When the Philippines
government closed sports facilities as part of its effort to control the
Covid-19 pandemic, Goducate’s basketball program adapted to the situation by
offering training online to basketball coaches, referees, and leaders (see blog
of June 12, 2020, on GoBasket webinars). After these virtual training sessions
had been conducted for
trainees from all over the Philippines and even for some from Malaysia, we
introduced backyard coaching.
In backyard coaching,
those who had been trained as coaches online would gather players in their own
villages for virtual training.
The idea of online
training has since been extended to other sports in a nationwide program called
Go Asia Sports. The other sports covered in this Camp Goducate program include
volleyball, football, taekwondo, fitness training. Coaches have been sending in
their videos on training, which include moral values. The online training is
conducted on Facebook.
On March 1, a virtual backyard Basketball Forum was conducted mainly for Western Visayas. The participants (30 from Western Visayas, 4 from Laguna, and 10 from Mindanao) shared ideas on backyard training and how to do so in accordance with government guidelines on control of Covid-19.
Poster about GoBasket’s training sessions
*Our guest writer is Andrian F. Pagsuiguiron, National Coordinator for GoBasket Philippines.
The Covid-19 pandemic brought
sports activities to a halt, causing loss of livelihoods for many people in the
sports industry. To help basketball coaches, referees, and leaders, Goducate’s
basketball program, GoBasket Philippines, held its first online coaching training
session on May 25-20.
Around 120 of these
people from all over the Philippines attended this webinar, given through Zoom,
a platform for audio and video conferencing.
The aim of the training was to train participants in holistic coaching,
skills development, and the development of good moral values. The holistic approach looks at all aspects of an individual — the
physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual — because athletes have other things
going on in their lives besides sports.
The topics covered by trainers from different countries were:
Coaching
Matters, by David “Boycie” Zamar, assistant coach of San Miguel Beermen Professional
Team of Philippine Basketball Association;
Sports
Chaplaincy, the provision of spiritual and pastoral care to sportsmen, by Mon
Casuga, coach at AO1 Skills Academy;
Basketball Officiating, by
referee George Magsino of Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League;
Sports Livelihood, by Paul
Advincula, head coach of the MalaysianBasketball
National Team 1999 to 2016;
and
Skills Development by Jefferson
Codera, skills trainer of the US National Basketball Association Golden State
Warriors.
The team of
international and professional speakers, with their experience, knowledge, and
practical tips, made the training session seem like a week-long basketball
festival.
This GoBasket Philippines webinar is the first of several sessions to be held over a year to train and produce competent sports leaders to reach their own communities through basketball, the most popular sport in the Philippines.
*Our guest writer is Agape Abarte, a volunteer coach with GoBasket.
Goducate is adopting basketball as an approach to transforming lives through education in all 42,036 barangays (villages) in the Philippines. The reason is, as Philippine Basketball Association Coach Felimon Casuga put it, “Basketball is really the passion of this country. [Filipinos] love to play…so we come into their lives by playing the game of basketball”. He was speaking during the first GoBasket Philippines Sports Coaching Training held for Goducate on Oct 11-13 at Camp Goducate Training Center in Iloilo.
Echoing his sentiment was Coach Paul Advincula of FIBA International, who added that the heart of the movement is to train basketball coaches who will reach “rural areas, the less-privileged…those in the grassroots”
“We want to reach out to…the fatherless, the motherless…the leftover kids,” backed up Coach David “Boycie” Zamar, also of FIBA International. “The impact starts with poverty. If you saw what Fox Sports has been showing after Yolanda, it was only basketball that has been de-stressing coming from typhoon-struck areas. Doing basketball for kids, and basketball for father-and son relationships,” he continued.
These three of the country’s top coaches came to Camp Goducate Training Center to train 43 participants from different backgrounds, including school teachers, church leaders, community leaders, and students.
Coach Casuga made two other points. First, “Sports coaches have the biggest impact on the lives of kids, because when a coach says something, a kid is supposed to follow without question”. Second, a 2011 study from Concordia University confirms that “Coaches have a unique relationship with their athletes. [They] are mentors, parent figures, career enablers, and judges — all at the same time”. That same study stressed the importance of building relationships, more than teaching the technical skill of basketball.
Coach Casuga explaining a point
Goducate aims, through GoBasket Philippines, to capitalize on coaches’ influence to transform the lives of Filipino youth, especially those who are vulnerable to drug addiction and other vices.
Agape Abarte, one of Goducate’s Community Development Trainers (CDTs), highlighted the potential of basketball as a tool for transforming Filipino lives. “Every neighborhood has its basketball court and that brings together everyone in the community when there is a basketball game……….We have around half million basketball courts in the country, including those that are open courts, gyms, under the coconut tree, side of the mountain, anywhere you mention. And there will always be a kid out there who needs…the fundamentals of basketball and life.”
Listening attentively
One of the trainees was Junnel Palma, a BS Criminology graduate. He shared that he had originally dreamt of becoming to a professional basketball player, but felt he was too old for a basketball career. Instead, he now wants “to teach the kids what I know.”
To keep the ball rolling, after the training session in Iloilo, GoBasket Philippines went on to conduct the same program in Goducate Laguna, on Oct 31-Nov 2 for 49 individuals, and in Pulupandan, Negros, on Nov 8-10 for 35 participants.
Numerous basketball clinics designed for youths are now on going in different barangays, thanks to these newly certified coaches.
Doing push-ups
*Our guest writer is Queenie Guibao, Batch 10 Trainee
