Learning from Serial Winning Coaches

Learning from Serial Winning Coaches provides researchers, performance coaches and directors, and coach developers, and researchers, with the knowledge and tools to affirm and challenge policy and practice conduct further research, to inform future policy and practice in the identification, recruitment, and development of performance coaches.

Leading an athlete or team to an Olympic or World Championship Gold Medal or professional League title is a great achievement for a coach; a dream that comes true for only a small group of privileged coaches. This outstanding accomplishment can and becomes the defining moment of their careers. Winning multiple golds and championships with different athletes or teams, and across multiple major events spanning decades, is the prerogative of a very exclusive club of coaches.

This book reveals the secrets experiences and practices of 17 of these super coaches across 10 sports and 10 different countries. Through a ground-breaking combination of in-depth interviews with the coaches and their athletes, and a detailed analysis of their personality and motivational profiles, Mallett and Lara-Bercial offer a unique portrait of the day-to-day workings of these coaches: who they are, how they operate, their leadership style and their inimitable and oft serendipitous journeys to the top of the sporting world.

Learning from Serial Winning Coaches goes beyond the description of isolated coaching behaviours provided by previous research to unveil and explore the personal realities of theses exceptional men and women (coaches and athletes). The emerging multi-dimensional picture sheds light onto the unique conditions and practices that lead to the unparalleled success of these true outliers.

Learning from Serial Winning Coaches is key reading for researchers, coaching and coaching psychology students, performance coaches and directors, and coach developers, providing a novel evidence-based theoretical framework to conduct further research, shape and re-shape coach development, and facilitate the identification and recruitment of the next generation of serial winners.