150: Pre Season Checklist
Whilst it seems like we have been going for a while, believe it or not we aren’t too far off the season actually starting for junior and senior representative basketball. This week we go through some of the important things that all teams should have in place before the season begins, and unpack how to many the most of your time throughout. And a tip for everyone, work on your passing or you wi...
1hr 3m Feb 21, 2025
1hr 3m
S9 Ep148: Coach Wellbeing
Back for another year of the Talking Split pod, and we are starting on the topic of Coach Wellbeing. We can’t have our coaches not in their best shape to help our players, so the team highlight some areas where we as coaches can be better and focus on to start the year. Are going to do a whole month on Coach Wellbeing this year, so if there are any specific topics you want discussed around that...
1hr 18m Feb 13, 2025
1hr 18m
S9 Ep30: Mailbag
It’s our last pod for the year, and to make up for it, we doubled the length to a 2 hour Mailbag extravaganza! All the segments are in play this week, Coach Shoutout, Book Club, Social Sightings, multiple story times, oddly enough no Stoicism, but the answers to a heap of questions that the listeners sent in, including is Die Hard a Christmas movie, favourite BBQ side dishes, and even real bask...
2hr 6m Dec 06, 2024
2hr 6m
S9 Ep29: Strength & Conditioning with Durham McInnis
When you talk Strength & Conditioning in the Basketball Victoria space, Durham McInnis from Core Advantage springs to mind straight away. We put it out to the listeners last week to come through with any questions and they delivered! We talk about the need for a good hinge, plyometrics, the best warmup in a short amount of time, some myths around strength training and the ice bath and sauna lan...
53m Nov 28, 2024
53m
S9 Ep28: Individual Player Workouts
We are getting into that time of year again as the competition winds down, and there is some downtime coming up – but only for some! This is also the time of year where players and coaches get to work on various areas of their game, and try to make their good, great and work on some of their weaknesses. We cover off what a workout should look like, content, time, and some things that can make a...
55m Nov 22, 2024
55m
S9 Ep27: Systems and Skillsets
One of the age old debates in coaching, is do you teach the system first, or the skill set? And even then, do you start with the offence or the defence? How do you become time efficient, over the course of a season with limited practice time? We bounce around a few of these topics throughout the pod this week, in the hope that we make it easier for the coaches, but still remaining fun and entic...
1hr 8m Nov 15, 2024
1hr 8m
S9 Ep26: Open Scrimmage
There was a warning before we started the pod this week that this may not have been a good idea, and what was supposed to be a podcast coaching behaviours, wasn’t. What we are left with though, is an hour of varying thoughts on coaching, winning, development, how the game is played and coached, and nearly any other topic or tangent we ventured down. In theory we will get to the behaviour topic ...
1hr Nov 08, 2024
1hr
S9 Ep25: Halloween Special
It’s the time of year where we focus on the other orange circular object and talk about the things that can scare us as players, coaches and spectators. We enlist the help of some of our loyal Talking Split listeners who sent in their ideas for the pod combined with some of our own thoughts on the subject. Reminder that we have our Mailbag podcast coming up soon, so any questions for the team, ...
58m Nov 01, 2024
58m
S9 Ep24: Coaching Progression
On the back of sometimes feeling we are an imposter last week, a little bit more self-reflection this week as we look at how coaches can progress with their own coaching. We discuss how it can change over time, some of the more underrated ways to improve, and some things we wish we knew when we first started out coaching. Far less Oasis references, but plenty of “Story time” and “Aurelius” drop...
1hr 6m Oct 25, 2024
1hr 6m
S9 Ep23: Imposter Syndrome in Coaching
A topic this week that raises the question for a lot of coaches, am I good enough to do this? Imposter syndrome is something that a lot of coaches go through, trying to work out if they fit, if they’re the right person, or even if they’re doing a good job with the team they’re coaching. We look back through some of the examples we’ve had in our own coaching, but also some tools and strategies t...
1hr 7m Oct 18, 2024
1hr 7m
S9 Ep22: The First Training Session
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 sam...
57m Oct 11, 2024
57m
S9 Ep21: Selection Trials for Players
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.
