South Africa's basketball community

Is there a need for a Coaches commission in SA?

By on May 21, 2009 in News

South Africa is a complex society with complex issues to resolve and basketball is no stranger as far as issues to resolve goes… Over the past few months we have had cries for referees to be brought to order and Mybasketball touched the surface as far as that is concerned…Now it’s time to discuss another important aspect of our game, the coaches…

Training our coaches…

Year in and year out, we have teams participating in different competitions all over the country whether it be at mini basketball, junior level or senior level and most of these teams are led by a coach, a caretaker or a teacher…

Some of these coaches have gained experience from books, DVDs, television and through the art of learning from someone else but most of them have no formal training and those are few and far in between. BSA has promised to address this void in development of coaches but until then it’s the Do It Yourself model that is the norm in the country.

Most kids in SA start playing basketball when they get to high school and that is their first contact point for the sport. Having been involved at this level, you usually get new and young coaches that mean well but don’t know how to go about channeling this enthusiasm into a productive coaching method. So they end up teaching the wrong stuff or teaching the right stuff but at the wrong level; this leads to players that don’t develop properly. These players are starving to emulate the NBA stars on television and without proper guidance they also resort to the Do It Yourself model of their coaches… They end up being exposed at provincial level or at international level where they do their best but simply don’t have the tools.

By the time these players finish high school and move into the university system they are not equipped to compete at the next level and either end up struggling to adjust for a few years or giving up the sport all together…

This vicious circle continues and that’s why there is a need for formal training for coaches and a grading system is essential especially for our national teams.

Coaching Director’s…

There is a provision in the BSA infrastructure for a coaching director and there are a few people that can probably fill this role. On the top of my head, we have Mlungisi “Flosh” Ngwenya, Thierry Kita, Kimathi Tobothi, Craig Daniels, Brenda Mutungutungu and a few others that have had some kind of involvement at senior national level. As we speak Flosh Ngwenya is doing a coaching course overseas and hopefully when he comes back he will share the knowledge he gains with other coaches…

A coaching director in my opinion is an important part of any basketball structure because he should streamline all the programs from mini up to senior level. They should enforce the style of play adopted all levels, organize coaches conventions/commissions and make sure that the proper training is provided. Make sure that the development program is implemented correctly and that there is progress made from all age groups. Liaise and work with the referees to see where they can improve standards, etc… We have a lot of basketball brains but how do you go about selecting one…

Coaches commission…

This has been mentioned a few times on this website and recently I had some correspondence from Jabulani James Mthethwa (Under 20 National men coach, Bedfordview dragons coach and founder) that convinced me to write this article. One of our regular contributors on Mybasketball, Joe Mangadi also mentioned it a few times that there was a need to get Commission for Coaches up and running for the sake of the sport.

With national teams jetting all over the world for different competitions, some people see the need for such a gathering as a priority. National teams go and take part in regional tournaments throughout Africa and most people expect them to perform and when they don’t the first person questioned is the head coach. In a normal and organized system with a functioning federation, functioning districts, functioning leagues, this would be applicable but in a South African system where everything needs to be fixed; the coach is almost set up to fail from the beginning. Most of the time the coach in question doesn’t get to pick the team that he will be taking or even if he does get to pick his squad he doesn’t have access to the complete pool of players from the country.

National teams are being selected without any form of guidelines. Players that should be in national teams are overlooked because they were not at a particular tournament or their teams/institutions didn’t qualify. Good high school players get overlooked because they were not informed of trial dates or because their school doesn’t play in a particular league. A coaches’ commission would go a long way to solve that problem if it is implemented properly with various coaches from all over the country having an input.

A coaches’ commission could come up with a plan of action and directive for the whole country and work closely with a Coaching director to make sure that it is implemented. Make sure that the junior programs and development programs are well run and supported. This will also help implement a national program for coaching clinics and help with the proper selection of coaches at provincial and national level.

All this requires vision and if we have aspirations of making it to the Olympics one day, BasketballSA needs to have that vision and a plan to get us there. By putting the different pieces into place starting with the right administrators, it will help our sport grow exponentially. At the moment we go to tournaments knowing that we will not do well and we come back and say it was a learning curve. Coaches start working with teams and after a tournament they are changed without any form of plan to let them implement a 2 year program for that team, etc… The right administrators at all level will ensure a functioning system which will lead to better policies, better districts, better provincial structures, better national structures, better government support and better support for the sport.

Article by Victor Shakineza

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There Are 30 Brilliant Comments

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  1. baller says:

    Vic

    i fully agree that we need to have the coaching commission as soon as possible. on the positive thou, with the way i see things unfolding within BSA i sure hope that is one of their priorities. we seem to be making progress in the right direction even thou it will take us time.

    for me, it is very critical to develop young coaches as they are the first contact point with the kids. if we get that right then we are going to build a better foundation for bball in the country. currently, i believe the senior men and women head coaches should ne tasked in forming the commission.

    at the same time, we need our province to be able to ensure that these coaches that are trained monitored provincially and developed thorugh involvements in many games.

