Rocco Meiring: Until You Outgrow Me

Hello and welcome to the Great Coaches: Leadership & Life newsletter!

It often feels as though 2025 has only just begun, and yet here we are at the end of February already. For some of you, that will mean a final push to reach Q1 targets before the end of March — if you’re in need of some inspiration to help inspire and motivate your team, then this week’s interview with Great Coach Rocco Meiring might be exactly what you’re looking for.

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Reaching Young Athletes With Rocco Meiring

When Rocco Meiring took on the position of National Coach Director in 1997, he was faced with a challenge that many leaders and coaches would consider intimidating: developing internationally-competitive swimmers and raising the standard of South African swimming and coaching. A tough brief, but Rocco certainly rose to the challenge and the success he has seen throughout his career has more than certified his position as a Great Coach.

Of course, it’s impossible to achieve success without learning some valuable lessons along the way. In this week’s interview, Rocco delves into his career and experiences, sharing a number of fantastic insights that will no doubt resonate with many of you (and particularly those of you who lead or coach young people).

Take, for example, his insight on coach-athlete relationships. Experience has taught him to avoid overpowering his athletes, and instead he seeks to find the place where needs overlap and returns there whenever hiccups form.

Another ‘hiccup’ that he speaks about is that of athlete’s experiencing self-doubt. Rocco has long-since come to understand the impact that thoughts have on performance, and he shares his insights on helping his athletes to overcome their negative mindsets during the interview.

Finally, listeners will no doubt find Rocco’s thoughts on the role of the coach interesting. Young people, he believes, can be best reached through a sense of tribe-like belonging, and within that tribe he sees the coach as being similar to a herdsman who needs to constantly be introducing better DNA and weeding out weakness.

This was a fantastic interview that covered some really interesting philosophies and coaching approaches, and I hope that you’ll enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed recording it!

Listen Now: Apple | Spotify

This Week’s Guest

Rocco Meiring is a South African swimming coach, whose career began during his time at University in 1988. After completing his national military service in the early 1990s, Rocco threw himself into full-time coaching and in 1997 he took on the challenge of improving both South Africa’s swimming and coaching standards as the National Coaching Director for the National Swimming Federation.

Rocco’s first success came in the form of Terence Parkin’s silver medal at the Sydney Olympic Games, and was soon followed by a string of achievements in Commonwealth, Olympics and Championship finals. His success coaching the dual Olympic Gold medalist and world record holder Tatjana Schoenmaker has also helped to cement his reputation as a Great Coach.

Today, Rocco leads the Tuks Swimming Club in South Africa, including world junior champion Pieter Coetze.

On Open Decision-Making

If you read our last newsletter, you may remember that we covered the topic of receiving feedback, and the value of creating an environment where people feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and opinions. This week, let’s take that a step further and consider the way that you, as a leader, make decisions.

Decision-making is a pretty fundamental part of being a leader. An indecisive leader can quickly lose the respect and trust of their team, but being too independent and never seeking outside opinions can result in the people you lead feeling disheartened (and perhaps even questioning the value of their own experience and insight).

It’s a difficult balance to achieve, but as Lisa Alexander shares in this clip, there are ways to ensure that your team feel valued and heard without risking your own authority as a leader.

If you’re looking to further develop your own leadership skills and ability, then make sure to head over to our website. For an annual cost of just $4.50 USD, Great Coaches members can access more than 1,800 clips, 30 special lessons, and more great content designed to help them become better, more effective leaders.

In Case You Missed It…

Leadership With Longmire

The Great Coach John Longmire has recently stepped back from leading the Sydney Swans, but his impact on the team and the Australian Football League will no doubt continue to be felt for a long time to come.

In this video from the Sydney Swans’ Youtube channel, Longmire speaks about his personal coaching philosophy, team culture, and the way that his approach to his work has adapted over time.

A great little watch, and a chance to hear a bit about the coaches and people who inspired him as well

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