James Vear - Barking Abbey & GB U20 Coach - Hoopsfix Podcast #21 - Hoopsfix.com

James Vear – Barking Abbey & GB U20 Coach – Hoopsfix Podcast #21

After Kevin Routledge said the coaching was crucial to push the Leicester Riders forward, it was suggested that we get a top coach on the podcast to talk coaching across the UK, which is exactly what we did!

In episode 21 of the Hoopsfix Podcast, we spoke with James Vear, a member of the GB Under-20 coaching staff for the past four summers, currently plying his trade at Barking Abbey in East London, having also spent time in Canada and Denmark.

In this hour conversation, hear from James on:

  • How he first got into coaching
  • His progression as a part-time coach while holding down a full time job into a full time coach
  • The differences between coaching in the pros and juniors
  • What he would do to overhaul the coaching qualification system in England
  • The fragmented pathway in the UK
  • His thoughts on whether a coach needs a playing background or not
  • Problems he sees watching junior games in the UK
  • How he continues to learn and improve as a coach
  • His experiences of the FIBA Europe Coaching Certificate (FECC) so far
  • The role the BBL has to play in the British coaching eco system
  • The difficulties the GB Under-20 side sometimes have in getting US based players to camp
  • Why the Federation needs more touch-points/on the ground staff season-round for top players
  • The impact the UK Sport funding cut has had on the GB U20 programme
  • Why he would rather watch NBL games as opposed to BBL games
  • His experience of what younger players in the UK aspire to
  • And much, much, more!

As always, I’d love to get your feedback, come back after you’ve listened and lets get some discussion going in the comments.

The show has been approved on iTunes – find it here and please subscribe to automatically receive new episodes straight to your phone/computer/tablet – if you could give us a review/rating it would be much appreciated to help the podcast spread far and wide!

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