  2. kim says:

    Vic
    I have been a backup assistant coach(Jomo Sono) since 2005 and you want me to be a Coaching DIrector..hahahaha…I dont think so my brother.I think some of the people you mention INCLUDING myself still need to be coached on coaching.You rightly say that we have information that we have gathered from wherever but the question is how RELEVANT is that information for our(SA)environment.The biggest mistake one can make is to take a DUKE type of play and try implement it a CUT.

    So I believe the first thing that a Coaching COmmission,DIrector etc should start establishing is what style of play BEST suits us with the current players but looking at the upcoming players the development players.Once we can understand what style we need to play then I believe that IF Florsh retires from the SA team and we get poor Fred to take over,he would be familiar of the style that works for US.

    This would be a forum for knowledge sharing where we can decide that we can tap to resources that we have.We have players and coaches that have gone to the All Africa Games,Commonwealth,World Student Games,African Champs,African Club Champs,African Qualifiers,World Student Games,NBA etc….where is the knowledge that has been gathered by those people.Coach Molupe and Q are going to Serbia,it would be nice for them to have 5 or 6 tapes of what they can expect at that level so that they plan WHILST still at camp.

    Year in Year out we talk about this topic and I just have stopped comment on it cos no progress has been made……..

  3. Guys
    We keep speaking of a style of play that suits us. A style of play does not come from the coach , it comes from the personnel you have on your team – you cannot force a particular style of play on a team that does not have the players to run that style of play effectively. Hence a coach has to implement a system that suits the type of players he has on his team……….

  4. kim says:

    Craig
    I agree with but disagree at the same time.As i have pointed out that we can not go and think we can play like USA because we dont have players that have the athletic ability to play like that.We can however begin at early age ensure that our big man can hit the outside 3 pointer if left alone.When I talk about the style I am talking about certain ingredients that we make sure all players enhance.

    I will give you one example.Moz or Ang or Russia for that matter.They play SIMILAR basketball for all their under16,18,20,universities,international.When Russia seniors play you can see the similarities from senior to juniors.They dont play the same plays nor have the same athletic abilities but play similar basketball.I am not talking about plays though.

    I dont know if you understand me now.I dont mean agree with me but understand me 🙂

  5. sipho says:

    Kim

    U may be right that they are playing in a similar fashion which I suppose it suits their players, which I think it’s what Craig is saying. So I think you guys are not disagreeing with each other but just raising two equally important points!

  6. Joe says:

    Is Kim pointed out the need for a Coaches commission has been recognised long ago, but no action. It is time the wishing stopped and the acting start. I therefore appeal to BSA to either present their strategic and as well as action plans for the coaches.

    I am sensing that something is brewing but the rest of the coaching community is left in the dark. The last thing we need is for a person or plan to be imposed on Coaches without their imput.

    Again, it seems transparency and consultation are not in the BSA vocabulary cause if that was the case then the strategic reasoning of the Flosh trip would have been communicated and understood by the bball community.

  7. kim says:

    Joe
    What is the strategic reasoning of Coach Flosh’s trip?Where has he gone to?When is he coming back?

    Sorry for all these questions my brother but we in Kimberley get news very late and I am unfortunately not a subscriber of the Sowetan(haha).

  8. Joe says:

    Kim

    Maybe Kimberley should also request to be incorporated into Gauteng, I mean if Khutsong did it you can did it 2.

    Unfortunately that might not help either as I am in Gauteng but am in the dark as to the reasoning for the Flosh trip. My gut tells me, Cronyism At Work.

  9. kim says:

    Joe
    Did it 2….I hear that the Honourable Pres Kenneth Kaunda came up with that(hahahaha).

    Cronyism at work….Dont you think that is a little bit harsh especially if no clarity has been requested from BasketballSA of the trip unless you saying information was sought from the authorities and no response followed?

  10. Joe says:

    Kim

    I know it sounds harsh but why else, until BSA communicates and consults broadly there is always going to be conspiracy theories, especially from ME.

    Funny thing is our leaders are supporters of consultative politics and our Pres. is a spokesperson in his other life, maybe I am expecting too much. I mean the only thing we ever here from BSA is about the National Teams, what about the rest of their mandate? Referees are a law unto themselves, School basketball is at best abandoned, coaches are ignored, PBL is still a ghost and Provinces are unaccountable and idle.

    Basically, I am getting a feeling that the energy with which the Exec began is slowly dissipating and that some of the energy could be diverting to other activities besides basketball.

