Schooling coaches courts success
Canada Basketball and Raptors 905 work to share hoops smarts
It’s early on a gorgeous summer Saturday morning but the steamy gym is crowded. It’s time to improve basketball skills — the hard work of personal development takes place in the off-season — and time spent around and on the court is invaluable.
But instead of kids working on ball-handling or shooting skills or doing the drills that will make them better players once the snow starts flying, the stands are full of coaches learning to be better coaches, a vital step in the progression not only of themselves but of the game in Canada as a whole.
Jama Mahlalela, the newlyminted head coach of the G League’s Raptors 905, enthralls the more than 100 coaches at the clinic. He and his staff and a host of speakers are taking the coaches through drills and presenting ideas that are just as important as any work any individual player might do.
“Basketball, we always say nothing hasn’t been invented yet, it’s all the same sport,” Mahlalela said during a break in the five-hour program at Mississauga’s Paramount Fine Foods Centre, the second annual Raptors 905 free clinic aided by Canada Basketball.
“You do the same three-man weave at the NBA level that you do at the grade-school level. It’s the level of instruction and the messaging that differentiates it … The drills may be exactly the same but I can add a level of complexity for university coaches … or simplify it for an elementary school coach.
“I think (Canada is) on the precipice of really being a world power in basketball. To me, our players are there and I think our coaches are there and this is a prime example of that. The fact they’re coming, they’re committed. This is not coming to just learn how to dribble the ball, these are coaches coaching teams who need some intel, who are trying to win games. It’s really quality coaching.”
Coaching the coaches has been an integral part of basketball’s growth in this country for more than a decade now. Canada Basketball has run “coaching schools” in conjunction with national championships, Raptors training camps and exhibition games in Canada, and it has truly elevated the craft across the country.
Coaches aren’t told exactly what to do, but having the same skills taught in much the same way assures a consistency that allows Canada Basketball talent assessors to have an even ground when they start seeking players for various age group programs and development camps that are integral to any worldwide success.
Canada Basketball will run more than 100 coaching clinics over the course of a year — as long as they can be funded, of course.
“In order to develop an athlete, you need to develop their training environment,” said Dawn Smyth, Canada Basketball’s coaching development guru. “To make a really, really strong athlete, you have to make a strong training environment for them. In order to do that, the coach needs to know how. Ultimately, it’s for the athlete, why we’re working with the coaches. But the coaches are the ones that create the environment for training for the athlete.
“If I were to go deliver a clinic — 10 to 18 coaches, our ratio won’t go higher than that — if I impact18 coaches that each carry 12 or 15 athletes, in one weekend we impact more than 100 athletes, their learning and training environment. It really multiplies so quickly and the impact with 100 coaches, we’re talking about a ton of athletes.”
Few have the chops to reach a variety of coaches better than Mahlalela, the 38-year-old who was born in Swaziland, grew up in Toronto, and played five years at the University of British Columbia. He ran clinics for the Raptors Basketball Academy when he joined Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, was the director of basketball operations for NBA Asia, and has been with the Raptors since 2011, elevated to an assistant coaching role in 2013 before being picked to replace Jerry Stackhouse as the 905 head coach.
He can reach a variety of coaches.
“They can understand the examples he’s giving. Not everything is going to be ‘OK, this is how we do it with the Raptors.’ It’s going to be, ‘This is how I did when I was a community basketball coach,’ or, ‘Here’s what I did out in Asia where they could barely understand English,’ ” said John Wiggins, an MLSE vice-president and business manager of the G-League 905 franchise.
“We’ve got so many coaches here at different levels. Elementary schools who’ve never coached before, we’ve got the Laurier and Humber coaches here. He can speak to each of them and that’s why it’s so great to have him as a speaker. His adaptability, to be able to translate what he knows to what you can use, they’ve got to walk away with some great nuggets of information.”
That’s really what the Canada Basketball program and the Raptors 905 clinics are about, teaching the teachers of the game the best way to reach young athletes. It might not always translate into excellence that puts players on the track to professional jobs or national team spots but it will enhance the game for them all.
“It’s refreshing to hear NBA coaches talk about things we can implement in our own practices,” said Jeff Bera, a coach at Hamilton’s Hillfield Strathallan College. “I found about this on Twitter and I see the numbers, so obviously there’s a need and an enthusiasm with the Raptors growing and the 905s growing, and there is a sense that there are people here to help us, to give us what we need in order to improve.”
There is no question that the depth of basketball coaching talent in Canada has increased exponentially over the last decade. The Canada Basketball and Raptors 905 programs can only continue that growth. The beneficiaries will be the players, who get better instruction at all age and skill levels.
“It’s the same thing we saw three or four years ago with our draft workouts,” Mahlalela said. “Like five years ago, we’d bring in a token Canadian for a draft workout and now our draft workout has the Canadian because he’s the best prospect. The coaching is the exact same thing. The best prospect in coaching is the local guy now versus a favour or helping someone out.”