{"id":1656,"date":"2020-05-04T13:33:53","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T03:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nunawadingbasketball.com.au\/?p=1656"},"modified":"2020-05-04T13:57:21","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T03:57:21","slug":"the-coaches-network-the-f-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nunawadingbasketball.com.au\/ja\/the-coaches-network-the-f-word\/","title":{"rendered":"THE COACHES NETWORK – THE F WORD"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I hear the name Rupert Sapwell two memories instantly shoot to the forefront of my mind – his uncanny ability to bank the \u201845 Three\u2019 and the day he dropped 50 points for the Spectres in a CBA game back in \u201894. I had a front row seat that day as one of the floor wipers and I had never seen a performance like it – at least not firsthand.<\/em><\/p>\n

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A 13-year NBL veteran with the Eastside Spectres (1989-1990), South East Melbourne Magic (1994-1995), Geelong Supercats (1996), Adelaide 36ers (1997-2002) and Cairns Taipans (2003-2004), Sapwell has played for some of the league most decorated coaches – an incredible foundation for his own coaching career. <\/em><\/p>\n

On the sidelines, Sapwell led the Norwood Flames to back-to-back championships in the South Australian Premier League – now NBL1 Central in 2008 and 2009, a period he also doubled as an Assistant Coach with the Adelaide 36ers. <\/em><\/p>\n

In 2011, Sapwell became Director of Sport, Head Basketball Coach at Trinity College, Gawler (SA) – a role he has thrived in and continues to do so today, whilst remaining actively involved in Basketball SA\u2019s NITP and State Development Programs. <\/em><\/p>\n

Inducted into the Nunawading Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015, I recently reached out to Sapwell, asking if he would be willing to contribute to The Coaches Network, which he so generously accepted. Thank you!<\/em><\/p>\n

-Paul Flynn, Nunawading Basketball Operations Manager<\/em><\/p>\n

JOIN THE COACHES NETWORK FACEBOOK GROUP ONLINE NOW<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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THE F-WORD<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Rupert Sapwell<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Back in 2006 I was being interviewed for an NBL head coaching job.\u00a0 I was in the room with one of the owners, and I thought I was putting a pretty compelling case forward.\u00a0 Having enjoyed three NBL championships as a player in my 360 game career, and having learnt from coaches such as Brian Goorjian, Mike Dunlap, Ian Stacker, Phil Smyth and Guy Molloy, I was sure I had a lot of answers to the ‘what does a successful program look like’ question.<\/p>\n

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But about halfway through the interview, I dropped an ‘F-Word’ that stopped the interview in its tracks.\u00a0 The owner asked me what I thought the key ingredient to winning was…<\/p>\n

I said FUN.<\/p>\n

I remember seeing the\u00a0colour\u00a0drain from his face, and he stopped the interview on the spot.\u00a0 Fun, he assumed, had no place in professional sports.\u00a0 It was serious business.<\/p>\n

I left the interview a little perplexed and embarrassed, but no less certain of my theories.\u00a0 The team sacked their new coach a few games into a disastrous season, and I went back and coached a team that won the next two South Australian Premier League titles (with no imports).<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2020, and fun is at the forefront of many of the world’s elite teams.\u00a0 Golden State Coach Steve Kerr says fun\u00a0(joy) is a cornerstone<\/a>\u00a0of the team’s philosophy.\u00a0 Pete Carroll, head coach of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks,\u00a0is all about positive energy<\/a>\u00a0and Richmond Football Club Coach Damien Hardwick has\u00a0his team in hysterics<\/a>\u00a0just before the 2019 grand\u00a0final.<\/p>\n

These master coaches understand that making the workplace a fun place to be creates the optimum high-performance environment.\u00a0 They are building connections between\u00a0people<\/em>\u00a0and creating memories that will last forever.<\/p>\n

Next time you have the opportunity to ask a retired player what’s the one thing they miss most, 90 percent of them will tell you they miss the interaction with their teammates.<\/p>\n

