Former Indian women’s coach Francisco Garcia and renowned coach J.D. Walsh, who has conducted clinics across the country, headlined a coaches conclave organised by Integrated Basketball Players Association (IBPA) in association with the Indian Basketball Fans.
Garcia, who was at the helm of the women’s team from 2013 to 2015, spoke about coaching techniques to improve the standard of the sport in the country.
“Focus should not be on more number of drills, rather, the coaches should focus on concentrated drills. Coaches should be focused on what results they want from a player and they should work on only those specified drills,” said the Spaniard.
“When correcting players, too much information should not be put in their head. Players should be told about their fault in a more precise way so that they have less and concrete information to process and drills should be made more dynamic.”
Walsh, who has run numerous camps across 25 Indian cities and worked with the various state associations through his JDBASKETBALL School, urged coaches to work on sharpening the athletes’ skills like dribbling, passing and catching as it is a skill-based sport.
The American said: “Basketball is a game of skill and more than drills, the focus should be on skill and endurance training. Consistency and a good skill development programme can prove beneficial in creating world-class talent in India.”
Walsh added that the country needs a pro-league that basketballers can aspire to play in a club- type system and needs more grassroots marketing to incentivise players to take up the sport.
The session — moderated by former international Balakrishnan Jayaram and Jayshankar Menon, Asian All-Star player and IBPA secretary-general — was held in the memory of the late Dr. Subramaniam who helped produce more than 50 internationals such as Satnam Singh, Amjyot Singh Gill, Yadwinder Singh and Jagdeep Singh to name a few.
