Logo
SPORTING WISDOM
Search
Subscribe
Sign In
Home
Archive
Tags
Authors
Recommendations
Sporting Wisdom — business strategy and leadership lessons told through elite sport

SPORTING WISDOM

The world's best business lessons, told through the stories of sport.

Featured Posts

Why Football Clubs Sack Managers in January and Why It So Often Feels Right

Jan 27, 2026

•

3 min read

Why Football Clubs Sack Managers in January and Why It So Often Feels Right

Pressure, perception and the short-term momentum that shapes early-January decisions

Brian Leahy
Brian Leahy
Reframing Rory

Apr 15, 2025

•

4 min read

Reframing Rory

A subtle shift in perspective after a devastating miss helped transform Rory's mindset, and potentially his legacy.

Brian Leahy
Brian Leahy

Latest Posts

A Tale of Two Finals. The World Cup Final Pays $50 Million. Hurling's Pays Nothing.

Jul 19, 2026

•

3 min read

A Tale of Two Finals. The World Cup Final Pays $50 Million. Hurling's Pays Nothing.

Spain and Argentina play for $50m today. Galway and Limerick will also play today, in Hurling's All-Ireland final, Ireland's national championship. It generates €130m a year. Players get nothing. That's by design.

Brian Leahy
Brian Leahy
Tadej Pogačar Made Sure the World Saw the Work Nobody Sees

Jul 7, 2026

•

3 min read

Tadej Pogačar Made Sure the World Saw the Work Nobody Sees

Domestiques do work that's built to stay invisible. This week, two rival leaders made sure, in very different ways, that it didn't.

Brian Leahy
Brian Leahy
Why Jana Novotna Choked at Wimbledon, and Why We're Wrong

Jun 25, 2026

•

3 min read

Why Jana Novotna Choked at Wimbledon, and Why We're Wrong

In 1993, Jana Novotna led 4-1 in the Wimbledon final and lost five straight games. The research says she didn't crumble. She started thinking. Expertise doesn't protect you from this kind of failure. It creates it.

Brian Leahy
Brian Leahy
The Miss That Made Him

Jun 11, 2026

•

3 min read

The Miss That Made Him

Everyone saw the same image. Not everyone drew the same conclusion. Roberto Baggio missed the 1994 World Cup final penalty. Juventus and Milan moved on. Bologna signed him anyway, and got his best season ever.

Brian Leahy
Brian Leahy
Victor Wembanyama, Value Multiplier.

Jun 2, 2026

•

3 min read

Victor Wembanyama, Value Multiplier.

The Spurs didn't just find a great player. They found a different kind of variable.

Brian Leahy
Brian Leahy
Luke Littler Didn't Raise the Bar. He Revealed It.

May 26, 2026

•

3 min read

Luke Littler Didn't Raise the Bar. He Revealed It.

Professional darts spent years calibrating its ceiling. Then an eighteen-year-old showed it was a floor.

Brian Leahy
Brian Leahy
The Moat Leinster Rugby Built Before Anyone Was Watching

May 22, 2026

•

4 min read

The Moat Leinster Rugby Built Before Anyone Was Watching

Bordeaux hired the architect of their academy. The cohort he built didn't come with him.

Brian Leahy
Brian Leahy
The Choice That Built Nadal's 90.5% Clay Record

May 18, 2026

•

3 min read

The Choice That Built Nadal's 90.5% Clay Record

His clay record is famous. The choice that created it is not. Nadal had a 90.5% win rate on clay and 77.4% on hard courts. The same player, different surface. What that gap says about competitive advantage and the deliberate choice that made it.

Brian Leahy
Brian Leahy
Outcome Bias: Why Teams Learn the Wrong Lesson After a Loss

May 14, 2026

•

4 min read

Outcome Bias: Why Teams Learn the Wrong Lesson After a Loss

When the outcome is good, no one audits the decision. That's exactly the problem.

Brian Leahy
Brian Leahy
Sporting Wisdom logo

Sporting Wisdom

Sporting Wisdom is a free weekly newsletter for leaders, strategists and curious thinkers. Each edition takes a moment from elite sport, a manager's decision, an athlete's reinvention, a team's collapse, and extracts the business insight hiding inside it. No jargon, no listicles. Just sharp thinking, told through great stories. Join 2,500+ readers who outthink the competition.



Home

Posts

© 2026 Sporting Wisdom.
beehiivPowered by beehiiv