August 2015
Basketball Manitoba is saddened to share the news that former Winnipeg Cyclone Basketball Coach Darryl Dawkins died on Thursday August 27 at the age of 58. Dawkins spent parts of 14 seasons in the NBA with Philadelphia, New Jersey, Utah and Detroit. He averaged 12 points and 6.1 rebounds in 726 career regular-season games. He was selected No. 5 in the 1975 NBA draft by the 76ers. In his retirement days, Dawkins tried his hand at coaching, including a stint in Winnipeg with the now defunct Winnipeg Cyclone professional basketball team. The team, which played out of the Winnipeg Convention Center in the International Basketball Association (IBA), operated from 1995 to 2001.
He worked closely with local basketball coach Grant Richter over this time. On the passing of Dawkins, Richter commented, "It was a blast working with and hanging around an NBA legend for a couple of years. A once in a lifetime experience."
Rest in Peace Chocolate Thunder.
WATCH CBC NEWS ARCHIVES ON
DARRYL DAWKINS IN WINNIPEG
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| Coach Dawkins in the huddle with the Cyclone |
At Steve Nash Youth Basketball, we always try to make a concentrated effort to show how impactful playing multiple sports can be for a young, developing athlete. It is important for parents to understand the benefits children can get from taking the multi-sport pathway. One of the best ways to demonstrate the impact it can have is by observing the developmental process of professional athletes, many of which were multi-sport athletes as youth. In this article, John O’Sullivan speaks on the benefits of the multi-sport pathway, using professional golfer and current World #1 Jordan Spieth as an excellent example!By: John O’Sullivan
On June 21, at the ripe old age of 21, Jordan Spieth become just the sixth golfer in history to win both The Masters and The US Open in the same year, joining some pretty illustrious company such as Woods, Nicklaus, Palmer and Hogan. He must have played only golf growing up to become this good, this fast, right? Think again. This article first appeared on the Titleist Performance Institute’s blog and is reprinted with permission.
Jordan Spieth is an immense talent. To succeed on the PGA TOUR at such a young age, you have to have a certain measure of natural ability. Add a relentless drive, level head and physical prowess, and you’ve got a chance to play golf at a very high level.
But there is more to Jordan’s success than the work he has done as a golfer. In many ways, the work he did as a quarterback, pitcher and point guard laid the foundation for a successful career. This multi-sport development is the embodiment of the model that we preach at TPI. Develop the athlete first, then the golfer.
It won’t guarantee success on TOUR, but it will help your child maximize their physical potential and overall enjoyment of the game.
Jordan discovered golf at a young age and immediately fell in love with it. By the time he was 12 he was asking his parents if golf could be his only sport. Though they knew their son loved golf (and showed promise), Jordan’s parents didn’t want their kids to specialize in one sport at a young age.“We did not raise our kids to be one-sport athletes. You have to let them explore options… You have to make sure they know that life is more than one sport, or one goal.” said Jordan’s mother, Chris Spieth, in a terrific interview with Purpose2Play.com.
“There’s a lot that can be learned from competing as a team. I think having that experience really grounds you and prepares you for other things in life beyond sports. I think, sometimes, when kids show an aptitude for golf at a young age, their parents push them into spending all of their time on that one sport. They get burnt out and they don’t have the opportunity to explore all the other things out there.” – Chris SpiethAs a young athlete, Jordan excelled as a quarterback and pitcher, while trying to keep up with his younger brother, Steven, on the basketball court (Steven would eventually play Division I basketball at Brown University).
“He hung up his golf clubs during football and baseball season—he was a quarterback and a pitcher—two pretty big roles. Then, he’d pick up golf again when summer rolled around,” Chris says.
Throwing a baseball or football is a tremendous movement prep for golf as it teaches the athlete to generate power from ground force reaction and transfer that power to their arms. Just as in golf, the kinematic sequence must be fluid to maximize efficiency. Learning the coordination and athleticism to do that in baseball can translate to golf, as it did for REMAX Long Drive champ and former NCAA pitcher Tim Burke.
Additionally, as a left-handed thrower, Jordan turned his body the opposite way of his golf swing, giving him a tremendous (albeit, counterintuitive) advantage over young competitors. By turning his body the opposite direction Jordan was able to balance strength and flexibilty in his body, helping to avoid overuse injuries.Several years ago, Dr. Greg Rose and Dr. Tom House coined a theory called the Big Break Theory. The Big Break Theory postulates that your body can only accelerate to the point where it knows it can safely decelerate. Therefore, if you train your body to move in both directions, you’ll improve your body’s ability to decelerate and increase your potential for speed.
