Talking Split — The Unofficial Book

What the book is

Talking Split began as three coaches in a room expecting an audience of about three people — Rob Calder, Mike Zeppel and Justin Shuler, later joined by Ash Arnott, Zoe Carr, Darren Best and Nathan Cooper-Brown. Over nine seasons it welcomed guests like Brian Goorjian, Eric Hollingsworth and Kelsey Griffin, and became a reference point for coaches across Australia. The book organises all of it into three parts — and a Master Coaching Actions Index of 90+ "Apply This" actions, which is the practical core.

Part One — The Athlete

Developing the athlete

The book's central argument, from Eric Hollingsworth: Australian junior basketball tends to be "competing athletes into development, not developing athletes into competition." The fix is an age-appropriate model — under-12s on fun and pure skill (no plays), under-14s adding first concepts, under-16s adding the holistic athlete, under-18s on professional preparation. And, from Goorjian: development is teaching, not working out — the process has to get boring before it becomes automatic.

Shooting — the master skill

Zeppel's prescription: 100 makes a day, 40 days, from three feet = 4,000 makes a summer — and ~25,000 by the end of high school. Build it in four layers (distance → speed → gaze → contested), and protect a green-light culture by genuinely celebrating the decision to take an open shot, even when it misses.

Physical & mental preparation

Know the difference between soreness and pain; rebuild gradually after a break because fitness returns before tendons do; respect sleep. And mentally: confidence comes from accumulated quality practice, not pep talks — build a rough arousal profile for each athlete, and give every player a reset word for a clean start.

Part Two — The Coach

Designing the session

Build a master plan across four columns — offense, defence, special situations, fundamentals — and track what you've covered. Respect the one-minute explanation window. And practise discovery learning: take the breath and let athletes self-correct before you intervene. Replace "does that make sense?" with "tell me back what we're doing."

Coaching the game

A deeply understood identity beats a broad playbook executed poorly — stop adding plays before tournaments. Manage timeouts to stop a run, change something when the opposition calls one, and write five situation cards before each game so your in-game decisions are calm and pre-made.

The pathway & the coach's wellbeing

Careers aren't linear — the coaches who get opportunities are the ones who didn't quit when it got rough; coach daily, and stay authentically yourself. And the book is unusually honest about the load: the five weights coaches carry (physical, political, family, identity, imposter), the plus-four rule (if you're okay, check in on four other coaches), and "leave it at the gym" — the analysis at midnight is worse than the one in the morning.

Part Three — The Game

Building team culture

Culture is what the group does when the coach isn't watching — a poster is not culture. As the Ted Lasso chapter puts it, the "Believe" sign isn't the belief; what makes it work is living it in your behaviour toward your best player and your most anonymous squad member equally. Drive it from the top and within, and leave the program better than you found it.

Trials & selection

Start with written criteria shared with every evaluator; plan enough courts that no athlete stands around unseen; use time-segment evaluation (independent ratings at 20-minute intervals) because impressions crystallise within the first hour; announce at 5pm on a weekday so disappointed kids aren't alone; and give stop/start/keep feedback.

The Australian game

The international skill gap (shooting, individual containment, creating under contact), the structural win-now-vs-development bind that sets volunteer coaches up to fail, and a reminder that most juniors are the 98% who'll never go pro — and your job is to give them a reason to keep playing.

Guest spotlights & the actions index

Eight profiles of the most impactful guests — Goorjian, Hollingsworth, Griffin, sleep scientist Ian Dunican, skill researcher Adam Gorman, talent-ID researcher Alex Roberts, WNBL coach Jenny Screaton, and mental-health advocate Gerard Hillier — plus the Master Coaching Actions Index: every "Apply This" from nine seasons, sorted by theme, ready to take straight to training.

The one idea above all

As Rob Calder put it in Season 1 and the book repeats at the end: the goal is simply to give coaches something useful. Or, in the line coaches quoted most — "coaching is stealing; there aren't many unique thoughts left in basketball, so steal what you can from whoever you can." Use the book as a reference, argue with it, and take what helps to your next session.

Unofficial fan-created resource. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Basketball Victoria. All content based on the Talking Split Podcast. Full credit to Rob Calder, Mike Zeppel, Justin Shuler, Ash Arnott, Zoe Carr, Darren Best, Nathan Cooper-Brown, and all guests.