It doesn’t matter how often you try, sometimes things can’t be avoided. Same in the world of coaching. Timeout management, closeouts, guards dribbling to the sidelines, awful Elvis accents. They are all a part of this weeks pod but stay tuned for Part 2 next week. If you’ve got any we may not have covered (yet), be sure to leave them in the comments!
How incredible to have had so much international level basketball available to us over the past few months! We unpack what our observations have been on the Olympics so far, Coops gives us his thoughts from being Head Coach in Turkey at the World Cup, and of course how it all translates back into what we as coaches do at the grassroots level. This was recorded before the 2 Serbia games so may be a little out dated now - and now that I have access to the stats, Boomers are 65.6% and the Opals are...
Joined this week by Wayne Holdsworth to talk about SmackTalk, an initiative that started to talk suicide prevention, and make sure that people can have conversations to help save lives. Wayne takes us through how to have the conversation with people, the role that coaches can play with our young players, the need to discuss mental fitness and where to go to find out more information. You can follow along on the SmackTalk website and on Instagram to help Wayne spread the message.
All coaches have opinions (listen back a couple of episodes to hear some), but today we revisit some of the stronger opinions we have and see if we can unpack the other side of the coin with what we believe. In some we come around, and look at a few different ways we could all do things, and in others it’s fair to say we don’t deviate too much!
One of the most frequent areas of frustration for coaches (and usually parents on the sidelines) is the skill of passing. For what is one of the more basic skills in the sport, it causes a mountain of turnovers in every game, and the last thing we need to be doing, is handing fastbreak points to the opposition! This week we discuss what is a good pass, how to increase player vision, and how to inbound the ball whilst under pressure amongst other things, and various tangents.
It’s always interesting to hear what opinions that coaches have, that they won’t waiver on, so this week we unpack a number opinions that the coaches are prepared to die on that hill for. With everything from training content, to game style and play to team selection we cover off a bit of everything. If there’s an opinion you strongly believe in, drop it in the comments!
We are all time poor planning out training sessions, and even getting to games and training, and whilst we all do our best, there are times that we can overlook certain areas of the game. The good news is, we’ve got you covered! We discuss some things that can easily be forgotten about, and how to make sure that they are still featuring in how we all coach.
Big weekend of basketball for most coaches coming up, with tournaments a plenty around the country running. We discuss the balance of winning and development, what you can try and get from them, and importantly how to manage the load coming out of them. No book club this week, but happy to accept submissions, and we have a coach shoutout we are also accepting submissions for. We have a discussion around Coops’ Crocs camp and upcoming tournament, and the Caitlin Clark effect on basketball....
We get that sometimes you get a bit tired of hearing the same old voices, so we’ve gone looking for some additional sound bytes from around the sporting world to unpack and discuss. We hear from Coops about his Crocs Camp, and Rob is on for Book Club where he advocates for an early morning wake up, which Zoe is quick to put up her rebuttal for! Last episode until we are back in May, so plenty of time to get the coach appreciation shout outs through!
Ever have those sessions where it’s just flat, or you’re struggling to find ways to get the attention to detail out of the session? Yep, you’re not on your own – us too! We look at some of the things you can do before, during and after practice to make sure that you get the most out of your session.
When you think of Melbourne, hopefully it’s because of the Traralgon based superstar Jade Melbourne, and not just because it’s the world’s most liveable city! In a desperate attempt to get Jarrod Potter back listening to the podcast, we have enlisted the help of one of Victoria Country’s finest ever athletes who takes us through her career to this point, and what it looks like in the future (and hopefully Paris in particular!). Lots for coaches and players to take from this one to help with thei...
Back again to discuss team culture and dynamics, an area that is always spoken about, but sometimes doesn’t get the attention it deserves from coaches. Is it the coaches, or the players job to drive and establish the team culture? Does the role of the captain matter, or does it make it harder to be a player? We also have a few opportunities for coaches to develop and get involved coaching some of the BV athletes, and it’s Rob’s turn at the Book Club this week.
Too much for 1 pod, we are back this week to discuss the other components of the mental side of the game for our players. We discuss keeping them on track with referees, oppositions players, pressure to perform and Coops gets involved in Book Club for this week.
It’s only taken us a few weeks, and already we are into a 2-part pod topic! Great input from one of the listeners who suggested we discuss the mental side of the game from our players perspective and this week we talk preparation for an upcoming game, and how to avoid the dreaded complacency trap. Coops is tormented with more Sunderland pain, and Zoe “cooks” up the first edition of the Talking Split Book Club – stay tuned for Part 2 next week!
Not travelling quite as far this week with the U.S. Tour covered off last week, but the HP staff are thankful that the chaos of January is now behind them. This week we are in with Coops and Jenna as they discuss what they took away from the National Performance Camp and being the Head Coaches of the U20 Victoria Navy teams at the recent National Championships, and how some of their observations can help coaches in the development levels, help their players.