A mistake that many young athletes make is that they only train in the direction that they’ll move in their sport. This creates a legitimately dangerous imbalance, but also limits their potential. All of the speed training that we do is done in both directions.
Golf is littered with athletes who turn the opposite way. He’s not the only prominent golfer who turns the opposite way when throwing, either.
There are a number of things that contributed to Spieth’s success as a golf, but it wasn’t just MORE golf.
It’s true in virtually every other sport too (with the exception of early specialization sports like gymnastics). In 2014, the USOC completed a comprehensive survey of their Olympians and found that, on average, Olympians played three sports per year from 10 – 14 and over two sports per year from 15 – 18.
The same is true in football, too.
We aren’t trying to discourage your kids from playing golf, but we do want to encourage your kids to PLAY. Look at the leaders in driving distance on the PGA Tour. Nearly EVERY one of them had a deep background in another sport.Your kid can’t win the Masters at 13, but they can become burnt out at 13.
Jordan is special, but he is also lucky. Lucky to have parents who saw a bigger picture and lucky to have a TPI Certified team who recognized that playing multiple sports would enhance his long-term athletic development.
Please share your thoughts below. Should kids participate in multiple sports? Does their chosen sport matter? Let’s get a good discussion going below.
Source: Steve Nash Youth Basketball Blog http://ift.tt/1PTPEKM
The Winnipeg Minor Basketball Association has announced details on its 19th season of community club basketball for children living in the greater Winnipeg area at the 5-18 age level. There are no ‘tryouts’ for club basketball as we make as many teams in the area based on the number of players who register. 
The Winnipeg Wild have announbced details on their open tryouts for the newly created 15U (2001 and younger) and 13U (2003 and younger) teams within their program, as well an an open training session / tryout for players interested in joining their current 17U team. These three teams will compete in highly competitive league play throughout the year and practices will focus heavily on player development and skill work with their players.
Slan Sports Management has announced that Jarred Ogungbemi-Jackson of Winnipeg has signed his first professional contract with Galitos Tley in the Liga Portuguesa de Basquetebol (LPB) in Portugal.
For any coach involved with youth sport, especially at the grassroots level where the majority of participants are in the earlier stages of their athletic development, it is important to adjust your coaching methods to correspond with the child’s developmental age. In many circumstances, coaches will find themselves in situations where their players are at varying stages of development. Therefore, it is extremely important to teach to the level of your players to ensure optimal development. In this article, Jeffrey from ‘Inside Youth Sports’ breaks down three key techniques that coaches should adopt to make sure each child’s development is positively impacted through favourable coaching methods. 
The Winnipeg Wolves Basketball Club will be extending tryouts for many of
their 2015-2016 teams. We apologize we were unable to post this information
promptly.
Many Wolves coaches have already notified players of the dates, time, and
locations of their next try-out session. However, we recommend that athletes
and parents please review the schedule below to ensure they are attending the
correct tryout.
The Winnipeg Wolves Basketball Club is pleased to announce the addition of
2014 WMBA Coach of the Year, Peter Robertson-Stovel, to their always expanding
Wolves Coaching Staff.
For the upcoming 2016-2016 club basketball season, Coach Robertson-Stovel
will coach an additional Wolves team being offered for male athletes born in
2003 or later.
As always, the Wolves will provide an open try-out for the new team. Please
see details provided below:
ONLY A FEW SPOTS LEFT: Coach Jon Giesbrecht of Winnipeg has announced he will be hosting an Elite Skills Academy Camp for male and female players ages 13-18 on August 20th & 21st. August 20th will be a half day 1pm to 4pm and August 21st will be a full day 9:30am to 3:30pm (With lunch break from 12pm to 1pm). Cost to attend is $75. Full information includes…
UPDATED DATES: The newly formed Team Flex Basketball Club has announced the details on their upcoming basketball tryouts for their inaugural 2015-2016 season. Full details include...
TRYOUTS THIS WEEKEND: Basketball Manitoba is excited to announce expansion of programming for the female Center for Performance program. The 2015-16 season will have both a 17U and a 15U competitive program. The 17U program is for females born 1999 and 2000, while the 15U program is for females born 2001, 2002, and 2003. Tryouts for both programs will be August 15 and 16 at Balmoral Hall School. 
