In the last few weeks we have witnessed coaching leadership failures across the sporting landscape that resulted in organizations firing their coaches. In the NWSL, over the span of two months, three teams (North Carolina Courage, Washington Spirit, & Racing Louisville) dismissed coaches for verbal and sexual abuse, among other undisclosed reasons. The NFL Oakland Raiders Head Coach John Gruden recently resigned following the revelation he sent emails that included misogynistic and homophobic language disparaging the NFLPA’s union leader. These coaches were fired because they failed to identify and regulate their behavior. What is problematic is that their choices not only led to their dismissals, but also significantly hindered the teams and the athletes they were responsible for, creating unnecessary barriers to achieve high performance on the field of play. The NWSL’s players association highlighted these challenges when they released the following statement on Twitter. It points out how the failures of the coaches led to players carrying a burden of abuse onto
USA Swimming is recognized as one of the United States’ leading National Governing Bodies (NGB) of sport. Responsible for promoting swimming for athletes and coaches of all backgrounds, USA Swimming’s members include athletes of every age, all the way up to the Olympic Team. IntelliSport Analytics will conduct a coaching engagement study to provide insights on the satisfaction levels of USA Swimming coaches.
I made the decision in Spring 2021 to leave my post as Associate Head Coaching of Swimming & Diving at the University of Pittsburgh — it was one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make. I had wonderful coaching colleagues and I had exceptional relationships coaching the men and women on the teams. We experienced some incredible highs: breaking nearly every single varsity record, achieving the highest ACC and NCAA finishes in program history, and I had the opportunity to travel the world to recruit the best swimmers and divers available. Yet, gnawing at the back of my mind was how I could make a larger impact on collegiate athletics, and perhaps the larger sports landscape.In my decade plus experience as a coach and professor, I became acutely aware of barriers that were preventing not only teams, but also sports organizations from achieving high performance and meeting the needs of its individuals. As I sought ways to describe what I was witnessing, hearing and researching, I found myself articulating a need to help leaders better understand their employees and student-athletes. The complexities of collegiate athletics creates certain negative externalities, that is, unwanted outcomes that stray from the espoused missions of athletics departments and sports teams. I started IntelliSport Analytics to help leaders untangle the complexities of athletics, and to provide them with strategies to avoid the pitfalls of organizational inefficiencies and flaws.</