Game Plan Coaching Podcast

Jen Coe: Safe to grow

Jen Coe is an HCPC Registered Sport Psychologist, Senior Lead for Workforce Development at the Football Association, and someone who has spent 25 years in sport from playground to podium. Before the FA she worked at UK Coaching supporting coaches across 13 high performance Olympic sports, and prior to that as Performance Wellbeing Lead in the WSL. She is a former international basketball player, and co-author of four books with the brilliant Amy Whitehead. Jen is a good friend and a former colleague at UK Coaching, where she inspired me every day.   Three Key Messages 1. Coach development is at its best when people feel safe to grow Jen's opening answer to the very first question, and honestly one of the best one-liners anyone has offered on this podcast. It sounds simple but it carries a lot of weight. Safety to grow isn't just about being nice or creating a comfortable environment. It's about clarity, intention, honest dialogue, and creating the conditions for people to be genuinely vulnerable without fear of what happens next.   2. Observation before intervention One of the most immediately stealable ideas in the conversation. Don't rush to fix. Sit with what you're seeing. Notice the tensions a coach is carrying before you decide what to do about them. Jen talks about the movement in a coaching relationship - how naming what's there, rather than glossing over it, is often what shifts things.   3. Model vulnerability, and mean it Jen's game-changing advice builds to a really important point. When leaders and coaches show up as the finished article - polished, certain, never wrong - they fill the room. There is literally no space for anyone else to contribute. But the moment you say I got that wrong, I'm not sure about this, what do you think, something opens up. Learning accelerates. People lean in. Jen's challenge to coaches is simple: start with one honest question at the end of a session, answer it yourself first, and hold the space for others to follow. When you model vulnerability, you give everyone else permission to be honest too.   Other Things Worth Knowing The five dysfunctions of a team Jen introduces Patrick Lencioni's framework in the context of coach development. At the base - absence of trust. Then fear of conflict, leading to artificial harmony and meetings that go nowhere. Lack of commitment when debate is shallow. Avoidance of accountability when commitment is weak. And at the top - inattention to results when individual ego overtakes collective purpose.   Naming the tensions A really practical idea from Jen, deliberately naming the tensions a coach is carrying rather than talking around them. Performance versus politics. Development versus survival. These are real pressures coaches live with and pretending they're not there doesn't make them go away.   The books Jen co-authored four books with Dr Amy Whitehead - Myths of Sport Coaching, Myths of Sport Performance, Women Working in Sport, and a fourth title on the myths of sports and exercise psychology. All of them are accessible, challenging and built around the idea of checking and challenging the things that have been accepted as truth in sport for too long. Jen talks in the episode about curriculum being rewritten on the back of the first book and coaches globally reaching out to contributors. Browse all titles at the publisher's website below: Sequoia Books: https://www.sequoia-books.com/catalog/ [https://www.sequoia-books.com/catalog/]   Get in Touch Tom's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhartleycoaching/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhartleycoaching/] Jen's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-coe-1a308a49/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-coe-1a308a49/] Sequoia Books: https://www.sequoia-books.com/catalog/ [https://www.sequoia-books.com/catalog/]

3v3 Special: Fit for the future

Recorded live at St George's Park at the Football Association's 3v3 showcase event, this episode is a little different in format, multiple conversations across the day with former England internationals, FA staff, grassroots coaches and parents, all exploring one of the most significant changes to children's football in a generation. From next season, under 7s football in England moves to a 3v3 format. No referees, no coaches dictating from the sideline. Just children playing football. This episode explores what that means, why it matters, and what coaches can do to make the most of it.   Three Key Messages   1. Get out of the way and let them play 3v3 asks children to trust the children. No referees, no instructions from the sideline, no adults solving problems that children are more than capable of solving themselves. Children self-officiate, communicate, lead. They do on a proper pitch exactly what they do on the playground. And they love it. 2. More touches, more decisions, more love for the game The numbers are hard to argue with. A child playing 3v3 gets 100% of their potential playing time. In a 5v5 format with substitutions, that can drop to as little as five hours of actual football across a season. More time on the ball means more decisions, more problems to solve, more moments where a child can feel the game.   3. This is bigger than a format change 3v3 is not just a smaller version of the game. It is a philosophy. It is the FA saying clearly that children's football should be designed around children - their rights, their enjoyment, their development as people as well as players.    Get in Touch Tom's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhartleycoaching/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhartleycoaching/]

