5000+ miles in the search for new coaching knowledge - a conversation with Nick Hill

Nick Hill is probably one of the most committed coaches to his personal development that I have ever met. His quest for continuous improvement has taken him to all corners of the globe from Australia, to New Zealand to Chile and the US.

If coaching expertise was measured in air miles then this guy has to be in the premier league!

Nick's career has seen him working in talent environments for most of his career and his dedication to his craft really shines through in this episode.

In this conversation we discuss...

• How being coached by Brian Ashton while representing England U19s was a turning point in his career. Driving him to become a coach and do it better than he had done before.

• His journey from being a drill based, instructional coach to a player centred, facilitation style coach and why this has made him choose a more game based approach.

• How he overcame the language barrier while working in Chile by tapping into the 'language of rugby'

• His methods for getting buy in and developing goals with groups of players

• How he allows techniques to develop by being patient and using clever practice design.

• The challenges of introducing a new set of players to his approach and how he overcomes negative responses.

As always, listen in the player below or subscribe in itunes here

Happy listening

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you like the podcast and would like to support it I would be super grateful if you would consider leaving a review on itunes and or sharing the podcast on your social feeds.

If you would like to get my blogs, vlogs and podcasts beamed straight to your inbox then sign up here (it takes 1 minute) I promise to only ever use your email to send you valuable content.

Creating learning environments through 'safe uncertainty' a conversation with Ric Shuttlewor

Ric Shuttleworth is a unique individual with an unparalleled wealth of knowledge and insight into skill acquisition and coaching.

While Ric has a strong academic background and has worked within the sports science domain for a good part of his career, he is very much a practitioner and has spent most of his life on the sidelines working directly with athletes and coaches.

Ric is currently working with elite coaches across a range of sports as a coach developer and he shares a series of high quality insights and 'knowledge bombs' that will really challenge the coaching and talent community to re-imagine the way that they develop the capabilities of the athletes they guide.

In this episode we discuss...

• How to avoid falling into the pitfall of 'comparative coaching'

• Why trying to develop a 'shared mental model' can destroy creativity

• Using a 'principles based' coaching approach

• How coaches should be part of the learning system not in control of it

• Why following a plan is the worst thing you can do

• Eddie Jones secret - the "cut - bleed & bandage' approach

• Using an 'explore - discover - adapt' approach to player and coach learning

• How to move away from overly structured coaching towards a more reactive model that Ric describes as an 'interactive action' approach

• How you could be part of a learning and development community that is being organised by Ric and Mark Upton. Email info@myfastestmile.com for more information

I highly recommend having a notepad handy when you listen to this or at the very least listening to it more than once.

You can listen in the player below or subscribe on itunes. If you like what you hear then I would be really grateful if you would take 5 mins to leave a review so that more people can find the podcast.

Enjoy

A conversation with my mentor - Mark Bennett MBE

Mark Bennett is someone that has had the most profound effect on my coaching, my parenting, my management style and my life.

Mark is an expert people developer and has worked with people from all walks of life from elite sports coaches to teachers working in primary schools.

His approach was forged in the British military where he was a physical training instructor but it has now been used to help people in all walks of life to follow a path of excellence. It is extremely powerful and I was really keen to make sure that he shares some of his insights with the Talent Equation community.

In this great discussion we cover:

• The difference between 'performance' coaching and 'leisure' coaching

• How to decide whether you are on a journey of performance and improvement or on a journey of self delusion

• How Mark tries to make himself redundant by ensuring that coaches and athletes make good behaviour choices whether he is there or not

• Using 'covert tests' to help you ensure that learning has taken place

• Why most coaches need to take 70% of the content out of their session plans

• How to ensure that athletes make a commitment to the goals that they establish for themselves

This is an episode that you won't want to miss.

Listen in the player below or subscribe in itunes here