Over the summer, Erynn Legge, who was the assistant coach for the Scotland U16 Women during the 2023 Home Nations tournament, participated in the FIBA Women’s Basketball Summit. Following this, she was selected as one of the six participants for the FIBA 2023-24 Coach Mentoring Programme, with Marina Maljkovi?, the head coach of the Serbia National Team, serving as her mentor.

As part of this mentorship programme, Erynn recently travelled to Serbia, where she had the opportunity to meet Marina and observe the Serbian Women’s National Team’s training sessions in preparation for their EuroBasket qualification games.

Engaging in in-depth conversations with Marina after Serbia’s training sessions and their game against Ukraine, Erynn absorbed many valuable insights. When discussing how to keep developing players, Marina imparted a key piece of advice to Erynn: “Always train at a high intensity, if you need to shorten the time. Never lower you repetition intensity”. This advice has stayed with Erynn since her return.

Reflecting on her experience, Erynn shared, “The trip was a great experience of a different basketball culture. Having the opportunity to just observe a very high experienced coach/team train was amazing.” She praised Marina’s warmth, highlighting Marina’s discussion about the basketball academy in Serbia and her initiatives with the national squad. “Marina was very lovely. She told us all about her basketball academy in Serbia, along with her intentions for the national squad.” Erynn also praised Marina for opening a sports academy for girls, featuring 20 different sports, all provided free of charge—a fantastic initiative to encourage women’s participation in sports.

Although Erynn’s visit to Serbia may have concluded, her mentorship journey continues. She looks forward to one-on-one conversations with Marina and participating in webinars with the other coaches in the mentorship programme.