Basketball Development Model.

The BDM’s 11 expert groups and project board are made up of leading basketball and sporting experts from England and further afield. They cover all of the key aspects associated with the game. Here is how the model works:

There are 3 main focus areas for the BDM:

1. Increase access and participation in the sport nationwide.
   
   
2. Help young people – and all that contribute to basketball – to fulfil their potential by defining a clear pathway for progression and the support they need to develop and stay involved.
   
   
3. Define a new benchmark for the sport for everyone to aspire to and support the game more effectively by building the capability of those working and volunteering in the sport to sustain growth and success.

The members of the BDM have a task to identify optimum methods of formulating a world-class programme that: raises standards of coaching, officiating and player support; retains more people in the game and increases the availability of paid and voluntary people in the sport, so Basketball England can grow basketball and be more competitive at home, in Europe and globally over time.

T E C H N I C A L  &  T A CT I C A L  G R O U P

As an introduction, the BDM, the work included in it and the fantastic efforts of over 120 people within our network is still alive and kicking.

With all the additional feedback from the roadshows last year, ongoing internal and external communication and considerable consultation from the wider basketball community, all that information has been fed in to our planning and development. We are now entering the exciting stage of producing implementation plans which will start to impact on each key dimension of the sport. This update is a first release of how we are framing the changes ahead.

Some examples of the changes already taking place to improve our talent system are listed below:

• Medical screening on all our England Talent Programmes
• Adoption of a concussion policy and cardiac policy to support and protect players
• Implementation of a player loading policy that sets threshold limits in terms of the number of and frequency of weekly training, games and rest days
• Make strength and conditioning more accessible to talented athletes throughout the year through a partnership with TASS.
• Influence the Dept. of Education on their continued support for apprenticeships in Basketball as we move to the Diploma in Sporting Excellence

One of the most important parts of any sport’s talent system is that the whole philosophy, behaviours, systems and incentives ensure a player led approach is adopted at each age and every stage of a player’s development.

Each stage of the BDM now requires detailed design, explanation and training on the technical, tactical, physical and emotional characteristics of the player. We will be designing this detail (most likely as a technical athlete development framework for each age and stage) to guide how our coaching practice, tutoring and developmental support all change and improve in response to producing better players at whatever level they aspire to. The same applies for how we officiate games, our changes to the competition structures to optimise player enjoyment and improvement, our player scaffold for welfare, injury prevention, conditioning and so on. We will be working through these player and technical aspects over the next few months with many of you in the network. There will be published guidance alongside education programmes to support everyone involved in developing our talent.

At the very core of the BDM is the recognition that as the player goes through various stages of development, our response to provide the right playing experiences, learning environments and assistance needs to be appropriate so our players receive the optimum support at all times. This will result in a larger cohort of players achieving a greater standard of performance, thus raising the benchmark for competition on the international stage over time.

An initial summary of our BDM ages and stages can be viewed by clicking HERE. For now, this is a simplified overview of what will eventually become be a technical document that’s designed for practical application at all playing levels.

The next fundamental building block is to explain how our system will work from early talent identification at school, community and clubs through to regional and national levels. Our new Talent System has four stages of progression before any national team representation. This model is being designed in more detail over the next few months and we will be asking for your feedback during this process.

The summary model below should give you a feel for the overall pathway and structures, each stage has a clear and stated purpose. The model will allow us to embrace more people in the sport and ensure the sweep of players is better and also more inclusive. Equally, the transition between each level is smooth and better integrated so we retain more players and also better players in our talent pipeline. This structure, the coaching involved and all other practices required to support this model will be communicated through a major information and education programme leading into next season.

We know from other sports going through this refresh process that it takes several years for a new model to take hold. Changing common practice and culture to develop enhanced methods of improving our talented young players, coaches and clubs will take time. We will need to have patience as we introduce the right changes to have the desired impact, both technically and culturally. The implementation of this model and the steps required will be done in managed stages.

PURPOSE This has been developed into a more comprehensive way of identifying and supporting more players at community level, empowering clubs and educational institutions to play a vital role, and therefore feeding better quality players through the pipeline. This is a critical first stage for Basketball England which will provide coaches and all those in the talent network with:

•  the knowledge and understanding of the player pathway
•  how the talent system works in totality
• the knowledge of what talent looks like and how to refer players at the appropriate level.

A quality assurance dimension of the talent system will feature clear technical standards, a universally accepted system that has accredited practitioners in it, and ongoing training and development to continually raise standards and impact.

PURPOSE To support the first tier of players who reach the threshold standards, they will receive enhanced coaching and player development in one of at least ten Talent Hubs (discussed later in this document) across the country. This is a significant development where new methods of gathering support and resources can be brought into play. The model needs to be tested and scaled, and the required partnerships with the key institutions will be led by Basketball England and those involved in the regional structure.

