Excited at the start of a new year means the start of new research project as am keen to extend my research into HP age grade athletes and investigate further into why they make the decisions they make or choose their committed sport and invest in dedicated practice. With this in mind, I wanted remind myself around different ideas for athlete development and engagement, starting with Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development.

The challenge of successful coaching is acknowledging social interactive dilemmas within individual and team goal setting and development, offering suitable scenarios and choices with all members’ involvement and collaboratively dealing with matters as opposed to eradicating them. I believe that introducing ideas such as Vygotsky’s ZPD and Wood, Bruner and Ross’ scaffolding techniques can motivate modern day athletes by offering autonomy supportive practices and offering engagement and drive through understanding and supporting individual’s intrinsic motivations.

Halfway through the pool stages of Rugby World Cup 2023 and exciting results have been partnered with some interesting side stories. Obviously the highest profile rugby union competition creates high pressure environments, even for the greatest current crop of players yet how they handle this pressure and lead their teams to potential glory plays a big part as the tournament spans nearly two months. Leadership on and off the field have hit the news channels following some of the first week’s games, starting sadly with a foul mouthed rant from one of the premier fly-halves of the game currently.

However, what does good or great leadership look like? Team environments offer layered complexities, having potentially multiple coaches, players and socially dynamic groups within so let’s explore how leadership strategies and roles of individuals and the team inside these groups affects cohesion and performance. What different styles modelled by different teams or countries affect the social dynamics of the group as well as team cohesion and success? Understanding these, let’s try and understand how does leadership and coaching influence each other….

The Rugby World Cup is days away; while many teams are adding finishing touches to their squads and details, one country’s preparations have not been going to plan. England have had a turbulent warm up period, with shock losses, suspensions and now former coaches claiming the responsibility lies with the governing body, RFU. So where does the responsibility lie?

I have previously discussed and strongly believe that an investment in understanding your athletes as a whole person will ultimately give you a greater “rate of return for investment” and a more sustainable program to use and reflect on Murray’s corporate like philosophies. Sporting organisations need to investigate and better understand all layers of personality and recognise their players as a whole person as opposed to solely a sporting performer.

State of Origin never ceases to amaze sports fans. One man in the sin bin. Another forward ruled out for the game. Queensland was on the ropes. We’ve heard it all before, and so those final seven minutes shouldn’t be a surprise but we witnessed another Maroons miracle.

Billy Slater’s men have left the NSW Blues shell-shocked, running away 26-18 winners at Adelaide Oval to take a 1-0 lead as the series heads to Suncorp Stadium for Game 2

This lead me to question…how is Coach Slater creating environments to create better people as well as better players, leaning into expectation of their state as opposed to fear of results? How is he allowing them to express themselves, try and fail in many scenarios seen in Game 1 whilst showing commitment to their own outcomes? Are we as coaches committed to creating passionate players, willing to explore and test their ideas and skills, or conforming footballers, focused on the perceived correct ideas and techniques, offering standard outcomes with minimal risk?

As the AFL world spotlight shines on Adelaide this weekend for the inaugural Gather Round, excitement shall be at an all time high for many players and fans. However, not many teams are showing as much enjoyment on the field as Collingwood Football Club. Before their loss to Brisbane last week, it was commented on how much fun and exciting footy the players in black and white were displaying.

So how do we as coaches create our own DisneyLand in our sports environments? there’s some key messages from these comments such as explaining and understanding the importance of a growth mindset, creating an environment of honesty, openness and fun and most importantly, coaches being genuine, coaching to their personality and true selves with the importance of building strong relationships with their athletes to tie all these points together in a socially dynamic situation.