David has coached individuals and teams at the highest levels in international sport and business for over 20 years, after spending 14 years in leadership roles in the education sector. A former hockey international, who made over 100 appearances for England and Great Britain, he coached Great Britain’s Olympic gold medal-winning men’s hockey squad in 1988.
A graduate of Loughborough University and a also renowned conference speaker, he is author of three books including The Spirit of Teams, which provides practical guidelines for promoting high performance in teams.
He was the National Coaching Foundation’s Coach of the Year in 1985 and 1988 and was awarded an OBE in 1989.
Without doubt his greatest triumph was the 1988 Olympic Gold Medal. Whitaker took a squad of unfancied amateurs and produce a stunning series of results that carried them to victory. He put the success down to planning and adopting a somewhat revolutionary thing at the time in that he pursued in particular the mental preparation of the squad. Somewhat ahead of his time he forged together a group on individuals that became invincincible every time they took the field.
He was however an experienced coach before 1988 having started his coaching career before he retired as a player. The pattern that emerged even then was one of being able to get more out of teams than others thought possible.
David Whitaker was a true innovator as a coach and worthy of the title “Great Coach of Sport”.
