Liam Jefferson is the Head Coach of the Oaklands Wolves Basketball Club in the U.K. He also serves as a coaching clinician for Transforming Basketball working camps and clinics all over the world teaching a conceptual style of play utilizing the Constraints-Led Approach and underpinned by ecological dynamics.
Liam previously served one season as the Head Coach of the London Lions in U.K. Prior to his time with the Lions he spent 11 years working for Loughborough Sport in various coaching positions at a variety of levels.
In the summer of 2023 Liam was an assistant coach with Great Britain U20 Men’s National Team in the FIBA European Championships Division B held in North Macedonia.
Follow us on social media @hoopheadspod on Twitter and Instagram and be sure to check out the Hoop Heads Podcast Network for more great basketball content.
Get ready to take some notes as you listen to this episode with Liam Jefferson, Head Coach of the Oaklands Wolves Basketball Club in the U.K.
Website – https://www.oaklandsbasketball.com/
Email – coach.jefferson11@gmail.com
Twitter/X - @coachljefferson
The Hoop Heads podcast is brought to you by head start basketball.
John Wilcomb:The growth that those players had had was huge because essentially what we are putting them in, utilizing those small sided games and the CLA is a representative environment in every single rep.
John Wilcomb:So everything that we're doing relates back to the game.
John Wilcomb:There's nothing where there isn't a decision, there's nothing where there isn't defense.
John Wilcomb:And just that sheer volume of work that we were putting in.
John Wilcomb:Their growth over that period of time was massive.
Liam Jefferson:Liam Jefferson is the head coach of the Oaklands Wolves basketball club in the UK.
Liam Jefferson:He also serves as a coaching clinician for transforming basketball working camps and clinics all over the world, teaching a conceptual style of play utilizing the constraints led approach and underpinned by ecological dynamics.
Liam Jefferson:Liam previously served one season as the head coach of the London Lions in the UK.
Liam Jefferson:Prior to his time with the Lions, he spent eleven years working for Lockboro Sport in various coaching positions at a variety of levels.
Liam Jefferson: In the summer of: Liam Jefferson:Hey hoop heads, I wanted to take.
Mike Clensing:A minute to shout out our partners and friends at doctor Dish basketball.
Mike Clensing:Their doctor dish shooting machines are undoubtedly the most advanced and user friendly machines on the market.
Mike Clensing:Learn more@drdishbasketball.com and follow their incredible content at drdishbeball on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
Mike Clensing:Mention the Hoop Heads podcast and save an extra $300 on the Doctor Dish.
Liam Jefferson:Rebel all star and ct models.
Liam Jefferson:Visit drdishbasketball.com for details.
Liam Jefferson:That's a great deal, hoop heads.
Liam Jefferson:Get your doctor Dish shooting machine today.
John Wilcomb:Hi, this is John Wilcomb, author of.
Liam Jefferson:No fear in the arena, and you're listening to the Hoop Heads podcast.
Mike Clensing:Prepare like the pros with the all new fast draw and Fast Scout.
Mike Clensing:Fast draw has been the number one play diagramming software for coaches for years.
Mike Clensing:You'll quickly see why fast model sports has the most compelling and intuitive basketball software out there.
Mike Clensing:For a limited time, Fastmodel is offering new subscribers 10% off fast draw and fast scout.
Mike Clensing:Just use the code, save ten at checkout to grab your discount and you'll be on your way to more efficient game prep and improve communication with your team.
Mike Clensing:Fastmodel also has new coaching content every week on its blog, plus play and drill diagrams on its playback.
Mike Clensing:Check out the links in the show notes for more fast model sports is the best in basketball.
Liam Jefferson:Get ready to take some notes as you listen to this episode with Liam Jefferson, head coach of the Oaklands Wolves basketball Club in the United Kingdom.
Liam Jefferson:Hello and welcome to the Hoop Eds podcast.
Liam Jefferson:It's Mike Clensing here with my co host Jason Sunkel tonight.
Liam Jefferson:And we are pleased to be joined by Liam Jefferson, head coach of the Oakland Wolves across the pond in England.
Liam Jefferson:Liam, welcome to the hooped spot, man.
John Wilcomb:Appreciate you guys having me on.
John Wilcomb:I know we've been looking at trying to do this for a little while now.
John Wilcomb:It's a pleasure to be able to join the both of you and looking forward to talking tonight about some of, some of what we've got going over, over the pond in England, but also just hoops in general.
Liam Jefferson:Liam is putting us to shame.
Liam Jefferson: It's: Liam Jefferson:where he is.
Liam Jefferson:So even by Jason and I standards, he is staying up really late.
Liam Jefferson:So we really appreciate that.
Liam Jefferson:Liam, let's start by going back in time to when you were a kid.
Liam Jefferson:Tell me a little bit about some of your first experiences with the game growing up in England.
John Wilcomb:Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's not a traditional sport in England in, in the slightest.
John Wilcomb:I actually started playing the game when my, my parents bought me a basketball at eight years old.
John Wilcomb:And that was kind of my first interaction with it, playing out in the, out in the garden with a hoop and a ball and just trying to explore this new world.
John Wilcomb:I ended up playing, fortunately, junior hoops for a good ten years in this country, which took me and led me to university at Sheffield Hallam University, where I studied for three or four years.
John Wilcomb:But I always kind of had a calling for coaching whilst I was playing.
John Wilcomb:So I, very young age realized that just because of the opportunities that didn't present themselves in this country, that I kind of had to create some of them myself.
John Wilcomb: So as a: John Wilcomb:And got involved with coaching and leading that, that way.
John Wilcomb:And then when I moved on to high school per se as it would be in the US, I had a teacher there called John Heathcote who introduced me to sports leadership and a sports leadership qualification where I would essentially volunteer and get involved in supporting coaching at the high school.
John Wilcomb:And that's what's kind of led me down this path to coaching.
John Wilcomb:So it all started with a ball and a hoop in a garden at eight years old, and here I am at 27 years later and starting to make a career for it in the coaching space.
Liam Jefferson:As you were playing, what does coaching hold for you?
Liam Jefferson:In other words, what made coaching interesting to you while you were still playing?
Liam Jefferson:What about that aspect of it sort of attracted you to say, hey, maybe when I'm done playing, maybe coaching is the way that I want to go?
John Wilcomb:It's such a great question.
John Wilcomb:It's one that's evolved over time and I think at first it was that real desire to be able to impact every part of the game as a coach.
John Wilcomb:So as a young coach, I really enjoyed the control that I got from coaching and I felt like I could impact offense and defense and areas of the game that perhaps I couldn't do when I was a player.
John Wilcomb:But actually, the longer and the deeper I've gone into my coaching career, which is still relatively early in normal terms, I've actually realized that I need to strip back some of that control and actually it's about me handing over control to the players.
John Wilcomb:And so that's been a real interesting change just in my philosophy from being a young coach and then transitioning now into a coach, you start and to just understand a little bit more of myself and how I want to coach and what my environment needs to look like.
Liam Jefferson:Talk to me a little bit about the difference between when you first started and you're working with players who are very, very young versus the players who are a little bit older and more developed that you work with now.
Liam Jefferson:How do you kind of compare or look at maybe how you coached when you first started to how you're coaching now?
John Wilcomb:Yeah, I mean, when, when I first got involved in coaching and sports leadership, as the, as it was termed over here in the UK, the biggest thing is just about making the environment fun and enjoyable for anybody that wants to come and try the game of basketball.
John Wilcomb:And that's something that's kind of stuck with me throughout my career.
John Wilcomb:It's one of my five core values as a coach is still to have joy in everything that we do because all of us, fortunately, are able to work within and have involvement in a game.
John Wilcomb:It's not life or death.
John Wilcomb:It's a game that we all have this passion for and at the root of it needs to be fun and enjoyment.
John Wilcomb:And that's something that has really gone through my coaching career from that youth age all the way up to now, working with elite academy age players and senior men.
John Wilcomb:So that's probably the biggest piece for me.
John Wilcomb:Yeah, for sure.
Liam Jefferson:When you think back to getting your start and you jump on and begin working with the players, that you had an opportunity to coach, what were some of the things that initially right out of the gate that you were pretty good at as a coach that you felt confident, hey, I know what im doing here.
Liam Jefferson:And then well kind of ask the reverse question of what were some areas where you feel like over the course of time that youve really improved now?
Liam Jefferson:But lets start with what you were good at kind of naturally out of the gate.
John Wilcomb:Yeah, I mean we'll strip it right back to where I would say I first started my coaching career and that was at Loughborough University in just outside of Leicester, which is where I grew up.
John Wilcomb:I graduated Sheffield Hallam and went back home as some kids do and was lucky enough to be able to reach out to the school and get what was at the time a volunteer assistant coaching position.
John Wilcomb:I ended up actually spending twelve years there, which was a great time working with some real great coaches.
John Wilcomb:But at first I was volunteering whilst working full time in another role as a lot of coaches do that are looking to try and get their break in the industry at first and I was 21, 22 years old, but having just finished my playing career, the biggest thing for me was the ability to relate to the players and what they were going through and actually being able to be that go between, between the head coach, the players, the other assistant coaches.
John Wilcomb:As someone who was relatively new to the sector and to the profession, and again, that's something that the older you get, I think it's harder to continue to relate to players.
John Wilcomb: ademy side of the program are: John Wilcomb:The older I get to continue to be able to relate to them.
John Wilcomb:But again, it has to form part of my core values as a coach and that's that I want to be player focused.
John Wilcomb:Not player centered, but player focused.
John Wilcomb:So every decision that I'm making has the players, their development and their direction at the heart of it.
John Wilcomb:And so it's something that I think at the start of my to kind of answer both questions in one at the start of my coaching career, it was one where I felt like that was a skill set for me and that was a strength.
John Wilcomb:And then as we've developed over time, it's become more and more of a challenge to continually relate to players, especially in this social media age as well.
Liam Jefferson:But when you talk about relating to players, explain to me a little bit about how that connection is made and where you think as you get older, because I can completely relate so I'll give you a story, Liam.
Liam Jefferson:When I was a young teacher, and so I'm talking my first or second year teaching, I was probably 24 or 25 years old, maybe.
Liam Jefferson:And I had my students who were in at that time, I was teaching third grade, so those kids were maybe eight going on nine.
Liam Jefferson:And I remember that they would be singing songs, and I would sing the lyrics right along with them.
Liam Jefferson:And I can still remember I had two girls that they were lining up to leave the classroom, and they were singing this song, and I started singing it with them.
Liam Jefferson:And I still can remember their faces.
Liam Jefferson:Like, they looked up at me like, mister cleansing, like, how do you, how do you know these, how do you know those songs?
Liam Jefferson:They were just, and to your point, that was a connection that I made with those two kids that probably there was no other way I could have sort of looked cool in their eyes and been a way for me to relate to them.
Liam Jefferson:And then obviously now Im 54, and I go and I dont know any of the music that the kids that Im teaching are listening to.
Liam Jefferson:And so I think from your perspective and what youre saying, I can completely relate to it.
Liam Jefferson:So how do you, what do you do to try to stay connected to them?
Liam Jefferson:How do you go about trying to learn more about social media?
Liam Jefferson:Do you have a process or just, is it something that youre just continuously trying to look for opportunities to connect with them, look for opportunities to learn more kind of, about the culture that they're living in?
Liam Jefferson:How do you approach that side of it?
John Wilcomb:Yeah, I mean, you have to be able to appreciate, like, the majority of the academy age athletes that I'm working with at the moment, and everybody that I was working with when I was at Loughborough University, they are student athletes, and there's a real demand on them as both a student and an athlete.
John Wilcomb:And when you sat in class all day long, the last thing that they want to do when they get to basketball practice or to the game or to traveling with the team is to have some sort of formal sit down with me so that I can understand them and learn a little bit more about them.
John Wilcomb:So a lot of what I try to do with players just to stay current and connected and relevant to them is just those off the cuff moments and conversations and check inside.
John Wilcomb:And I would try and have a check in with every single player every two or three days, and even little bits as to, like, when they're stretching or when they're in the warm up at the start of practice, just asking them questions about their life, about their background, about their family, checking in to see how are mom and dad doing, are they dealing okay with you not being at home?
John Wilcomb:And just little questions like that allow me to continue to build a those relationships with them so that I can understand where they're at at this point in time and what is it I need to be able to do to help them.
John Wilcomb:And we'll still do some formal work where we'll be in a classroom as a team and we start to look at that and we do what we call hot seat, where, and we've just started it with the new group this year where we put a seat at the front of the classroom.
John Wilcomb:Once we finish with film and each of the players takes it in turns to sit on the hot seat for five minutes.
John Wilcomb:And the rest of the team and the coaches and the staff and everybody in the room, we can ask any questions within reason, but we can ask any questions that we want to know about that individual athlete.
John Wilcomb:And you'd be amazed how much some of them are willing to share in an environment that feels very safe to them around their peers and around others that they're going to battle with on a daily basis.
John Wilcomb:And we found little things like that have allowed us to get a snapshot into their world and that helps me to then navigate their world as much as my own as well.
Liam Jefferson:Do the coaches go first on the hot seat?
John Wilcomb:So we were going to, I wasn't expecting anybody to step forward.
John Wilcomb: use that's awesome already at: John Wilcomb:And we had some of our senior men in the room as well.
John Wilcomb:And actually it was the academy age athletes that were stepping forward before the senior men to be like, yeah, I'd love to do that.
John Wilcomb:I'd love to jump on the hot seat and, and almost get grilled by my teammates.
John Wilcomb:And they're, for me, they're the pieces that the players remember afterwards is those conversations on the bus ride.
John Wilcomb:It's the what were you doing when you arrived at the game?
John Wilcomb: They're not remembering in: John Wilcomb:They'll remember, yeah, if we won something and if we had a deep tournament run, but they'll remember those moments and the relationships that they build with their teammates.
John Wilcomb:And so we really try and prioritize those, especially so early on in the preseason, but also so early on in my tenure as head coach at Oaklands is only being two months into it now.
John Wilcomb:Is we have to all get on the same page and that's one of the ways that we try to do that.
Liam Jefferson:Tell us a little bit about just the setup for a basketball club like the Wolves, in terms of the age group, teams, the progression from one level to another, kind of what your role is, overseeing that whole thing.
Liam Jefferson:Just for those of us who maybe aren't as familiar with how the setup is for an english basketball club, what does that look like and what then your role as the head coach?
John Wilcomb:Yeah.
John Wilcomb:So it's very different in Europe as it is in the US.
John Wilcomb:So for us in the UK, we have the professional league, which is just rebranded to Super League basketball, and within that are ten Super League teams.
John Wilcomb:Then beneath that you have a national league pyramid, so that league is franchised and then beneath that are four tiers of leagues that have promotion and relegation within them.
John Wilcomb:Now, a lot of those clubs, ours being one of them, that sit within that pyramid structure, will have a academy attached and junior club attached.
John Wilcomb:So theoretically, a player could join our club at U twelve and stay with us all the way through to being a senior men's player.
John Wilcomb:Some other clubs within the UK will also have a university partner attached to them.
John Wilcomb:So whereas in the US, you're bound by NCAA regulations and are you an amateur or a professional?
John Wilcomb:You could be a professional athlete in the UK while still getting full education and work your way up from juniors all the way up to senior men's.
John Wilcomb:So for us at Oakland's Wolves, we have both a senior men's and senior women's team.
John Wilcomb:Then beneath that, an academy team, which is 16 to 19.
John Wilcomb:We don't actually have a university partner at the moment.
