SOUTHPORT – FIBA in Oceania hosted representatives from a select group of National Member Federations to undergo a high-performance workshop this week.

These representatives traveled from across the Oceania region to attend this workshop hosted in FIBA’s Oceania hub. The workshop aimed to improve the preparation and high-performance plan of national teams in the region.

Johnathan Grady facilitated the workshop with FIBA in Oceania Development Manager Annie LaFleur. Grady, a former high-level athlete, has previously held the Sports Performance Manager position at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and most recently managed the men’s high-performance programs at Basketball Australia (BA).

Grady was thrilled by the level of engagement from the participants.

“The group was fantastic, they were all very receptive and lots of great ideas where shared,” said Grady. “The fact that these participants made the commitment to attending this workshop shows that they are trying to better basketball in their country. They will be able to take the learnings from this workshop and pass it on their coaches and federations which will help grow basketball in these nations.”

“There is a big opportunity for these nations to really close the gap with the powerhouses of the region.”

Australia has dominated FIBA Oceania events for decades, but New Zealand turned this notion on its head with their historic FIBA U18 Oceania Championship 2016 defeat of Australia to qualify for the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2017. To the global audience this victory seemingly came out of nowhere, but with dedication, commitment and innovation New Zealand has been closing the gap on Australia for the past decade.

This improvement arc is something that Federations in the Pacific region are trying to emulate and build upon.

Participants covered numerous topics including depth charts, events calendars, player progression, coach appointments plus a number of other topics to help them on their journey to bridge this gap.

Participants brainstorming during the day's activities

FIBA.basketball sat down with some participants to get their view on the workshop.

Papua New Guinea Sports Foundation Coach Performance Coordinator, Patrick Ani shared his takeaways from the workshop.

“There is a lot of things I will take back from this workshop, planning is one of them and following through with junior programs.” “This workshop is a stepping stone for us looking ahead and what we are going to be doing. If we implement what we learned here then this will create a culture with our juniors that will go all the way through to our seniors.”

Fiji National Team Assistant and Manager, Thomas Acosta was excited about how this workshop will help basketball in Fiji.

“I will be sharing how to form the big picture and then manage this one-by-one,” said Acosta. “Ensuring that we have checkpoints and deadlines so that we are implementing this properly.”

“The most important lesson for me is to set up goals. We lack in planning so having these detailed instructions and a process to follow will really help us. It’s just like basketball, the more you practice the better you get – once we implement these teachings and the process the improvements will follow.”

FIBA