Craig Morris: Prepared, not planned

Craig Morris spent 20 years as Podium Technical Coach at Paddle UK, coaching across three Olympic disciplines - kayak, canoe and kayak cross - and overseeing three athletes to four Olympic medals across Tokyo and Paris 2024. At Paris he coached Kimberley Woods to double bronze and Adam Burgess to silver in the men's canoe. Since leaving British Canoeing he has moved into coach development, working across multiple sports.   Three Key Messages 1. Prepared, not planned Craig's game plan contribution is one of the most immediately useful ideas in the whole series, and it came directly from one of his athletes, Adam Burgess, during a review of the Tokyo Olympics campaign. The idea sits on a continuum. At one end, meticulously scripted practice with everything timed and controlled. At the other, turning up with no intention or direction whatsoever. Neither extreme serves the athlete well. The sweet spot in the middle is what Craig calls a zone of presence - leaning into what you know to be stable in your sport while staying genuinely open and responsive to what emerges. In canoe slalom, the river doesn't care about your plan. The best performers are the ones prepared for anything, not the ones who've rehearsed everything.   2. Coach alongside, not above A thread that runs through the whole conversation. Craig describes the shift in his coaching from a place of technical certainty, where he had the model, he had the answers, and the athlete's job was to fulfil his vision, to something far more collaborative and genuinely curious. Coaching with, not to. Situating yourself alongside the performer rather than above them. He talks about sessions becoming noisier, more joyful, athletes taking more ownership and showing more patience with problems. And athletes having longer careers because they found a new love for the sport.   3. What do we need to let go of to see things as they truly are? Craig's closing question to coaches is one of the most honest things anyone has brought to the game plan. It comes from a long personal journey of recognising that when you have a rigid technical model of performance, you risk seeing only what you want to see rather than what's actually happening. What might you be getting in the way of?   Other Things Worth Knowing The wisdom of not-knowing Craig co-authored a paper with Keith Davids and Carl Woods called On the Wisdom of Not-Knowing: Reflections of an Olympic Canoe Slalom Coach, published in Sport, Education and Society. The paper questions whether coaches in high performance environments have come to rely too heavily on secondary information - data, reports, analysis - at the expense of what the world is sharing with them directly. It's a genuinely thought-provoking read and sits right at the heart of everything Craig talked about in this conversation. Well worth tracking down. Read it here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13573322.2022.2140135 [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13573322.2022.2140135]   Verbs above nouns A small but significant idea that Craig picked up from researcher Carl Woods. Thinking about coaching in terms of verbs rather than nouns. Response-able as a skill, not just responsibility as a concept. Performing as an ongoing verb, not a fixed outcome.   The adaptability folder A very practical idea. Craig used to keep a folder on his desktop collecting clips of moments where his athletes adapted brilliantly, situations that previously might have been labelled mistakes, but reframed as evidence of responsiveness and skill. Over time his athletes started bringing moments to him, asking for them to be added. They were actively looking for opportunities to be adaptable.   Skilled intentionality Craig introduces this idea, keeping as many options open for as long as possible, as the hallmark of the best performers. He draws on the work of a coaching colleague who describes it as poker not chess - always playing with a rich hand available rather than committing too early. It's a useful lens for thinking about what you're actually trying to develop when you design practice.   Let the practice breathe Craig talks about the importance of not filling every gap, giving athletes time and space to sit with problems, struggle productively, and find their own solutions. The framing and contracting you do before and after a session matters as much as what happens during it.   Get in Touch Tom's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhartleycoaching/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhartleycoaching/] Craig's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-morris-1768b81b2/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-morris-1768b81b2/]

