The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life Paul Barnett & Jim Woolfrey

Nell Fortner is a former basketball player and now coach. As a player she went to the University of Texas and led them to the #1 National ranking and played for the USA. As a coach she has over 40 years of coaching experience at high school, college, pro and international level.
The highlights of her career are a Big Ten champion (1997) and a SEC champion (2009). She also led the USA National Team to gold medals at the 1998 FIBA World Championship and 2000 Olympic Games.[7] and was named the 2000 USA Basketball Coach of the Year. She is preselty the Head Coach of Georgia Tech,
 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


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Today’s episode is on the topic of Leadership Identity and we are joined for the discussion by Allister McCaw,
 
Alistair is that rare person who excels across disciplines and industries. In addition to being an author who has sold over 300,000 books, his podcast ranks in the top 1% in the world, and for the last 25 years he has also consulted and worked with Olympic Gold Marriage, Grand Slam Champions, Fortune 500 companies, NCAA Colleges, and Professional sports teams.
 
We love the interaction with the people around the world who listen, and so if you have any feedback or comments please let us know. And if their positive ones, then please let your friends know too! All the details on how to connect with us, are in the show notes or on our website, thegreatcoachespodcast.com.


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Our Great Coach on this episode is Al Scates.
 
Al is  a former American volleyball player and volleyball coach. As a player, he was selected as a collegiate All American, and also represented the USA National Team. He transitioned into coaching in 1964, and went on to be the head coach of UCLA for 48 years. He went on to become the winningest volleyball coach in the history of the NCAA, securing 19 NCAA titles, which ties him for the most NCAA titles won by a coach in a single sport.
Al was selected as the NCAA coach of the year in 1984, 1987 and 1993. His teams hold ten NCAA records, including most consecutive victories (48), most consecutive home wins (83) and most consecutive tournament wins (14). He was inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1993.
At 84 Al is still sharp and insightful, and with a positive an optimistic view of the world. In our interview some of the highlights for me were
The training method he used that encouraged players to move up and down across capability groups that were separated by a blue curtain. And how this encouraged work ethic and produced an egalitarian approach to selection.
 
The quotes he reads from the book by John Wooden that he influenced him so greatly as a young coach. In particular the four law of learning and the stories he tells about the winning teams he had across each of 5 consecutive decades.
 
 
This was a wonderful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
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 thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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Our Great Coach on this episode is Bill Sweetenham.
 
Bill is an Australian swimming coach, who first started training athletes in the 1970’s in the rural Australian town of Mount Isa. His coaching career progressed quickly and he coached at his first Olympian in 1976. His swimmers have delivered 27 Olympic and World Championship medals and have broken 9 world records.
 
I first interviewed Bill in early 2022, and the discussion was a complete masterclass. He talked about meeting Nelson Mandela and the Great Boxing coach, Angelo Dundee. As well as sharing insights from his long and successful career. We stayed in contact after that interview, and Bill would occasionally add me to emails that he sent to friends containing his observations on sport and life. There was one particularly special one he shared which was a book he had written for his grandchildren after visiting Africa.
 
I recently had the opportunity to visit the part of Australia where Bill lives and I asked him if he would be open to another interview, where we could discuss some of the ideas he had shared in those emails with me. Todays podcast is that conversation recorded in June 2024. We cover mental health, team collaboration and the value of volunteering. Bill was very open and introspective as he was in the throws of finishing a book called ignorance screams whilst wisdom listens. It was agreat experience for me to spend this time with Bill and I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did,
 
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 thegreatcoachespodcast@gmail.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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Our Great Coach on this episode is Barry Dancer.
 
Barry Dancer is a is a former Australian field hockey player and coach of Australian men's national field hockey team. As a player he competed in 48 international matches for Australia between 1973 and 1979. he was a member of the men's hockey team that won a silver medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics. He began coaching late in his career as a player eventually going on to lead the Great Britain men’s team at the 2000 Olympics. In 2001 he was then appointed the Head Coach of the Australian men’s team and led them to 2 Commonwealth Games gold, 2 Champions Trophies and an Olympic Gold in 2004 and Bronze in 2008.
Barry is a coach with a deep well of wisdom, built from many years of success and failures.
 
The highlight so our interview were:
 How he challenges himself each day with the questions: what have I done today to improve the way that I or my people do things? The learnings he has on managing workload and obsession as a coach and finding a balance that allows you to maintain your energy. And The way he talks about the idea of Belonging and he uses it to remind people of the privilege of being part of something that has a long history, and a bright future. And how this became a motivating factor not something that weighed people down. 
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

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Today’s episode is on the topic of Mindset as a superpower, and we are joined for the discussion by Allister McCaw,
 
Alistair is that rare person who excels across disciplines and industries. In addition to being an author who has sold over 300,000 books, his podcast ranks in the top 1% in the world, and for the last 25 years he has also consulted and worked with Olympic Gold Marriage, Grand Slam Champions, Fortune 500 companies, NCAA Colleges, and Professional sports teams.
 
He has a new book out called Mindset is Your Superpower and today we delve into it.
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

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