The player numbers were down a bit, but the skill level and enthusiasm were high during the 17th annual Sunshine Coast basketball camp.
Elementary school camps were held the week of July 12 and July 19 with the secondary school camps for senior boys and girls the week of July 19. Ellen Thomas led the elementary camps while Terry Fox Secondary School coaches Don Van Os and Mike Hind instructed the senior camps.
"The numbers are kind of down, but I think that goes to the enrolment being down at the elementary level," Thomas said. "We had a good group at Cedar Grove this week with 12 kids there. We haven't seen a lot of girls, so I would like to see way more girls. The improvement was terrific. We had a lot of parents who couldn't believe the improvement in the skills from the first day to the last day.
"The big thing I tell the elementary kids is to go practise. They have to pick up a ball outside camp and outside school. You see all the good players, they always have a basketball under their arms and they're practising."
There were 15 senior girls and 33 senior boys on hand for the week-long instruction from Van Os and Hind.
"I can remember doing girls camps where we had 30-plus girls and close to 50 guys, so the numbers this week are down quite a bit from previous years," Van Os said. "But having said that, the quality of the player is so good. They are such great kids. They are so responsive to being pushed, so eager to learn. So the quality of the player has not changed, we just need to see more of them."
Van Os said it's a tough week for the players and he makes sure they are pushed, but pushed the right way to improve.
"Philosophically, I think the best way to improve development of players is by competitively teaching fundamentals," he said. "By that I mean we never let them get lazy; we push them to go as hard as they can. This is the place to make mistakes, because this is the place to make mistakes - in July. To do things that they didn't know they could do or they never felt comfortable doing - basically taking them outside the box of their comfort zone and driving them - then creating drills that are competitive in nature that they will improve on.
"How we designate how successful the week has been is how much they have improved. The improvement, especially among the senior girls, has been so good from Monday to the end of the week."
Van Os said summer camps are very important in player development and he wishes more players would see the value in the opportunity.
"In terms of player development, they get better when you get constant repetition of the skills with someone monitoring what they are doing," Van Os said. "For example, we saw an improvement in shooting this week, and one of the reasons, I feel, is we did something this year that we have never done before. We brought up video cameras and we videotaped every player's shot and we got together as a group and altogether we analyzed the shot, what's wrong with the shot and how we can improve the shot.
"When kids can see themselves, then it makes much more sense to them. A lot of players seem to think that they play a lot, they'll go out to the driveway and play, but if you're practising bad skills, you don't get better."
