- The Great Coaches: Leadership & Life
- Posts
- Jack Clark
Hello and welcome to another Great Coaches newsletter!
We believe sport provides a learning environment for leadership and life, and so we interview Great Sports Coaches from around the world to find ideas to help us all be better people.
Our newsletter provides the best ideas and insights from those interviews.
We hope that you’ll find one or two ideas that you can share with your family, friends, and teams.
Latest Interview
A former rugby union player who represented both the USA and World 15, Jack Clark has been the acting Head Coach of the University of California's varsity rugby team, the Bears, for over 40 years, and has led the team to 23 National Collegiate Championships in 15s, and five national titles in 7s.
Named a ‘Living Legend’ by the Pac-12 Network, Clark is a Cal Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, as well as a member of the U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame - particularly fitting for a man who coached the USA national team, The Eagles, to 16 Test victories.
As anyone who has met him will testify, Jack is a master coach teeming with insights and advice hard-won throughout his extensive and successful career.
Throughout our interview, Jack raised a number of points which stayed with me long after the conversation had finished. It was his points related to mindset and mental resilience, however, that made the most lasting impression, including:
His definition of mental ‘toughness’ and the important ability to focus on the next most important thing
The positive mindset that he tries to encourage within his team, being grateful for everything and feeling entitled to nothing
The topic of leadership, and why he views it as a skill, not a rank
I hope that you’ll enjoy listening to our interview as much as I enjoyed recording it, and that Jack’s insights will be relatable and helpful for you in your own leadership journey.
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Leadership Insights
At 81 years of age, most people would probably be settling into a slower, more relaxed pace of life. Eddie Reese, however, is showing no sign of slowing down.
Considered the greatest swimming coach in the history of the sport, Eddie is still actively coaching, and speaks in this video about the number one goal that has stayed with him throughout his career: helping his swimmers to go faster than they can believe.
If you like this, you can find more than 1200 other insight videos on our website, covering a variety of leadership topics such as setting up new team cultures, establishing team values, or helping others with their inner voice.
All of the insights are indexed, searchable, and can be downloaded to share. Some may require a one-time purchase or subscription - check the individual insight’s description for more information.
Leadership Skills
One of the words that frequently comes up in conversations about great coaches and leaders is ‘legacy’.
For this special lesson, we’re joined by James Kerr, the author behind “Legacy: What the All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life”.
James’ book is often referenced by our interview guests, and has over 4000 5-star reviews on the UK Amazon website alone. A consultant to some of the world’s top sporting and business organisations, we were highly fortunate to have an opportunity to speak with him about his work and how he helps his clients to unlock high performance.
Containing a podcast, transcript, and selection of video clips taken from the interview, this lesson is filled with a number of valuable insights, including:
James’ belief that people will rise to a challenge if it’s their challenge (illustrated by the amazing story of Leicester’s FA cup win)
How the story you tell yourself can become the story that others tell about you (and how it can be used to develop team culture)
A look at the All Blacks New Rugby team and their culture of “stabbing people in the belly, not the back”
…and more.
Perhaps you’re thinking about the legacy that you would like to leave with your team, family, or community, or maybe you’re interested in learning more about the foundations of a strong team culture. No matter what your situation may be, you’re sure to take a lot of guidance from this lesson on Legacy.
Want to find more content like this? You can find lessons on a wide range of leadership-related themes and topics on our website:
Ideas
We always love to hear from our listeners, especially when they have a recommendation or insight of their own to share.
This little gem of a book has been mentioned several times by our listeners.
Described as “a treasury of quips, tips, insights, and quotations from some of the best coaches America and the world have ever known”, this short read should appeal to anyone interested in learning more about Great Coaches.
Learn From The Great Coaches
There is no algorithm for leadership, but we can learn from others to help us all be better leaders.
We bring insight gathered from interviews with more than 200 of the world’s Great Coaches into the room for our presentations, resulting in universal, authentic, and inspiring talks that can be delivered virtually or online.
Interested to know more? Get in touch today: [email protected]
Contact Us
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