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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“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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 […]
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You can tell a lot about an organization’s culture or an individual’s character by how they handle setbacks. There are two paths to go down, acceptance or denial. Setbacks are inevitable. We know this. Lately, it seems that they are coming at us more frequently and with more incredible velocity. […]
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If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get the results you’ve always got. Sometimes, that’s great, when your past results are winning. How long should leaders stay in their position of power? Some very successful coaches and leaders have had very lengthy stays in their positions: Bill Belichick, John […]
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The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament is in full swing, and teams are jockeying for this year’s championship trophy. The tournament is both a cultural staple, with millions of Americans filling out brackets each year, and a massive revenue source for the NCAA, top universities, and bettors. In 2019, March Madness […]
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As a leader and coach, I have always gone to bed always thinking about what I could do better for the athletes, team, or the people that I lead. I always try think of ways that I can help others on our team, help shed problems that a member of […]
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This week, three of the best known women’s college basketball coaches in the history of the game, made unprecedented public statements about inequitable treatment involving the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament. Culture in Sports’ own Jeremy Piasecki reported on this last week. https://cultureinsports.com/it-only-becomes-equal-ish-when-it-gets-too-loud/ South Carolina’s Dawn Staley, Stanford’s Tara Vanderveer, who […]
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How do you feel about athlete abuse? How do you feel about athlete abuse when it’s in your sport? Is it still abuse? How do you feel about athlete abuse when it’s by your friend? Is it out of character? Loyalty to sport and people we know and/or admire is […]
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It is just a game. No, I am not belittling or discounting any of the hard work that athletes, coaches, and staff put into competing. But I am talking about what people do after their team loses. Some coaches will yell at their team, others will blame the officials. Some […]
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Not many athletes use the psychological tactic of a ‘rating system’ as a means of performance enhancement, in fact according to coach Matt Horsnell, most competitive athletes would find the system has the other effect on them. Australian high-jumper Nicola McDermott, however, calmly dissects her performance into different categories and […]
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If you are of a certain age and enjoy country music at all, you immediately recognize the lyrics to Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys. Ed and Patsy Bruce wrote this song in 1975, but Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson made it famous in 1978. It […]
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March Madness brings out the best and worst. The best being athletes and teams coming together and excelling on the court, with some extremely low-ranking teams going deep into the tournament. You never know what the NCAA basketball tournaments will bring every year. And yes, I said tournaments. There is […]
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One of the most talked-about names in golf recently has been somebody that most have not heard of, his name is Lee Westwood. Westwood is a 47-year-old Professional Golfer who has been in contention to win two of the last PGA events; the Arnold Palmer Classic and the Players Championship […]
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Far too often I witness, in training sets for swimmers, instructions along the lines of ‘ … swim the whole of this section with ‘perfect’ turns or ‘perfect’ form’ and as I make my daily scroll through my social media feeds it is generally awash with various organisations boasting that […]
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Athletes understand the importance of challenging themselves to reach the next level. Yet, the organizations that support them are stuck in complacency. As a sports fan, I continue to be amazed by the athletes in the events I watch. Whether the competition is amateur or professional, individual or team, local, […]
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In January of 2021 Ryan Smith, the new owner of the Utah Jazz announced that for every Jazz win, they would award a 4-year full ride scholarship to a Utah high school senior to attend a Utah University. They have since awarded 30 scholarships and the Jazz have risen to […]
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“Wherever there is power, greed, and money, there is corruption.” ― Ken Poirot Media coverage and money have turned sport into a ‘life-and-death’ situation where cheating to get ahead becomes more and more attractive. Cheating in sport has become an artform of creative innovation, intricately designed schema hell-bent on securing ‘a […]
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When you start a sentence about your team, do you start with an I or we? But let me ask two further questions: When you are speaking about your team’s successes, do you say that we (As in all coaches and athletes) have made it this far, or do you […]
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Two American universities were caught up in the same crisis over the last few weeks, that itself is unusual. Louisiana State University (LSU) released a report by the law firm Husch Blackwell reviewing shortcomings in LSU’s reporting and management of sexual assaults related to its intercollegiate athletics program. As a […]
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The Telegraph Sports Book of the Year 2019 – Sevens Heaven by Ben Ryan – chronicles the ups and downs of a coach who moved his life to the other side of the world to coach some of the most gifted athletes, the Fiji Men’s 7’s team. Without doubt some […]
