Gold Coast (Australia) - FIBA's regional office in Oceania organized a series of online webinars to help continue the development of its National Federations.

Despite the world facing a tough challenge with the Covid-19 virus forcing governments and organizations to impose lockdowns and social distancing, FIBA is committed to finding alternative ways to help the Federations in this challenging situation.

"Most of the planned programs and events are now postponed but it doesn't mean that should just sit idle and wait for things to get better. With the wonders of technology we can organize programs like the webinar series, to continue our quest to help develop our basketball nations," said FIBA Executive Director, David Crocker.

In this series of online webinars focusing on the Pacific island nations and Federation members, FIBA reached out to several individuals to discuss various topics regarding coaching and refereeing.

The first webinar session set on April 2, will be presented by Basketball Victoria Country U16 Men Development Coach, Kaleb Sclater, to discuss basic offensive spacing principles.

Sclater visited Samoa in 2019 as part of the Marty Handson Coaching Scholarship program.

"I thought it would be a good way to connect with the Samoan Federation again and it will be great to connect with other federations," Sclater shared.

With his previous experience in Samoa, the Australian coach believes the topic he wants to discuss is relevant to the Federations in terms of developing their understanding of offensive spacing.

"I’ve been working with teaching spacing and positioning to athletes for the last few years, this was something that I noticed in Samoa that they had some trouble with, overcrowding the key, having all 5 offensive and defensive players inside the 3 point line, so I thought it would be a good thing to discuss," Sclater said.

Sclater shared that this webinar is a welcome opportunity for him to learn and hopes that he can impart knowledge to the participants.

"To prepare myself, I watched the recent Wyndham Basketball webinar conducted by Gerrard Hillier and Kennedy Kereama which was great learning but also great to see how they set out their webinar," Slater said.

"I’ve had a lot of great coaches help and guide me so I’m happy to help out others any way I can and hopefully sharing some of my thoughts can help the federations. I’d like to thank FIBA for the opportunity," he added.

FIBA