Respected international coach and player development expert Chris Oliver recently did a series of coach development clinics around the country and continues to be a strong supporter in the development of Australian coaches at all levels.
As part of his tour of five Australian states and territories, Coach Oliver presented a clinic for the North Canberra club at the BA Centre of Excellence and presented on teaching method and coaching through a games approach. Below are some notes and reflections from the outstanding clinic.
- Player development is always about adding something to a skill or concept, sometimes it is about subtracting
- “Skill is the elimination of something, not just an addition” – example, eliminate a dribble
- Important for coaches at all levels to “maximise time on task”
- “Teach the drill before the skill” – provide context
- Teaching method – use single word prompts in your interventions – “hold, recreate or foul”
- Hold – players stop where they are with a view to continuing from that position after feedback or instruction
- Recreate – go back to start of phase and repeat after feedback
- Foul – stop, re-set after feedback
- Constantly connect skills with decisions – perceive, decide, execute
- Context – “remove the defence from a drill, remove the context”
- Positive reinforcement – “I can’t do this skill or concept YET”
- “Basketball decisions supersede basketball plays”
- Follow feedback with action
- To aid learning add “distracting information and visual stimulus”
- “Basketball is a game of opposites”
- Shot selection – “hope is not a strategy”
- Advantages –
- Big advantage
- Small advantage
- Neutral
- Teaching – have more “mini-conversations”, this will create trust
- Creating a safe learning environment – “what can you rephrase to create psychological safety?”
- Growth –
- You’re bad before you are OK
- You’re Ok before you are good
- You’re good before you are great
- Awareness as a coach – “be aware of the unintended consequences of how we coach kids”
- Learning – “learning is reaching beyond your current level”
- Data/research driven coaching – “analytics drive behaviours”
- Concept of retrieval practice to aid learning
- “You can be prescriptive in the chaos”
- Coaches need to provide permission and freedom in the practice setting
Clinic Acknowledgements –
- Chris Oliver – Basketball Immersion
- Tim Hill – FindMyCoach
- Norths Basketball Club (Canberra)
You can learn more about Chris’ approach by following him through his socials @bballimmersion on Twitter or @basketballimmersion on Instagram.
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