Young basketballers boost skills at Jumpstart Clinic

The three-day basketball clinic was facilitated by NBA coaches, Troy Justice and Ed Pinckney along with current Utah Jazz player, Raul Neto. Over the three-day period, 40 male and 20 female local basketballers, between the ages of 14-16, benefitted from an intense clinic learning the skills, techniques and other tips of the sport of basketball.

Also attending the clinics were coaches from the National Basketball Federation of Trinidad and Tobago (NBFTT ) who profitted from the expertise of the NBA professionals.

Yesterday’s closing ceremony involved a five-on-five championships among the boys and girls, followed by some insightful tips from the hosts and finally an award ceremony for the players.

The major highlight of the ceremony was some of the tips shared by Neto who, when questioned by Ed Pinckney, commented on and demonstrated his various in-game shooting techniques, how he creates space during on-court action, his ball-handling skills, his routine before a game and how he practices during the off-season.

The clinic did not only provide the opportunity for the players to learn new skills and tricks but they were also spurred on with some motivation quotes by the facilitators.

For instance, as a group, the observation was made that height is not the most important thing in basketball, but more importantly a person’s skill, attitude and discipline.

The local coaches were also praised for their hard work throughout the three-day period and were also given some words of encouragement by Justice who stated, “You can change lives as a coach, a coach touches more lives than most people in a lifetime.” When asked about what he taught about this year’s clinic, local coach Stephen Leonce said, “It was a very good programme but more is still needed. If we start developing these types of programmes at an earlier stage, the players would be in a better position.”