First FIBA Americas Women’s Championship win for Canada since 1995
(EDMONTON, AB) – The Women’s National Team punched their ticket for the Rio 2016 Olympics, winning the 2015 FIBA Americas Women’s Championship. Canada beat Cuba 82-66 in Edmonton, Alberta.
“To do this on home soil, to do this in front of our fans, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. From the time we knew we were hosting this event and for it all to come true, it’s just an amazing feeling,” said Head Coach Lisa Thomaidis.
Head Coach Burke Toews Takes FUJITSU Red Wave to League Finals In OnlyHis Second Year Coaching Women
'After finishing 3rd in last year's WJBL season, Head Coach Burke Toews has taken FUJITSU Red Wave to the league Finals in only his second year coaching women.
The Red Wave led the league in most offensive categories and were #1 in opponent's Field Goal percentage. Toews has established his style of play
in both the Men's & Women's Professional league in Japan. In addition, 5 Red Wave players have been selected for the National Team which is hoping to qualify for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.'
The Winnipeg Athletic Association for Youth has announced it will be taking registrations for players born between 2000 and 2010 for its fall / winter 2015-16 season at Garden City Shopping Centre in August and September. Details and ages can be found below or at
http://www.waaybasketball.ca
http://www.waaybasketball.ca
Basketball Manitoba would like to sincerely thank all of the 2015 Manitoba Provincial Team coaching staffs for another tremendous summer of basketball this year! They all committed hundreds of hours to the program and we appreciate their contributions to the program right from the first tryout though to the final buzzer!
Our coaching staffs included....
17U Male
Dan Becker
Jon Giesbrecht
JR Alexander
15U Male
Eric Sung
Damien Drzewiec
Dallas Bosko
17U Female
Sarah Lundgren
Megan Johnson
Michele Hynes
15U Female
Alyssa Grant
Cassie Reimer
Holly Kitchen
16U Male
Stephen Tackie
Chiranjit Goswami
Bernard Kankam
16U Female
Mitch Catacutan
Morgan Ceoss
Taneesha Greaves
THANK YOU COACHES!!!!!
http://ift.tt/1Wj0rm5
Filed under: advice, Youth Sports Tagged: childhood and youth, development, Learning
Source: Steve Nash Youth Basketball Blog http://ift.tt/1EnioF6
As the world of youth sports continues to change and evolve, it is important to take a step back and reflect on the positives and negatives of this evolution. The evolution of youth sport may cause some parents and coaches to revert back to their experiences as a child, where they feel most comfortable. However, in many circumstances it is important to embrace change, while making sure to pay close attention to any adverse affects of this change. In this article, Brian McCormick gives his perspective on the current status of youth sport, providing reasoning as to how he believes it has changed over the years.
By: Brian McCormick, PhD
Source: http://ift.tt/1EnioEZ
Every day, I read another article that is critical of youth sports. Identifying the problems is easy, but few of these articles make real, practical suggestions for the solutions, and I am unsure whether the solutions that are offered would make a practical difference and alleviate the problems.
Most articles identify an unnamed, bygone era when youth sports were better. Typically, this is the author’s childhood. For my purposes, I will do the same.
When I played youth sports, I played 3+ sports into high school (late specialization). I never had a private coach, nor played for a club team; however, my friends who played college soccer did play club soccer in their childhoods, although most, if not all of them did not specialize until high school or college. I grew up with one Olympian who did not specialize in track & field until his sophomore year, and one NFL player who played two sports through high school. I had two friends make it to AAA baseball; one did not even play baseball in his freshman year and did not specialize until college, and the other specialized as a sophomore after one season of football. Most of my friends play American Legion in high school, but only one played club baseball.
As a child, I played for parent-coaches until high school. My coaches had no coach education. My soccer coach for a few years was a P.E. teacher; otherwise, I played for an accountant, construction manager, several doctors, a phone company manager, and a real estate broker. Their knowledge of the sport varied, but they provided a great environment. We enjoyed playing. In hindsight, their instruction and drills could have been better and more game-like, but their approach was not much different than many traditional coaches.
