By Tayo Ogunseye
A wet afternoon on a Sunday in Lagos did not deter some determined women who gathered at the Avi-Cenna School’s basketball court for a chance at learning the basics and the core rudiments of coaching at a clinic organised by Giants Of Africa (GOA).
With rapt attention, the participants numbering about 35 absorbed the lessons from the instructors and coaches whose vast experiences and technical knowledge of the game guided them on how be a better coach in their career.
One after the other, the much-travelled coaches shared their valuable real-life situation as a way of evolving a change in participants who would in turn use these knowledge in nurturing discovered talents skills into potential stars.
Michael Akubor, the Coordinator, Giants Of Africa in Nigeria underlined the theme “When the women win, we all win” as the main reason for putting up the clinic with women as the core focus.
“The whole idea is to bring in and encourage female coaches to take up the profession of coaching in basketball” he said.
” The coaching project for female coaches is bright but at the same time we deal with a lot of cultural, religious and traditional obstacles in Africa so we are working hard on how to overcome these obstacles in Africa.”
“Basically” he continued, “it’s the basic fundamentals of coaching, the rudimentary. How you can begin training players who have never played and who are very young.The things you need to know and how you can pass your message to those young children for them to understand.”
He attributed part of the challenges of getting women into coaching to accessibility, suitable venues, funding and the media.”
Meanwhile, a member of the team, Joe Touomou who is a FIBA Instructor and Senior Coach of GOA emphasised that the programme was designed to ensure that women in Africa “understand what it means to be a coach because they deal with kids especially with kids these days it’s mental gymnastics. There are many things that can keep them away from the values they are taught in classrooms and at home so sports is a good way to keeping these kids aligned, disciplined and focused on their goals and sports is the best way to do it. Basketball is a great sports because we know the many opportunities that comes with basketball. One of the things I told the coaches is how to sell their programmes to parents. With basketball, you can have access to one of the best ivy leagues which are the best schools in the world” he said.
Earlier, participants were put through different practical basics of the game.
The co-founder of GOA, Masai Ujiri while addressing the coaches urged them to acquire more practical knowledge as a way of scaling up their careers.
“Challenge yourself more on the knowledge you have and you can have. I’m very happy you have come out for some of the clinics like this, go out to more as other people do clinics. Try to get one thing from these clinics that will always stays with you, something you will grasp and you like.”
He further advised them to apply different approaches different situations on coaching young players as shouting might not be the best method where pep talk is required to pass a message and bring out the best from the players.
The participants expressed satisfaction with the new knowledge and skills acquired as they commended the organisers for the opportunity at creating a better career as basketball coaches.