Attendance on the Aspire Programme will be based on meeting threshold criteria and not regional quotas where practical and affordable. This will transform the current programme for this age group, which comprises delivery of Regional Performance Centres (RPC) and Regional Development Tournaments (RDT). We will introduce better services to support the player at this stage of their development as part of this transformation, including training, education, competition, staff and parental resources. The club coach role and input will also be enhanced with feedback and support on coaching practice, training, etc so there is an extension to the development impact.

PURPOSE EDP players will undertake the Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE) qualification. This is designed to meet the needs of players aged 16-19 who wish to continue their sporting career and gain appropriately leveled educational qualifications at the same time. The EDP is not a qualification for simply playing the game, this is a two-year programme where players receive additional support and guidance for their basketball development and education. The EDP is aimed at athletes who have the realistic potential to achieve excellence and are seeking to perform at the highest level as their main career goal.

Players are referred from the Aspire Programme and cross referenced with the National Scouting, Talent Identification & Tracking Programme before they are signposted to attend one of our educationally based England Development Programmes (EDP). These developments will mean that the programme will be fully integrated into the talent system.

PURPOSE Through the National Scouting, Talent Identification & Tracking programme, the top cohort of players within each corresponding age group will be invited to be part of the ETP which aims to prepare the players for potential England and GB selection. To ensure consistency and cross-pollination of technique, standards and culture, selected players will train and informally compete across age bands where appropriate. As part of the ETP representative teams may be formed and will be provided with training, education and competition. We will be looking for new opportunities to include competitive opportunities as part of this programme.

For this model to evolve successfully over the next three years, we can no longer expect the resources from Sport England to fund all our needs and the demands of the game in terms of talent. We will be seeking resources in terms of money, research, expertise and value in kind from a number of partners that can benefit basketball and of course make gains for their own organisation. To achieve this, we are going to do the following:

• Embrace the club network more in the talent system – Stage 1 of the model above.
• Better integrate the AASE (now England Development Programme) into the talent network
• Test a new and more resourceful/innovative “Talent and Enterprise Hubs” concept to support the needs of the talent system to increased standards (covered in detail below)
• Build the capacity of the 10 Basketball England regions by refreshing the Regional Management Approach, incorporating the new Operating Model for Regions and attracting people to support new roles in regional development and delivery
• During the change process, build a pathway for coaches, sports science/medicine staff, officials and other occupations in the sport to help them grow, progress and develop
• Give recognition to those working in the sport and those who contribute to the new talent model.

A key development that will support all the bullet points above involves the creation of “Talent and Enterprise Hubs”. Currently being piloted in the East region involving a partnership between TASS and Essex University, the Hub is designed support to the region’s talent work. The University, our talent network (clubs, coaches, AASE, sports science/medicine etc.) and management within the region will all work closely together to create a range of accessible services for player development. Engaging a player’s club, coaches and parents is also a key part of this process. The Hub model should increase the capacity available within each region and we will have more on the Hub model in the coming months.

In making the changes proposed, we want to strengthen the connection between regional activity, clubs and the people in the talent system. We anticipate that a number of current roles will change and there will be the potential for new roles as part of our future talent programmes. Much of this development will depend on selling the sport in a compelling way to new partners who can provide value to the game.

We are currently opening discussions with the Performance Coach Coordinators (PCC) about the broadening of the PCC remit and the pivotal role in connecting grass roots clubs and their coaches to the talent system. This should have a positive impact across those who operate in the talent network.

We will be seeking to provide more support at the regional level with a range of new partnerships between clubs, coaches, colleges and universities. This means there will be a stronger connection between the coaches who operate in clubs, AASE academies, the PCC’s and those working in national development programmes.

At this point, the four parts of the England talent system presented in this document are being shared with you so can start to understand what we have proposed and provide feedback on the pathway and system changes. We will be communicating more on how these plans will be implemented over the coming months.

In sharing these intended changes, it’s important to recognise that the initial speed of what we can implement to improve the talent system will be affected by the amount of Sport England talent grant allocated to us and the amount of funding allocated to the GB Age Group national teams. Change will also be affected by how quickly we can test the appetite for other institutions and organisations to invest in our new plans, especially at the regional and club level. This means there will be a challenging transition year in 2018 to develop all areas despite differing levels of support and investment within sections of the game.

I hope you can see how we are going to be more radical in the way we look at resourcing talent, working with new partners and providing resource and expertise to our network. You can also see how we are fully integrating talent with the community game by embracing the club network in our talent development programme. We will have a lot more information in the coming weeks and months, but I hope this document has provided a top level overview of our direction.

Please continue to support my team and the network in this exciting development that so many of you have been part of. People in basketball want to see a change for the better, and it is coming. With the experience, learning, and investment in the game from within this network and the sheer volume of science, research and new ideas we have utilised, this is the beginning of something very exciting for the sport.