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….

Putting aside the current scoreline and retention of the Ashes for one minute for the English readers, let’s talk leadership in sport. With this Ashes series over, many are calling for a change of personnel and leadership. But the main question remains, what type of leadership does this current group need? Does it need a reshuffle from the top-down approach with a more player involved leadership style?

Coaches (or captain in this top heavy scenario) as leaders have a significant role to play in creating an environment that athletes feel valued, connected, confident and comfortable. In such environments, coaching becomes a process where coaches and athletes are fully integrated and sport becomes a worthwhile (inter)personal pursuit. Media reports are just that yet reflecting on interviews and match play, it could be suggested that a new leadership structure is wanted or needed by this group…not due to their current results yet more so due to their current engagement, well-being and motivation.

As 2021 draws to a close, one of my personal highlights was being invited to present to Gymnastics AUS HP coaches as part of their Academy program. I was able to discuss the importance of effective relationships between coach and athlete, drawing upon ideas from sport specific research and personal experiences. This coincides with the Jacksonville Jaguars firing Urban Meyer in his first season as coach after just 13 games and two wins. It ends a tumultuous era following an accumulation of mishaps including reports of Meyer kicking his kicker at practice.

While Coach Meyer cannot be surprised by the choice and actions taken by NFL franchise, I wanted to discuss the ideas, research and my opinion towards the importance and impact effective relationships between coach and athletes can have. What are effective relationships and how can they be developed in sport? In HP or professional sport, how important or how much impact can effective relationships have? Surely it should be more about successful relationships, focusing on athlete development and “winning”….??