Home grown
Standing on the shoulders of giants
It’s often said in business you should hire people cleverer than you. I’m a big believer in learning from others.
We’ve seen athletes train with their rivals to push their level. I know elite coaches who actively encourage their athletes to study. Study their sport, recognise commonalities in their heroes and improve.
There isn’t enough of this in British Basketball.
We need to be encouraging our young players to go and watch, speak to and learn from those that have been there and done it.
How many games do young players go and watch in the BBL in person? These kids should be going to watch games and practice, engaging with coaches, going to study professional players.
I’m always struck by the lack of knowledge of our young players of our own professionals in the BBL, and our national team.
As the growth of our home league continues, we are seeing a return of a host of experienced and talented British players who are making the United Kingdom home once again.
If you’re in the Midlands you need to get to watch the British contingent of Jesse Chuku, Josh Ward-Hibbert and Jamell Anderson — watch how they prepare for games, watch their movements, their spacing, the intensity they bring to each game.
If you’re in London look no further than guards Andrew Lawrence and Justyn Robinson at Royals & Lions respectively. You have two MVP contenders on your doorstep who have travelled the world to play the game and are now in this country killing it every Friday night.
Be open, study the detail in their game.
I’ve mentioned before the professionalism in each aspect including their warm-up routine for me stands out the elite. Ashley Hamilton at the Royals last year has a comparable warm-up to that of Great Britain’s captain Myles Hesson. These two players are shining examples of how to conduct yourself. How to improve your game and bring with them knowledge from the French, Greek and German leagues.
Yes — they’re all British. All played on the same courts, and in same sports halls and leisure centre facilities with one thousand lines across the court. They’ve been there and they’ve gone through the process of finding themselves as players and come out the other end as shining role models.
We just need to use them.
