Building Better Basketball

Todays guest has more stamps in her passport than anyone we have ever had on the podcast before as Basketball has taken her all over the world! Priyanka Karunakaran is the Head of Operations for the Rollers, Gliders, Spinners, Devils and all National 3x3 teams! If that wasn’t enough in a normal year she is also working with a focus to the Paris Comm Games in 2024! There are so many different ways Pri has involvement with coaches and also a unique perspective across all the different formats of the game!

Second to their players, Coaches probably have the most communication with referees on game days, rightly or wrongly! So we thought it was important to get an insight into how that communication works from a referee's perspective, the challenges they have on the floor, how they review and improve and the age old art of communication. Neil is joined by Caitlin Grove, Technical Officials Development Officer from Basketball NSW. Caitlin has been a ref since she was 14 years old and is a familiar face at recent Footlocker National Championships.

If there was one mental skill set you would want a basketball player to have young or old, Resilience would be high up there.  Neil is joined by Martin Heppell from the world famous Resilience Project to talk about all his learnings working with young people about resilience, his experience both as a professional athlete, a parent and now someone working in the mental health space and finally perhaps the most passionate selection of a coach you would want to ask a question too on record!

Bec Allen has been a fan favorite all around the world in the WNBL, WNBA and Euro Basket! With her defensive ability and Sharp shooting skills it’s easy to see why she is often one that catches a watching coaches eye for ideas on how they can get their players to come close to replicating her talents. Neil and Bec get stuck into her philosophy on shooting, the coach who said it was defense or bench and plenty of chat about the importance of whats going on between the ears!

This weeks guest needs no introduction to the Basketball public in Australia! Opals captain, WNBL champion, role model for basketball fans everywhere, Tess Madgen. We are going to touch on her amazing playing career which still has lots of time to had to her accolades but what some people might not be aware of is the power of work that Tess is doing on the other side of the sidelines as a coach with the Melbourne Boomers academy and her She Hoops Masterclasses with Madgen. Tess discusses the coaches that shaped her career coming through, the battles with her brothers and what that taught her and the importance of the captain-coach relationship.

Fiona is a Sports Psychologist who has worked with numerous athletes, coaches, officials and parents across a large number of sports, at all levels from local level to international level.

Neil and Fiona dive deep into the parent and coach relationship and hopefully share a few helpful ideas!

Todays guest will be no stranger to all of you and I’m sure you are all wondering why it has taken till now for him to make an appearance as his name is synonymous with Basketball Coach Development in Australia. Peter Lonergan is the Director of High Performance Coach Development for Basketball Australia.  Peter is an influential coach educator impacting coaching development around the world. He has been an Australian Opals Assistant Coach, a highly successful State Director of Coaching in Victoria and New South Wales, and an international clinician for FIBA. In the last year I have lost count of the number of clinics Pete has presented at or resources he has produced or Basketball tournaments he has attended

Trying to describe todays guest could take many turns as Leigh Ellis is known for many different reasons to the Australian Basketball community !.

You might know him from his work on NBA TV ? You might know him from the global podcast smash that is the Starters. You might just randomly have started following him on twitter as his shotting competition with Steph Curry, yes THE Steph Curry came across your timeline!

Before there was Ben Simmons, Dyson Daniels et al there was Leigh Ellis, arguably the Australian most well known to the American basketball general public! Now he has a new project, which anyone who loves basketball, will I’m sure as they put their head to the pillow at night, dream about, touring the world just playing pick up hoops and learning about the people and the game!

Follow Leigh on Instagram https://t.co/I70XXu94EE 

Follow Leigh on Youtube https://t.co/eVsiQzwSdH 

Follow Leigh on Twitter Leigh Ellis (@LeighEllis) / Twitter 

Support the International Pick up tour here https://t.co/jOBvb0en4r 

Neil is joined by Sydney Masters the Mental Skills coach at the Arizona Diamondbacks in Major League Baseball. Sydney has experience in Sports Psychology and cognitive performance! Suffice to say Sydney has a lot of experience seeing how athletes brains work when things are going well and probably most importantly when things aren’t! I can confidently predict this pod will leave coaches with plenty to think about and hope you enjoy this discussion! We will take a bit of a break now for Christmas and the New Year and be back in February for season 3!