Season 4 of the Culture in Sports Podcast continues with Lori Okimura and Dr. Jeremy Piasecki having a discussion with collegiate volleyball player Emma Patterson about her own current lived experience during a toxic and […]
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Season 4 of the Culture in Sports Podcast continues with Lori Okimura (World ParaVolley) and Dr. Jeremy Piasecki having a discussion with investigative reporter Scott Reid, from the Orange County Register. Scott broke the story […]
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Season 4 of the Culture in Sports Podcast is here! In this episode, Lori Okimura (World ParaVolley) and Dr. Jeremy Piasecki take a deep dive into a current #toxic and #abusive #culture on a collegiate […]
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Coaches do make mistakes. Are these “mistakes” intentional or actual mistakes that a human being can make? Are coaches and other sports leaders willing to self reflect, identify toxic and abusive behavior, and take corrective […]
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Teri McKeever, former head coach of the University of California, Berkeley’s women’s swimming and diving program, was recently fired due to allegations of toxicity and abuse from former athletes and staff. These allegations have been […]
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The owner of the Phoenix Mercury and Phoenix Suns was suspended and fined by the NBA. For 17 years, the toxic culture prevailed. All personnel in both organizations were impacted by Robert Sarver’s toxic leadership […]
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NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell boldly declared back in 2010 that the league, which had earned a bit more than $8 billion in annual revenue the prior year, would generate $25 billion annually by 2027. The […]
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Recently, a soon-to-be-former Real Madrid women’s team player and Swedish international, Kosovare Asllani, talked about the “unhealthy and dangerous environment” at the club. This kind of story could be very damaging for a club of […]
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In this new podcast which is part one of two parts, Wesley Livingston and Mike Scaramella speak to Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Saber Youman about his views on athlete mentorship. Youman discusses his supported upbringing […]
Read More Last week, Owen Woodward of the Weatherford College baseball team decided to run at full speed and tackle a base runner after his home run hit. While baseball is not known for hits, fights, punches, […]
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Amateur sports organizations everywhere are making headlines for the wrong reasons. Whether it is human rights abuses casting a shadow over the Winter Olympics, less than desired performances in a long-delayed Summer Olympics, or calls […]
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Steelers’ quarterback Dwayne Haskins was recently involved in a tragic fatal accident on April 9, 2022. As his family, fans, and the sport mourned his loss, sportswriter and analyst Adam Schefter came out with an […]
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Do you want to watch the video version of this week’s podcast? Here it is! Ali Williams, an Olympic artist swimmer, discusses identifying and experiencing a toxic culture as an elite athlete.
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November 16, 2021
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Ali Williams, an Olympic artistic swimmer, discusses identifying and experiencing a toxic culture as an elite athlete.
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Last week the women of USA Gymnastics testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee about their stores of abuse, assault, and being ignored. One of the highest elements of government heard their stories, and made these […]
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I can only imagine that running a professional sports team is not easy, especially one with historic success, at times, and tumultuous periods. During the good times, everyone wants to be involved, but during the […]
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Australia’s modern day suffragette, Madeline Groves, withdrew from the nation’s Olympic Swimming Trials in protest against misogynistic behaviours exhibited by some members of her National Governing Body (NGB). This must have been an extremely difficult […]
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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 […]
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After an undiagnosed stress fracture led to an horrific ankle fracture during a routine, aspiring Olympic gymnast Georgia Simpson came to the realization that she would never compete again. Simpson was told that she should […]
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In an organization or team, a weak culture is an inspiration killer and demotivates, nobody is likely to stand up and be noticed, or do anything noteworthy, unless they feel safe to do so. In […]
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There is little purpose in rooting for or even loving a team that fails to extend an honest effort or reasonable level of respect to their fans. That’s true of players and management alike, and every franchise should begin to make a reasonable effort to eliminate sexual and gender based harassment from their culture because it is the right thing to do.
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As someone from New England, anything that has to do with bad news for New York sports teams generally makes me happy, especially if it has to do with New York’s American League baseball team. […]
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A few hours after this article drops, Culture in Sports will be presenting its first webinar in conjunction with Drexel University’s School of Education’s Sport Coaching Leadership Program. The title and subject matter of this […]
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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 […]
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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, […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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, […]
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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 […]
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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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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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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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