Up first this week for Coach Wellbeing Month, is Alex Parr from Eight Nutrition, talking all the good, and more moderately good things in food and drink! We get into when is the best time to eat, how to read food labels, fasting, meal preparation and how to live with a more sustainable and healthy diet in moderation.

It’s been a long run up from when the idea was first raised to now, but over the course of October we are focusing in on Coach Wellbeing. Over this month we are going to dive into 4 main areas that can impact on coaches, Nutrition, Physical Health, Sleep and Mental Health, with experts in the fields coming in to give some advice to coaches (or anyone in the sport) on how they can make some sustainable changes to habits, to live a healthier lifestyle.

Back for Round 2 this week of clips that we have heard on socials over the past little bit, and how they can apply to our coaching and basketball environment. The debut of a new podcast guest this week, with David Peters making his podcast debut after a year in the State Development Coach role, and now in the High Performance Coach for Vic Metro Men role.

This week we delve into some of the social media clips that have been doing the rounds over the years and discuss how they might apply to our situation as coaches, and some of the key points and takeaways. We didn’t manage to get all of them in this week, so stay tuned for Part 2 next week, and if there is anything you’ve come across send it through!

As many of our seasons are drawing to a close or deep in finals, we look at the role the coach has to play in conducting end of season reviews both with their players, their own role, the season as a whole, and what some PD and downtime can look like in the time that they have off.

A bit of a rom-com special this week, and not just about Zoe’s love of a BBQ brisket. The topic this week is “How To Lose A Game in 10 Ways”, and are we as coaches doing anything that can be contributing to our teams losing games? We bounce around several different topics that can make a big difference to the scoreboard over the course of a game, most of the things thankfully, are within our control! If you’ve got any others we haven’t thought of, drop them in the comments and we may end up with another pod around “50 First Mistakes” for the Adam Sandler fans…

Fortunate and grateful to be joined by Errol Amerasekera from Bluestone Edge this week on the podcast as we dive into how to best give feedback in coaching, the impact the brain can have when receiving feedback, creating and defining a psychologically safe environment for our players and coaches, and how we can help make the sport what our players need to thrive. Something for everyone in this one, if you’re a coach, parent, or casual observer of the sport.

You can see and hear more from Errol here: https://www.youtube.com/@AtTheEdgeLessonsInCultureAndLe

When you lose one hyphenated named coach, it’s only right that you replace them with another, and this week we have the State Development Coach for Victoria Country, Fernando Rios-Rodriguez joining us for his podcast debut. 

The topic this week is something we have seen an abundance of at junior basketball of late, in zones and presses. We discuss some of the pros and cons of using them, the impact that it can have on player development, where they have a place in junior or senior basketball, and just as importantly, some teaching points you can use when playing against them.

Bit of an extended break between pods, but back this week to talk about U16 Nationals review, and the world of Assistant Coaches. We discuss what their role can be, some of the traits of a good assistant coach, how to create a cohesive working environment and how to make sure everyone is on the same page as a coaching staff to give the players the best experience.

As you’ll hear, Besty has made the move to the US to take up an exciting opportunity coaching at a High School. Thanks to Darren for all his work and effort in the Basketball Victoria and podcast space over the years, and good luck to him and the family in the next chapter!