John Wilcomb:So a lot of our athletes will go elsewhere once they graduate from the academy at 19.
John Wilcomb:But beneath that we have U 16, U 14, U twelve, and then mini ballers, which is where under ten, they're coming in and they're just having fun with the game of basketball and building that relationship with the game.
John Wilcomb:And my role as head coach is to have oversight of the entire men's side of the program.
John Wilcomb:And then my equivalent is a coach, a really good friend of mine called Lee Ryan, who has oversight over the women's side.
John Wilcomb:So we are both the head coaches of the senior teams.
John Wilcomb:We have interaction and head coach the academy teams and then we set the philosophy and direction, or the junior clubs that sit within that.
John Wilcomb:And that's something new that we've introduced this year to the Wolves.
John Wilcomb:And so we've spent the summer developing a culture and a philosophy that we expect as like our overarching, almost code of conduct for all of our players and coaches that are within our program.
John Wilcomb:But now we have one consistent philosophy that runs from senior men's all the way down to under twelve.
John Wilcomb:So you could walk into any session within our club and you're going to hear the same language, you're going to see coaches using similar activities and small sided games, similar concepts.
John Wilcomb:And the great thing about that is, and we're starting to see it already, is some of those 12, 13, 14 year olds within our club that are coming to watch our senior men play on a weekend are seeing and hearing the same things in the games that they're working on on a weekly basis, in their own practices and in their own games.
John Wilcomb:And that's been really, really powerful for developing that kind of one club and one club feel around what we're trying to achieve.
Liam Jefferson:When you come in as the head coach, is the staff already in place?
Liam Jefferson:Do you have some say in who is the head coach of those other levels or just how does the staff get put together after you're in place?
John Wilcomb:Yeah, it's a good one.
John Wilcomb:A lot of our staff are volunteers, so we're working within the local community, whether that be parents, whether that be young coaches that are graduating from nearby universities that are looking for opportunities to step into the game, but we are, we're always up against it.
John Wilcomb:Those coaches within our program for where we're at right now are always giving back to the community.
John Wilcomb:So I'll be honest, like a lot of the time we'll take anybody that we can get and we'll try and work with them to help develop them as coaches.
John Wilcomb:So a lot of the time it's the first step on the ladder for them or it's they're coming back to the game later in life after they've had kids and they have a little bit more free time to get back involved in the game.
John Wilcomb:And that, that's a challenge.
John Wilcomb:But that's also part of my role as head coach and having oversight of the program is how do I work with those coaches to upskill them and develop them so that they're in turn passing that on to the players that we have within our program.
John Wilcomb:But also bearing in mind that a lot of these coaches will have full time jobs, they'll have family, they'll have a social life and they'll have other demands that they've got to balance.
John Wilcomb:So whilst this is a full time role for me and it's my passion and I can be up at 130 in the morning, doing a podcast and talking about what I do, not everybody else can give it that same amount of time.
John Wilcomb:And so that's why for us, it's been great to introduce a consistent style of playing philosophy throughout.
John Wilcomb:Because anytime we do get together as a group of coaches, which we do once a month for 2 hours on a Thursday evening, is we're then sharing ways to help enhance our entire program and not just one team within it.
Liam Jefferson:So in terms of the training for those coaches who are coming in, who are volunteering, who are the people that you just described, so you have the monthly meetings on Thursdays in order to, again, share the culture, to be able to get the common vocabulary so that there's that continuity between levels.
Liam Jefferson:Are you getting out on the court with them and running, for lack of a better way of saying it, coaching clinics or again, what other ways besides those Thursday meetings do you have of showing the coaches what it looks like in terms of, hey, this is how we teach this particular concept, or here's a way that you can institute this that we're trying to do with our senior team.
Liam Jefferson:Just how does it work in terms of trying to make sure, again with the limited time and resources to be able to get that philosophy to those coaches so that they can better teach and coach the athletes that they're working with all the time?
John Wilcomb:Yeah, it's twofold for us.
John Wilcomb:So each of those age group teams gets one session a week with me on court, and they're primarily around skills and concepts and not delivered as a team practice.
John Wilcomb:So for an hour, an hour, 30 a week, they will get some sort of time with me where I'm leading the session and those coaches are supporting and understanding what it is that we're doing and how it fits into our bigger picture.
John Wilcomb:The hope is that by the end of the season, that's much more of a dual delivery between me and the head coach of each of the relevant age groups within our program.
John Wilcomb:But then the other piece that we are doing is I was very fortunate last year to have a role within the academy at London Lions, working with Alex Saranga and will Twig, who I know both have been on the pod.
John Wilcomb:And Alex obviously is the founder of transforming Basketball.
John Wilcomb:And a lot of what we're trying to achieve with Oakland is very, very aligned to transforming and the work that we did at London Lions last year and the philosophy and direction that Alex is taking transforming basketball.
John Wilcomb:And so we found a way for all of our coaches to become members of transforming basketball.
John Wilcomb:And that's huge for their own development because they have access to the membership and the platform, all of the small sided games, the drill library that exists within there, that they're seeing and hearing it in various different places.
John Wilcomb:Our coach development meetings that we have in the conversations that they're having between practices with the other coaches in the sessions where I'm on court leading, and then in their own time, when they're able to review all of the content that sits on the transforming basketball podcast and platform.
Liam Jefferson:That makes a lot of sense.
Liam Jefferson:Again there.
Liam Jefferson:Get an opportunity to work hand in hand with you, start to slowly take over.
Liam Jefferson:They get some homework assignments, for lack of a better way of saying it, to be able to go and study some of the stuff that you guys were doing with transforming basketball.
Liam Jefferson:Let's work backwards.
Liam Jefferson:Tell me how you first got connected to Alex and transforming basketball and then how you developed that relationship.
John Wilcomb:Yeah, so I, as I was saying before, spent twelve years coaching at Loughborough University, which is the number one university in the UK for sport, and for the last six or seven years has been the number one university for basketball in the UK.
John Wilcomb:And I was very lucky that my time at Loughborough, we won four national championships.
John Wilcomb:We won an almost a national invitational tournament championship as well, where I was head coaching.
John Wilcomb:And I had a great time there.
John Wilcomb:But as I was saying earlier on in our conversation, that role was voluntary and then it gradually developed into a part time role.
John Wilcomb:So I had a full time job the whole time that I was there.
John Wilcomb:And the last two or three years that I spent at Loughborough, I was starting to get to that point where I think many coaches do, whether they're, am I going to go all in on this, or am I going to continue to hold down a full time job and just enjoy the opportunities to coach that I get in my free time and build it around.
John Wilcomb:And my partner at the time had moved down to London and she was working on the staff at the London Lions professional women's team.
John Wilcomb:And I just started to have a couple of conversations with the staff down there around, hey, look, I'm thinking about stepping into this world full time and wanting to coach full time and any opportunities that present themselves.
John Wilcomb:I would love to get involved.
John Wilcomb:And I was very fortunate that Vanya Cernovich, who was the women's GM at the time and also had responsibility for the academy, reached out and said, we're bringing in a couple of coaches, we're going to bring in Alex Arama, and we want to do something very different with an academy structure in the UK, that's never been done before.
John Wilcomb:And so I kind of jumped all in and went for it, left my role, moved from the middle of the country to down south to the capital, and was living in London for the first time.
John Wilcomb:And it was great for me to be able to spend such quality time around such like minded coaches.
John Wilcomb:And I likened it to almost going to basketball coaching university, just being able to be around coaches that are utilizing the CLA and practice, but wired in the same way for continuous growth, and spending a lot of time talking to Alex, soaking up his knowledge, and almost co creating some of the content that I'm now able to use at oaklands, because a lot of it was founded in what we were trying to achieve at the London line.
Liam Jefferson:Tell me what it is about the CLA that got you to believe that it was the best way, or it is the best way, to be able to teach the game, to be able to impact players from a development standpoint.
