Lauren Robinson's unexpected journey to becoming a wheelchair basketball coach

Lauren Robinson is now an assistant coach with the Australian women’s wheelchair basketball team. (Supplied: Mel Hedley)

In 2022, Lauren Robinson received a surprise invitation.

It was the chance of a lifetime to join the Australian Gliders, Australia’s women’s wheelchair basketball team, as team manager for their series against Japan at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).

It was an opportunity that would be the catalyst to change her career direction from playing to coaching elite wheelchair basketball.

It happened when she ran into the head coach of the Gliders, Craig Campbell, at the airport when travelling to the AIS.

“The first thing that he said was, ‘as you’re floating around, if you want to jump on court, and start coaching, you’re more than welcome to’,” she said.

“In the back of my head, I was screaming a little bit because I’ve never coached wheelchair basketball before.”

Wheelchair basketball journey

For Robinson, her basketball career had been an unexpected journey.

Unable to progress to higher levels of the game as an athlete, she continued developing her coaching experience to stay connected to the game.

Coaching junior domestic teams for seven years before moving into a head coaching role for junior championship basketball, the highest level of junior competition, Robinson’s coaching skills developed and a few years later she joined a coaching team for Basketball Victoria.

But at only 24, she would never have thought she’d be able to coach athletes who skilfully play basketball in a chair.

Accepting the offer allowed Robinson time on the court with the athletes.

“I think people just get freaked out because of the chair and the specific chair skills; the concepts of the game are very similar, they just have to be tweaked to cater for it — you just adapt it to what their functional capabilities are,” she said.

Robinson’s time as team manager with the Gliders was a great learning opportunity.

Not only did it help her see the different coaching roles available to her, and provide the chance to connect with coach Craig Campbell, Robinson also quickly learned how much para-athletes navigate just to get on the court.

“I think being involved with the Gliders has opened my eyes up so much more to the possibilities within basketball, but also the limitations to accessibility for basketball within certain areas,” she said.

“The amount of extra planning that has to go into place to make sure that hotels are accessible for athletes, or court space is available for people to put their chairs on the side, or travelling with athletes who have day chairs and sports chairs and how that impacts the timeline of getting from place A to B.

“It’s a lot of the little things that you wouldn’t see from the outside.”

Passion for research

Alongside her coaching, Robinson studied for a Bachelor of Exercise and Sports Science with Honours, her research focusing on the interpersonal development of coaches in wheelchair basketball.

Robinson’s research led her to join the campaign for Basketball Victoria’s Kevin Coombs Cup team, a state team for wheelchair athletes, to gain more experience from the coaching team.

The cup is named in honour of Australia’s first Indigenous Paralympic wheelchair basketball athlete.

Robinson gained exposure to basketball relevant to her research at the tournament and it deepened her love of wheelchair hoops.

One year later, she joined the Gliders as assistant coach while also starting a PhD to continue her research.

“Wheelchair basketball just provides a completely different conceptual version of the game,” she said.

“It’s very cognitively stimulating for me, and it’s making me think more as a coach to get the same results from my athletes, but also has made me a better coach through needing to have greater discussions with the athletes to ensure I’m appropriately catering for their needs.

“It’s such an accepting culture and there’s so much positivity from this group and want to succeed that it’s infectious to be around.”

Even with her depth of experience as a coach and academic researcher, Robinson still second-guesses herself, as she is often the younger one in the coaching group.

“The biggest challenge to me is just finding my voice in situations I’m not comfortable in and actually recognising that I can do it and backing myself in those situations,” she said.

Robinson’s multi-skilled experience has taught her how to manage the pressure and is grateful to contribute to the game she loves.

“I love being able to watch athletes’ success on and off the court regardless of if that’s a win or a skill development. Seeing growth within an individual that I am fortunate enough to be a part of their journey.”