WABC - Plenty to celebrate for World Association of Basketball Coaches

MIES - President of the World Association of Basketball Coaches (WABC), Patrick Hunt has been outlining plenty of reasons for coaches around the globe to be excited after the conclusion of the WABC Executive Committee meeting at the FIBA House of Basketball.

Speaking after the two day event which covered a broad range of topics and initiatives, Hunt is looking forward to taking the organisation forward and was also keen to reflect on another successful year.

He said, "We've got a number of exciting projects on the way with one of them being a Women's Coaching Clinic linked to the FIBA World Championship for Women next year in Turkey.

"This promises to be a fantastic event featuring leading speakers from the USA and from around the basketball world, who will share their coaching expertise.

"We are looking at the possibility of holding a coaching event at the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain too.

"We have had over 25 coaching clinics this year conducted in every region around the world and in every zone within the FIBA Family.

"We've also had exceptional feedback , including over a quarter of a millions hits on youtube.com/fiba where clinics have been filmed and translated into French, English and Spanish.

"Coaches should go there because it is one of our main resources used to influence the standard of coaching around the world," he added.

"There is also the coaching library website at FIBA.com with scouting information, the coaching clinics, some good articles and historical information too - it's a wonderful portal for coaches.

"We are continuously looking at how we can make the WABC more accessible to people in terms of producing more resources and improve what doing by exploring additional opportunities - things such as a webpage via the FIBA.com site and enhancing our multimedia strategy."

Whatever the event, the WABC always attracts the highest level of coaches and regularly arranges a stellar line-up of speakers, with the likes of the legendary Zeljko Obradovic headlining a three day clinic at the FIBA U19 World Championship in Prague earlier this year.

"Any top coach we have asked to facilitate a clinic during the last four years or so has been only too happy to help out and they have all been very well received," agreed Hunt.

"But the good thing is, coaches from a broad range of levels can access and use this information to improve their coaching.

"We are also sending questionnaire out to an advisory group made up of 12 of the preeminent coaches from around the world, including Mike Krzyzewski, Geno Auriemma, Dusan Ivkovic, and Svetislav Pesic on refereeing interpretations and rules.

"We had the FIBA Director of Referees, Carl Jungebrand spending time with us talking about how referees and coaches can collaborate together in a more meaningful way to help the standard of the game.

"This was very productive and through the questionnaire results, we will feed back through to the FIBA Technical Commission who will be meeting in Delhi, India next year."

The involvement of the best coaches in the world doesn't stop at hosting clinics, with Hunt was quick to point out the important position of the big-hitters.

He said, "One of the great things high performance coaches can do is to share information with colleagues and a couple of weeks ago, I led a group of Olympic coaches in Australia on a visit to Duke in the USA to see Coach Krzyzewski and his staff.

"He was most generous in opening up his practice sessions and video sessions.

"It was an enriching experience, since it broadened our coaches outlook not just from a technical and strategic point of view, but from a leadership perspective also, because coaches are leaders in their own right.

"Coach K is a role model and an outstanding leader himself, but also in continuing education and helping the coaching fraternity to grow," concluded Hunt.

FIBA