Developing a coaching philosophy with 50 years on the sidelines - with Dave Titmuss - Ep. 67

Hoopsfix Podcast - British Basketball with Sam Neter

In Episode 67 of the Hoopsfix Podcast we sit down with former BBL, NBL and England Head Coach, Dave Titmuss, aka Coach T.

Titmuss has spent over 50 years on the sidelines of British basketball, starting out as a 22 year old before working his way up to the highest levels of the game experiencing success at every level, with 15 national titles, a Paralympic World Cup gold medal, a World Wheelchair Basketball Championship silver medal, a Paralympic bronze medal, two Coach of the Year awards and two Paralympic sport Coach of the Year awards.

Starting in 1970 with St Albans Phoenix, Titmuss went on to the Hemel Lakers, the side that ultimately became Ovaltine Hemel Hempstead in National League Division 1 in the late 70s and early 80s, competing in the Korac Cup in Europe.

From there he spent time with Tigers Juniors in Hemel, Brunel in Division 1, before joining Thames Valley Tigers in the BBL.

He then developed the Ware Rebels junior programme, experiencing his first undefeated season, and before joining the Reading Rockets in NBL D1 where they had a historic quadruple-winning undefeated season in 2008-09.

Whilst with Reading, he served as Head Coach and Performance Director of Great Britain's Paralympic squad for eight years, coaching GB to fourth place at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, a Silver Medal at the 2002 World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan, Bronze at the 2004 Athens Paralympics, and Gold at the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.

He went on to a season in the BBL with Worthing Thunder, before rounding out his career with Hemel Storm from 2010-2019.

Titmuss has dedicated a large amount of his time coaching coaches, and is now mentoring whist enjoying retirement.

In this 1 hour 39 minute episode, hear from Coach T on:

• His first exposure to basketball and making the switch from football
• How he ended up coaching his first session and falling in love with it in his early twenties
• His process for developing his coaching skills
• Coaching in the burgeoning national league with Hemel Lakers
• The professionalisation of the Hemel club within a 7-year time frame becoming Ovaltine Hemel Hempstead and competing in Europe
• Why basketball more 'mainstream' in the late early 80s, and how big of a role tv played
• The level of American player teams were able to recruit to play in England in that era
• How much of a role having British talent at home plays in the development of the game
• Hemel running their own lottery in the south of the country which helped the club turnover upwards of £1.5million (incorrectly labelled as £5m in the pod)
• His role at Hemel encompassing a lot more than just coaching, specifically the commercial side of the club
• Formulating his own coaching philosophy and style
• Recruiting players that fit the style you want to play versus building a philosophy around the roster make up
• His three years coaching the England Senior Men
• First experience coaching in the BBL with Thames Valley Tigers from 1990-1994
• Building the Ware Rebels junior programme and it cementing his beliefs around youth development
• Coaching the England Juniors including a coming up Drew Sullivan
• Becoming involved with the Great Britain Wheelchair Basketball Association and taking the reigns of their GB Senior Men squad
• Competing in multiple Paralympics, a world championship and experiencing the highest levels of the game
• His undefeated season with the Reading Rockets in NBL D1 in 2008-09 winning the quadruple
• A year in the BBL with Worthing Thunder in 2009-10 the following year
• Rounding out his career on the sidelines with Hemel Storm
• Mentoring coaches now to pass on his knowledge
• What he would do if he was tasked with improving the quality and quantity of coaches in the UK
• And much, much more!

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, meanwhile it is also on Spotify here, Overcast, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts.

You can support Hoopsfix’s work in helping to grow British basketball on Patreon.