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The influence of top athletes; their ability to amplify important debate allows advocacy on a global level. Sport is unique in that it can bring together people of different cultural backgrounds; different nationalities; different religions to become global citizens. Imagine having such a platform on which to stage a campaign […]
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In just a few short weeks, on April 15th, Major League Baseball will celebrate the 74th anniversary of Jack Roosevelt Robinson’s debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers. The man, better known as Jackie Robinson, was the first African American to play baseball in the Major Leagues when he started at first […]
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“The sea was angry that day, my friends.” Suppose you are, like me, a Seinfeld fan. In that case, you immediately recall this line and remember George Costanza’s speech at the diner explaining how he overcame his fears and saved the whale by extracting Kramer’s golf ball from its blowhole. […]
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Have you ever noticed the incredible synchronicity of a yachting race team in action? They are perhaps only comparable to the astounding coordination of a pit crew during a formula one race. The finely choreographed movements of the crew are vital to sailing success. But there’s more to this ‘dance’ […]
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Do you remember listening or watching coaches, teachers, or other adults when you were a young child? Do you remember when they would tell you to do something, you just assumed they had the authority, and you then followed their direction? Or maybe someone told you something and it was […]
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We feel and we perceive like any other normal functioning human being. We are the ever inwardly optimistic brigade of finding the next olympic hopeful with heads swirling in big dreams and emails and parent concerns and committee meetings and planning and researching and what to put in next week’s […]
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This week Sara Davis, in her article What Are You Afraid of? Your Fear May Be Keeping You From Your Destiny, we were reminded to not let fear limit our possibilities. When there are unchecked egos and bullying and aggressive behavior prevail, there is a negative impact on performance. Far […]
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In the summer of 2015, I had the opportunity to be involved with the Special Olympics World Games based in Los Angeles, California. I spent the whole week working the volleyball portion of the whole tournament. Teams came from all corners of the world to participate. I have never seen […]
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What are you afraid to try? What has been ringing in your ear for the last couple of weeks, months, days, that you are dying to try? My second question is, what is stopping you? Maybe this is something you have never directly addressed, but I challenge you to think […]
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U.S. Center for Safe Sport and U.S. Figure Skating have just made a bold statement: You can intimidate a 13 year old girl that was sexually abused by a coach, and cover the sexual abuse up, and only be suspended for two years from a sport. That was the strictest […]
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Just yesterday, on this site, Denise Harvey took on the “Tradition of Classism & Racism in ‘Elite’ Sports“. It is true that sports have historically been one of the areas of society where barriers to full participation have been erected to keep others out. Whether those others being kept out […]
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Currently in the English Premier League the defending champions, Liverpool FC, are struggling to win games. Following their weekend defeat to a Fulham team near the bottom of the table, Liverpool recorded their sixth straight home defeat – an unwanted new record in their storied history. There are mitigating circumstances […]
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Ever since the formation of modern sports in the 19th century, certain sports have been assigned to particular socio-economic groups. Non-contact sports have been associated with the upper classes while the ‘rougher’ sports were relegated to the lower classes who were considered more uncouth and less refined. This situation has […]
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I wish Tiger Woods well in his recovery. The news of his accident was shocking. Coming just a little over a year after Kobe Bryant’s tragic death, we all wondered if we had lost another of our sports heroes too soon. Fortunately, this time, the accident wasn’t fatal. However, questions […]
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I apologize in advance to all of you haters out there. I am an Astros fan. Still am. Let me explain. I live in The Woodlands, Texas. It is a suburban utopia just north of Houston. As the name suggests, there are lots of trees. It is a master-planned community […]
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With the month of March being celebrated as Women’s History Month in the United States, what could be a more appropriate topic of discussion than the disparity in professional sports between male and female pro athletes? You would be hard pressed to find someone who is not familiar with any […]
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“The surf lifesaving movement … is truly Australian in spirit. Its character savors [sic.] of sun-drenched sand and a free and boisterous surf. In it we see democracy function as it was meant to. There are no barriers of creed, class or colour. All these things are forgotten in the […]
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When we are young our days are explorations of anything new. We do stuff because we think it looks like fun; our older brother/ sister does it; dad/ mum says it would be go for us/ it is on the school curriculum/saw it on YouTube …The reasons for why we […]
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Participation in sports not only helps to develop coordination, physical agility, health, and flexibility, but also to develop friendships, comradery, and the traits necessary for observing fair-play and learning how to lose gracefully. Introducing children to sports is a healthy normal thing to do and we want our children physically […]