Liam Jefferson:As you got introduced to it, as you started to study it more deeply, as you started to really get into it, what part of it did you feel like, hey, there is no question in my mind that this is the direction that basketball is going to be going.
John Wilcomb:Yeah, I've always said to Alex, I think I started out when I was a young coach, very traditional, and towards the end of my time at Loughborough, I was becoming much more of a games based coach, and I was using constraints without really understanding how and why I was using them.
John Wilcomb:And then in the first conversation that I sat down with Alex and he started to share some of the CLA, and a lot of time coaches can be put off by the sciencey terminology that's flying at you, and understanding what ecological dynamics is, and what an affordance is, and what perception action coupling is.
John Wilcomb:And all these different words and terminologies were flying at me and I was like, whoa, this, this is a.
John Wilcomb:A completely different world.
John Wilcomb:And I don't think I'm ready to understand it, I don't think I'm ready to unpack it.
John Wilcomb:But then, actually, once we started to get onto the floor and we were able to work with the athletes that we had, and for those that don't understand, the kind of demographic that we have in London is very different from a player's perspective.
John Wilcomb:Players are very often longer, taller, more athletic, but oftentimes the level of coaching that they receive in the inner city areas isn't up to scratch.
John Wilcomb:And I think from day one of having our kids at London Lions academy, just seeing how much more.
John Wilcomb:Utilizing the CLA and very intentional constraints in our practice environment enhanced development within four weeks.
John Wilcomb:The growth that those players had had was huge, because essentially what we are putting them in, utilizing those small sided games, and the CLA is a representative environment in every single rep.
John Wilcomb:So everything that we're doing relates back to the game.
John Wilcomb:There's nothing where there isn't a decision, there's nothing where there isn't defense.
John Wilcomb:And just that sheer volume of work that we were putting in that growth over that period of time was massive.
John Wilcomb:And if you were to look at where the team was, when we went to our first international tournament, we went to Poland, we played four games.
John Wilcomb:We won one, but the three that we lost, we lost by 50 points because we were just so far behind some of these other european teams that had been in that culture and that system for so long.
John Wilcomb:But by the time we finished our final window within that tournament, we were winning all four games.
John Wilcomb:And players all of a sudden were aware of the environment around them.
John Wilcomb:We were playing conceptually, so they were aware of the affordances that were presenting themselves with playing through triggers, looking at coverage solutions.
John Wilcomb:And it was the CLA, and I would hang my hat on it.
John Wilcomb:It was the CLA that got us to that point because of how intentional our practice environment was for the players.
John Wilcomb:Right.
Liam Jefferson:So talk about that intentionality in terms of your process for planning.
Liam Jefferson:Let's say an individual skill development session where you're working with a team, but you're working on their individual skills, and then also translate that maybe to what it looks like when you're planning a practice for that's more team based, like with, again, as the head coach.
Liam Jefferson:So the planning process for a player development style practice, and then the planning process for more of a team setting of a practice.
Liam Jefferson:And I think what I'm getting at here is this is something that I talked with Alex about.
Liam Jefferson:I talked about it with Twig as well, is the amount of time that goes into thinking about designing, planning the practice.
Liam Jefferson:And then once you get into the practice, everything has been designed and you're facilitating what's happening.
Liam Jefferson:But just tell us about the planning process and how you go through that.
John Wilcomb:Yeah, so it starts with identifying what within the theory and the literature is called a rate limiter.
John Wilcomb:So identifying within your team, what is it that's holding us back?
John Wilcomb:And that can be individually and on a team basis.
John Wilcomb:So what is the area that we need to work on?
John Wilcomb:What's stopping us from getting to the ultimate potential that we think we have or that individual we think that they have.
John Wilcomb:And so those rate limiters will then inform what it is that we need to work on in practice.
John Wilcomb:And I think the biggest thing for the CLA, and at least with practice design as well, is it's allowed me to be so much more creative as a coach because I'm identifying a problem and then coming up with a small side of game and the constraints that I think will work to solve that problem.
John Wilcomb:Problem.
John Wilcomb:Not utilizing a bank of ten to 15 drills that I would use every single practice, but try and give them a different focus when they may not present the affordances and the opportunities for action that we would want to see.
John Wilcomb:So identifying those rate limiters is, I would say, even more crucial for the individual skill development sessions.
John Wilcomb:The piece with the, and this is where sometimes it gets misunderstood with the CLA is because we are saying that there must always be a decision and there must always be a defense, that everything is always at 100% or that everything is always completely random, and that's just not the case.
John Wilcomb:And so a lot of the time in my individual skill development sessions that I'm planning out, will use a menu of opportunities to get to a certain affordance.
John Wilcomb:So we could constrain defense that they've got to give three different reads for an offense.
John Wilcomb:So the easiest one to talk about is the Nash dribble.
John Wilcomb:So when you're attacking the basket and the lanes cut off at last moment, you want to keep your dribble alive and Nash dribble from one, one side of the paint to the other side of the paint under the basket.
John Wilcomb:And you can easily constrain offense to be on the free point line defense to give three different reads.
John Wilcomb:So one, I have to give an open layup straight away.
John Wilcomb:The second one is as they Nash dribble round, I'm going to jump I side to force them to reverse pivot and finish at the rim.
John Wilcomb:The third one is that I'm going to chase them on that Nash dribble to force them to finish at the front of the rim.
John Wilcomb:But we can say to that individual athlete, in this small sided game, you have to give option a, B and C, but in a random order so that the offense doesn't know what's coming.
John Wilcomb:And that's one way that we can introduce constraints in a small side of gaming practice to get to a very specific and intentional outcome within the team environment.
John Wilcomb:It's a lot more around constraining space time, the rules, the defense, and for me, the very common kind of coaching framework is plan do review.
John Wilcomb:And I think when you're utilizing the constraints approach, you can plan for the small sided games that you want to deliver and look at these are the individual constraints that I actually want to implement in order to get me to where we need to get to and for the players to perceive a certain affordance, a certain opportunity for action.
John Wilcomb:But that plan do review needs to be constantly happening once you're in the practice.
John Wilcomb:So I actually listened to the episode where you spoke with Alex and you were talking about a lot of the coaches work will happen in that planning phase and developing the practice plan and the small sided games and the constraints that you want to introduce that then in practice it's more of taking a step back.
John Wilcomb:But for me it's not just taking that step back.
John Wilcomb:It's constantly reviewing.
John Wilcomb:Are we achieving and being very intentional, are we achieving the outcomes that we want within this four sided game?
John Wilcomb:Because if not, I probably need to look at how do I change the constraints to continue to get us to where we need to get.
Liam Jefferson:So does that planning process, how does it change?
Liam Jefferson:So for example, right now you're new, right?
Liam Jefferson:You haven't coached the team in any games.
Liam Jefferson:Obviously you can go back and watch film on the players and the teams, but once you get into the season and you have film from your actual team, how does the process work for you?
Liam Jefferson:Like right now when you haven't seen the team play a game versus once you get into the season and they've started playing games and then you can sort of evaluate what you see them doing in the course of an actual competition versus now you're kind of seeing what they can do in practice and in workouts and that kind of thing?
Liam Jefferson:I don't know if that question makes sense, but just what's the difference between sort of the preseason planning process and what you might do in season, like what you did last year with the Lions?
John Wilcomb:Yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense.
John Wilcomb:So for me, I mean, we're very lucky.
John Wilcomb:Within two weeks of preseason, we were straight into preseason games.
John Wilcomb:So I was able to get a lot of intel and information straight away from, from those early games.
John Wilcomb:So we're already five games into our preseason schedule with our first official game coming this Sunday.
John Wilcomb:But at least for the start of that process, for the first week or two, practices revolved heavily just around our offensive and defensive principles.