1hr 4m Sep 20, 2024
1hr 4m
S9 Ep20: Selection Trials for Coaches
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 ti...
1hr 13m Sep 13, 2024
1hr 13m
S9 Ep19: Toughness
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/Gline...
59m Sep 05, 2024
59m
S9 Ep18: Tactical Changeups
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.
1hr 8m Aug 29, 2024
1hr 8m
S9 Ep17: The Inevitable Part 2
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 recommendati...
59m Aug 23, 2024
59m
S9 Ep16: Death, Taxes, Helping off the Corner and...
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!
1hr 2m Aug 15, 2024
1hr 2m
S9 Ep15: International Basketball Observations
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 b...
1hr 13m Aug 09, 2024
1hr 13m
S9 Ep14: Smacktalk
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 fo...
40m Aug 02, 2024
40m
S9 Ep13: Counterpoint
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!
1hr 21m Jul 04, 2024
1hr 21m
S9 Ep12: You Shall Not Pass (To the opposition)
One of the most frequent areas of frustration for coaches (and usually parents on the sidelines) is the skill of passing. For what is one of the more basic skills in the sport, it causes a mountain of turnovers in every game, and the last thing we need to be doing, is handing fastbreak points to the opposition! This week we discuss what is a good pass, how to increase player vision, and how to ...
1hr 3m Jun 28, 2024
1hr 3m
S9 Ep11: It's a long way up the hill
It’s always interesting to hear what opinions that coaches have, that they won’t waiver on, so this week we unpack a number opinions that the coaches are prepared to die on that hill for. With everything from training content, to game style and play to team selection we cover off a bit of everything. If there’s an opinion you strongly believe in, drop it in the comments!
1hr 7m Jun 21, 2024
1hr 7m
S9 Ep10: Training Areas of Focus
We are all time poor planning out training sessions, and even getting to games and training, and whilst we all do our best, there are times that we can overlook certain areas of the game. The good news is, we’ve got you covered! We discuss some things that can easily be forgotten about, and how to make sure that they are still featuring in how we all coach.
1hr 11m Jun 14, 2024
1hr 11m
S9 Ep9: Tournament Play
Big weekend of basketball for most coaches coming up, with tournaments a plenty around the country running. We discuss the balance of winning and development, what you can try and get from them, and importantly how to manage the load coming out of them. No book club this week, but happy to accept submissions, and we have a coach shoutout we are also accepting submissions for. We have a discus...
59m Jun 07, 2024
59m
S9 Ep8: Sound Bytes
We get that sometimes you get a bit tired of hearing the same old voices, so we’ve gone looking for some additional sound bytes from around the sporting world to unpack and discuss. We hear from Coops about his Crocs Camp, and Rob is on for Book Club where he advocates for an early morning wake up, which Zoe is quick to put up her rebuttal for! Last episode until we are back in May, so plenty o...
1hr 11m Mar 28, 2024
1hr 11m
S9 Ep7: Practice Standards
Ever have those sessions where it’s just flat, or you’re struggling to find ways to get the attention to detail out of the session? Yep, you’re not on your own – us too! We look at some of the things you can do before, during and after practice to make sure that you get the most out of your session.
1hr 4m Mar 22, 2024
1hr 4m
S9 Ep6: Jade Melbourne
When you think of Melbourne, hopefully it’s because of the Traralgon based superstar Jade Melbourne, and not just because it’s the world’s most liveable city! In a desperate attempt to get Jarrod Potter back listening to the podcast, we have enlisted the help of one of Victoria Country’s finest ever athletes who takes us through her career to this point, and what it looks like in the future (an...
58m Mar 15, 2024
58m
S9 Ep5: Team Culture
Back again to discuss team culture and dynamics, an area that is always spoken about, but sometimes doesn’t get the attention it deserves from coaches. Is it the coaches, or the players job to drive and establish the team culture? Does the role of the captain matter, or does it make it harder to be a player? We also have a few opportunities for coaches to develop and get involved coaching some ...
1hr Mar 08, 2024
1hr
S9 Ep4: Game Preparation Part 2
Too much for 1 pod, we are back this week to discuss the other components of the mental side of the game for our players. We discuss keeping them on track with referees, oppositions players, pressure to perform and Coops gets involved in Book Club for this week.
