MAPUTO (Olympic Solidarity / coaching) - Mr Nelson Guilliam Isley was the FIBA Basketball expert who was sent to Maputo, Mozambique to conduct the talent identification program jointly with the "Team Support Grant" basketball project regarding development of women's basketball in Mozambique.
Mr Isley was in Mozambique from the 23 November 2005 to 30 March 2006 and in the meantime he coached women's senior team at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia.
The talent Identification Program was divided into four major areas.
Development of Coaches
The first area concentrated specifically on the development of a team of coaches who would carry on the work of identifying future players. This was primarily done by a 15 day coaches formation course conducted in Maputo.
The main focus of this course related to the understanding of various approaches to working with young children. The major aims or objectives were directed in the following areas:
- Contribute to the development of children as people
- Have fun and improve physical development
- Teach certain values such as "respect team work"
- Improve basic fundamentals of basketball
Isley reported that they should first look for the "Athlete" and that it is possible to discover talent that might never become a great basketball player, but perhaps a star in some other sport like athletics, or swimming, etc..
The curriculum proposed at the beginning of the sessions was focused on fundamental movements such as gaits (walking, running, sprints), bending, twisting, lunging, squats, pushing, pulling, throwing, catching, agility, and balance. From these elements coaches could get a better understanding if the youngster is an athlete with talent or not.
The remaining curriculum was designed for youngsters to get to know the ball. Certain drills were introduced to improve coordination in ball handling areas such as passing, dribbling, and shooting with the ultimate goal of helping them to make correct individual decisions on the court. This was better established by using a lot of 1 versus 1, 2 versus 2, and 3 versus 3 base games.
Isley explained on how to set up priorities in the courses content such as suitability, specificity with regards to set goals, simplicity etc. It was also important to explain to coaches that they had to also consider some basic questions such as:
1) Are the kids prepared for the content of these courses?
2) If so, is this content suitable for Talent Identification Program?
3) Is there enough time to teach the content?
Teaching this to the coaches was important for Isley, as it prepared these coaches on all aspects of working with young people.
Olympia Africa Center
The second major area of work was concentrated on the Olympia Africa Center. Mozambique Olympic Solidarity Centre is situated 30 minutes south of Maputo in a very poor area of the country. The center which can accommodate hundreds of young boys and girls is more commonly used for recreation and sports. On average there were 300 children using the facility of which 60 were pre-selected by the monitors to work specifically for basketball.
The previously mentioned course methodology was used to work with this group and many children with talent were discovered.
Nelson Mandela Secondary School
The third major area of work was the Nelson Mandela Secondary School at Matola, another city close to Maputo where Isley had worked. The age groups were between 14-16 and the number of participants for both boys and girls (which were somewhat advanced in their skill level) was 25.
Isley gave some guidelines to follow including material such as progressive drills and many combination drills with and without the ball as sometimes there can be a shortage of basketballs. It was emphasized that they needed to use their imagination to the fullest while working with these kids. A donation of 20 basket balls to the school was made by the National Olympic Committee of Mozambique.
Mozambican National Women's team
Isley's last and very vital area of work was coaching the Mozambican National Women's team. In the past he had already coached the team and assisted them to almost qualify for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games (finished second in 2003 African women's Championship).
It is of interest to note that recently the women's Mozambican basketball team beat India 70-44 at the Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne, Australia 2006, bringing them to a 5th place overall finish.
Mozambique has a wonderful opportunity to qualify for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at the next FIBA Africa Championship or through World Pre-Olympic tournament and with this sort of teaching methodology basketball can grow from the grass root level to the professional level and secure long term progress of basketball in Mozambique.