John Wilcomb:So we're very clear and again, heavily aligned with transforming basketball principles around for us on the offensive end, we're going to play conceptually and everything is about us creating some form of advantage, whether that be spatial, whether that be match up, whether that be numbers.
John Wilcomb:And in order to do that, we have three very clear rules.
John Wilcomb:So zero second decisions, one count guard two and then into an outer space on the offensive end.
John Wilcomb:On the defensive end, we're no strong, so a force weak or a lock left, if you will, but no strong is our terminology.
John Wilcomb:We want to send teams so they're weak hand.
John Wilcomb:We want to shrink in the gaps almost like a pack line.
John Wilcomb:And so those principles formed very much the first two weeks and we didn't deviate or explore anything further from there.
John Wilcomb:So that going into our first game, that was then the barometer for me as to where we were up to now.
John Wilcomb:As we start to build, we're introducing some of our triggers, we're introducing some of our coverage solutions.
John Wilcomb:And it's great because in practice I can constrain the defense for different coverages.
John Wilcomb:So I'm teaching the coverage at the same time as exploring the coverage solutions, which is allowing us to build both our offensive and defensive principles at the same time.
John Wilcomb:But I would say the first two weeks of practice for us were very heavily principle based and we didn't really get into anything other than the outline for those.
Liam Jefferson:Hey coaches, we know you're invested in the next generation of athletes, so why not give them the star treatment this season with game changer, a free app that provides you with the tools to help your players improve.
Liam Jefferson:Review game film, game stats, and cumulative season statistics with your team to keep players motivated all season long.
Liam Jefferson:Live stream your games for free and enjoy automatic highlight clips.
Liam Jefferson:Download game changer now on iOS or Android.
Liam Jefferson:Game changer equips your team with the tools they need to stay engaged.
Liam Jefferson:Download it today and make this season one for the books.
Liam Jefferson:Game changer stream score connect.
Liam Jefferson:Learn more@gc.com hoopheads that's gc.com hoopheads.
Liam Jefferson:As you design the different drills, the constraints that you're going to put in place with your team go into a little bit more detail about the evaluation process of what's working, maybe what's not working as well as you thought it might.
Liam Jefferson:How do you evaluate the success or failure of a particular drill, for lack of a better way of saying, but a particular constraint, a particular way of teaching something?
Liam Jefferson:What's your process for evaluating how and how well it's working?
John Wilcomb:Yeah, so we have a couple of ways that we're using as a staff this year.
John Wilcomb:The first one is just regular and quick debriefs after practice as a staff for us all to get together and just quickly hot review in a ten or 15 minutes period, each of the small sided games that we've delivered, has it got to the outcome that we wanted?
John Wilcomb:We then track all of that on an Excel spreadsheet, on a Google spreadsheet that lists and it goes for about 200 rows, this spreadsheet.
John Wilcomb:But every term that we have, every concept that we have, everything that we do on the offensive and defensive end is listed on there, and then we rag rate it.
John Wilcomb:So read Ambergris.
John Wilcomb:And it's very much just that the eye test for us as to is this something that we feel like at this stage of the season we're happy with and it'll be green.
John Wilcomb:Is it something that we continue to work on because we're not quite there yet, we rate it as Amber, or is it something that we're still really struggling with and we wait.
John Wilcomb:We would rate it as red.
John Wilcomb:And also on that spreadsheet for us is each of the different weeks within our season and when we're going to add something, when we're going to revisit something and that becomes almost an organic document.
John Wilcomb:So for us as a staff will quickly get together at the end of practice.
John Wilcomb:Quick debrief.
John Wilcomb:Hey, we did a small sided game today looking at how do we punish the switch in the pick and roll, and we looked at it two on two and then we built it to three on three.
John Wilcomb:How did that achieve the aims that we wanted to then at the end of that practice, once we've had that debrief, that review, I would sit and just quickly add a note to that spreadsheet and change the color if we needed it to be changed.
John Wilcomb:And then that allows us, when we're again going back to that practice planning process, to check in on all of those different conversations that we've had to make sure that we're always coming back to, how can we improve?
John Wilcomb:How can we get better?
John Wilcomb:The other way that we would do it is, and this is something that I picked up from Alex, is I'll now film every single practice and I do it on an iPhone that has no sIm card in it, that I stick on a tripod from Amazon that cost me 20 pounds.
John Wilcomb:And at the end of every practice, I wipe the iPhone again.
John Wilcomb:I upload the video to my laptop and then I wipe it again.
John Wilcomb:And I'm filming every single practice using equipment that probably cost me 50 pounds total.
John Wilcomb:But what that allows me to do is to go back as we're planning that process so we did the hot review.
John Wilcomb:Now I can go back to it, remove the emotion from it and have the eye test with no emotion and see, actually that small sided game achieved what we wanted to achieve.
John Wilcomb:And I think the big thing with the CLA and with small sided games when you're using them in practice is you have to not be striving for perfection because it isn't going to look perfect.
John Wilcomb:And so oftentimes when I go back and review the video in the moment and in the practice, all coaches have been there, you look at the small side of game, you look at what the players are doing in front of you and you think, oh, my goodness, this isn't what I wanted to achieve.
John Wilcomb:We're getting nowhere near what I wanted to do.
John Wilcomb:The affordances that I wanted to present themselves aren't happening.
John Wilcomb:But then when you go back and watch the video, you actually go, you know what?
John Wilcomb:This looks like the game.
John Wilcomb:This looks like the situations that they will see in game.
John Wilcomb:It's not a perfect pick and roll, but how often do we get a perfect pick and roll in practice?
John Wilcomb:And so that video for me has been really, really powerful to just go back and revisit where are we at and get that sense checked to then identify what our rate limiters will be going into the next week of practice.
John Wilcomb:What do we need to work on?
Liam Jefferson:Are you spending as much time reviewing that film as you are actually doing the live practice?
John Wilcomb:Probably at this stage of the season, yes.
John Wilcomb:And that's where at this stage of the season, I don't have film on other teams and anybody else.
John Wilcomb:And also with me being so new into my role, two months into me being in this role, I'm trying to get as much information as on my own team and the guys that I have as I possibly can do.
John Wilcomb:And so, yeah, I'm probably like, if we're on court for an hour 30, I'm probably watching back that whole hour 30, practice again the next day before planning the next one.
Liam Jefferson:How many of your current guys were familiar with the CLA and this methodology of coaching prior to your arrival?
John Wilcomb:So we have 17 players within our elite academy team, so the 16 to 19 team, and then we have at the moment, four senior men.
John Wilcomb:We're working on trying to sign a couple more as we get towards the first game.
John Wilcomb:So you're looking at around 23, 24 players that are within our program, and only two of them have had a, some form of interaction with the CLA before.
John Wilcomb:And they were two of the academy players that came over from London Lions with me.
John Wilcomb:And it's interesting because the feedback from the players is that they just enjoy practice so much more.
John Wilcomb:At the end of the day, players want to play, and our job as coaches is to put them in those situations that they can play and they can have that enjoyment, but they're also growing and developing at the same time.
John Wilcomb:And sometimes when we've all been guilty of it, myself included, when you strip things back and you go one on zero or two on zero, or it's five on zero reps, and it doesn't look and feel like the game, and it becomes very repetitive and very monotonous.
John Wilcomb:And players feedback has been how different utilizing the CLA and small sided games is to a traditional practice and that they enjoy coming to practice and sometimes now my job is actually to.
John Wilcomb:To hold them back and to say, okay, guys, today we're going to have a low intensity day.
John Wilcomb:So yes, we're going to use some of the small sided games, but it's going to look like the menu of opportunity small sided game that I was explaining before.
John Wilcomb:So actually, I want you to dial it back a little bit, but still give a decision, because they're just wanting to compete more and more and more.
John Wilcomb:And I think that the beauty of it is as well, that because it is so game like and because we are very intentional with what we're trying to achieve, the players pick up a lot of similarities, so they start to understand the why behind it as much as we do as coaches trying to deliver it.
