Beginning a pathway to player development and focusing on the future of the sport were amongst the key messages from Thursday’s National Aspire Conference in Manchester.
Taking place prior to Great Britain’s vital pre-EuroBasket 2021 qualifier against Cyprus, speakers included Basketball England CEO, Stewart Kellett, Sam Messam who assisted in the creation of our new Player Development Framework as well as experienced head coaches, Tony Garbelotto and Alan Keane.
Charlie Ford, said: “The conference provided a valuable learning experience for all of the Aspire coaches, coordinators in attendance. The opportunity to interact, discuss ideas and network as a group of coaches is much needed and in line with the coaching game plan we be focusing on the development of Aspire workforce.
“The conference also gave us the opportunity to embed further our Player Development Framework which aims to provide coaches and clubs with a blueprint for player development at every age and stage of their basketball journey. During the summer months and ahead of the 2019-20 season we will commence with our club implementation plans.”
The presentations centred around laying out coaching foundations, which included building framework and developing as a coach, along with promoting continuous improvement to players, growing relationships within practice sessions, getting to know the players, understand them and develop their trust in you.
Also, experienced shooting coach Bob Martin ran a shooting skills session with the help of players from the North West Aspire programme.
By the end of the conference, the 70 attendees were left inspired to take back what they have learned into their Aspire and Club sessions in the pursuit of developing future national team players.
The Aspire Programme is a new Basketball England player development environment that features education sessions covering several different topics including hydration, nutrition, sleep and injury prevention.
The objective is to provide quality coaching for 11 to 15-year olds with the emphasis on teaching the principles of basketball as a game and reinforcing the skills necessary to develop better basketball players.
