. We also […]
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The Future of Baseball
I am obsessed with baseball, and this is my favorite time of the year. In the middle of the MLB postseason, my favorite team is in the thick of things. All of the series have […]
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Out of Sight, In the Mind – Catching Brain Damage Early
The contact heavy aspect of football has attracted many fans over the years due to the nature of the game; hit hard, hit fast. With movies like Concussion, directed by Peter Landesman, an emphasis is […]
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Wrestling and Pole Vaulting: Different Sports, Similar Cultures
To many people, culture means different things. For a lucky few athletes, we experience multiple sport cultures. Irwin Brambley, a beloved friend of mine and a decorated All-American wrestler, is one of those athletes. I […]
Read More Coaches Learning from Their Actions
The Los Angeles Rams were trying to offload their quarterback, Jared Goff, earlier this year. And when the opportunity arose, they made a trade. The trade looked like a great opportunity for both organizations and […]
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Agree to Disagree? Why Embracing Disagreements Improves Culture
Recently, I read an article from the Harvard Business Review on why disagreements were so vital for a thriving culture. It really made me stop and think about my experience working with teams. At what […]
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One Thing That a Coach Can Work on Today
As a coach, I always had about 100 tasks, ideas, things that I needed to work on, or discussions that I wanted to have every day. I wanted each practice to be the best for […]
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Breaking up the Club
Two off-the-field stories have dominated the headlines in the NFL this week. Both involve grossly inappropriate conduct by head coaches, although neither is surprising except that we heard about them. The “clubby culture” in the […]
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Pole Vaulting: A Culture of True Sportsmanship
When one thinks of Culture In Sports, Track & Field (specifically the Pole Vault) embodies the mentality that any athlete should aspire to be a leader and to work hard. When I was eleven years […]
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The Physical Gap Between Our Best Intentions and Reality: The NWSL Crisis
“If we go along with you and lie our asses off, the world of truth and ideals is, er, protected.” That’s a line from an old (if you think the 1970s is old) movie about […]
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