Read More In week 17 of the 2020 NFL season the Seattle Seahawks beat the San Francisco 49ers, in fact they had already clinched the win in their final possession of the game. Most quarterbacks would take a knee and let the clock play out. Instead, Russell Wilson through a pass to […]
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Every team has a culture, the question is what does this culture say about the team? A culture is a set of observable behaviors that are promoted and widely accepted by the organization. Teams whose members are aligned culturally, are more engaged and have better morale which ultimately leads to […]
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The Houston Rockets had a sad outing against the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday. It was their 11th straight loss (They now have lost 12 straight), where they had the lowest shooting percentage and the fewest made field goals in a game in NBA history, it was the biggest point differential […]
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It seems difficult in 2021 to separate sports from politics. Calls now are rising on both sides of the U.S. and Canadian border and across the Western nations to organize a boycott of or put pressure on the International Olympic Committee to force a move of the 2022 Winter Olympic […]
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On Tuesday, February 23rd golf legend Tiger Woods experienced a terrifying car accident. His car tumbled down a hill and he was pulled out of the SUV by the jaws of life. After the accident, he was immediately rushed to the hospital and sent to surgery. Tiger Woods experienced a […]
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Marco Lucchinelli is an Italian former professional, and legendary, Grand Prix motorcycle road racer, who in 1981 won the FIM 500cc World Championship with Suzuki. He is known for being fast … very fast, and he lived his life that way too. Lucchinelli had a taste for the seamier things in […]
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There are many coaches who say that they remember their losses the most. After the losses, many coaches begin a period of reflection as to why the loss happened, whether the athletes or coaches could have done something differently, or maybe a change to a small part of the training […]
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In Nebraska, where I grew up, everyone knows about the 1972 Nebraska-Oklahoma game. It is known as the “Game of the Century.” Lyle Bremser’s call of the classic Johnny Rodgers punt return is legendary. Still today, it is considered the best game in the history of college football. Unfortunately, it […]
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Okay, full disclosure here, even though this is only my second article, I may ruffle some feathers with these next few statements. I am a native New Englander, which means I have a passion for all things related to New England sports, and a significant distaste for a certain professional […]
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On Monday 22 February the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnston, unveiled the UK’s latest road map to lead the UK out of lockdown into the new ‘normal’ of existing with Covid. 12 April being the date set to resume all sport for those under 18 years old. Lockdowns in the […]
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What role do we have as spectators and fans when it comes to sports culture? We know how toxic it is to have rude parents in the stands of youth games, but why does that seem to be lost at the professional level? Support and loyalty to a team is […]
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There are so many great ideas on how to influence positive change in an organization that are spoken about in academia, leadership circles, and in the news. Everyone has an idea. Everyone is an expert. Everyone wants to give you their idea, but at a cost. The cost normally starts […]
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There are two hallmarks that make North American (U.S. & Canadian, specifically) professional sports different than their global peers. The first of these is that North American pro leagues, going back to the turn of the 20th Century, have been have been aligned toward maximizing the value of their individual […]
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His name was Eddie… he was my first unfortunate experience of sexism in sport, before that I always felt safe on the swimming team and playing netball and softball with my classmates at my girls-only school. Eddie, whose image is forever burned into my memory, was a ‘little’ man and […]
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Last week, LeBron James earned a warning from the NBA for his acting. While his acting was not good enough to win at the Oscars or Golden Globes, it did fool the officials on the court and they called a foul on the opposing player. The Lakers were down by […]
Read More Anyone familiar with sports, and baseball in particular, is sure to have heard of the infamous 1919 scandal involving the Chicago White Sox and the allegations that they “threw” (no pun intended) the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds that year. The background, for those unfamiliar, is that members of […]
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The Australian Football League (AFL) has a long unfortunate history of systemic racism. Although the AFL was the first major sporting code in Australia to adopt a no-tolerance stance over racial-sledging on-field, the sport is proliferated with shameful incidences. Australian sporting fans, it is theorized, struggle to include the indigenous […]
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Bruce Arians already won points in my book when he added two females to his coaching staff. He recently won a few more when I read that he told his staff if they missed their child’s sporting event, he would fire them. His reasoning, he missed too many of his […]
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“It takes courage not only to make decisions, but to live with those decisions afterward.” – Coach K Who is Jalen Johnson? He’s a top prospect with the Duke Blue Devils who was going to be a “one and done” player from the very start. Great! He’s a 19 year […]
