Mentoring

COE Womens Coach David Herbert: “One thing I have learned as a coach, and I stand by is the following statement. Once you realise you don’t know everything as a coach you will inevitably become a good coach. Seek knowledge, share knowledge and help grow and develop the game.”

Australian Coaching legend Carrie Graf, has coached at every level you can think of and has been both a mentor and a mentee. Hear her thoughts on how important it is.

Over 2023, supported by resources from Sport Australia, Basketball Australia Coaches are piloting a mentor program for a small amount of Community and Club Coaches in 2023.

Goal – Space for coaches to share, learn and encourage

Set up – 5 huddles of 3 coaches each. Coaches commit to 6 sessions over 8 months.

What can good mentoring achieve?

1. Improve the quality and confidence of the individual coaches
2. Improve the quality of coaching communities
3. Retain coaches in the game when they feel they are improving
4. To provide follow up after formal training courses

It is important to note that the pilot will operate as Educative Mentoring which position the mentor and mentees as co-learners within a collaborative relationships, emphasising reciprocal learning.

Mentoring has traditionally positioned the mentor as expert and mentee as novice, emphasising a one-way flow of information, where mentors offer generic strategies to help mentees in need. We are going to attempt to re-framing mentoring as an educative practice resulting in a move away from knowledge transmission towards a shared process of knowledge transformation.

Mentors would demonstrate a move towards collaborative knowledge sharing while encouraging mentees to challenge accepted norms and engage in critical reflection. Specifically, mentors would encourage an inquiry stance interrogating the why and how generating considerable learning opportunities for both mentor and mentee. The mentor would takes a stance of a learner, seeing him/herself not only as a holder of knowledge but also as a receiver.

Through mentoring, mentors will become exposed to several professional development opportunities, especially when they anticipate the reciprocal nature of learning through sharing experiences and reflective practice. For example, mentors can enhance their own self-development and awareness (e.g. increased confidence, responsibility, broadened perspectives), skill development (e.g. organisational, interpersonal) and career prospects. Specifically, encouraging mentees to reflect enables mentors to critically review their own practice and beliefs , which over time allows mentors to view themselves as co-learners.

Mentors

Aaron Sadler – Queensland

Andrew York – Western Australia

Jay Giameos – South Australia

Jacqui O’Neill – Victoria

Marcus Cusinato – Victoria

Mentees

Marty Pask – Victoria

Luke McComb – Victoria

Terrance Benade – Victoria

Andrew Harman – Victoria

Donna Groves – Victoria

Jules Borkowski – NSW

Mitch Brankenridge – NSW

Kenneth Ward – NSW

Simon Thomson – SA

Daniel Chen – Queensland

Dean Coran – Queensland

William Lewis – Queensland

Lorie Zahradnik – Queensland

Kelly Pages – Western Australia

Jakob Melton – Western Australia

Erica Ingham – Western Australia

For any enquiries regarding the above please email coaching@australia.basketball