On June 29 the sixth International Basketball Campus EDP will begin. 15 days of living together, learning, relating to others and especially pure basketball. This Campus has become a benchmark in its category with only six years of life and the organization staff is working hard so each year new features are included on the program so participants will remember this experience for a lifetime.
The Campus will be divided into two shifts. From June 29 to July 6 will be the turn for the first participants. From July 6 to July 13, the second group will take on the activities.
David Gil, campus director and Laboral Kutxa assistant coach explains that the basis of the event is going to be “the same as in every year but with some changed details“. Gil explains some of the developments which will benefit youngsters this year. “Every year we try to introduce new features for the Campus to be more attractive. This year we’ll focus on improving individual tactics, we’ll work on it from a team perspective, so it takes a partner to develop the technical activity. We also include a shooting case, through 6 mini workouts we’ll be working on the basics of shooting and in the afternoon we will apply and make sense of all that work in the court. Furthermore, we recover the all-star for the last day of the campus”. Another novelty in the Campus is the price freeze. They do not go up and people also may finance installment payments.
Participants will live a week of “vacation” in which seven hours a day are going to be devoted exclusively to acquire new concepts of basketball. “During the morning a very individualized work will be carried out and the afternoon will be the time to put those concepts into practice in order to improve collective game such as 2×2, 3×3 game situations …. At night, the turn of the Campus League comes” explains David Gil.
Players have 11 available basketball courts for practices and the Campus puts at their disposal numerous services in order for these seven days to become a unique experience for them. “The first day we carry out various tests to sort out participants and make groups. We always try to work them out as homogeneous as possible. One of our priorities is to provide participants with the best conditions and facilities as possible because for them it’s a holiday week and we want them to enjoy themselves while learning and developing concepts that may have failed to work in their clubs over the regular season” says Gil.
The secret of success of this Campus is based on work and effort made throughout the whole year by event organizers. “We love working on the organization of the campus. We respect our ideas. We do what we like from other Campuses and reject what we do not like so much. That’s the small success, respect. It’s an exciting project for us and we are growing each year”.
But It’s not all basketball during these 7 days, coexistence between youngsters in order for them to take advantage of their free time is also well thought by organizers. David Gil explains that “there is free time, and after lunch they also have time to be with other kids, make friends and do other things. In addition, we offer complementary services in the study area, participants have the option to study computer sciences or languages. For kids who don’t want take part in those activities they can still continue practicing basketball. Every day we assign a coach to the specific tasks or subjects that are going to be worked on, a clinic for the kids. “Participants practice 7 hours a day of basketball in which “certain commitment is required”, but above all, the organization wants this week to become a great experience for the kids.
Other strength of the International Campus EDP is the great level of the coaches that work every day with the players. “We place one coach in every hoop so all individual aspects are covered. We make sure that our coaches are going to provide value for the participants. It’s not only about training, they must have experience, skills … this is very important because a kid it’s not going to make big changes in terms of the game in just a week, but we want to provide them a solid “backpack of experiences and learning”, adds David Gil Director-International Campus.
Attention and supervision of all areas during the whole week are thorough. Each pavilion has its own physiotherapist and a coordinator making sure that schedules are met. “We work along with many people who are responsible for the proper running of the Campus and make sure that participants do not lack anything. We also have an ongoing relationship with the parents of the participant, we provide great attention to them”,Gil says.
