Craig Custance, The Athletic's Editor-In-Chief for The NHL: Inside The Minds of Hockey's Greatest Coaches
Release Date: 12/29/2020
Daniel Coyle - The Culture Playbook: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups & How To Apply Them To Your Own Team (w/ Oliver Winterbone)
Coaching Coaches
My guest today is , best-selling author of , , and his newest book that was released this week, . In this episode, Daniel shares insights he’s learned about how to build a strong culture, what some best practices are around hiring and team building, and what he’s learned from consulting with the Cleveland Guardians. My co-host today is , Director of Coaches and Executives at Wasserman, one of the premiere talent management companies in the world. He previously worked for the Oklahoma City Thunder and University of Florida Men’s Basketball program in various roles. The Athletic named him...
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Paul Oyer, Stanford – Economic Value of Tradition, Reckless Spending in Sports, & The Most Insane Stat You’ve Ever Heard
Coaching Coaches
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Francesca Gino, Harvard - Steve Kerr, Exploring Your Curiosities, & Embracing Your Rebellious Side (w/ Oliver Winterbone)
Coaching Coaches
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SPECIAL: Jeff Seder – The Best Moneyball Story of All-Time (via The Meb Faber Show)
Coaching Coaches
Today’s episode features a conversation between and on . In my last episode with Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, we touched on the incredible story of Jeff Seder and how utilizing data led him to go all-in on American Pharoah and later tell his employer, “.” Wise words considering the horse would go on to become the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years. Meb was kind enough to allow me to release the episode on my feed here for you to listen to. That being said, if you enjoy the episode and want to repay the favor to Meb, or are looking for a podcast on investing and what’s going on in the...
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Seth Stephens-Davidowitz: Moneyball For Your Life
Coaching Coaches
My guest today is Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, author of . I’m not sure if there’s someone whose work is more fascinating to me than Seth. His first book, , looked at how our Google searches reveal our true selves with topics like racism, child abuse, This book looks at what the data says on how to live a better life. We touch on parenting, finding a spouse, being a sports fan, what sport your child should play if they want the best chance to get a college scholarship, and how much of an athlete’s success is nature vs. nurture. His work is as fun as it is insightful and I’m sure you’ll...
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Seth Stephens-Davidowitz: Moneyball For Your Life
Coaching Coaches
My guest today is Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, author of . I’m not sure if there’s someone whose work is more fascinating to me than Seth. His first book, , looked at how our Google searches reveal our true selves with topics like racism, child abuse, This book looks at what the data says on how to live a better life. We touch on parenting, finding a spouse, being a sports fan, what sport your child should play if they want the best chance to get a college scholarship, and how much of an athlete’s success is nature vs. nurture. His work is as fun as it is insightful and I’m sure you’ll...
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GUEST INTERVIEW: Preston Greene and Shane Perkins – The Mindset of A World Champion
Coaching Coaches
Today’s episode features a conversation my good friend recently had with world champion cyclist, . Preston is the strength coach for the University of Florida men’s basketball team and one of the most well respected strength coaches in all of college athletics. Shane is a professional track cyclist who won the Bronze Medal in the 2012 London Olympic games and also won 2 world championships. In this episode, Shane talks about how he trained his mind and mentally prepared to perform, the importance of being coachable as an athlete, and what separated the great coaches from the others...
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David Shaw, Stanford Football Head Coach: Developing Players On & Off The Field
Coaching Coaches
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Michele Gelfand, Author & Cultural Psychologist: Is Your Culture Tight or Loose?
Coaching Coaches
Click HERE to watch the video referenced in the intro.
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Becky Burleigh, University of Florida Soccer Coach: Who Are You Becoming As A Result of The Chase?
Coaching Coaches
My guest today is Becky Burleigh, the head soccer coach at the University of Florida. She’s also the co-founder of What Drives Winning, which unites the top minds in sports. In 25 years at Florida, she has led UF to a NCAA Championship, two NCAA College Cup appearances, 14 Southeastern Conference titles and 22 NCAA Championships berths. She has 507 total wins, putting her third all-time in Division-1 soccer.
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My guest today is Craig Custance, who is The Athletic’s editor-in-chief for the NHL and the author of Behind the Bench: Inside the Minds of Hockey’s Greatest Coaches, where he explains his 18 month journey to meet with nine of the top hockey coaches in the world to interview them about their philosophies while watching the most important game of their coaching career.
Craig explains the different ways the coaches were able to connect with their players, some of the different motivational tactics, how they grew as coaches during their career, and how they all were risk takers who embraced lifelong learning.
Show Notes:
(1:10) — How he developed the idea for the book
(4:30) — What themes he saw between the coaches he followed
(8:10) — Bob Hartley’s path from a factory worker to hockey coach
(13:10) — Mike Sullivan and John Tortorella
(19:40) — Mike Babcock’s coaching philosophy
(23:30) — The coaches’ concise and direct communication with players
(28:52) — Ken Hitchcock’s evolution as a coach
(32:30) — Ron Wilson’s philosophy, which differs from most coaches in the book
(35:25) — Claude Julien’s motivational tactics
(41:00) — Joel Quenneville using other coaches and players to speak to the team
(46:00) — Dan Byslma’s use of a motto for the team
(48:30) — How speaking with these coaches impacted him personally
(54:40) —Best practices for coaches to develop good relationships with the media
(58:25) — End of episode questions
 End of Episode Questions
1. What’s 1 book every coach should read?
2. Who is one person you’d want to hear as a guest on this podcast?
John Cooper, Tampa Bay Lightning Head Coach
3. What’s one area you’re looking to improve in over the next year?
Drink less to improve overall health.
4. What’s popular advice you hear people say that you think is wrong?
Everything in moderation is fine.
5. What advice do you have for young coaches who are listening to this?
Figure out what you want to do and reverse engineer your path to get there.
6. What’s the darkest moment you experienced professionally and how did you overcome it?
When ESPN laid off over 300 people in May, 2017, he was lucky enough to not be laid off, but it was eye-opening.