Delve into Don’s remarkable journey from ‘parent coach’ to high performance sports coach where his focus has always been on creating an environment that nurtures a love of sport.

Don is a multi-world champion NZ Black Sox (softball) player and coach. A recipient of the Halberg Coach of the Year, he was also awarded an 

Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit

Following his softball coaching career, Don was appointed to lead high performance coaching at SPARC.

Following a review of the 2007 RWC, Don was appointed High Performance Manager for NZ Rugby, where he oversaw the successful 2011 and 2015 RWC campaigns.

He is now the Director of Player Health and Performance at the San Diego Padres Major League Baseball Club.

Don Tricker

Don Tricker, a former multi-world champion NZ Black Sox player and coach, takes centre stage.

In 2000, Don earned the prestigious title of “Coach Of The Year” at the Halberg Awards. Additionally, he was honoured with an ONZM in the 2004 Queen’s Birthday Honours for his outstanding contributions to softball.

Renowned as “the All Blacks secret weapon” by Steve Hansen, Don played a pivotal role in the successful 2011 & 2015 Rugby World Cup Campaigns.

Today, as the Director of Player Health and Performance at the San Diego Padres Major League Baseball Club, Don stands as an unsung hero of New Zealand sport.

Delve into Don’s remarkable journey from ‘parent coach’ to high performance sports coach.

The business of bringing joy

Let them choose their sports 

Create a great environment

Coaching youth sport

Getting parents on board

Where parents get it wrong

Building resilience

Instilling core values

Understand the athlete

Remove fear of failure

Develop skill acquisition

Play - Reflect - Adapt

Athlete-led coaching

Be patient with progress

Build the team first

Build confidence in the athletes

Own the game plan

Beware of creating bullies

Coaching your own kids

Coaching girls and boys

Play as many sports as you can

Every sport is a team sport

Sport creates lifelong friendships

Every coach has an impact

College sport coaches

Build better communities

What Don loves about coaching

What Don loves about sport

Don's vision for youth sport

The Coaches Coach

Tony’s heart-warming and inspiring story unveils his approach to coaching athletes from grassroots to elite.

Tony, a former Irish Olympic and World Champion Rower, immigrated to New Zealand to teach and lead the rowing programme at Christs College, Christchurch.

In 2019, he was asked to coach NZ Men’s Rowing Eight with the goal of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. The team successfully qualified via the “Last Chance Regatta” months out from the Olympics and then had to deal with COVID restrictions leading up to the Olympics.

At the Olympics, the Eight qualified for the final via the Repechage dominating the race to win gold; NZ’s first gold medal in the Eight in 49 years.

Tony O'Connor

Watch this epic story of a world champion Irish rower who has changed the lives of hundreds of kiwi school boys and is the ‘wizard’ behind our gold medal winning Men’s 8 at the Tokyo Olympics. 

Most of all be inspired by Tony O’Connor’s passionate coaching philosophy anchored on caring for his athletes as people first – winning shiny cups and medals a distant second. A philosophy the Coach For Life Foundation hopes will inspire all kiwi coaches to embrace in their mission to grow better people through sport.

Clear standards of behaviour

Teach them to teach themselves

Planning a season

Get to know your athletes 

Keep everything in perspective

Parents must role model behaviour

Where parents often get it wrong

When parents can loose perspective

Handling parent complaints

Coaches must role model behavior

Semi professionalism in school sport

The season overlap conundrum

The benefits of multiple sports

Let them decide what sports to play

Sport and wellbeing

What Tony loves about coaching 

Tony's legacy

What Tony loves most about sport

The Rowing Teacher

His story captures the experiences, mentors and life lessons learned from a young age that helped shaped his athlete-centred coaching philosophy

Shane is a former New Zealand (Black Sticks) men’s hockey player.

On retirement, Shane moved into coaching and became the Black Sticks men’s coach for two Olympic campaigns - Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012.

He then moved into the head coaching role with the Belgium Men’s hockey team (Belgium Red Lions) where over a five-year period he transformed a dysfunctional and underperforming team into World Champions (2018), European Champions (2019), Rio Olympic Silver Medallists’ (2016) and Tokyo Olympic Gold Medallists’ (2021).

Shane McLeod

This documentary celebrates the inspiring journey of ex-Black Sticks coach Shane McLeod who led the Belgium ‘Red Lions’ hockey team to World Cup and Olympic glory. His story focuses on the experiences, mentors and life lessons learned from a young age that helped shape Shane’s athlete-centred coaching philosophy. 

Brought to life through hockey, Shane’s engaging coaching approach serves as an inspiration to all sport coaches - from the elite level to the grassroots and embodies the Coach For Life Philosophy.

Shane's coaching philosophy

Create a circle of trust

Build strong relationships

Be a counsellor 

Get to know your players 

Always be positive

Embrace and learn from failure

Don't punish genuine mistakes

Building resilence

Always be a great role model

Building a coaching team

Getting parents onboard

Define what success looks like

Involve players in the game plan

Athletes need an "on-off" switch

Create a positive environment 

The 3 types of young athletes

Play multiple sports

Managing youth workloads

Priorities for youth coaches

Attributes of great coaches

Character traits of a great coach

The invaluable role of a coach

Sport helps life learning

Sport teaches life lessons

Shane's ultimate goal as a coach

The Players Coach

An inspiring story that brings to life Yvette’s coaching philosophy of growing better people first, athletes second.

Yvette, a former track and field athlete, has represented New Zealand at the World Juniors. She was also a national netball representative at NZU21 and Silver Ferns Squad level.

Serving as a netball coach, she led the Pulse ANZ Premiership Teams for nine years, establishing herself as New Zealand's most successful domestic coach. She has held numerous national coaching roles, including NZ Under 21, NZ Māori, NZ A, and was involved in several Silver Fern programmes.

Yvette is also an educator and co-founder of Manukura school alongside her husband Nathan.

Yvette McCausland-Durie

An inspiring story of one of New Zealand's great sport coaches - Yvette McCausland-Durie - “The Mana Enhancer” brings to life Yvette’s coaching philosophy of growing better people first, athletes second.

Be inspired as Yvette shares her advice and strategies on working with individuals and teams to support their heads and hearts, solve problems, grow resilience and learn valuable life lessons through the power of sport.

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