Basketball Australia are excited to announce the launch of LEVEL UP, a unique data-led program designed to innovate the delivery of integrated athlete development at the Centre of Excellence (COE).
The LEVEL UP program will be integrated into the basketball curriculum for the 30+ athletes currently enrolled at the COE, designed to allow athletes to take control and meaningfully engage in their own learning and development journeys. Overall, advancing athletes on, and off, the court.
“This program is about giving athletes the skills to navigate their life and professional basketball careers, as well as setting them up for a successful life after sport. Our COE athletes are at the start of very promising basketball careers, and it’s essential that we create learning and development experiences that are holistic, individualised and engaging to match our world leading on court experiences” said Rhian Bird, Head of Wellbeing at Basketball Australia.
“This initiative is ultimately designed to holistically develop them as athletes, professionals and people.”
The initiative is an Australia-first project developed by Basketball Australia’s Performance Wellbeing department, working collaboratively alongside the COE and the Australian Insititute of Sport (AIS) to use gamification as a modern and innovative approach to learning and development.
Aspirations for the initiative include a greater expansion into digital interaction, with the foundations for this already created through use of the BA Learning Management System and the Athlete Management System.
“For learning and development to be meaningful and engaging for our athletes, it has to meet the learners needs, and that’s exactly what we have done with this program,” said Bird.
“LEVEL UP has assessed the profiles of our learners at the COE, and integrated gamification to adapt to their needs. Research tells us that embedding learning and development in the performance environment, as well as making it interactive, fun, and learner led is a key to success. All of which LEVEL UP provides.”
Like a real-life video game, athletes will be able to navigate themselves around a large-scale map, collecting skills and knowledge sets along the way with the support of staff at the COE.
These populate in real time to their player profiles, and they are celebrated by staff, their peers and through different reward systems for each time they LEVEL UP.
“Not only does this help athletes keep a great record of their skills for their future in sport and professional careers, but it also helps them to build a robust view of their identity and strengths that exist outside of the ups and downs of elite basketball. Fostering resilience and building confidence,” added Bird.
For decades, the COE at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra has been the foundation of development for Australia’s best basketball talent. There has always been a focus on holistic growth, with health, nutrition and services for secondary education.
The integration of the LEVEL UP program extends the commitment at the COE in delivering a world class learning & development experience, acknowledging that the skills our athletes gain off court are essential for sustainable performance and wellbeing outcomes.
The pilot program of LEVEL UP will be supported by Foot Locker which creates an organic extension of the brand’s ongoing collaboration with Basketball Australia. Their support of the initiative is a continuation of a championing role of basketball pathways across the country at all age groups.
BA will use the pilot period to conduct a robust review at the end of 2026, with the metrics used to refine a model that has long-term potential to be applied to a variety of national team and high-performance environments.
ABOUT | CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE
The Basketball Australia Centre of Excellence (CoE) – formerly National Intensive Training Centre Program (NITCP) and AIS Basketball Program has been the world-leading junior development program since 1981.
Dedicated to the development of future Boomers and Opals, the scholarship athletes are exposed to the country’s elite service providers and world-class facilities based at the AIS in Canberra. The program takes a holistic approach to the development of elite international athletes and integrates education, basketball services, sports science and personal excellence into its daily training environment.
The Centre of Excellence’s record of athlete development speaks for itself. Its athlete catalogue includes all current Australian NBA stars Andrew Bogut, Patty Mills, Matthew Dellavedova, Joe Ingles, Aaron Baynes, Dante Exum and Cameron Bairstow.
For more information on the Centre of Excellence, click here.
ABOUT | FOOT LOCKER
Foot Locker are the current naming rights partner for all National Championships (U14, U16, U18 & U20), National Schools Championship and U18 National Club Championship.
In collaboration with Basketball Australia, Foot Locker also introduced the ‘Foot Locker Defensive Player of the Tournament’ award for male, female, wheelchair and intellectually disabled athletes at each of these events.
Foot Locker and Basketball Australia also jointly fund athlete participation scholarships via the Sports Excellence Scholarship Fund – and have jointly done so annually since 2022.