Not just a Vanessa Carlton banger, but a small portion of the amount of distance travelled by the HP Crew over the December and January period. We know the U.S. won’t change to metric anytime soon, so we will stick with this unit of measure. We review the US Tour, East Coast Challenge, Country Cup, and Southern Cross Challenge for the coaches, and the kids.
Last episode of the year, last episode in the Gaze Room, and first appearance of Gary the dog! It’s time for the small window that coaches get to have some downtime, and reacquaint themselves with family and friends, but on the off chance that you can’t help yourself, we have some options for you to keep yourself occupied over the break! Big thanks to all the listeners throughout the year, and we will be back next year!
The topic was supposed to be Playbooks, we started off talking about Playbooks, and how to set them up, best programs for them and then diverted slightly throughout the podcast to talking about systems and styles of play. So, there is some playbook talk in there, it’s just taken a bit of a back seat!
We are very much in the 4th quarter of the year, and it’s a great time for a guest on the podcast! This week we have J.P. Nerburn on the pod, the author of The Sports Parent Solution, which is a great resource for junior coaches especially. He talks about how we as coaches can work in better with parents, for a better experience for everyone involved using his real life experience as both a player and a coach. If you’re interested in getting a copy, or hearing more from J.P. you can contact him ...
You wish you had more of them, and you try and use them to your advantage when you have them. Not lights out shooters, but timeouts! The team unpack how to be more efficient in your timeouts, when to use them, how you can avoid using them, and what is good timeout etiquette whilst coaching.
Once of the most frequently asked questions by junior coaches, is what should they focus on teaching in their age groups? We unpack a few of the different skills and concepts and the teaching points to give a bit of a guide for all coaches out there.
That one’s a deliberate typo before the spelling police come for us to point it out, but it grabbed your attention, didn’t it? So now that we have your attention, how about you have a listen to some more of the mistakes that we have made as coaches. There have been enough, that we have had to come back for Round 2 in fact, and eventually, I’m sure we will end up with a Round 3!
Mistakes, we all make them, and coaches aren’t immune either! In a humbling bit of self-reflection, we go through only some of the mistakes we have all made in our coaching days, in the hope that it helps some coaches recognise their own areas for improvement. Over an hour, and only Part 1? Turns there are a few more mistakes than we had hoped for, and we will be back with a Part 2!
It’s high time we got a new voice on the podcast, and making her Talking Split debut is none other than the High Performance coach for the Vic Metro Women – Jenna O’Hea! Jenna joins Zoe and Rob as they discuss what is overrated, what is underrated, and what is correctly rated in the world of coaching. Do you disagree? Leave your thoughts in the comments, or defensive slide into the DM’s. If there are any other topics you’d like to throw up there, also let us know!
We are visiting the teaching points and cues that coaches use for various skills involved with basketball this week. How do our players learn, how can we get them to retain and implement information, and do we as coaches make it easy enough for them? The Luka Doncic link that Coops was talking about can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOFUREK_eW0
The Talking Split podcast is back and bringing the energy from the tip off! This week we discuss the 10 most asked questions at coaching courses that we hear and try and provide some answers or perspectives on them all. If you’ve got any questions you would like the team to answer, you can email them in, or defensive slide into the Talking Split DM’s on X or Instagram. The YouTube link that Coops was talking about can be found here: https://youtu.be/UeEEf8iVngU?si=wMqi2WN3frDwCvsM...
It’s that crazy time of year again, where we see masses of players attend trials for various teams around the state. They’re stressful times for players, families, coaches, and of course – our administrators! We unpack some of the important things to look at to make sure the process runs as smoothly as possible for everyone with some ideas to get the best outcome for everyone. Best of luck to everyone out there!
Joined by Basketball Victoria’s Child Safety Advisor Sarah Wolokh, so discuss how as coaches, we can make a safe and welcoming environment for all our children in the sport. We look at what best practice is, the things we need to be mindful of, and how coaches can protect themselves as well as the players. You can find the Child Safe Standards and Sarah’s contact details on the Basketball Victoria website here: https://www.basketballvictoria.com.au/resources/association-resources/child-safe-stan...
Joined this week by the “other” Australian Basketball Podcast host this week, in Game Development Manager for Basketball Australia, Neil Gray. Basketball Australia and Sport Australia have been working on a coach mentoring program to assist coaches in their support and development as a new coach into the sport. We talk about some of the successes, some of the challenges and where the program can go from here.
We have gone international this week, as we are joined by Siale Bain-Vete from Tonga, and Marlene Lumabi from Northern Mariana Islands, who are the recipients of the Marty Handson Scholarship. We recap their experiences in basketball, and what the whirlwind fortnight of coaching development looked like for them. The scholarship program was named after former head coach Marty Handson who passed away in 2016. Beyond being a great coach leading Victoria Country to its first Gold Medal, Marty was al...