Fun assumes a number of identities in a basketball team, and where people often get the wrong idea is that they think it is about jokes and tomfoolery.\u00a0 There’s some of that, but it’s also a lot about chasing mastery, sharing a challenge, reaching milestones and collaborating to achieve something you can’t achieve by yourself.<\/p>\n

Dive a little deeper into the psychology behind it, and you start uncovering theories like\u00a0psychological safety<\/a>,\u00a0vulnerability<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0motivation theory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Without\u00a0geeking\u00a0out too much on science, I can comfortably say to any coach, that if you build great relationships with your players, and create a challenging, safe environment, your players will love it, and keep coming back.<\/p>\n

Fun can be contextually based as well.<\/p>\n

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Throughout my career there were different things that made it fun for me.\u00a0 Early on, it was learning to be a pro at the South East Melbourne Magic with fellow\u00a0Spectres\u00a0juniors Tony Ronaldson, Jason Smith, Shane Bright and Leigh\u00a0Wadeson.\u00a0 Then it was expanding my role and facing bigger challenges at the Geelong\u00a0Supercats.\u00a0 In six years with the Adelaide 36ERS we won three championships and things were purring.\u00a0 The locker room was a scream.\u00a0 Finally, in my last two years at the Cairns Taipans, I relished the challenge of helping take the bottom-placed team to their first-ever finals win.\u00a0 It was fun all the way through, but the reasons for the fun were different.\u00a0 Each player you coach will also find fun in different ways \u2013 it’s up to you to know that.<\/p>\n

In my role as Director of Sport at Trinity College in South Australia, apart from teaching Shakespeare to year 10 students, I’m in charge of creating a co-curricular program for nearly 4000 kids that makes them fall in love with sport, and more importantly, life-long physical fitness.\u00a0 So I’ve been researching for years to come up with something that kids love, and stay with.\u00a0 When things go wrong, I hear about it.\u00a0 I fail when a child leaves sport, and the number one reason is that ‘it’s not fun anymore’.<\/p>\n

As a result, we have shifted our coaching philosophy at the College.\u00a0 Games-based learning<\/a>\u00a0should be something you’re taking a serious interest in.\u00a0 Australian researchers like\u00a0Shane Pill<\/a>\u00a0here in Adelaide are leading the way in this regard.\u00a0 Basically, people learn better in games where the practice closely resembles the competition.\u00a0 We all know players love to play, but many of us give them a game for five minutes at the end as a reward to enduring all the other rubbish we subject them to.\u00a0 Find a way to play more and your players will have FUN.<\/p>\n

American researcher Amanda\u00a0Visek\u00a0did some research<\/a>\u00a0on what kids found fun about team sport.\u00a0 Interestingly, she found that\u00a0winning was\u00a0<\/strong>waaaay<\/strong>\u00a0down the list<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Think about that for a minute.<\/p>\n

Ask yourselves some questions . . .<\/p>\n

Why do our players play the game?<\/p>\n

Do we really know what our players think is fun?<\/p>\n

When was the last time we asked them?<\/p>\n

Because adults like winning, are we forcing that on the kids?<\/p>\n

What do we REALLY want for our kids from their involvement in sport?<\/p>\n

If I can encourage you to get anything out of this article, it’s to SLOW DOWN and actually think about what type of humans we want to create from their involvement in our teams.<\/p>\n

Easy for me to say, I’ve done lots of winning, and my basketball ego is intact.\u00a0 It’s not attached to what my children or players achieve on the court.\u00a0 As a coach and teacher, however, my professional pride is more concerned with what I can teach them THROUGH basketball, and not just ABOUT basketball.<\/p>\n

One final story about fun:<\/p>\n

In 2018 Trinity College won the National Schools title.\u00a0 We were the only school in the Championship Division that didn’t offer sports scholarships, run a basketball-specific curriculum or both.\u00a0 What we did have, was an incredibly tight team who loved the game, loved each other and loved their school.\u00a0 We were able to practice a LOT, however, because the players loved coming to practice.\u00a0 We scrimmaged all practice, made it competitive and the players loved to compete.\u00a0 Fun CAN lead to excellent results!<\/p>\n