Today on the Building Better Basketball podcast, we’re thrilled to be joined by someone who’s been instrumental in shaping a more inclusive and equitable future for basketball—Dominique Holland.

Dominique is the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Manager at Basketball Australia, where she’s leading the charge in creating a sport that welcomes everyone, no matter their background, ability, or identity. Her work focuses on ensuring that basketball reflects the rich diversity of our community while fostering a culture of respect, understanding, and belonging.

In today’s episode, we’ll dive into Dominique’s journey, the challenges and opportunities of embedding inclusivity in sports, and some of the incredible programs she’s been involved with. We’ll also discuss how coaches, players, and administrators can play a role in making basketball more accessible for all.

https://www.australia.basketball/news/4197745/hoops-for-all-basketball-australia-launches-new-workshops-and-online-education-for-inclusive-basketball

We’re thrilled to welcome Rohan Short, a veteran of the sports industry with an impressive career spanning over two decades. Rohan is currently the Head of Operations at South East Melbourne Phoenix, where he oversees everything from live events to community engagement and team logistics. His expertise in operational planning, stakeholder engagement, and event management has made him a driving force behind the success of the Phoenix in the NBL.

Beyond basketball, Rohan has held key roles in prestigious organizations like Athletics Australia, the Victorian Institute of Sport, and the Commonwealth Games Australia, where he contributed to major events and high-performance programs. With experience as a high-performance coach and a background in education, Rohan brings a unique perspective on leadership, team management, and community development in sport.

We’re looking forward to diving into his journey, exploring what it takes to build basketball at all levels, and learning more about how he’s shaping the sport in Australia.

Rhian is an accomplished leader in sports management, currently serving as the Head of Athlete Wellbeing for Basketball Australia where we were very luck to get her from her previous role of High-Performance Wellbeing Manager for Archery Australia. With her role focused on supporting athlete mental health and resilience, Rhian brings a vital perspective on creating a balanced approach to high performance in sports. Rhian’s commitment to holistic athlete support is inspiring, and we’re looking forward to diving into her insights on managing mental well-being and performance

Today, we’re thrilled to have Jacob Chance on the podcast—a name well-known in basketball circles for his strategic mind and multifaceted experience. Jacob is currently an assistant coach with Melbourne United and as of yesterday, the newly announced Boomers Head Coach for the upcoming FIBA window. His resume spans a wide range of roles, from the Tasmania JackJumpers to the Hawkes Bay Hawks in New Zealand’s NBL, as well as several years with the Perth Wildcats.

Jacob’s journey is a testament to the power of combining traditional coaching techniques with modern analytics, and today, we’ll dive into how he’s leveraged both to enhance player development and team performance. From building a team culture with the JackJumpers to developing youth talent with the WA Metro State Team, Jacob’s insights are sure to inspire coaches at every level. Join us as we explore his experiences, philosophies, and the lessons he's learned along the way.

Todays episode is going to be a little different as I have finally decided its time to reply to some of the questions that have come through via our social media channels which are Building Better Basketball on Instagram and BBALLAU_Coaches on twitter. I’ve picked the 7 I like the most and tried to get a mix across the country, I always love hearing the feedback from everyone and the things that have resonated from them and what they want to learn more about so please reach out!

So, let’s jump back into the mail bag and see what we got.

Welcome back, everyone! If you caught our last episode, you know we’re in the middle of a great conversation, and I’m excited to bring back our guest for round two. We couldn’t fit everything into the first session, so we’re diving back in today to continue where we left off.

For those just joining us, let me reintroduce Alex Lascu. Alex, or as she calls herself, a 'skill acquisition amateur,' is an Adjunct at the University of Canberra (look that one up!) and a Learning and Capability Specialist at WA Cricket. She works in the space between research and practice in sports coaching, with the aim of merging those two worlds one day. What makes her so interesting is her generalist background—she’s worked across 15 sports and explored research from two faculties covering eight different topics.

So, without further delay, let’s jump back into it discussing Skill Acquisition in Basketball: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice and Talent Development: Building a Pathway for Success

We are going to do something new here on the podcast. We are going to have a guest on for the first time, but right out the gate we are saying, they are coming back for a second episode cause we are not getting it all done this morning! Podcast fanatics will know her name, the crazy band of people who like hearing me talk (shoutout my mum) will know her from when I appeared on her podcast and some of you I guarantee will have read one of her papers or like one of her tweets duting her love hate relationship with that platform!

All that said and done, welcome to what is the most unstructured episode of building better basketball in history!

Finishing off the Olympic theme we reached out to someone international who had a lot of interactions with all 3 Australian sides in Paris. Today we are joined by Ron Yeung of Basketball Canada. Ron has been heavily involved in the sport of basketball for over 10 years.Over this time, he has served in a number of important roles responsible for the strategic development and implementation of grassroots basketball in communities across Canada.Ron worked with the Toronto Raptors from 2000-2006, where he was responsible for the successful growth and operation of the Raptorball Youth Leagues and JR. NBA/WNBA. In 2007, he was commissioned by Canada Basketball to design and develop Steve Nash Youth Basketball (SNYB), a national youth development program aimed to grow the game at the grassroots level. Now Ron is the Head of Domestic & 3x3 Development.

Some of you will know todays guest from her work on the Basketball court with the Geelong Supercats but we have her on today to talk about the amazing work she is doing off the court with Welcoming Australia. One of the key programs is Welcome to the Game, a program dedicated to support children and young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds who live with disabilities, autism and additional support needs to access and feel a sense of belonging in their local community sport settings, along with their families.

Kate Thomas- NCC Presentation https://youtu.be/v-4e5bPpp9Y?si=zzw5RI9aSBhISPjG 

Inclusion Graphic- https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cvzg3as8t46vgduuv3fzp/Inclusion.png?rlkey=cjby1fds00vxh2tn9hfx18glq&st=ybixezgm&dl=0 

Welcoming Clubs - https://welcomingclubs.org.au/

Welcome back to the new season of Building Better Basketball, the Basketball Australia Coaches Podcast. We took a little break for the Olympics but we are back and we needed to have a guest that was on the ground. We needed a guest with profile. A guest who like Madonna and Prince is known by just one name. We needed Junior! Junior is the Team Lead and Manager of the Boomers to give him his full title but his job actually covers much more than just those 3 words as we are about to find out.