Mark Bennett MBE, a leading coach and coach developer, explains how he helps coaches to help players to think for themselves. He has very powerful methods to work across all levels of the game, to suit the player in front of you.
In this podcast, we explored these areas:
What is meant by a coachable player
How to make players think for themselves
What tools to use, with players and with coaches
The rule of three – how it is for you, not for them
What to set as targets so there are intrinsic
How to work with mixed ability groups
Creating Ninjas in your coaching world
Mark is a former British Commando and senior instructor with the Army Physical Training Corps. He has had over 30 years of practice and research into developing his coaching and learning consultancy, Performance Development Systems (PDS).
He currently works as a consultant, coach trainer and mentor with various professional and national sport organizations, teams and universities around the world, as well as schools and community sports.
For more information and to contact him to see if he can help you, visit:
Dan chats to Jacob Ford about his remarkable journey to becoming Bury St Edmonds RFC and Ipswich School's director of rugby at the age of just 23.
The topics covered included:
The best way to speak to players to allow them to grow
What makes the players respect a coach
What efficiency in training and a game looks like
Being mentored by your dad (Mike Ford, former England and Bath coach)
The differences and similarities between coaching professional players and school players
Should bench players get paid the same as the starters
Working with players who are older than you
Developing a style of play that suits your team
Can a coach make excuses for a poor performance MORE
Dan Cottrell chats to top sports psychologist Dan Abrahams about how even non-expert coaches can make a difference in their players' mindset.
Dan Abrahams is the author of four best-selling sports psychology books and is the founder of both the Dan Abrahams Soccer Academy and The Sport Psych Show podcast. MORE
Dan hosts a discussion between Professor Rob Gray and Dr Mike Ashford about how players make decisions.
The discussion is based on a paper that Mike wrote reviewing different academic approaches to decision-making:
Understanding a Player’s Decision-Making Process in Team Sports: A Systematic Review of Empirical Evidence
https://doi.org/10.3390/sports9050065
Rob Gray suggests that the role of ecological dynamics needs to be viewed differently from the paper's conclusions. MORE
Dan speaks to Paul Gustard, now defence coach at Benetton, formerly England defence coach, Harlequins head coach and coach with Saracens.
Paul, who won two England caps and represented the Barbarians, also played for Leicester Tigers, London Irish and Saracens,
They reflect on Paul's journey to Italy and how he feels reinvigorated. MORE
Dan Cottrell chats to Mike Ford. Mike has been coaching at the top of the professional game for over twenty years, with stints at England and Ireland rugby, Saracens, as head coach at Bath, plus coaching with the British and Irish Lions and RC Toulon.
He also runs his own performance consultancy, which you can find out more about on his LinkedIn profile here.
I really enjoyed Mike's clarity, especially around how he had to convince players and stakeholders about their approach at Bath. MORE