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In trying to define the focus of Culture in Sports, and what we should be writing about on this site, the Led Zeppelin song title, What Is and What Should Never Be, comes to mind. Making a Led Zeppelin reference threatens to reveal both my age, (decidedly, middle) and my […]
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Recently, Australian Supercar Erebus Motorsport team boss Barry Ryan has come under fire for his arrogant and insensitive style of leadership. Ryan suggests that he is the victim of clever editing to make him appear to be a ‘villain’ for entertainment’s sake. This is not the first time Ryan’s leadership […]
Read More Over a week ago, Yoshiro Mori, the president of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee suggested that women talk too much in meetings. I was shocked to hear what Mr. Mori said, especially for the Japanese Olympic Committee’s focus in increasing female representation in their leadership ranks. While he admitted that […]
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The Jacksonville Jaguars made a short lived hire this week, with Chris Doyle lasting a little more than a day before resigning. Their new and now director of sports performance came with a checkered past, most notably rumors of racism and abuse of athletes. This coach was supposedly vetted thoroughly […]
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It’s a fine line between confidence and egotism, a lack of self-confidence can be terribly disabling in terms of reaching one’s potential in all aspects of life and certainly in sport. But at what point do cumulative successes and accolades begin to create monsters; divas whose demands threaten the stability […]
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What do you do when a leader in your organization makes backwards and derogatory comments about a group of people you identify with? Do you quit? What if you are passionate about the organization’s mission? Do you let it roll off your back? Do you complain? Can you complain? We […]
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Another week, another story about another sexual misconduct issue within cheerleading in the United States. Last week, a 25 year old coach was arrested for indecent liberties with a child and a 23 year old college cheerleader, who was also featured in Netflix’s “Cheer” and NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”, was […]
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Are sports more susceptible to giving abusers and harassers space to operate, and if so, are sports particularly poorly structured to expose these abuses, and protect athletes and those victimized because of their love of the game?
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The often-employed mantra “There’s no I in team” is obviously a reference to the concept that the combined skills and endeavours of the team outweigh the desires and abilities of the individual. But can a team or organisation function in a climate where the individual’s needs are ignored, or their […]
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The big game in the United States of America is going to start in a few hours. Two great teams are going to battle it out. Millions of fans are going to watch and many NFL players are going to watch as well, hoping for their own chance at a […]
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Former New York Mets Manager Mickey Callaway has been accused by five different women of “incessant, inappropriate sexual advances toward women in sports media.” These women needed to interact with Callaway to do their jobs. https://sports.yahoo.com/former-mets-manager-mickey-callaway-accused-of-unrelenting-lewd-behavior-toward-women-in-media-020746255.html This is the third significant sexual harassment or discrimination allegation against a Mets employee […]
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As I write this, today we celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day in the United States. Women have come a long way in the sports world, and quite frankly still have a long way to go. We celebrate firsts like Sarah Thomas as the first woman to officiate […]
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In Australia, sport has always been a reflection of egalitarian attitudes; mateship; and sense of a ‘fair-go’. Modern social changes have commercialised sport adding new pressures to the structures of the clubs. This has unfortunately instilled a ‘win or die’ attitude within some, or perhaps most sports. Sadly, In 2018, […]
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One of my favorite authors is Michael Lombardi. Lombardi has been a senior player personnel executive with several NFL teams, including a stint as GM of the Cleveland Browns. He has three Super Bowl rings from his time with Bill Walsh and the 49ers and Bill Belichick and the Patriots. […]
Read MoreDid you ever have a coach tell you that she believed in you? If you did, that coach may have been onto something. That same coach probably told you that he was proud of you or maybe even said that she loved your effort or hard work. When you reflect […]
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Last time I wrote about “Ed”, a retired professional athlete who also participated in the Olympics. Ed experienced an extremely toxic environment the last few years of his professional sports career. During my discussion with him, he brought up how many athletes played injured. These injuries were potentially career ending […]
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In 2017 Sebastian Lletget, a mid-fielder for LA Galaxy suffered a season ending foot injury while playing for the USMNT. It was my first year at LA Galaxy. At the end of the last home game of the season, the players go around the stadium and take pictures and sign […]
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I recently conducted an interview for research about organizational culture. I interviewed a professional athlete that has played at the highest levels, and even attended the Olympics. He unfortunately had to retire from his profession due to the extremely toxic culture he was enduring. I was extremely saddened to hear […]
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We have a chance here to demonstrate that while winning and losing have value, they are as Rudyard Kipling- talk about a complicated potentially toxic legacy-correctly observed, two imposters to be treated the same. Victory is a neutral, not definitively a positive concept.
