When we see a successful team, we recognize the players for their extraordinary talent and capabilities. However, the reason they get there is incredible coaching. A study by The Harris Public Policy believes that the coaches are responsible for 20-30% of the team’s outcome. This proves how coaches are a […]
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Legendary gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi died on Friday. He leaves behind a complicated legacy of harsh, anachronistic coaching of very young girls and having revolutionized gymnastics, first in his native Romania and later to the U.S. to which he and his wife Martha defected in 1981, after his coaching made […]
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Season 4 of the Culture in Sports Podcast continues with Dr. Jeremy Piasecki and Lori Okimura having a discussion with Shannon Webb about her lived experience in the toxic culture at a NCAA Division I volleyball program.
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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 abusive culture on the University of Idaho Volleyball Team.
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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 about the current toxic and abusive culture on a collegiate sports team: Idaho Volleyball. Learn […]
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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 #sports team.
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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 action? Or will they double down on their behavior at the expense of others? We, […]
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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 reported over many years by athletes, and have adversely impacted the short and long-term mental, […]
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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 and culture for 17 years. Sarver was suspended for one year and fined $10 million. […]
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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 league seems on pace to hit that goal, even after Covid slowed growth a tiny […]
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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 Real Madrid’s standards, even if their women’s team hasn’t been as prolific as the men’s […]
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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 and the influences of his uncle who introduced him to soccer. He describes the positive […]
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, or other close quarters fighting, there is occasionally a flareup. Woodward was provoked by choice […]
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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 for resignation by the athletes, sports organizations are under fire. Amateur sports are facing unprecedented […]
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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 inappropriate and unprofessional message on Twitter. Schefter wrote, “Dwayne Haskins, a standout at Ohio State […]
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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 life for them. (Just imagine sitting on a beach at sunset with your feet in […]
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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 these events. This can often lead to high-performance athletes destroying not only their bodies pushing […]
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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 normalized in society? Thomas Roulet, a professor of organisational theory at the University of Cambridge […]
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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 the toxic culture that you have identified and are now trying to change. If your […]
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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 change and how we manage it. The culture of an organisation can be made or […]
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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 used the recent example of Urban Meyer and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Since then, much has […]
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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 cannot compete at the higher level. There are so many reasons why athletes cannot make […]
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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 Wes Livingston and Mike Scaramella. The problems within the culture began to become apparent to […]
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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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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 women again relive their experience, even though they have done it so many times to […]
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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 tough times, most people want to keep their distance from the organization. The ebb and […]
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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 decision for her to make as it has negated all the investment she has made […]
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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 tenure on the team more so as a mentor than a player. The Heat organization […]
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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 “toughen up” and with that her career was over. Years later she laments that “…our […]
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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 a corporate environment that would result in an extremely stagnant operation that is full of […]
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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. However, this time the news involves their National League counterpart, the New York Mets, and […]
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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 webinar is” A Bad Playing Field: Recognizing and remedying toxic cultures in sport: Perceptions for […]
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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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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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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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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 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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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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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 […]
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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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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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 […]
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 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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