1hr 7m Mar 01, 2024
1hr 7m
S9 Ep3: Game Preparation Part 1
It’s only taken us a few weeks, and already we are into a 2-part pod topic! Great input from one of the listeners who suggested we discuss the mental side of the game from our players perspective and this week we talk preparation for an upcoming game, and how to avoid the dreaded complacency trap.
1hr 1m Feb 23, 2024
1hr 1m
S9 Ep2: 500 Miles
Not travelling quite as far this week with the U.S. Tour covered off last week, but the HP staff are thankful that the chaos of January is now behind them. This week we are in with Coops and Jenna as they discuss what they took away from the National Performance Camp and being the Head Coaches of the U20 Victoria Navy teams at the recent National Championships, and how some of their observation...
1hr 2m Feb 15, 2024
1hr 2m
S9 Ep1: A Thousand Miles
Not just a Vanessa Carlton banger, but a small portion of the amount of distance travelled by the HP Crew over the December and January period. We know the U.S. won’t change to metric anytime soon, so we will stick with this unit of measure. We review the US Tour, East Coast Challenge, Country Cup, and Southern Cross Challenge for the coaches, and the kids.
57m Feb 08, 2024
57m
S8 Ep29: The 12 Things to do over Christmas
Last episode of the year, last episode in the Gaze Room, and first appearance of Gary the dog! It’s time for the small window that coaches get to have some downtime, and reacquaint themselves with family and friends, but on the off chance that you can’t help yourself, we have some options for you to keep yourself occupied over the break! Big thanks to all the listeners throughout the year, and...
1hr 15m Dec 15, 2023
1hr 15m
S8 Ep28: Playbooks, Kind of
The topic was supposed to be Playbooks, we started off talking about Playbooks, and how to set them up, best programs for them and then diverted slightly throughout the podcast to talking about systems and styles of play. So, there is some playbook talk in there, it’s just taken a bit of a back seat!
1hr 1m Dec 08, 2023
1hr 1m
S8 Ep27: The Sports Parent Solution
 We are very much in the 4th quarter of the year, and it’s a great time for a guest on the podcast! This week we have J.P. Nerburn on the pod, the author of The Sports Parent Solution, which is a great resource for junior coaches especially. He talks about how we as coaches can work in better with parents, for a better experience for everyone involved using his real life experience as both a pl...
52m Dec 01, 2023
52m
S8 Ep26: Timeouts
You wish you had more of them, and you try and use them to your advantage when you have them. Not lights out shooters, but timeouts! The team unpack how to be more efficient in your timeouts, when to use them, how you can avoid using them, and what is good timeout etiquette whilst coaching.
1hr 8m Nov 24, 2023
1hr 8m
S8 Ep25: Age group coaching
Once of the most frequently asked questions by junior coaches, is what should they focus on teaching in their age groups? We unpack a few of the different skills and concepts and the teaching points to give a bit of a guide for all coaches out there.
51m Nov 17, 2023
51m
S8 Ep24: Mitsakes We've Made Part 2
That one’s a deliberate typo before the spelling police come for us to point it out, but it grabbed your attention, didn’t it? So now that we have your attention, how about you have a listen to some more of the mistakes that we have made as coaches. There have been enough, that we have had to come back for Round 2 in fact, and eventually, I’m sure we will end up with a Round 3!
1hr 14m Nov 10, 2023
1hr 14m
S8 Ep23: Mistakes We've Made, Part 1
Mistakes, we all make them, and coaches aren’t immune either! In a humbling bit of self-reflection, we go through only some of the mistakes we have all made in our coaching days, in the hope that it helps some coaches recognise their own areas for improvement. Over an hour, and only Part 1? Turns there are a few more mistakes than we had hoped for, and we will be back with a Part 2!
1hr 13m Nov 03, 2023
1hr 13m
S8 Ep22: Overrated or Underrated?