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In mid-2020 a Netflix documentary about the sexual abuse inflicted upon US gymnasts by Larry Nassar was released. This film called ‘Athlete A’ outlines the former USA Gymnastics national team doctor’s abuse and the organisation’s failure to prevent it and paved the way for gymnasts around the world to expose […]
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Yes, the photo you are looking at is of a chair. I had many chairs thrown at me as an athlete. All of them were thrown by a coach. Normally, coaches were throwing chairs to try and motivate the athlete, or maybe it was out of frustration. In my career […]
Read More Recently someone told me they stopped watching the NFL because they were tired of athletes speaking about their causes, and they just needed to “shut up and play.” To which I ask Why? What makes athletes less qualified to speak about social justice than you or I? Because they are […]
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After the shock early termination of Australian women’s hockey team coach, Adam Commens in 2016, for allegedly exposing himself to some of the Hockeyroos during celebrations after the finals in Rio, Hockey Australia is again launching inquiries into improprieties within the sport. Currently allegations of a toxic and destructive culture […]
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This is NFL hiring season, an annual ritual in which somewhere between 25% and 33% percent of the league’s 32 franchises fire and hire new head coaches every year. Can you imagine the chaos that would follow if one third of Fortune 500 companies changed CEOs or COOs annually? But […]
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Some teams have a great culture and some struggle with it. Ultimately, the leadership of a team comes from those at the top, the CEO, president, GM, head coach, and a few others. They set the tone of the team’s culture. If every single person contributes to a positive team […]
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There was a “blockbuster deal” that took place yesterday in the NBA. James Harden is no longer at the Houston Rockets. Houston players and staff no longer have to hear “Whatever James wants” and the entire organization revolves around his every want and need. And as an added bonus, rookies […]
Read MoreThe National Basketball Association (NBA) season has officially started, and James Harden is in the news again, even before the Houston Rockets played their first game. Shams Charania, of the The Athletic, reported on an incident during practice on Monday where there were Harden was involved in multiple verbal confrontations and that he threw a ball […]
Read MoreRussell Westbrook, who was recently traded to the Washington Wizards, recently spoke about the #organizationalculture of the Houston Rockets. Tim MacMahon of ESPN wrote an in-depth piece of the extremely #toxicculture at the Houston Rockets where he shared the extents of the #toxicity. #Toxic organizations can be extremely successful, which the Houston Rockets have proven to be over the years. The organization seems to revolve around […]
Read MoreA little over a month ago, I wrote about how an athlete’s innocence was taken away from her at 13 years old and how US Figure Skating Association‘s Hall of Fame member John Zimmerman and Silvia Fontana, a multi Olympian from Italy, shamed and threatened the girl to not report the […]
Read MoreJuliet Macur of the #newyorktimes wrote a great article about a decision that USA Gymnastics made earlier this year: They suspended a coach for eight years for repeatedly putting her #athletes‘ #mentalhealth, #emotionalhealth, and #physicalhealth in jeopardy. This decision by USA Gymnastics shows they are aware of how coaches can adversely impact #athletes both short and long term. However, Maggie Haney, the coach that […]
Read MoreLast week, British Cycling dismissed one of its top coaches after finding him guilty of gross misconduct, to include inappropriate relationships with athletes. Kevin Stewart, who was the head men’s sprint coach, was given repeated warnings about #inappropriaterelationships and his overall behavior. Obviously, these repeated warnings did not stop his actions. He created an […]
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