Talking Split

Season 6 of Talking Split returns after nearly a year on the sideline. Unfortunately, it seems that we have potentially jinxed the whole state of Victoria... as we were discussing how great it is to be back up and running with basketball in Victoria, only to be plunged into another lockdown by the time the podcast drops! Ash takes us through his TikTok habits, we review the U12 Metro Jamboree and how the introduction of the Size 5 basketball impacted game play, and the coaching over the course of the Jamboree.

Coach Developer from the Port Adelaide Football Club, Rob Mason, joins us to talk coach feedback to the players, the priorities, the best ways to get the message across, what is wasted words – we cover everything. Lots of gems of information in there for the coaches to take away to help with their coaching. Rob has previously spent time with Diamond Valley Youth League Women as an Assistant Coach, whilst studying his PhD at the University of Melbourne, and has a close understanding of the differences between football and basketball and how the two are closely related.

Week 1 of lockdown is sadly upon us, and coaches and players alike need to stay checked in with each other. We speak to Casey Hub Lead Coach, Gerard Hillier, about his time in the Australian Defence Force, managing PTSD, relating his time in the Army to his coaching, and some strategies for coaches to help cope in what is an odd time without basketball for most people. Would be great for coaches to reach out to other coaches within their network and help get through this time by checking in on each other. For those that are struggling, the best resources are: Lifeline: 13 11 14 Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636

We've turned the show over to the listeners this week, and they 100% delivered.  It's great to have so many people contributing to the podcast with what they’re doing in this lockdown period in Victoria and we can’t thank the listeners enough for sending through their information for what has ended up being our 50th show! (we don’t count the NCAA shows!) We will definitely do this again in the future, so stay tuned for more opportunities to get involved with the Talking Split podcast!   We couldn’t produce this without the listeners, but also without the great minds of Justin Schueller, Mike Czepil, Ash Arnott, Jenni Screen, Nathan Cooper-Brown, and of course the No.1 ticket holder, Zoe Carr.  All have contributed countless hours of content and ideas with the hope to help the coaching community, as have all our guests that have appeared over the episodes. Thanks for listening and stay safe and healthy!

It was great to hear from our special guest this week, Blackburn Vikings alum, and Davidson College Wildcats Assistant Coach, James Janssen. James takes us through his pathway from VJBL player and coach, through to his current role within the college system. We get to hear some great insight as to what life is like for the college athletes, what the expectations are, but also some outstanding advice on how to choose the correct school – a great listen for all players and coaches. Just a reminder, get your submissions in for the podcast over the next couple of weeks, we need: Your name and your club; What you’re reading; What you’re watching; What you’re listening to; And what you’re doing for your own professional development We want coaches at all levels to be submitting their information to try and help out as many other coaches as possible. You can send this through to rob.coulter@basketballvictoria.com.au or via @RobCoulter on Twitter.

Lockdown life is well and truly set in for the Victorians at the moment, but we’ve got your resources covered. We check in with all the High Performance Coaches to find out a few things, what they’re reading, what they’re watching, what they’re listening to, and what professional development they’re working on whilst we wait to get back on court.   We do need our listeners to help out the coaches in podcast land, and this is your chance to appear on the Talking Split podcast. All we need from you is an audio recording of: What are you reading What are you watching What are you listening to What professional development are you doing right now   We will collate all these and play as many as we can on the podcast in a couple of weeks time to give as many coaches as many resources as we can. All submissions need to be in by Monday 27th July and can be sent to Rob.Coulter@BasketballVictoria.com.au or via the DM’s on Twitter. If it’s easier for anyone, I’m happy to jump on a Zoom and take the recording that way. Anyone that appears on the podcast will receive a small gift courtesy of the Talking Split fairies – don’t get your hopes up though, this isn’t Oprah…

Great to have the Sydney Uni Flames Head Coach, Katrina Hibbert, on the podcast this week to discuss her coaching journey. A graduate of LSU and having played in the WNBA and WNBL, we look at how she made the transition into coaching from playing, how teaching has helped her coaching, what she’s learned, and what she is continuing to try and learn in her coaching career. Obviously a bit of bad news this week with the cancelling of the news of another 6 week lockdown in Victoria and VJBL and Big V seasons cancelled. Please make sure everyone continues to check in with the players and fellow coaches and we all get through this in as best shape as we can.

The “Missing” milk cartons have paid off, and Coops is in for the podcast this week!  Following on from the shooting podcast a couple of weeks back, we follow up with adaptive finishing and finishing around the basket. Who uses it the best, why do the players need to have it in their toolkit (not toolbag as Zoe refers to it), and how do we teach it to get the maximum amount of transfer from our athletes into the game.

It’s not every day you have a World Championship Gold Medallist and NBL Championship winning Head Coach on the podcast, but when you do, it makes for one heck of an informative listen. We are joined by Basketball NSW Hall of Fame member Rob Beveridge, who is now thankfully out of his 39 days of isolation, and takes us through his coaching pathway which includes 4 gold and 4 silver medals at the Australian Junior Championships with NSW, a Gold Medal win at the 2003 U20 World Championships, his time in the NBL, establishing a building a winning culture with his teams and also his upcoming book “When Winning Matters” which he has co-authored with Dr.Stephen Bird.   “When Winning Matters” is Talking Splits first official “book club” recommendation (Oprah eat your heart out), and is a must read for coaches of any field. On top of the book itself, purchasing will give coaches access to additional content which is sure to make any coach better. You can pre-order your copy via the Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/whenwinningmatters.book/

Fantastic news during the week that the return of basketball is on the horizon, and whilst we are all keen to get back into things, we do need to exercise some caution to make sure our players don’t get injured as we return. Durham McInnis from Core Advantage takes us through some of the things we need to be aware of, what to avoid what we can be doing in the early days of returning, and how we can look after our athletes to give them the best chance possible to stay injury free as we return.   The Core Advantage education site's free resources and holiday training program can be found here and the “Art of the Reload” webinar is one not to be missed for coaches of all levels: https://www.coreadvantage.training/free-resources-store   You can get in touch with Core Advantage here: https://coreadvantage.com.au/