Observations from Tasman Coaches Clinic

Respected international coach developer Chris Oliver was the keynote presenter at the 2020 Tasman Coaches Clinic in Albury, with more than 150 coaches taking the opportunity to observe a wide variety of decision making drills and concepts. Below are some observations from the 19th Tasman Clinic

Prompts in the gym – 

• “Hold” players stop immediately and then continue to from that point
• “Re-create” – start the action again

Progression in practice – 

• Teaching
• Connection
• Transfer

Practice methods – 

“I will eliminate anything in practice that doesn’t help our players get better”

Important to “eliminate the fluff”

“Perceptual information transfers better than biomechanics information” – concept of connection and transfer

Concept of the “cold call” in practice – ask the athletes question continually

Use of questioning – be OK with the silence before the athletes answer. Too many coaches answer their own question

“Constraints are things that frame learning”

Important to link everything on offence to the creation of a shot – encourage a “love of offence” in young players

Players do a good job of “memorising the pace the need to go at” – coach needs to impact the pace of practice

Developing skill is often about the elimination of things – one less dribble for example

Block drills – good for initial learning, building “comfort and confidence”

Decision making – 

On the creation of advantage – “can we leverage the advantage?”

Loading drills – add “desirable difficulty”

Make the athletes “perceptually aware of the opportunities and decisions”

“Me first for us” – Doug Novak on being a scorer first

Game is played on a “two count”

Key elements in creating an advantage – speed and space in gaining advantage

Pivoting – create space or an open window to create

Importance of two-way teaching to build decision making

Shell concepts – 3 team “switch” element to shell, where offence is out, defence to offence and new team in on defence – promotes communication

Learning – 

5 v 5 “slow learning” is better than 5 v 0 fast learning

Perception – action – coupling – learning methodology

Game repetitions in practice adds to your game coaching

Acknowledgements – 

Basketball Australia would like to acknowledge the following people and organisations for their support of this clinic –

• Australia Country Junior Basketball Cup Directors
• Chris Oliver – Basketball Immersion
• Tim Hill – FindMyCoach
• Coaches from Basketball Victoria, Basketball Tasmania, Basketball South Australia and Basketball NSW
• Clinic demonstrators from Basketball Victoria