What changes when you move from focusing on your own performance to helping a whole team grow?

Oneata Schwalger joins Dwayne Nestor to reflect on her journey from player to coach—and why good coaching starts with understanding people.

Oneata talks about adapting how she communicates because athletes learn and respond differently, building trust before giving feedback, and getting to know what motivates each player.

She also shares how cultural awareness and honest conversations can help athletes feel supported, especially through the disappointment of not being selected.

Her guiding idea: you’re working with people, not robots.

Small choices add up. In this episode, Dwayne Nestor looks at the everyday moments where we pick the easy option or do the work the situation actually asks for. He tells two stories about it.

A passing comment about people cutting corners on the course became a standard his son now holds him to. The saving is only a metre or two. What matters is the decision, and the quiet confidence that comes from knowing you followed through.

Dwayne describes the kind of listening that comforts someone but never asks them to look at their own part. He explains how to support people and still hold a standard.Along the way he covers:

• How to tell a sensible adjustment from avoidance
• Why taking responsibility doesn't mean accepting blame for everything
• Perseverance as showing up again and again, not as a dramatic effort
• How self-trust builds when you follow through on reasonable commitments
• What parents, coaches and leaders show by their own example

He closes with a challenge for the week ahead. Notice the moment you start negotiating with yourself, then decide what the situation requires.To work on your mental skills, visit SISULIFE.com.au. If this episode helped, share it with someone who'd value it.

Alan Koch has spent more than twenty years in professional and university football, including a stint as a Major League Soccer head coach. He joins Dwayne to talk about what it takes to coach well when winning and losing carry real consequences.In this episode:

• Why fun has to be part of the training environment, especially after a run of losses
• Staying focused on process rather than outcome, and how being fired reinforced that
• Coaching every player differently, and why knowing their background, language and family matters
• The daily handshake check-ins and the player positional profile meetings
• The hidden planning behind a 90-minute session
• Twelve-hour days, burnout, and protecting your staff's family time
• The one mental skill he's nailed: flushing it, whether it's a win or a loss

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-koch-1175093/