Liam Jefferson:Players or coaches who maybe aren't as familiar with the claenae, how do you balance out the competitive nature of a small sided game?
Liam Jefferson:Because I think when I first initially heard, okay, constraints.
Liam Jefferson:When I think of constraints before I kind of learned the science behind it and figured this out, my initial thought was, well, if I'm constraining one side or the other in some way, maybe that also constrains the competitiveness of that small sided game.
Liam Jefferson:So just maybe for somebody who's not as familiar with it, explain how you keep the competitive level high even though there are constraints within the situation or the drill that you've developed.
John Wilcomb:Yeah, so, I mean, the first bit for me is it strips all the way back to what are our core values within our program before we even get into the CLA and keeping it competitive.
John Wilcomb:One of our three core values within our program is Kaizen, which I know is very.
John Wilcomb:It's one.
John Wilcomb:Now, that's cliche, because a lot of programs have it as a value within their program, but we are continuously seeking growth within everything that we do.
John Wilcomb:And so for me, once I was able to get players on the floor and explain why we were using small sided games in the CLA, because it enhances their growth and it speeds up that growth process.
John Wilcomb:They understand that they are.
John Wilcomb:If they're.
John Wilcomb:If I'm constraining them as defense, that's happening to make the offense better.
John Wilcomb:If I'm constraining the offense, it's to make the defense better.
John Wilcomb:The other simple way for me is just how we score some of those small sided games in practice.
John Wilcomb:So for us, we can look at, yes, we can score twos and threes, yes, we can score one point for a stop, but actually, if there's certain affordances that we want to present themselves, maybe it's one of our coverage solutions in one of our triggers.
John Wilcomb:Actually, I can add something like, well, this one's worth five.
John Wilcomb:Or Alex uses the idea of the golden snitch from Harry Potter.
John Wilcomb:So if you catch the golden snitch in Quidditch, in Harry Potter, you immediately win the game.
John Wilcomb:And so you can introduce that as a constraint within one of the small sided games.
John Wilcomb:So again, it has that element of competitiveness to, it isn't just we're going twos and threes, first team to eleven, so there's a load of different ways that we would do it.
John Wilcomb:The other thing that we would sometimes look at is how do we introduce lives into our small side of games?
John Wilcomb:So we might say, actually, we're constraining the defense that you've always got to switch within maybe a three on three or a four on four.
John Wilcomb:But if they don't switch, or if they don't communicate the switch properly, they lose their lives.
John Wilcomb:And us, as coaches are looking for that.
John Wilcomb:If they lose all three lives, their score goes back to zero because we want them to become attuned to how do we communicate?
John Wilcomb:How do we create contact on the switch and all of the things that we're looking for to teach on a detailed basis.
John Wilcomb:So the different ways that we can use that scoring system in practice still maintain some of that competitiveness, but at the same time is a constraint to some of what we're wanting to achieve.
John Wilcomb:To address some of those rate limited.
Liam Jefferson:Now let's shift gears and talk a little bit about player acquisition and how you attract players to the club, both at the senior academy and then also at the younger levels.
Liam Jefferson:How do you get players to enroll to become a part of the program?
John Wilcomb:It's a great one because for us, it's what has probably been, and this is just speaking candidly, probably been one of the problems for the program over the last three or four years is that it just hasn't been attracting the talent that a program of its stature should be.
John Wilcomb:So a big piece for me is looking at how do I build that relationship with those individual players?
John Wilcomb:What am I doing?
John Wilcomb:Whether that's getting out to view games at the U 16 level, the U 15 level, am I going to tournaments?
John Wilcomb:Am I around national team camps and events just to be seen and then start to be able to build relationships with coaches and players and parents in order to start to sell the environment that we have at oaklands and what it is that we want to achieve and what that is for me, and I think this is what really resonates, especially with that academy age that we're looking to recruit, is can you create an environment where winning and development go hand in hand?
John Wilcomb:And oftentimes a program will be a winning program, but it will be at the expense of individual player development.
John Wilcomb:Sometimes there will be a development environment where, especially at the younger age groups, development is prioritized over winning.
John Wilcomb:So can we find everybody 20 minutes a game or 15 minutes a game?
John Wilcomb:Can everybody see the floor and at various different levels within our club, that there are arguments for it being more development focused and more competitive focused.
John Wilcomb:But for me, especially within our academy group, that 16 to 19 is how can I sell this environment?
John Wilcomb:That we can compete and we can win things, but you're also going to develop at the same time.
John Wilcomb:And part of that comes back to the CLA and small sided games.
John Wilcomb:And explaining to these kids that are exploring different academies and different programs throughout the UK is how does the CLA and how do small sided games help us to be able to compete and develop players at the same time?
John Wilcomb:So all of it comes back to that route.
John Wilcomb:I'm lucky in that.
John Wilcomb:My previous role and when I was at Loughborough University, my full time role whilst I was coaching, there was athlete recruitment across all of the sport programs.
John Wilcomb:So I worked with all of the head coaches across every program to look at athlete recruitment and help them to develop plans of action for their social media.
John Wilcomb:How are they selling their program?
John Wilcomb:What does that look like?
John Wilcomb:How are they interacting with players?
John Wilcomb:What do individual visit days look like?
John Wilcomb:And so I'm extremely fortunate that over two or three years of working with other sports, I've been able to take all of the best fits from each of the sports.
John Wilcomb:Even looking at what does some us colleges and universities do with regards to on an official visit and you're getting photographed in all the gear and your parents are there with you, all those little things that make you feel like you're a part of the family.
John Wilcomb:And so we're trying to introduce as much of that into our recruitment for the academy as possible.
John Wilcomb:Now, on the men's side, it's slightly different because a lot of our, a lot of our roster for our men's team is going to always be made up of academy age athletes that are ready to compete at that level.
John Wilcomb:And so when you're trying to recruit a senior men's players to be able to be in that environment, they have to be, they have to be the right sort of mindset and the right sort of character to be able to help continue that development of those players.
John Wilcomb:So on a typical game day, if we're suing up twelve players, six of them are going to be senior men and six of them are going to be academy players from our elite academy.
John Wilcomb:And so that recruitment process is much more individualized.
John Wilcomb:It's reaching out to coaches to get almost a background check on players.
John Wilcomb:Are they the right fit?
John Wilcomb: : John Wilcomb:Because at that age group they can be super inconsistent.
John Wilcomb:They can have a high ceiling and high potential, but there will be a lot of inconsistency that's there.
John Wilcomb:And so that recruitment process looks slightly different for the senior man.
Liam Jefferson:With the younger players, do you guys have a residential option?
Liam Jefferson:So players who are twelve u or 14, you do those players have the option of staying and sort of going full time and going to school in association with the academy at a local school?
Liam Jefferson:Or is it the players travel in for all the basketball stuff?
John Wilcomb:Yeah, so all of our players will travel in up until u 16.
John Wilcomb:So u twelve, u 14, u 16.
John Wilcomb:We are pretty much just recruiting from our local area.
John Wilcomb:So players will go to different schools in the area and then come into their basketball with us on two practices a week and a game on a weekend, sometimes three practices.
John Wilcomb:As they move up through those age groups, it's only when they hit the 16 to 19 age group that we would offer accommodation on site.
John Wilcomb: can be in a morning shoot at: John Wilcomb:and the gym is open for them for 2 hours.
John Wilcomb:To be able to do that before they head to class.
John Wilcomb:As soon as they're done with class, they head into the weight room.
John Wilcomb:Soon as they're done with the weight room, we're down on the floor for prActice.
John Wilcomb:As soon as they're done with that, they can go back to the dorms, they can eat, they can get a nap in, they can carry on with their studies.