Keith Sharpe: It's never about you

Keith Sharpe is Head of Coaching and Leadership Development for the Great Britain Cycling Team, coach mentor for the Premier League, and someone who has spent over two decades supporting athletes and coaches across Olympic, Paralympic and professional sport, including time at Right to Dream in Ghana and Denmark, where he led their Character Development strategy. Outside of all of that, he volunteers as a Samaritans listener.   Three Key Messages 1. It's never about you Keith's game plan contribution lands in four words and it's one of the most important reframes any coach can make. The athletes you work with have dreams, goals and ambitions and your role is to support them in chasing those things down. That doesn't mean coaches can't have their own aspirations, but when you step into the coaching role, it needs to be about the person in front of you. Keith puts it simply: coaches are a contributor to what athletes want to achieve. Polishing talent, not producing it. A small but significant distinction.   2. Bring your normalness One of the most quietly powerful ideas in this conversation. Keith talks about what he calls the most me feeling: that moment when you are completely and utterly yourself. For him it's a Friday night, pizza on order, friends coming round, music on. The challenge he puts to coaches is to find that feeling and bring it into everything you do. Because consistency of character isn't just good for you, it's good for the people you coach. Athletes who don't know how their coach is going to turn up today carry an anxiety that gets in the way of performance. Being authentically, consistently yourself removes that.   3. Seek perspectives and really listen to them Keith's game-changing advice is rooted in something coaches ask of their athletes every single session: get comfortable being uncomfortable. His challenge is to regularly seek feedback from the people you coach. Not just once, not just when things go wrong, but as a normal, embedded part of your practice. Start simple. Ask what's going well. Ask what they'd like more of. And when the feedback feels prickly, get curious rather than defensive. As Keith says, if you can do that now, those conversations just become part of how you work together.   Other Things Worth Knowing Hurry slowly A theme that runs quietly through the whole conversation and one Keith writes about brilliantly on LinkedIn. Patience isn't passive. It's trusting that consistent effort over time is the thing that creates real development. Too many coaches and athletes want to rush the process. Keith's reminder is a good one: a butterfly can't be a butterfly without first being a caterpillar.   You don't coach at people, you coach with people Keith's nightclub analogy is one of those ideas that once you've heard it, you can't unhear it. If you start dancing at someone in a nightclub, you're going to get some strange looks. Dance with them and everything changes. Coaching is a partnership. The coaches who get the most from their athletes are the ones who genuinely invest in that relationship, building community, creating belonging, and getting people to contribute.   Language matters A brilliant thread in the conversation around the words we choose as coaches. Keith is thoughtful about this: coaches who over-communicate create confusion, not clarity. And the language of producing athletes versus polishing talent isn't just semantics. It reflects a fundamentally different mindset about whose journey this actually is. Worth sitting with.     Get in Touch Tom's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhartleycoaching/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhartleycoaching/] Keith's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-sharpe/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-sharpe/]

Dr Anna Stodter: Learning Snack

Dr Anna Stodter is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Coaching at Leeds Beckett University, a rugby coach, and a researcher whose work sits right at the intersection of coach learning and applied coaching practice. Her research has explored how coaches filter and make sense of new ideas, how experimentation drives development, and more recently, how coaches can help players engage with contact in rugby more safely and confidently. She is one of those rare people who can take a complex academic idea and make it genuinely useful for coaches working at any level. This one was a real treat.   Key Messages 1. You are your own filter Anna's coffee filter analogy, published in the UK Coaching Applied Research Journal, is one of the most useful frameworks for understanding coach learning you'll come across. The idea is simple but profound. Your biography; the sum of your experiences, values, beliefs and knowledge, acts like a filter for every new idea you encounter. Some things get rejected because they clash with what you already believe. Some sail straight through because you already do them. And some land in the middle, they feel relevant, they might just work, but they need adapting for your context before you taste them properly. Understanding your own filter is the starting point for becoming a more intentional learner.   2. Coaching is a swampy lowland, embrace it Drawing on the work of Donald Schon, Anna describes coaching not as a precise science with predictable outcomes, but as a constantly shifting environment where the ground is always moving beneath your feet. That's not a problem to be solved, it's the nature of the work. And it means that experimentation isn't optional. Trying things out, tweaking, adapting, sometimes rejecting and starting again - that reflective cycle is how coaches grow. The coaches who thrive are the ones who get comfortable with not always knowing what's coming next.   3. Take a learning snack One of the most immediately stealable ideas in this conversation. You don't need to overhaul your entire coaching practice to keep developing. Anna introduces the idea of the learning snack. A small, intentional moment in a session where you try something new, notice what happens, and reflect on it. It could be a different type of question, filming yourself for the first time, or asking your athletes to rate their confidence at the start and end of a session. Small bites, consistently taken, add up to real development over time.   Some other things… The coffee filter in full Anna's original research followed football coaches over the course of a year, tracking how they engaged with new ideas and what actually changed in their practice. The coffee filter metaphor emerged as a way of bringing that theory to life. You can find the full diagram and explanation in the UK Coaching Applied Research Journal, Volume 8. Well worth a read.   Film yourself coaching Anna's game plan contribution is a simple but important one. Film yourself coaching. It's confronting, there's nowhere to hide, and your voice never sounds like it does in your head. But the perspective it offers is like nothing else. Watch it back with a colleague, pick one thing to focus on, and just chat through what you see. Anna used it to count the types of questions she was asking - and what she found genuinely surprised her. You might be surprised too.   Contact Confident Anna has been working on a brilliant freely available resource for rugby coaches called Contact Confident, developed with colleague Dr Katrina MacDonald and in collaboration with World Rugby. It brings together principles from judo and other contact sports to help coaches build player confidence with contact. Gradually, safely, and without it feeling like a big scary event. Short, sharp one-minute videos that coaches can dip into and adapt for their context. Find it on the Leeds Beckett University website.   Get in Touch Tom's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhartleycoaching/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhartleycoaching/] Anna's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-anna-stodter-990a0855/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-anna-stodter-990a0855/]