Former NBL basketballer Bruce Hultgren took the Colac Kookas through their paces at training ahead of the Country Basketball League season.

COLAC Kookas had expert help as they began preparations from the new Country Basketball League season.

Former National Basketball League player Bruce Hultgren took the senior Kookas’ pre-season training session this week, and has coached the association’s junior teams in recent weeks.

Hultgren played eight years with NBL clubs North Melbourne Giants and Geelong Supercats from 1982.

He has since spent time overseas coaching at high schools and state teams to develop junior programs and now works with the Supercats where he forged a friendship with Geelong-bred senior Kooka Marcus Larcombe.

“I was teaching them some more advanced things that we’ve been lucky enough to learn through the metropolitan system and internationally and knowing Marcus he said ‘come down, we want to run this offence’,” Hultgren said.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to play professionally and travel around the world and it’s just about putting back into the game,” he said.

Hultgren took the Kookas through different offences including the shuffle offence.

He said training played a large part in basketball and players should be training “four hours to every hour of gameplay”.

“Training is everything, it’s not just five guys on the court, it’s everyone knowing what everyone else is trying to do,” Hultgren said.

“When everyone knows what everyone’s role is and what their responsibilities are then they can gel that together as a group.

“That’s how the professional teams do it, they play it and they scrimmage it and they talk about it – they work it out as a group.”

The Kookas’ Country Basketball League campaign kicks off against new team Stawell Wildcats on October 13