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Play Like A Champion
Here’s two statistics you’re sure to be interested in. 98% of coaches surveyed believe that having an effective team captain positively impacts their teams’ winning percentage. No surprise there. But what may surprise you is that the same research into Leadership Development in College Sport found just 37% of coaches believed their captains were prepared to handle the responsibilities and challenges of leadership.

2015 National Championship Coach – Becky Carlson
Congratulations to Quinnipiac University’s Women’s Rugby team who have finished an exceptional 2015 season by winning the inaugural varsity National Championship. In this article, Head Coach Becky Carlson shares her secrets to success.
Since moving to Quinnipiac University from her position with USA Rugby as an Emerging Sports Program Manager in 2011, Head Coach Becky Carlson has led her team to uncharted success, and has dramatically changed the landscape of Women’s Rugby in the United States. Before becoming the 2015 Champions, the Bobcats had competed in three of the previous four National Championship games, demonstrating that Coach Carlson has already forged a legacy of excellence at Quinnipiac.

ONE Element
With Athlete Assessments we have now worked with over 22,000 individuals from over 40 different sports. This work has given me a unique vantage point to see the recurring patterns or themes that create success. When I see these patterns consistently creating success, year after year, the evidence certainly mounts. With this in mind, here is one of those concepts I have seen create consistent success. I believe it is critical for any coach and all teams to clearly understand and apply this concept to improve performance.

“Showing up” on the People Side
Q&A with Stephanie Wheeler, Head Coach of the University of Illinois Women’s Wheelchair Basketball team and the USA Women’s Olympic team.
When it comes to wheelchair basketball, few have experienced the success Stephanie Wheeler has in her extensive career as a player and now Head Coach. Recently, Coach Wheeler took the University of Illinois all the way to the Championship game. We had a chance to catch up with Stephanie and to ask her some questions about her approach to becoming successful in the Coaching environment.

Turning around the Team
A Personal Insight into David Zelenock’s Volleyball Program
Would you take on the challenge of turning around a team that has placed last in its conference three years in a row? Turning a team around is no easy task, yet just two years into his tenure, first-time Head Coach David Zelenock took Tennessee Tech’s Volleyball Program from 12th into the top four. We asked Coach Zelenock what has been key to this transformation.

Legacy by James Kerr Book Review
This book comes highly recommended from the whole team at Athlete Assessments. Whereas some other books on leadership and culture can be dense reads you feel forced to slug through, Legacy is compelling reading. It is very easy to read in a day or over the weekend, highlighting the exceptional culture and legacy of the New Zealand All Blacks, which has resulted in their tremendous success.

Talent Code Book Review – Daniel Coyle
No question, the Talent Code by Daniel Coyle is a must-read. Not only is it a wealth of excellent research that is explained extremely well, it is a “how to” for elite performance. I’ve read it a couple of times, just so I extracted as many lessons as I could.

Oh The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss Book Review
Looking for a short activity on resiliency you can do with your athletes? Then we highly recommend getting them to read ‘Oh, The Places You’ll Go’ by Dr. Seuss. The blurb on the back of the book reads: “From bang-ups to hang-ups to lurches and slumps. Dr. Seuss takes a hilarious look at the mishaps and misadventures that life may have in store for us”.

There is an I in Team Book Review – Mark De Rond
An interesting book with many fascinating coaching stories, well worth the read for those who love getting an insight into other sports programs. Read our book review for a more detail. Upfront, you should know that this is a business book that looks at the sporting world for ways that the business world can improve individual and team performance.

Sports Team Culture Case Study
Here in Australia, sport is part of the fabric of our society. Growing up, few achievements are more significant than to be part of a championship high school sports team. The relative glory this brings from the accolades of the past students who relive their experiences through to the younger generation of champions, to the proud parents, whose children must have inherited their wonderful athletic genes – everyone loves a winner. As part of my high school rowing team, I dreamt each year as I progressed through the age groups, about the opportunity to win the championship race, aptly named the ‘Head of the River’. What made the dream even more poignant was the fact that in my senior years of school, I was hoping to be part of the crew who would break the losing drought for our school. Not since 1948, when the race was contested in four man boats, had my school won the prestigious event. In 1955, the event was contested in eight man boats and this was the race I now found myself a part of.

The Only Way to Win by Jim Loehr Book Review
In his new book The Only Way to Win, Jim Loehr draws upon two decades of work with Fortune 500 executives, world-class athletes and other high achievers at the Human Performance Institute (HPI) to reveal surprising insights about achievement motivation.

How Full is Your Bucket Book Review
One of the striking aspects of How Full is Your Bucket by Tom Rath and Donald Clifton, is that Rath and Clifton come from the side of psychology that looks at what is ‘right’ with people, rather than what often seems the traditional approach of psychology, of looking at what is ‘wrong’ with people.

David and Goliath Book Review Malcolm Gladwell
Why we recommend it: If you loved earlier bestsellers (The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers and What the Dog Saw), you’ll enjoy David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell. Consistent with all his books, he gives you a different way to look at things, and in this case how we perceive the underdog and disadvantage. He takes important elements from the most unlikely of places, be it history, research or stories, and puts forward a solid case for re-thinking important issues and challenges the status quo.

The Little Book of Talent Book Review – Daniel Coyle
In essence ‘The Little Book of Talent’ by Daniel Coyle explores 52 Tips for Improving Your Skills. However in reality it is so much more. We loved Daniel Coyle’s bestselling book The Talent Code, and this book continues Coyle’s tradition of insightful examples and tremendous principles which can be easily applied to ‘real life’ situations.
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