Building Better Basketball – Details, episodes & analysis

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! Alex Lascu is, and these are her words; a skill acquisition amateur, Adjunct(get that dictionary out) at the University of Canberra and Learning and Capability specialist at WA Cricket. She exists in the gap between research and practice in sport coaching, in the hopes of one day bringing these worlds together. The reason I love talking to Alex and we exchange some random messages I promise you is she is a generalist, both in sport (15 different sports) and research (2 faculties, 8 topics).

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.

COE Women's Assistant Coach Mel Downer took the coaches in attendance through an on court session focusing on defensive transition. A video recording of the session will be released later. Other oncourt sessions will be released over the next few weeks.

Mens COE Head Coach Robbie McKinlay recording of his oncourt session at the National Coaches Conference 2024 running through an efficient practice and drill session.

A video recording of the session will be released later. Other oncourt sessions will be released over the next few weeks.

Please enjoy the audio recording of the first oncourt session from the National Coaches conference and International Presenter Joerik Michiels.

Joerik Michiels – Founder, Elite Athletes Belgium

• Drills alone can’t mimic the complexity of the game
• The 7 types of constraints for practice – player limitations, space, scoring, tactical, defensive, tools, time
• Embrace the mess
• Don’t be a “PlayStation coach” – you can’t control every action or decision like a video game
• Managing your interventions as a coach – rewind, remind, demo, question

A video recording of the session will be released later. Other oncourt sessions will be released over the next few weeks.

You might know him better as one of the voices of the Talking Split podcast but at Basketball Australia he is our u17 Crocs coach as well as the preacher of the Master skill, the consumer of any and all Basketball content and one of the best chats for coaching in the Business. Enjoy this conversation with Neil and we look forward to seeing you at the National Coaches Conference or you jumping online to register for youth other upcoming Coach Development seminars, happy National Volunteers week!

Join Lauren Jackson as she goes one on one with only the second female coach in NBA History and WNBA Championship winning Coach Becky Hammon.

For more from the She Hoops Series make sure you are following their feed She Hoops on Apple Podcasts

Mike Thibault coached the Connecticut Sun and the Washington Mystics in the WNBA. In 2013, he became the WNBA's most successful all time coach with 212 victories. Lauren Jackson caught up with this ICON of the game to chat about his career, coaching philosophies and the sport he has dedicated his life to.

For more from the She Hoops Series make sure you are following their feed She Hoops on Apple Podcasts

Thie week Neil is joined by Jacqui Dover who brings with her a celebrated career and wealth of knowledge and experience in the referee space. Beginning at the grassroots level with Gold Coast Basketball she’s gone on to referee in the NBL1 (formerly QBL), WNBL and is currently the only on court female referee in the NBL.

Jacqui’s career has taken her around the world, notably spending 18 months in the United States at the NBA's referee development program. Along with this Dover recently officiated the Bronze Medal games at the Under 17-and 19-Women’s World Cup in Hungary and Spain respectively. As well as being part of the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup in Sydney.

Jacqui is determined to leverage her own experiences to encourage more people to take up refereeing as a valuable pathway within the sport and also offers a fascinating insight for coaches into the Officials mindset and process.

Usually, we would write a blurb here introducing Crystal Kaua. Crystal might be known to some of you as a coach that Codey Royle worked with in his Second Set of eyes book. She is a kiwi rugby coach but in this episode she covers so much that has nothing to do with rugby. Crystal has a very powerful coaching philosophy, a very strong sense of self as a female coach in a predominantly male sport and arguably the most though provoking answer to the Podcast question of what would you ask a coach. Enjoy.