At every level, I was under the impression that winning was the most important thing, but I also never felt shame or embarrassment when we lost, and I do not remember a coach yelling at us about a loss. Most of our frustration when we lost was with ourselves. I was on successful teams, mediocre teams, and teams that barely won a game. I probably had nearly as much fun on the bad teams as the good teams.
For the most part, everyone played. In soccer and baseball, it was either a rule or an unwritten rule that everyone played; in basketball, there were games when a player or two did not play. However, our basketball program started B and C teams for 4th-8th graders to get more players involved and playing, as basketball was the only sport that had tryouts prior to high school.
We specialized in positions, and the best players played the most important positions. Our coaches did not give everyone equal chances or equal playing time. In my entire Little League career, I probably played 90% of my innings at 1st or 2nd base, and I think I played only one inning in the outfield, missing a fly ball and telling my coach that I needed to return to the infield (I had asked to play the OF because I thought it would help me make the All-Star team if I had more versatility because nearly everyone who made the All-Star team was a short stop). In soccer, our best players alternated between goalie and striker, and I typically played as an outside midfielder, always trying to prove that I was good enough to move into the central midfield. The outside midfielders and outside fullbacks tended to be the weaker players (I was one of the youngest players, as were the outside fullbacks, as we were a grade behind everyone else), and we were the ones who typically substituted in and out of the game, whereas the better players in the center of the field played the whole game.
During the summer, I attended camps, swam, or played near my house.
Throughout grade school, I played 25 organized games at most in a basketball season, 10 games per soccer season, and roughly 20 baseball games per season; in junior-high school, I played winter baseball, although it was my least favorite sport, and we played another 20 or so baseball games. Winter ball, which actually was in September and October, was awesome because we played under the lights. We also played double headers on the weekend, so I occasionally had a soccer game in the morning and a baseball double header in the afternoon. I thought this was the best thing in the world.
Outside of these organized games, we played basketball at almost every recess and lunch period from 3rd to 8th grade. We mixed in some football, kickball, softball, and soccer, but we primarily played basketball. We occasionally fought. We kept score. We talked trash. We were competitive.
When I played, transferring was rare. I played in 3 Little Leagues in 10 years, but the last 7 years in the same league; I switched when I was young to play with a friend from school, but switched to a league closer to my house after we moved. I played for one soccer club from kindergarten through 8th grade. I played for one middle school and one high school in basketball. I don’t remember many friends transferring either; we had one basketball player in the class behind me transfer in as a sophomore to attend the same school as his step-brother. I think our baseball team had a transfer when we were sophomores. I remember there being a high-profile football transfer between two local powerhouse programs because of the controversy. Then, it was a front-page article for several days; today, I doubt it would make the news because transfers are so commonplace. Jumping to new teams and schools is a part of youth sports now; everyone is looking for a better deal, more prominent program, more playing time, or whatever motivates one to transfer. It is rare for a player to play in the same club for 10 years as was fairly commonplace for my friends and peers.
Through this trip down memory lane, it appears that the three biggest differences between my experience and today’s youth sports are early specialization that leads to more organized games in a single sport, the reduction in free play, and the transfers/switching teams. We did not have educated coaches; our coaches played to win; players were pigeon-holed into positions; positions were dictated by a win-now mentality without regard to relative age effects.
Despite these facts, the two solutions that are proposed the most are coach education and more structured, private training. Coach education could have some positive affects, especially in terms of realizing the relative age effect, the need for young children to play different positions, and encouraging or demanding playing time for everyone.
However, for the most part, early specialization is not the choice of the coaches; instead, it is the parents who seek these year-round teams rather than playing different sports. Some coaches contribute to this, as I know girls who quit club soccer this season because their club soccer coach was upset that they had the audacity to run track (and qualify for the state meet) for their high schools. Many club programs implicitly (prohibitive costs) or explicitly pressure players into one sport, but parents do not have to sign up for these clubs. There are plenty of alternative programs.
Similarly, one of the biggest changes that I have noticed is the attitude of the athletes. They lack respect for their own coaches and the referees. I was no saint as a child, but I would have sat out for a while if I picked up a technical foul or yellow card for yelling at a referee. Barely a game goes by without a player receiving a yellow card for dissent these days, and parents and coaches do not even bat an eye. Instead, many encourage the behaviors. Players do not respect their coaches and instead listen to their parents in the stands during timeouts. Potentially a coach education program would give coaches more authority, but I don’t know. I see the same behaviors with college players playing for Hall-of-Fame coaches. I don’t know how a certificate would give a coach more credibility than a Hall of Fame induction.