John Wilcomb:And so it's only when they hit the academy age, which for us is that 16 to 19, that I would say it starts to resemble what you would expect an elite academy environment to look like.
Liam Jefferson:What's the hardest administrative part of being a head coach of a club in the UK?
John Wilcomb:I feel like we could do a whole podcast on this one.
John Wilcomb:We could probably get an hour.
Liam Jefferson:Oh, man, I hit on a good question.
Liam Jefferson:That's good.
John Wilcomb:I think the biggest piece right now, for me, the biggest administrative piece is coming back to that coach development aspect is how can I create all of the processes, all of the information, all of the content that's needed for those volunteer coaches and part time coaches to be able to pick up what essentially is my philosophy and what I want to achieve with a program and then be able to deliver it at a high enough level.
John Wilcomb:So the learning videos that I've got to produce of my own practices to be able to share, to show some of the concepts that we want to play with, the one pager documents on we're a team that tags up and sends all five to the offensive class.
John Wilcomb:But actually, there's so many niche and detail points within that that I can't just expect another coach to pick up a couple of sentences that say, we are a team that tags up.
John Wilcomb:And so for me this year, the administrative side of it has been developing all of that content that I can send out to our coaches.
John Wilcomb:Now, the hope is that that gradually evolves over time each year, that it's not going to be as time exhaustive as it probably has been this summer for us.
John Wilcomb:But then the other piece is just around changing perception of the sport in the UK.
John Wilcomb:And it's.
John Wilcomb:It's one of those where we are constantly battling with your traditional sports.
John Wilcomb:So football, rugby, cricket, netball, on the women's side, we're constantly battling with them for facility access, for resource, for, especially for those that are based within colleges and schools with their academies, for just an understanding from the senior leadership team within those colleges and schools as to what a basketball academy is, what does basketball in the UK look like?
John Wilcomb:And that can take a lot of time and a lot of energy and effort in building relationships with people that whilst it's not administrative, it has a huge impact on how successful you can be within your program.
John Wilcomb:And I'm sure it's no different in the US with maybe an athletic director or a head teacher at a high school if they value the football program more, for example, than basketball.
Liam Jefferson:Exactly.
John Wilcomb:Yep.
John Wilcomb:But that for us, is a real challenge over here.
John Wilcomb:And like, we're exploring just different ways that how can we get them down to a game, how can we get them into a practice, even if it's just coming in and speaking to the team for two minutes and saying, hey, I'm the head teacher at the college.
John Wilcomb:It's great to meet you all.
John Wilcomb:Really pleased with what you're doing in the space within the academy and having them there for five minutes to watch his practice, to start to understand it a little bit more.
John Wilcomb:There's definitely that constant battle within the sporting landscape in the UK to change perception.
Liam Jefferson:I want to come back to that point in just a second, but I don't want to just have you answer the question about what's the hardest part, what's the most fun part of being the head coach of club in the UK?
Liam Jefferson:What do you enjoy the most about it?
Liam Jefferson:And again, obviously there's the on the floor stuff and the basketball piece, but maybe something that is off the basketball floor that you get to do a part of it, a part of the job that you really enjoy.
John Wilcomb:The biggest piece for me is the sense of community that we have within the club structure.
John Wilcomb:So as, as the head of a program, I'm responsible for u ten all the way up to senior men.
John Wilcomb:That means that I get so many different touch points and interactions with players, with parents, with other coaches, that my job at the end of the day, especially with where we're at oaklands, is I have to create an environment and a program that sets them up for life after oaklands.
John Wilcomb:So they could leave us after u twelve, or they could stay with us all the way through to senior men.
John Wilcomb:But my job is to make sure that when they leave our program, they're better for it as both a person and a player.
John Wilcomb:And I get so many touch points with them throughout the week, within the individual skill sessions, even the conversations in the corridor as teams are changing between practices, parents coming in and saying, we brought our kids to the game at the weekend.
John Wilcomb:They had such an enjoyable experience that they want to bring two friends next weekend.
John Wilcomb:Little moments like that, being in such a club environment where you all feel like you're part of one big family, like our club is huge.
John Wilcomb:It's massive.
John Wilcomb:We're probably looking at 400 young people a week are engaging within our club on the boys side alone.
John Wilcomb:That's so rewarding for me.
John Wilcomb:That's the bit that I think oftentimes is missed from a coaching perspective in the UK.
John Wilcomb:Is it?
John Wilcomb:That club model does really create a sense of family and a bond that I guess you don't really get as much in the US.
John Wilcomb:You might get it with a college or a high school environment if you feel like you're a part of the mascot and the program.
John Wilcomb:But the club feel, for me, feels much more family orientated rather than being attached to something.
Liam Jefferson:And it's a much longer process.
John Wilcomb:Right.
Liam Jefferson:If a kid joins you at u twelve and progresses and eventually makes it up and is able to play for the academy team, and who knows, eventually sticks around as a senior man.
Liam Jefferson: the potential for it to be a: John Wilcomb:Yeah, for sure.
Liam Jefferson:I mentioned earlier.
Liam Jefferson:Go ahead.
John Wilcomb:My goal and aspiration for our program is that especially within the UK, we can be almost that beacon for what happens on the continent, in Europe as well.
John Wilcomb:So my plan is to be at Oakland for quite some time, where I would love for us to have a kid join us at U twelve and really do go all the way through with us to senior men.
John Wilcomb:And the hope is that our senior men's team gets promoted through the leagues over the next year or two, so that we're at the highest league we possibly can do.
John Wilcomb:And we can show that there is a pathway for kids in our local area to be able to join and make a career from basketball in the UK, which it's a struggle for kids that want to be able to do that.
John Wilcomb:Oftentimes you have to leave and go to the US or leave and go to Europe in order to continue your development.
John Wilcomb:And if we can find a way to be able to really do that in the UK, then that's how we start to enhance the game and start to be taken a little bit more seriously as a basketball nation as well.
Liam Jefferson: opportunity in the summer of: Liam Jefferson:So tell me a little bit about that experience and what national team basketball, what the national team program looks and feels like in the UK, from your perspective?
John Wilcomb:Yeah, it's one that is definitely on the up and for the first time in a little while as well.
John Wilcomb:And that experience for me with the U 20s last summer was amazing.
John Wilcomb:That was the first opportunity to represent my country.
John Wilcomb:I never got the opportunity as a player, and so to be able to do it as a coach at the U 20 level was a real privilege and a real honor.
John Wilcomb:I think we're now, as a country, starting to work together as a federation.
John Wilcomb:So for those that I guess, don't quite understand the UK landscape, we compete internationally as Great Britain.
John Wilcomb:But within Great Britain, you have England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
John Wilcomb:So there are four countries that essentially come together to be able to compete as Great Britain.
John Wilcomb:And I don't know any other country in the world that does that.
John Wilcomb:It would almost be as if, like, the US and Canada became North America and competed in the Olympics and the World cup.
John Wilcomb:Like, you just.
John Wilcomb:It's a little bit bizarre in the way that it works, but I think historically, we've struggled to get alignment across our home nations that then make up Great Britain or the United Kingdom.
John Wilcomb:For us to be able to compete in international competition and for the first time in a while, it feels like we're slowly starting to get to that point where we have direction and starting to develop.
John Wilcomb:What does a Great Britain start of play look like?
John Wilcomb:What do we expect each of our age group teams to show when they're on the floor?
John Wilcomb:What would the players expect in that environment?
John Wilcomb:What's our values?
John Wilcomb:Similar to what I'm trying to do at oaklands now, but on a national team scale.
John Wilcomb:And I think my interaction with that tournament and with that experience last summer is the countries and the nations that have success are the ones that have that from top to bottom.
John Wilcomb:They have a style of play that, you know, that if you're seeing a Spain, if you're seeing a Serbia, even down to, like, some of the nordic countries now.
John Wilcomb:So I recently was out in Norway with transforming basketball, delivering some clinics there for transforming, and I've seen it with Sweden and with Finland, too.
