Cori Close

Our Great Coach on this episode is Basketball coach Cori Close.

Cori is presently the head coach of the UCLA Womens Basketball team where she has just completed her 10th year.

Before UCLA, Cori spent time as an assistant coach at Florida State University and her alma mater, UC Santa Barbara.

In total she has worked as a coach on teams that have advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 16 seasons, won at least 20 games in 16 of the previous 18 seasons and won or shared a total of 11 conference championships.

She has also helped the USA to a gold medal as an Assistant coach at the 2019 U19 World Cup and the 2018 FIBA Americas U18 Championship,

In addition she was voted Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2019

Cori is passionate and energetic coach who is on a mission to, in her words, lead an uncommon transformation in the players she leads.

She believes in the power of gratitude, of making the lifestyle choice to be consummate learner and of looking at the world through the lens of what I can give, not; what can I get.

Cori is a force for change, who thinks deeply and strategically about the specifics of the program she leads.

There were many key points in this interview that I reflected on afterwards;

• How the great coaches invest in the lives of their athletes from the inside out, as this allows the athlete to find gears that they didn’t even know they had.
• The focus she has on people's response, which she describes as their R , being stronger than the E, the event, and the story she shares about one of her injured athletes to illustrate this.
• And how your actions as a coach must be consistent with your own unique personality and principles. And how from this she talks about her choice to coach hearts, which lead to deeper character, better team work and ultimately better habits.

This was an energizing conversation for me; at the end of a long week, and I hope you get the same sense of energy from it that I did.

If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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