Do children play more games today? Yes, if you mean organized games. I am not sure that children today play more games than I did as a child; however, the games are different. I probably played 8-10 unstructured games for every organized game, whereas almost all competitive play today is unstructured. Therefore, I am not sure it is the number of games, but the kind of games. If you outlawed summer basketball games, players would find a way to play games at the park or local gyms like we did. They would still play games.
Do coaches need some form of coach education? Yes. However, there is so much more information available online and in bookstores than when I was a child. It is easy for a coach to learn. A coach education program’s biggest benefit may be curating all of these various resources. Every week, it seems, there is conflicting information in every area of our lives; who should we trust? What information should we use and what information should we disregard? In terms of changing the youth sports scene, the most important education would be to educate coaches on the correlation between games and injuries, the need for more general athletic development, the effect of the relative age effect in talent identification, and more. Coaches know far more about their sports today than they did in the past, and that might be more of a problem. Now, coaches talk too much and try to do all of the thinking for the players. Because of their knowledge, and their desire to impart this knowledge to their players, they create environments that are not conducive to learning.
Furthermore, many problems arise because of the Internet. Coaches are criticized on message boards. Players are ranked week by week. Players become Internet celebrities on YouTube. Coaches call themselves experts because of their blog. The Internet certainly has changed youth sports, and there is no way to return to a time before the Internet. We have to adapt to the new realities rather than long for the days of yore.
In the end, the biggest changes that I would propose would be anything to reduce specialization and to increase unstructured play activities. In terms of learning, development, injury reduction, and fun, these changes will have the biggest positive effects for the young athletes.
Filed under: advice, Youth Sports Tagged: childhood and youth, development, Learning
Source: Steve Nash Youth Basketball Blog http://ift.tt/1EnioF6
The male and female provincial teams proudly brought home silver medals on Tuesday after both making it to the Gold Medal games at the 2015 Western Canada Summer Games in Fort McMurray, AB. The female team faced a tough Saskatchewan squad and lost 71-54 (scoresheet). The male team followed in the Gold Medal game to British Columbia, in the end falling 66-60 in a nail biter (scoresheet). Basketball Manitoba is very prod of how both teams represented the province to well on and off the court all week! Welcome home!
The free SWISH basketball program which has been operating every Saturday this summer will be wrapping up next weekend with a special 3on3 basketball tournament in partnership with Ndinawe Youth Services. The tournament is open to male and female players ages 12-18 on Saturday August 15. Players just need to show up in groups of 3-4 at check-in between 11:30 am and 12:30 pm with the tournament starting at 1:00 pm. Everything will occur at the University of Manitoba Bannatyne Campus at the Health Sciences Centre (see below map). Full details include...
The Manitoba Rebels Basketball Club have announced its tryout schedule for the 2015-2016 season. Details include...
TORONTO, ON – The Canadian Men’s National Team has announced the 16 athletes, including 11 players from the NBA, who will attend training camp in Toronto, ON from August 14-20 in advance of the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship in Mexico City.“We have a talented mix of NBA and pro athletes and we’re excited to get them in the gym together,” said Head Coach Jay Triano. “This camp will be an opportunity to train, build team chemistry and prepare for a tough and important tournament with the goal of qualifying for Rio.”
WATCH LIVE ONLINE: The Western Canada Summer Games in Wood Buffalo, AB have released the official schedule for the 2015 Western Championships featuring the 16U Manitoba Provincial Teams. Select games will be shown live on sportscanada.tv and on the Periscope App at the below links. The event will occur August 8-11, 2015 at the Syncrude Sport and Wellness Center on the Keyano College Campus and feature the top male and female players at the 16U levels in Western Canada. View the full Manitoba team rosters, schedules and official tournament websites at...
The Manitoba government will renew funding for three additional years for the High Performance Athlete Development Initiative (HPADI), Tourism, Culture, Heritage, Sport and Consumer Protection Minister Ron Lemieux announced in July.
WATCH LIVE ONLINE: Canada Basketball and the host Basketball Nova Scotia have released the official schedule for the 2015 15U & 17U Male National Championships. The event will occur August 3-8, 2015 at St. Mary's University and feature the top male players at the 15U and 17U levels in Canada. All games will be live streamed by sportscanada.tv. View the full schedules and official tournament websites at...
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