The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life

Our Great Coach on this episode is Brian Goorjian.Brian is a basketball coach. He was born in California but came to Australia as a 24-year-old to teach high school and play basketball in the late 1970s. In 1984, he was the inaugural captain of the Melbourne Tigers in the NBL and then transitioned into coaching after retirement. In a career that has spanned over 20 years in the National Basketball League, he has won 6 championships: two with the South East Melbourne Magic, three with the Sydney Kings and one with the South Dragons. He also spent time coaching in China, Japan and the Philippines. He also had two stints leading the Australian national team, known as the Boomers, and he famously led them to a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you; please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

Our great coach in this episode is Rocco Meiring.Rocco is a swimming coach from South Africa. He started out coaching in 1988 and by 1997 was the national coach director with the brief to develop internationally competitive swimmers; his first success came when Terence Parkin won a silver medal at the Sydney Olympic Games. He then coached the dual Olympic Gold medallist and world record holder Tatjana Schoenmaker. These days, he leads the Tuks Swimming Club in South Africa, including world junior champion Pieter Coetze. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you; please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website.

Our Great Coach on this episode is Markus Weise.He began coaching in the early 1990s and went to lead the German women's Team to gold at the 2004 Olympics and the German Men to gold at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. This made him the first person in field hockey history to win gold with Men and Woemns teams. He also led the German Men's team to the 2011 and 2013 European Championship and twice led the Men's Indoor team to world and European championships. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please get in touch with us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

Our Great Coach on this episode is Guy Molloy.Guy is an Australian Basketball coach who started his professional career in 1989, coaching the Canberra Capitals in the Australian Women's National League.He then coached the Perth Breakers and was named coach of the year in 1995. During this time, he also served as an Assistant for the Australian National Team.He then coached the Cairns Taipans in the Australian Men's National League. In 2013, he returned to the Australian Women's National LeWomen'sd led the Melbourne Boomers to the championship in 2022. In 2018, he became Head Coach of the New Zealand women's National team, the Tall Ferns, leading them to the bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. He is presently the coach of the Sydney Flames in the WNBL.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you; please get in touch with us at thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website, thegreatcoachespodcast.com

On this episode something a little different. As the 2024 season draws to a close I was doing a review and reflecting on some of the things the coaches I have interviewed over the last 4 years have said that have stayed with me afterwards. As I was scribbling them down, I thought I would turn it into a short podcast. And so here are my top 10 and a short description of why this resonated with me. For some of you, listening to these audio grabs might not be so surprising, but for me, coming from the corporate world, they challenged my thinking and, in some instances, altered my behavior. They are not in order of impact. I tried to rank them like that, but it was too hard. I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know how you feel about it and, if you are a regular listener, whether there is a sound bite or particular interview that resonated with you. I will gather these and do a listener version of this podcast format next season.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you; please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

Today’s episode focuses on Pep Guardiola, and I am joined for the discussion by Dr David Turner, who has been on the podcast many times before and is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching at ARU in Cambridge, UK.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you; please get in touch with us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

Our Great Coach on this episode is Roy Masters. Roy is an Australian sports journalist and former rugby league football coach.He started life as a schoolteacher in the NSW countryside coaching school sides and by 1974 had been appointed as the Australian coach of the Australian School boys’ team. He then became coach of a youth team at the professional club Penrith Panthers before becoming the Head Coach of the Western Suburbs Magpies in 1978. He was a Head Coach for 10 years, and on three occasions, he was coach of the year and twice runner-up on Grand Final Day. He then walked away from Coaching and started life as a journalist. In 2012, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for services to sport and journalism. If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you; please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

Our Great Coach on this episode is Nicole Pratt. As a player, Nicole reached a career-high ranking of #35 and won 4 ITF singles titles. As a doubles player, she reached a doubles ranking high of No.18 (September 2001) and captured nine WTA doubles titles and nine ITF doubles titles. She then switched to coaching with the Australian Institute of Sport and worked with players and coaches transitioning onto the WTA tour. She has worked with a long list of players, including Daria Saville, Ashleigh Barty, and Casey Dellacqua, and is presently the Women’s Coach lead and National Teams coach at Tennis Australia.If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com