WRITTEN TESTIMONIALS
I think it's crucial to share genuine feedback from real people, particularly in a world where so many websites can provide generalized statements about their experiences and clients. The first written testimonials date back over 20 years. More recently, I have begun recording feedback in which I always encourage people to be as honest and raw as they feel comfortable being.
Great Britain Wheelchair Rugby
Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Champions
This was a Great Britain team's first-ever wheelchair rugby Paralympic medal, a first for a European nation, & the first gold for Great Britain in a team sport in the Games’ sixty-one-year history!
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"Thanks for all your input making us better coaches. We definitely view the game differently, and giving our players the power to decision-making has made their performances Gold medal standard".
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Rob Tarr - GBWR coach
Martin Vlk - Head of Coach Education and Methodology Football Association of the Czech Republic
"Marks ‘Need Centred’ principles are a perfect fit for soccer to support Managers & coaches in developing adaptive interactive teams, & effective communicators for both players & the coaching staff.
I believe the Performance Development System would have a tremendous impact on team culture & performance for any football club, & indeed any sports team.
Mark provides Managers & coaches with the support & tools needed to be confident & competent in creating the environment & teams that are functional & effective in the critical elements & challenges that the modern game demands.
One of the skills Mark processes is the ability to create a safe space for managers & coaches to learn, challenge, to explore & improve without judgement, to enable them to perform to their best."
Rob Watts PGA Golf Coach, & coach to Open champion Darren Clark
“This Thorough and extremely valuable system has helped me to develop and understand how my clients like to learn and improve results. I strongly recommend PDS to anyone who wants to develop as a coach and maximise the performance of the teams and athletes they work with.”
Dame Kelly Holmes MBE, Double Olympic Champion
“Mark Bennett is professional, reliable and talented. He has the ability to inspire, motivate and connect with anyone he works with; taking their ability to a higher level to get the best results”.
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Kevin Gill – Head Coach
British Olympic Shooting.
Coach to Olympic & World Champions
“I have worked quite closely with Mark Bennett. He’s been a tremendous help to me in in understanding myself & my athletes. His principles & personal feedback enhanced what I already do without compromising my coaching authenticity.”​
Kyran Bracken – England Rugby Union World Champion
“I learnt more about my team-mates and myself in 5 days than in 7 years of professional rugby. I now have the tools to make myself a better player and team-mate and to be the success I aspire to. I would recommend the course to anyone who wants to achieve their goals and potential.”​
Neil Hull - Lecturer in Coaching Education University of Texas San Antonio
"Meeting with Mark after travelling the same path for so many years was both an enlightening and empowering experience. Enlightening, through being on the same journey, climbing similar obstacles of confrontation, being buffered through the institutional lack of acceptance to change. Empowering, through meeting challenged minded coaches, looking for a transformational model and process to support player growth; this behavioral player centered approach focusing on:
Self-feedback or review of personal opportunities, threats, choices and commitments.
Acceptance of agreed boundaries for team mates to offer reinforcement or accountability to an understood set of UAEs, specifically to task.
Mark expressed the thought ‘a problem cannot be solved at the level of which it was created’ To solve this his rule of 3 sets an accountability environment of internal review first, leading to a progressive external process to guide the solution, returning ck through player discovery.
The PDS way is a very logical system, to solve illogical problems. It’s not easy to implement, as a coach, I have to change also. Adapting my approach and relentlessly applying the system, first to myself and second to my players. I discovered, If I’m striving for excellence through my personal set criteria of acceptable and unacceptable in a given situation, only then I can model to my players the similar outcomes through theirs. My light bulb moment, change is not just for players! To be transformational we, coaches, have to change first!!"​
​Warwick Cain – GB Basketball National Team Director/Head of Performance
"Mark is an outstanding coach mentor and innovator in sports personnel management. He is a leader in his field and has changed professional best practice in talent and elite coaching especially in the UK. He brings a different perspective which challenges traditional coach leadership practice and clearly focuses on athlete empowerment and positive coach behaviours including greater self-awareness and analysis. He had significant impact with National Youth team coaches when I was the National Teams Director with GB Basketball".​
Mike Ford - England Rugby Union & British Lions Coach
“As an England rugby union coach I have attended plenty of career development and coaching courses. These courses have provided me with many good ideas, concepts and theories, but non have impacted on me the way the PDS Performance coach course has.
The training consisted of one day per week learning practical techniques, followed a few days later by one-on-one mentoring with direct feedback and reviewing. All theories and techniques were explained in a way that I understood and could immediately integrate into my own coaching. This style of learning was fantastic and has moved my coaching forward in leaps and bounds.
Within four weeks my own coaching has been transformed! This is not just short-term change either; I believe this course has changed the way I will coach for the rest of my career. I have no doubt the techniques I have learnt have had a positive influence on the performance of the England team.
Any coach who is serious about maximising the performance potential of the athletes and teams they are working with needs to experience PDS Performance coach course for themselves.”
John O’Sullivan - Founder and CEO Changing The Game Project
“I have been coaching for over two decades and travelling the globe with Changing the Game Project for the last five years. In that time I have met many incredible coaches, but none of them have influenced and improved my coaching the way Mark Bennett has. My work with Mark has changed the way I coach, transformed my teams, and has made a huge difference in the development of my players. If you have the chance to work with Mark, do it. It will make you a better coach, a better leader, and a transformative figure in the lives of your athletes.”
Dr Oliver Holt
"Mark delivered an energetic, challenging and thought-provoking session for coaching leads from across governing bodies of sport. We received extremely positive feedback about the Performance Development Systems (PDS), and Mark’s stories of his own learning along his coaching journey. Mark Bennett’s talk was very inspiring, providing a way of thinking that my Governing Body may need to adopt at certain levels of the performance pathway. Mark Bennett is a high-quality speaker and really emphasises the key characteristics of High-Performance coaching. There’s no doubt that PDS can help organisations to develop their coaching programmes."​