  11. nihlo says:

    bsa does nothing for any one but gauteng…flosh choses his friends to play for the national team..so the forum may as wel be for gauteng

  12. Kholo says:

    Joe

    I agree with what your saying.I want to add on the school basketball.How many school basketball court do we have in SA.We expect to be competitive yet we don’t have simply basketball.

    You spoke about the development which the key point solve all the mess we having in basketball.How do we expect the coaches to coach kids if there are no court.

    I think is time that we need to be realistic.If BSA can even have proper structure themselves,how do we expect basketball to flourish.We don’t even have BSA websites where we can see who is who.

    If your go to other countries’s websites you will see what i am talking about.

    We need to have referee committee,coaching and development committee.All this committee must be in all the province to overseer the whole progress of basketball.If you have communities with one basketball and caters for school and local club then we still have long way to go before we can playing competitive basketball.

  13. kim says:

    Joe
    Probably BasketballSA is listening and will get a communications/spokesperson appointed within their structure as well.I was able to track where Mr F Ngwenya is.Mr Ngwenya is apparently attending the Olympic Solidarity Program which is done by FIBA in conjunction with IOC.I was able to pickup some material on the programme with its purpose etc .Hungary is just but 1 of the venues but also has about 6 venues mentioned where this training is happening.www.fiba.com has info on this programme.

    The information talks about training of coaches and one of the document mentioned that the coach should be a national team coach.I am not sure what BasketballSA had communicated in the article in the Sowetan before Coach Flosh left but thats what I have googled so far.I think you mention a very important fact when it comes to communications from the Head Office, because the people can be under the impression that nothing is done hence most organisation have so called ‘spin doctors’ to ensure that the public is updated with information of that particular organisation.

    Maybe I can suggest that BAsketballSA seriously look at having THEIR own website where they will communicate programmes,projects,resolutions to the broader basketball community.This will inturn might bring positive spinoffs such as sponsorships,well run provincial structures,calender of events etc.Information is key and using tools such as websites to convey happenings within ones structure can only improve the sport.

    Thats my opinion

  14. kim says:

    Kholo
    I feel like I was copying you…hahaha

  15. Musa says:

    It is so fun when people talks about coaches commission.Last year we had situation where players were selected over the phone.One guy complain about this and he was told that he complains too much.

    Many basketball players were given opportunity to play for provinces base on favorable merit.If we continue in this trends we heading for disaster.Coaching commission will be a waste of time.

    We can discuss this issues but BSA has final say on our their want they coaching system to be structured.

  16. Kholo says:

    Kim

    It is ok Kim

  17. Joe says:

    Viva sabasketball.com Viva!

  18. Kholo says:

    Joe

    viva,amandla sabasketball.com amandla

  19. kim says:

    Musa
    Why would a coaching commission be a waste of time?

  20. Musa says:

    Kim

    Because we need to put our basketball structure in order before we can start talking about coaching commission.We have our BSA which does not have good basketball structure.Do you expect our province to have good structure if BSA does not have one,Do you expect district level to have good structure if Provincial does not have one. We need to line out the priorities of basketball In this Country.If BSA don’t have those priorities.

    I believe the main priority of basketball is development,more basketball court in school.Then we can talk about the style of play and coaching commission after that.

  21. sipho says:

    Nihlo

    Lets say Florsh is selecting only his friends for the national team, like u allege, now tell me, who were the better players that he was supposed to pick for the squad that went to the championships in Angola cos that’s the only time I saw him as the head coach of our squad! Who was he suppose to leave behind among joseph, les, neo, nyaks, Q, pat, TK, thabo, vusi etc

    Why blame florsh when we dont have a national league where all best ballers will be competing against each other. I dont blv that an mvp in northern cape is necessarily national team material! Again, I dont think the senior team is meant to groom/improve/expose/develop anyone but we need ready made ppl there, so blame BSA not Florsh!

    Lets be constructive in moving 4ward & stop hating! I’m sure if u have ideas/recommendations he will listen to you & make his mind up about them!

  22. sipho says:

    dont bite my head off, it was not necessarily the only time he coached the squad but I chose that 1 occasion as a reference!

  23. baller says:

    Nihlo

    ask any coach in S.A to select the men’s national team this year..i guarantee you that the same team that was selected to Moz will be the team. and for the record he was not coaching the team. Terry Kita was the coach.

  24. sipho says:

    Nihlo

    I was just commenting on the msg u posted on 26 May @ 12h06 pm! Yes I know he was not coaching the team in Mozas hence I chose the Angola team for reference! I dont quite get your point then cos the team that was in Mozas had most of the players (friends) that Florsh always picks, is’nt it! Or are u saying Les & Joseph are bad players since they were not in Mozas & Florsh always uses them in his squad?

  25. sipho says:

    Nihlo

    Never mind my previous msg, I thot u were the 1 that posted after me. I apologise to u!

    Thanx baller!!

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