Enhance coaches build on leadership skills at AIS residential

World-renowned football manager Ange Postecoglou joined a cohort of Australia’s leading high performance coaches at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) this week, sharing lessons on leadership and resilience as part of the Enhance Program. 

The session, which Postecoglou joined virtually from the UK just hours after Nottingham Forrest’s EPL clash against Newcastle, kicked off the four-day second residential for the 32 coaches from 23 sports, who are now five months into their 18-month development program. 

Olympic Winter Institute of Australia (OWIA) Snowboard Park and Pipe Lead Coach Ollie Midgley soaked up every bit of advice during the chat with Postecoglou, taking in everything from his approach to coaching to how he deals with the highs and lows of the job.  

“You don't often get a real chat with someone like that. You can read books and listen to interviews, but to have it in this environment here with just a special group of coaches was really cool,” Midgley said.  

The AIS Enhance Coach Program was launched earlier this year to help coaches with five to 10 years of high performance or senior-level experience to elevate their careers and guide athletes to success on the world stage.   

The residential focused on themes of leadership, self awareness, system knowledge and performance wellbeing, supporting coaches to show up as leaders with both their coaching environments and the high performance sport system.  

For cycling coaches David Betts and Shane Perkins, the timing couldn’t have been better as they prepare to head off with their athletes to the UCI Para-Cycling Track World Championships, which starts on Thursday, October 16 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

“As a coach, I want to keep improving, and the AIS Enhance Program is a good fit for me at this point in the cycle,” Betts said. 

Perkins added: “It can be quite a challenging path as a coach, so there's a lot of power in being able to work through some of those challenges and hear stories from others. It helps us delve a bit deeper into ourselves and how we can be more effective as coaches and leaders.”  

The Enhance cohort will next reunite online in December, before returning to the AIS in March for their third residential, with smaller monthly online sessions in between. 

Follow this link to find out more about the AIS Enhance Program.