#279 Allan Steele - Reflections on Coaching and Leadership at the Elite Level

I’m delighted to speak with Derek O’Riordan this week. Derek is Partnership Manager for Sport Scotland, the national agency for sport in Scotland. Derek works with governing bodies to support their investment for development. Derek is also a lecturer in sport management and coaching at the University of Stirling and a coach developer working in situ with coaches. Derek also coaches Rugby Union in the Premiership in Scotland. Derek and I discuss his experiences as a coach and coach developer, including: the intricacies of coach development – the differences between education and development; what healthy involvement in sport can look like for children; the role of deliberate practice; the use of attentional cues for learning and performance.

I’m delighted to speak with Jordan Cassidy this week. Jordan is a Sports Scientist specialising in skill acquisition and coach and athlete development. Jordan's work is aimed at supporting coaches to best support their players and athletes. Jordan has worked across a number of sports across the globe including with the Hong Kong National Rugby Union Team as a strength and conditioning coach and then working as a sport scientist. Jordan is currently conducting research in skill acquisition and coaching at Queensland University of Technology, while working as a coach and player development consultant for clubs and schools across Queensland. Jordan aspires to support coaches to deliver more engaging and enjoyable sessions for their athletes, in their unique context. Jordan aims to encourage reflective practice and provide feedback on: empowering players within training, coaching behaviours within a session and training session (micro-planning) and training block design (macro-planning).

I’m delighted to speak with Elisabeth Oehler this week. Elisabeth is a Sports Performance and Strength and Conditioning Coach.  Elisabeth has worked in various sports in multiple countries and is currently Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Saudi Olympic Training Center. Elisabeth has her own consultancy practice EO Performance. Previously, Elisabeth was the Strength and Conditioning Coach for DHL Stormers Western Province Rugby in South Africa. Elisabeth takes a holistic approach to athlete development in her coaching to make her athletes stronger, faster, and more powerful. Besides the physical performance aspects, she helps her athletes to develop mental toughness, integrity, the ability to work in a team, discipline, respect, and leadership skills on and off the field or competition floor. Elisabeth is currently undertaking a Professional Doctorate in Elite Performance at Dublin City University.

I’m delighted to speak with sport psychologist, Michael Caulfield this week. Michael has worked in professional sport for over 25 years. He currently supports a number of teams, organisations, coaches and athletes in elite sport. Michael has worked with teams and players in the Premier League as well as international and domestic cricket and has wide experience across many of the sporting codes. Michael is a registered performance psychologist with the Health and Care Professionals Council, having retrained in psychology after a career in sport and sports administration. Michael is a regular keynote speaker at sport and business conferences on key areas such as wellbeing, rest and recovery, sleep, developing confidence and how to cope with the range of demands placed on people in all walks of life. Michael is also a regular contributor to BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC News and Sky Sports.

I’m delighted to speak with Allan Steele this week. Allan has held many positions in football including Director of Football, Technical Lead, Academy Manager in the Premier League and pro-licence coach.  Allan was Director of Football at Forest Green Rovers Football Club. Previously he held roles at Brentford Football Club – as B Team Technical Lead and Assistant Coach, and as Education and Welfare Manager and Academy Coach. Allan and I discuss his coaching and leadership experiences and approaches having worked across three different footballing cultures.

I’m delighted to speak with coach educator and coach, Dr Noel Dempsey this week. Noel is a Senior Lecturer at the University Campus of Football Business (UCFB). UCFB is dedicated to the delivery of ground-breaking undergraduate degree programmes in the football and sports industry. Noel is a UEFA A Licence coach and has coached in range of settings, including grassroots, academy, non-league. Noel previously coached at Manchester City Football Club, The English FA for 4 years and Burnley Football Club. We discuss a range of coaching topics and Noel shares his experiences as a coach and coach developer.  

I speak with Olivia Bramley and Dr Laura Healy in this episode. Olivia is a PhD student at The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) with an interest in positive sporting environments and experiences. Olivia completed her BSc in Sports and Exercise Science at Nottingham Trent University where she was also Women's Football Club President, Women's Football Media and Communications Officer and Women's Football First team player. Olivia has just returned to the UK to play for the Women’s Championship Team, Durham. Laura is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Nottingham Trent University. Her research explores how to optimise goal pursuit in sport and physical activity for individuals and teams. This has included examining how the motivation underpinning goal striving can impact upon the self-regulation of goals and well-being. Recently, Laura has researched in areas associated with elite performance environments, including the role of personality in elite coach-athlete relationships, resilience, psychological safety and fear of failure in a national sport governing body, and the experience of release from professional football academies. We discuss a paper led by Olivia and co-authored by Laura and Dr Mustafa Sarkar which examines the mental health within sub-elite women’s sport.  You can find the paper here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1612197X.2024.2311752

I’m delighted to speak with Sarah Green this week. Sarah is a UEFA A Licence Coach, coach developer and MSc student who is passionate about developing people. Sarah is Performance Coach Developer at England Netball where she works with coaches in the performance pathway (Roses Academy & Franchise Pathways) providing individualised support to develop their coaching practice and behaviours. Sarah also supports potential performance coaches through a coach development programme. Sarah is also Head of Performance at Derby County Women’s Football Club Previously, Sarah worked at The FA for 11 years. She was part of The FA Tesco Skills Programme which was a pioneering programme for 5-11-year olds delivering specialist National Curriculum football-based education. Sarah then progressed to Regional PE and Coaching in Education Manager in the East Midlands working with The Premier League to support professional football clubs with their coach development.

I’m delighted to speak with Jon Mackey this week. Jon is High Performance Director for Canoeing Ireland – managing the Olympic programme across two Olympic sports: canoe slalom and canoe sprint. Jon is also national coach for ring sports (all full contact disciplines) and lead of the coach development program. Jon’s interests revolve around research in coaching, skill acquisition and decision making, exercise science, physiology and leadership. He has a master’s degree in Coaching and Performance Science and is currently studying a Doctoral degree in Elite Performance in Sport at Dublin City University.   Jon and I discuss a range of topics around coaching including helping competitors to learn more effectively; using communication tools to help athletes acquire skill; and preparing competitors to perform under pressure.

I’m delighted to speak with David Horrocks this week. David is a coach educator and formerly head of R and D and part of the senior management at Manchester United Football Club. Over the years, David has engaged with many organisations such as British Cycling, Borussia Dortmund, The DFB, Milwaukee Bucks, Cricket Australia, London School of Contemporary Dance, Red Bull, and Inter Miami among others. David is also a consultant to Findel Education, Veo Technologies, Carleton University Canada, and Inspire Sports and is currently running an employee health and wellbeing program for up to 6000 workers with Cadent Gas in conjunction with Whoop technologies. The early part of David’s career was spent in the corporate and government services world in technology. David has also led a paper “Preparation, structured deliberate practice and decision making in elite level football. The case study of Gary Neville (Manchester United FC and England)” and it’s this paper we discuss.