ISTANBUL (FIBA World Championship for Women) - More than 120 coaches from various countries including Iraq, India and Cyprus took part in a women's coaching clinic organised by FIBA and the Turkish Basketball Federation (TBF) over the course of the final weekend of the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women.

Four luminaries of the coaching world - Tara VanDerveer, Anne Donovan, Jan Stirling and Ekrem Memnun - conducted sessions on chosen topics much to the delight and capturaing the full attention of the aspiring coaches.

VanDeerveer, the coach of the USA women's team that won the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics conducted a session on "Individual Improvement Skills", which was followed by one on "Building the Defensive Philosophy" by Stirling, the coach of Australia's Opals side that won the 2006 FIBA World Championship for Women title.

Donovan, the first women's coach to win a WNBA title, took the attendees through "Out of Bounds Play" and Memnun, who led Galatasaray to the 2014 Turkish League title spoke on "The Story of Winning Everything".

"I think it’s great that FIBA and Turkey have organised this clinic," said Stirling.

"There have been such clinics in youth events, but this is the first time we are conducting a clinic at this level.

"All that we are aiming to do is to get the coaches pick up one or two points to do things differently than they have been when educating their players."

Dwelling on the differences between coaching a women's team as opposed to a men's side, Stirling said: "Women play below the rim predominantly and men play above it.

"There are some subtle differences in the way we approach it. Women probably play a more intellectual game and men a more physical game. When you are developing young girls they are not going to have the same athleticism as men. So there are some subtle adjustments."

Stirling hoped that the coaches had gained at least a few pointers to take back home.

"They were asking a lot of questions - which means they were listening to what was being said," she laughed.

"But sometimes what the coach running the clinic delivers is reinforcing to the coaches there the sense of 'you are doing a really good job. Most of what you do is terrific and you may add some value from what you saw today'.

"If some coaches can come out of the clinic thinking 'Oh! I'm doing that good, but I could add this.' - that's a bonus," Stirling explained.

"I only hope we can use such big international platforms to have more such interactions. It's certainly a step up for the coaches."

FIBA