Talking Split

Busy time of year for everyone in the coaching world (is there ever a time where it isn’t?), with selection trials happening around the state, and new teams being formed. As coaches, we have the difficult task, of knowing what the first things are that we can do with our teams and parents to tip off on the right note. We discuss parent meetings, training content, and getting everyone on the same page. It’s also the podcast debut for Nick Mihai, who’s recently joined Basketball Victoria in a Basketball Development Officer role – doubling the coaching department, to 2 people!

Bit of a different take on things this week, as we go over what players can do at their trials to give themselves the best possible chance of success. We look at some key things they can do before getting there, things players can do on court to contribute to their experience, and how to deal with the outcomes afterwards.

It’s a crazy stressful time of year about to come up, with multiple clubs about to go through selection trials for the coming season and lots of kids wandering around the state with permanent marker on their bodies! With Coops AWOL, Rob & Zoe cover off what coaches need to be aware of, such as what content needs to be in a selection trials, how you would evaluate players in a short period of time, and why it’s important to look after your admin people on the day!

Bit of an extended Book Club this week, as we delve into the 2009 article from Jay Bilas, on Toughness. What it is, who exhibits it the most, how do we coach it, what are some of the things that are considered to be “tough”, and how it may have changed since the article and book first came out. If you’re keen to read the full article, you can find it here: https://www.ncacoach.org/uploads/Glines2.pdf

It’s finals time for a lot of our junior hoopers out there, and as coaches we want to have a couple of tricks up our sleeves to help give them the best chance of getting over the line. We discuss how to prepare for late game, adjustments you might be able to make, and hear from Besty on his trip to China with the Victorian athletes.

Things that are inevitable extend to anytime that Zoe, Coops and Rob are on the pod together, it ends with a 2-part episode. Back again this week to discuss things that seem to happen all the time, like team selection problems, re-penetration after a drive, non purposeful dribble, and putting too much weight in statistics.

A reminder again, for any coach shoutouts or any book club recommendations, to send them through and follow along on @talkingsplit Instagram and X!

It doesn’t matter how often you try, sometimes things can’t be avoided. Same in the world of coaching. Timeout management, closeouts, guards dribbling to the sidelines, awful Elvis accents. They are all a part of this weeks pod but stay tuned for Part 2 next week. If you’ve got any we may not have covered (yet), be sure to leave them in the comments!

How incredible to have had so much international level basketball available to us over the past few months! We unpack what our observations have been on the Olympics so far, Coops gives us his thoughts from being Head Coach in Turkey at the World Cup, and of course how it all translates back into what we as coaches do at the grassroots level. This was recorded before the 2 Serbia games so may be a little out dated now - and now that I have access to the stats, Boomers are 65.6% and the Opals are 71.2% from the FT line!

Joined this week by Wayne Holdsworth to talk about SmackTalk, an initiative that started to talk suicide prevention, and make sure that people can have conversations to help save lives. Wayne takes us through how to have the conversation with people, the role that coaches can play with our young players, the need to discuss mental fitness and where to go to find out more information. You can follow along on the SmackTalk website and on Instagram to help Wayne spread the message.

All coaches have opinions (listen back a couple of episodes to hear some), but today we revisit some of the stronger opinions we have and see if we can unpack the other side of the coin with what we believe. In some we come around, and look at a few different ways we could all do things, and in others it’s fair to say we don’t deviate too much!