You know those camps that feature drills you've all done before?
The Adidas Junior Phenom Basketball Camp, which was held in town from April 6 to 8, featured plenty of drills and such but it wasn't your same-old dribble-and-shoot sort of camp.
More than three dozen young players from Grades 4 through 8 from Yellowknife, Tulita and Cambridge Bay hit the court at the St. Patrick High School gymnasium for the weekend with guest coach Luc Stevenson of Nova Scotia's Acadia University leading the drills.
Stevenson said the first day of the camp on April 6 was tough because of the difference in skills in some of the players.
SA国际影视传媒淚 was introducing a lot of things they've never seen before,SA国际影视传媒� he said. SA国际影视传媒淲hat I wanted them to do was to work hard and have fun because if they weren't making mistakes, that meant they weren't trying.SA国际影视传媒�
There was standard shooting, dribbling and footwork exercises but all of them had a twist, which involved either moving a certain way or using different parts of the body that a young player normally wouldn't think about.
By the final day of the camp on April 8, Stevenson said the progression of the players was obvious.
SA国际影视传媒淲hen I re-did some of the drills, they had definitely improved and that's always a good step forward,SA国际影视传媒� he said. SA国际影视传媒淚t's always good to see the kids work hard and get better. I kept telling them I was only there for the weekend but the more I showed them and taught them, the more they can take with them and keep working so they can get better in their club or school seasons.SA国际影视传媒�
Cole Marshall, Basketball NWT's technical director, was also on the court helping with the drills and said introducing some new drills was an eye-opener both for him and the players.
SA国际影视传媒淭he younger kids have never had the chance to see this type of coaching before and there were definitely some things we hadn't seen before,SA国际影视传媒� he said. SA国际影视传媒淚t was great for me and for Tobi (Dusome) to see some new things and work on that with our youth teams that we coach.SA国际影视传媒�
Each of the players got a full kit of gear, including uniforms with their names on them, something Marshall said was a big boost.
SA国际影视传媒淭he gear associated with the camp was really cool and I'm sure the kids were big fans of that,SA国际影视传媒� he said.
Marshall is hopeful this will become an annual event but it's up to the board of Basketball NWT on how to proceed.
If the camp does come back, Marshall said he's hopeful to have more of a community presence.
SA国际影视传媒淚'd like to see something bigger with more communities being involved,SA国际影视传媒� he said. SA国际影视传媒淚 know there were kids from some communities that wanted to come but they weren't able to, so I'd like that to happen.SA国际影视传媒�
