Talking Split

The Head Coach of Paris Basketball – Will Weaver joins us on the podcast this week, to talk all things coaching. We cover what pathways look like around the world, how you coach in a different country, assembling a team in the middle of a COVID pandemic, and what it’s like to travel the world as a professional basketball coach, whilst also balancing a family on the side. Will was incredibly generous with his time, and made us very welcome in a foreign country, and we can’t thank him enough for Talking Split with us!

And just like that, we are into February. But what happened to January? As it turns out, quite a lot. With East Coast Challenge (ECC), Australian Country Junior Basketball Cup (ACJBC) and Southern Cross Challenge (SCC) all running we have a look at how the teams and coaches went, and what the areas of focus are coming out of the tournaments. We also discuss the National Performance Camp (NPC) and what the key takeaways were from what the coaches saw.

Final episode for the season is upon us! We dive back into the listener mailbag and discuss how to impact defence without zoning in junior basketball, how to deal with a difficult opposition coach, how long to stick with an offence or defence before changing, balancing teaching and intervening in drills and some of the things we think could potentially improve the basketball experience for everyone! The information about Bio Banding is here for those interested: https://youtu.be/odcP9Grw6h0 A huge thanks to everyone who’s listened to the podcast over the years. It’s no lie to say we didn’t expect this sort of uptake when it first started, and we’ve just managed to tick over the 100k listens for the podcast, which is amazing support from the basketball community.  We will be back in the New Year with season 8, until then, please leave a rating, review, like, share, retweet and subscribe…

We asked, and like Postman Pat, you, the listeners, delivered. It’s Part 1 of the Talking Split Mailbag this week, with fresh off the plane Gold Medal winning Head Coach in Zoe Carr back on the podcast! We discuss questions like how to train your child who wants to get into rep, our most disliked drills, what should go into an Individual Performance Plan, what we can take from other sports to help basketball, and rebounding drills - valid or pointless? Part 2 of the Talking Split Mailbag next week!

After we went off on various tangents and ran out of time on the previous podcast, we thought we should head back into the senior coaching space and try and give some more information around it for the coaches out there. Turns out, we are going to need a Part 3! We look at preseason, team selection, how to progress players, and why we have senior programs to begin with.

It doesn’t matter if it’s fish in a barrel, on Fortnite, or pull up 3’s in transition – shooting is a massive part of what our players are doing now. We have a look about what we can be teaching our athletes, what the important teaching points are, what types of shots we want our players taking, and how we can help them depending on how we are coaching them. There are some shooting “myths” we tackle, and how we can try to help produce the next generation of perimeter shooters!

This week we are looking at a space we haven’t touched on in over 80 episodes – coaching in senior programs. We explore the importance of being transparent, knowing the parameters, how to assemble a team, how to work in with junior programs and everything in between. Even if you’re a junior coach, this could remove a few of the barriers to get involved in the senior coaching space.

Fantastic guest podcaster this week! Dr Alex Lascu is a skill acquisition specialist by trade and currently lectures at the University of Canberra. Her passion for talent development and community sport is contagious, with over a decade in coaching and a PhD in skill acquisition for women’s cricket. She enjoys existing in the gap between research and practice in the hopes of bringing these two worlds together. Find Alex on Twitter at @skillacqlascu, via email at Alexandra.lascu@canberra.edu.au and her website at www.skillacqwhisperer.com Huge thanks to Alex for jumping into the podcast, where she provides so much content for coaches to consider with their coaching!

Bit of a different episode this week, where we delve into some “Would you Rather” situations with our coaches and seek their opinions on several topics relating to basketball and coaching. If you’re listening, you’re welcome to give your opinion on some of the topics using the #TalkingSplit, and a reminder we have a Mailbag episode coming up soon, so send in any questions you might have!

Sometimes sport can be cruel, you can do the work and not get the reward that you were hoping for. You can be disappointed, upset, and frustrated, so we go over some of the things that players can look to do to improve after disappointment. The world of Strength & Conditioning, finding a good coach to help you improve, watching film all rate a mention. Now that you’ve got some ideas, get back to work!