IBPA in association with Indian Basketball Fans organised “Coaches Conclave”

The Integrated Basketball Players Association, in association with the Indian BasketBall Fans, organised "Coaches Conclave" which they dedicated in the memory of one of India's greatest-ever basketball coach late Dr Subramaniam, who produced more than 50 international basketball players such as Satnam Singh, Amjyot Singh Gill, Yadwinder Singh and Jagdeep Singh to name a few. The 'Coaches Conclave' had panelists Francisco Garcia, International coach from Spain and Former Indian Womens team Coach, JD Walsh, renowned Basketball coach from USA, Ramesh Kelley, former Indian team Coach & Chief Coach of Basketball, NIS, Mr Bhasker,Coach Of Indian Basketball Team and Mrs. Vidya Ramanarayan, International Basketball player and coach.

The Conclave kicked off with Jayasankar Menon, Asian All Star Basketball player and Secretary General of IBPA, by introducing the cause of the Coaches Conclave. Mr Menon further called upon Arjuna Awardee and President of IBPA Sajjan Singh Cheema to pay his tribute to late Dr Subramaniam, Mr. Cheema remembered the greatness of the Late Dr Subharmaniam and said, "Dr Subramaniam was a dedicated coach and he was great pioneer of the game. He was the first Indian coach to send a player to NBA and followed this with many more in the coming years." Mr Cheema also raised the demand for Dronacharya Award for Dr Subramaniam as he said, "out of all people Dr Subramaniam deserves the award."

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Mr Cheema was followed by Dr Indira Bali, daughter of late Dr Subhramniam, who echoed the same sentiments as Mr Cheema and said, "I believe my father did deserve a Dronacharya Award for his contribution." However, Dr Indira further said, "I am proud daughter of a proud father and his one of the greatest achievement was developing the Ludhiana Basketball academy." She said, "to my father the players' success mattered more than any award." In his short tribute to the legendary coach, Ramesh Kelly said, "Dr Subramaniam was a man who was totally dedicated to coaching the upcoming talent and the story of Indian Basketball can never be told without mentioning Dr. Subramaniam."

Francisco Garcia said, "I did not have the opportunity to meet Dr Subhramniam but I have heard he was one of the greatest basketball minds in India." Garcia's short tribute was folowed by Mr.J.D.Walsh the coach who has wide experience in coaching NBA players, helped Grassroots development of China, Taiwan, and who had conducted more than 25 clinics in India started sharing his views on development of game specific skills. Later women coach Ms.Vidhya, international player turned coach took the centre stage insisting that punctuality and dedication are more important than skills. She shared her experience of playing in series of tournaments in Kerala(which are not being conducted now a days) and set the ball rolling for the conclave.

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Gracia said, "His time as the women's team coach was a good experience for him as he had good bunch of players like Geethu Anna Jose, the Singh sisters and Anitha." Garcia talking about the coaching Basketball in India said, "focus should not be on more number of drills, rather, the coaches should focus on concentrated drills. The coaches should be focused on what results they want from a player and they should work on only those specified drills." "When correcting players too much information should not be put in the player's head. Players should be told about their fault in more precise way so that they have less and concreate information to process and drills should be made more dynamic," added Garcia. However, JD Walsh, opined,"Basketball is a game of skill and more than drills more focus should be on skill and endurance trainig." He further pointed out, "consistency and a good skill development programm can prove benficial in creating world class talent in India." Gracia joining forces with Walsh saying, "endurance is the most important factor in the game of Basketball."

"In order to develop world class playersl in India the nation needs to put in place a great deal of money to develop good infrastructure and to bring in good coaches only then the game can progress" said Garcia. Ramesh Kelly said that lack of uniform coaching methods is also hurting the development of sports. "NIS Patiala every year produces hundreds of coaches and the institute has produced some of the finest coaches, but, as soon as these coaches get the certificate and go out in the real world most of them leave what they learnt behind. They develop their own style of coaching and in doing so most of them fail to produce good players. Therefore the need of the hour is uniform method of coaching basketball in India." Then we had another panelist Mr.Baskar who is from SAI and and has coached Indian team in the past sharing his experience of coaching youth talent at various places in India before coaching Indian team. He narrated how he was focussing on scientific drills and how his wards were aware of the coaching techniques.

It was also discussed on strength training and how SAI coaches were managing both strength training and game skills. One of the member who participated Mr.Jai Sanen who is a certified strength trainer, explained about the strength requirements of basketball players and it should be age specific.Giving more inouts on the same Mr.Ramesh Kalley shared his views that the drills with the ball would not only improve strength and endurance but also game skills. This was agreed by Mr.Francisco who insisted that the game of basketball requires strength and the strength training should be age specific.

While answering the question from Balakrishnan IBPA, Mr.Walsh explained that how important to continue training, with the body weight during this lockdown period. The Q & A session was opened for participants. The questions were answered by the panelists with patience. The 1 hr and 30 minutes long conclave concluded with a note of thanks from Mr Balakrishnan Jayaram, former International player and one of the moderator of the program thanked all the panelists on behalf of IBPA. While Lakshmikant Tiwari the Founder of Indian Basketball Fans issued his gratitude to the all the participants of the conclave.

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