John Wilcomb:Like, the countries that have a philosophy that runs from top to bottom, where all of the coaches are working in a similar way towards a similar goal.
John Wilcomb:It starts with the development in their regional academies and their clubs that then feeds international teams are the ones that are having the most success, and that, for us, is the next hurdle to jump over in order for us to start to be able to compete in some of those competitions as well.
John Wilcomb:And we've got some really exciting age group teams coming through.
John Wilcomb:So our under 16 girls team is probably one of the most exciting at the moment as they just got promoted this summer to Division A.
John Wilcomb:And that's the first time that one of our teams has been promoted back into Division A for the first time in five or six years.
John Wilcomb:So I think it was pre Covid the last time that we were competing in Division A.
John Wilcomb:For a country like ours that has such a great reputation within sport in a general sense, and with the just pool of athletes that we have available to us, there's no excuse for us not to be in division a competing with some of these countries, but in order to do that, we have to be working together more as a federation and as the clubs that feed into that federation in order to achieve it.
Liam Jefferson:How long do you think, based on where you are right now, how long do you think it will take realistically to get where you can be at the level where you want the UK to be?
John Wilcomb:That is the million dollar question.
John Wilcomb:I think the biggest piece for me is all of these countries and federations that are having success have almost a national teams director or technical director that's setting the direction, and then from there it's probably a three to four year process.
John Wilcomb:And so that's the next step for us, is the last time we had success, we had Warwick Khan in position and Vladin Dragovich, who both were in those technical director positions that set direction for each of the programs, each of the age groups, and we've not had that position for a little while.
John Wilcomb:So I think once we get that back into our federation and that sets the direction of travel, then we're probably two to three, maybe four years away from being able to get to a point where I think hopefully all of our age group teams can be back in division A and competing at the highest possible level.
Liam Jefferson:What do you think is the biggest obstacle to getting there?
John Wilcomb:Oh, so, I mean, the biggest obstacle for us is we are, like I was saying before, we're always fighting for resource with other sports.
John Wilcomb:So historically, Great Britain basketball is underfunded and each of the national team experiences over the summers are.
John Wilcomb:They operate on a skeleton budget.
John Wilcomb:In order for us to put team on the floor, we don't get a huge amount of prep time before heading to tournaments.
John Wilcomb:We don't get to see the players throughout the year, so they only really come together during the summer months.
John Wilcomb:So the biggest barrier for us, and it's a lot of time, the easy answer, right, is to say we would all love more money.
John Wilcomb:We would all love to find that magic money tree where it's growing and we can fund our program.
John Wilcomb:But that really is the challenge for us, is how can we maximize the sport?
John Wilcomb:Because in, in the UK, basketball is the second most participated sport.
John Wilcomb:It's the most popular sport in inner city areas after football.
John Wilcomb:There are so many kids playing the game in this country, but no corporate businesses want to get involved, really, with sponsoring it.
John Wilcomb:And there's a magnitude of different reasons to that are top level professional league has just gone through a bit of restructure over the summer with new ownership and a rebrand.
John Wilcomb:And so until we start to have a product that companies and businesses want to get involved in, that money isn't going to trickle into our national teams and our federations.
John Wilcomb:And that will be when we start to be able to see some of the kind of the change for us, really.
Liam Jefferson:Right.
Liam Jefferson:New part question to wrap things up and you're now almost two months into your job with oaklands.
Liam Jefferson:So when you look ahead over the next year or two, what do you see as being your biggest challenge?
Liam Jefferson:And then the second part of the question, when you think about what you get to do every single day, what brings you the most joy?
Liam Jefferson:So first part your biggest challenge?
Liam Jefferson:Second part your biggest joyous, biggest challenge?
John Wilcomb:Just the ability to retain talent in the UK.
John Wilcomb:So post Covid, we've seen a huge number of athletes head to high school at 16, rather than stay within our academy structure and leave at 18 to do a prep year before going to either a division one or a division two school.
John Wilcomb:Until we change the perception of the academies and the structure within the UK, it will continue to be a challenge to recruit, route and keep some of our talent in the country.
John Wilcomb:And this isn't me saying we should keep everybody in the UK because we're an island.
John Wilcomb:Let's close the walls.
John Wilcomb:Let's not let them out, let's not let them go.
John Wilcomb:That's not what I'm.
John Wilcomb:That's not what I want to achieve.
John Wilcomb:But I think there's a way for players to be able to really soak up everything that elite academies in our country have to offer and then go off to another experience in a different country and maybe do a year at a prep school before going.
John Wilcomb:And so how we change that perception, both individually at Oakland with our academy team, but also across the wider network as well, is going to be probably one of the top challenges on my list, if I'm honest, going over the next year or two, what brings me most joy on a day to day basis is just seeing the sheer amount of growth and enjoyment that players are getting from our environment.
John Wilcomb:And I touched on it at the start.
John Wilcomb:But one of, well, two of my five core values as a coach, one of them is joy and the other one is growth.
John Wilcomb:And if I can create an environment that I'm having fun and I'm getting better, but every player that comes into our environment is doing the same, then I've done my job and that gives me even more joy.
John Wilcomb:And the ClA plays a part in that.
John Wilcomb:Our style of play plays a part in that.
John Wilcomb:The coaches, the staff and how we interact and how we develop this, this one club kind of philosophy and feel plays a huge part in that.
John Wilcomb:But there's nothing for me that tops that feeling of teaching something, a kid getting it.
John Wilcomb:And you see in that look on their face when they light up to be like they've just done something that they haven't done or that they didn't think that they could do.
John Wilcomb:And it brings them so much joy as well.
John Wilcomb:And I think that's something that we're really trying to achieve with our whole club at Oaklands.
Liam Jefferson:Makes sense and very well said.
Liam Jefferson:Before we get out, I want to give you a chance to share how people can connect with you.
Liam Jefferson:Find out more about what you're doing with the Oaklands Wolves website, email, social media, whatever you feel comfortable with.
Liam Jefferson:And then after you do that, I'll jump back in and wrap things up.
John Wilcomb:Yeah, I'm more than happy to have a conversation to reach out to people.
John Wilcomb:My Instagram handle is just coachjefferson eleven and my email address.
John Wilcomb:Best one to get me at is coach Dot Jefferson eleven mail.com.
John Wilcomb:more than happy to have any conversations with coaches, whether that be about the CLA, whether it be about what we're trying to achieve at Oaklands, or whether it's some of the work that I'm doing with transforming basketball as a clinician for Alex and transforming the DM's are open.
John Wilcomb:The email address is open.
John Wilcomb:I love connecting with coaches and anything that can come from it.
John Wilcomb:I'd be more than happy to have those sorts of conversations.
Liam Jefferson:Liam, can I thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule tonight, staying up late with us.
Liam Jefferson:Truly appreciate it.
Liam Jefferson:And to everyone out there, thanks for listening and we will catch you on our next episode.
Liam Jefferson:Thanks.
Mike Clensing:Your first impression is everything when applying for a new coaching job.
Mike Clensing:A professional coaching portfolio is the tool that highlights your coaching achievements and philosophies, and most of all, helps separate you and your abilities from the other applicants.
Mike Clensing:The Coaching Portfolio Guide is an instructional, membership based website that helps you develop a personalized portfolio.
Mike Clensing:Each section of the portfolio guide provides detailed instructions on how to organize your portfolio in a professional manner.
Mike Clensing:The guide also provides sample documents for each section of your portfolio that you can copy, modify, and add to your personal portfolio.
Mike Clensing:As a whopeds pod listener, you can get your coaching portfolio guide for just $25.
Mike Clensing:Visit coachingportfolioguide.com hoop heads to learn more.
John Wilcomb:Thanks for listening to the Hoop Heads.
Mike Clensing:Podcast presented by Ed Start Basketball.