An interesting couple of months with Ash Barty retiring while reigning AUS Open Champion and World #1 and NFL GOAT Tom Brady retiring only to change his mind and rejoin his Tampa Bay side for 2023 season. However, the different announcements made me consider what is motivating these athletes at. Particularly, Barty’s comments and the fact she had to do a second press conference make me contest and ask that why do we as a society question her desire to seek other challenges or respond to her gut, knowing her passion and drive is now away from the tennis court? Why do we not understand and acknowledge that even when on top of the world, we should lean into where or how we draw our happiness or energy from like highlighted by Barty?

The Super Bowl is complete, the Vince Lombardi trophy has been awarded to the LA Rams and ticker tape is piled up at SoFi Stadium. The question is, after a gruelling season and only one identified winner in a 22 week long season, how many coaches will end up in a pile like the swept up ticker tape??!

As he entered the biggest game of his professional life followed by the biggest summer of his personal life, Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay spent time Friday pondering what all of that means for his future; 2 days before the Super Bowl at his home track!! McVay is known as a high intensity coach and admits he doesn't yet have the answer to the ideal work/life balance but he made it known during his team's final media availability before Sunday's Super Bowl LVI that it's something that has been on his mind.

I am sure McVay’s comments may be different this evening after becoming the youngest Super Bowl winning coach at only his second attempt but you have to wonder; what careers, professions or jobs in the world do we as people have to consider stepping AWAY to get married, start a family or have some personal time? When are we as coaches going to ask the spotlight be turned down or turned off at some points in time to allow us to self regulate or understand their emotions?

Lots has been made around Joe Burrow’s cigar smoking, sunglasses wearing demeanour, affectionately being known as Joey Cool but he hasn’t forgot his primary role; to lead his Bengals side to the biggest prize of the Vince Lombardi trophy. And how does a second year quarterback rally his troops, especially after having a reduced first season with ACL injury? What type of leadership does Burrow offer and how has this been developed? Leadership is seen as the process whereby an individual influences a group to achieve a common goal (Loughead, 2005); leaders within team environments such as Burrow are expected to drive and coordinate 3 main areas or functions being task related, social functionality and external obligations (Longhead, 2006). But how is fresh faced Joe seemingly an expert at such a young age?

On the build up to this week’s Winter Olympics, I was fortunate to have a chat with the awesome Dr Jo Brown a couple of weeks ago, which is coming out on a podcast very soon. As she prepares to head to Beijing, we found time to chat on all things research, coaching and athlete engagement but a real common theme of interest was helping athletes find their WHY. Ask yourself as a coach am I creating an environment to create better people as well as better players? Are we allowing them to express themselves, try and fail in many scenarios to enhance creativity and commitment to their own development?

I was fortunate to present as part of Day 1 of Nudgee Coaching Forum on Friday evening with the theme of the weekend being COOPETITION, the concept of sharing ideas with your direct competitors and focusing on the importance and impact of coaches for youth development. Along with Brad Thorn and James O’Connor being present, Dr Jonathon Weakley and familiar face of Ryan Schultz talked about coopetition in sport and leadership in age grade rugby respectively. Tying together my presentation, which looked at and discussed ideas of motivation for our youth players, there was a real subtheme around the importance of connection with your athletes and understanding your players as people and not solely as athletes, combing ideas and opinions from shared research by Weakley and Schultz plus answers and opinions from Thorn and O’Connor.

I discussed with all the coaches present what did my research or other similar research find that youth athletes are chasing that possibly we as coaches or sports organisations not offering? What factors are causing drop out in adolescent or young adult sports and could burnout research give us some flags to be aware of? as wonderfully described by Dr Weakley? Let’s have a review of some of the ideas discussed on Friday evening….