It’s high time we got a new voice on the podcast, and making her Talking Split debut is none other than the High Performance coach for the Vic Metro Women – Jenna O’Hea! Jenna joins Zoe and Rob as they discuss what is overrated, what is underrated, and what is correctly rated in the world of coaching. Do you disagree? Leave your thoughts in the comments, or defensive slide into the DM’s. If the...
1hr 5m Oct 27, 2023
1hr 5m
S8 Ep21: Coaching Cues
We are visiting the teaching points and cues that coaches use for various skills involved with basketball this week. How do our players learn, how can we get them to retain and implement information, and do we as coaches make it easy enough for them? The Luka Doncic link that Coops was talking about can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOFUREK_eW0
58m Oct 20, 2023
58m
S8 Ep20: The Top 10 Most Asked Questions
The Talking Split podcast is back and bringing the energy from the tip off! This week we discuss the 10 most asked questions at coaching courses that we hear and try and provide some answers or perspectives on them all. If you’ve got any questions you would like the team to answer, you can email them in, or defensive slide into the Talking Split DM’s on X or Instagram. The YouTube link that Co...
1hr 11m Oct 13, 2023
1hr 11m
S8 Ep19: Selection Trials
It’s that crazy time of year again, where we see masses of players attend trials for various teams around the state. They’re stressful times for players, families, coaches, and of course – our administrators! We unpack some of the important things to look at to make sure the process runs as smoothly as possible for everyone with some ideas to get the best outcome for everyone. Best of luck to e...
1hr 1m Sep 01, 2023
1hr 1m
S8 Ep18: Child Safe Standards
Joined by Basketball Victoria’s Child Safety Advisor Sarah Wolokh, so discuss how as coaches, we can make a safe and welcoming environment for all our children in the sport. We look at what best practice is, the things we need to be mindful of, and how coaches can protect themselves as well as the players. You can find the Child Safe Standards and Sarah’s contact details on the Basketball Victo...
43m Aug 25, 2023
43m
S8 Ep17: Coaching Mentor Programs
Joined this week by the “other” Australian Basketball Podcast host this week, in Game Development Manager for Basketball Australia, Neil Gray. Basketball Australia and Sport Australia have been working on a coach mentoring program to assist coaches in their support and development as a new coach into the sport. We talk about some of the successes, some of the challenges and where the program ca...
58m Aug 18, 2023
58m
S8 Ep16: Marty Handson Scholarship Pod
We have gone international this week, as we are joined by Siale Bain-Vete from Tonga, and Marlene Lumabi from Northern Mariana Islands, who are the recipients of the Marty Handson Scholarship. We recap their experiences in basketball, and what the whirlwind fortnight of coaching development looked like for them. The scholarship program was named after former head coach Marty Handson who passed...
1hr 7m Aug 11, 2023
1hr 7m
S8 Ep15: The End of Season Pod
We are coming to the end of another season for juniors and seniors, and we explore what coaches need to focus on if there are no finals on the cards for your team, but also what you can try if the post season is a possibility for your group. We discuss end of season breakups, coaches gifts, and Zoe drops her best Coach Beard impression!
58m Aug 04, 2023
58m
S8 Ep14: Coaching Applications
Seems like only yesterday that clubs were calling for coaching applications, but here we are again! We discuss how to work out which team to apply for, how to balance out your progression and what an interview might look like, and more importantly, how to be prepared for one!
1hr 6m Jul 27, 2023
1hr 6m
S8 Ep13: Coaches & Officials with Bill Mildenhall
Oil and Water, long two’s and winning games, referees and coaches. Some things just traditionally haven’t mixed well together over the years, so we dive a little bit deeper into how we can make a change as a coaching fraternity, to help bridge that gap. We are joined by the man that is widely regarded as the best official Australia has produced, and who has done more for officiating in the cou...
1hr 13m Jun 02, 2023
1hr 13m
S8 Ep12: Coach Expectations
Back again this week, where we get another of our volunteer coach shout outs (send those in if there is a coach you want to thank), and we discuss how we can look at recruiting, retaining and developing the coaches we have volunteering their time in the sport. Some advice for coaches on their behaviour and expectations, some advice for coordinators, some advice for parents, and some advice for ...
1hr 9m May 26, 2023
1hr 9m