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 WELCOME 

Skill acquisition is not just learning to perform a skill technically

- it is the ability to apply the skill proficiently to the right situation in the right environment. 

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OUR STAFF

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Dr. James Barkell has been a sports coaching practitioner for over 20 years and has coached sporting teams from grassroots to grandstands, with experience all the way through to senior state and national teams. In 2008, the pursuit of best practice led James to attend the University of Sydney to complete a Master of Education (Sports Coaching) where he developed a real passion for the science of coaching and went on to further research.  In 2017 James completed a PhD in the sports coaching and high performance field. The knowledge and practical application of his research has led him to The Coach Doctor today. During James' journey he has  presented findings from his research at the World Congress of Science and Football in 2011 and 2018 as well as the World Congress of Performance Analysis in Sport 2016. He has published articles and book chapters in a variety of sports science &  coaching journals.  

Dr. Gina Haddad is a highly experienced coaching practitioner, with over 25 years’ experience as a professional coach and coach developer. She has worked with coaches and athletes across a wide range of sports from youth development to High Performance. Gina has experience leading coach development and high-performance programs for NSO’s. She has completed a Master of Education (Sports Coaching) and a PhD in the field of Athlete Leadership from the University of Sydney. Gina has presented at International Conferences including the World Congress of Science and Football, and the Global Coaching Excellence conference 2019. Her research on Athlete Leadership has been published in International Journals, including Psychology of Sport and Exercise and the International Journal of Sport Coaching.

Sean Irvine is an organisational coach with over 9 years’ experience as an internal organisational culture change leader, team coach and executive coach. Sean believes that it is an organisation’s culture that delivers on strategy. Similarly, it is a team’s dynamics that delivers the team’s goal. Sean has a deep understanding of the causal factors and conditions that drive effective cultures and teams. Sean supports sporting groups to build an environment where individuals and teams can perform at the highest levels. In parallel with work on structures and systems, Sean supports leadership development through his empathetic but challenging coaching approach. Sean's strengths within the sporting context are: 1) Organisational Culture Change: understanding the drivers of behaviours within organisations, helping leaders change these drivers and build effective cultures. 2) Team Design and Consultation: building the underlying conditions for effective teams, creating a psychologically safe environment, and coaching key on task processes to create high levels of team effectiveness.


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I look at skill overload the same way we traditionally look at strength and conditioning overload. The brain is like a muscle, our knowledge & skill can grow the more we stress & test it.

James Barkell

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Organisations we have worked with previously

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