inboundpass.com – Covering Philippine college basketball / UAAP, NCAA, PCC

I admit it. I’m not only a frustrated basketball player. I’m also a frustrated basketball coach.   I was never a varsity player in high school or college, which is often a major prerequisite to starting a career in coaching.

To compensate, I often try to soak up as much information as I can about basketball coaching by reading literature on the subject or listening intently whenever one of my many friends in the coaching community would dissect a game or team or player.  Of course, none of these will ever be enough to at least drill in the basics or fundamentals of basketball coaching.

Not that I still harbor any ambitions of becoming a coach, but it has had me wondering if there are others like me who are serious basketball fans and who want to give coaching a try but don’t exactly know how to get started.  It also dawned on me that while basketball clinics in this country are a dime a dozen, coaching clinics are virtually non-existent, especially clinics for beginner coaches and people with zero experience.

That got me thinking about organizing just that: a coaching clinic for beginners and people with zero experience, a boot camp that would to teach aspiring coaches the dynamics of the right way to coach the game of basketball. For those who want to give coaching a shot, it would be a chance to find out if they had the aptitude and inclination. For those who are already coaching at some level and who are not 100% sure about what they’re doing, it would help broaden their skills and give them the right framework with which to work. Yes, I decided, it could be done.

So middle of last year I contacted Jojo Villa, head coach of St. Stephen’s and a longtime friend from UP, to pitch the idea and get his thoughts. He liked what he heard, and he suggested we bring in Ricky Dandan, Ateneo’s program director for basketball.   Jojo, Ricky and I all met and worked on the course modules and list of lecturers. Both coaches had a vast network of colleagues they could tap, and the initial list included names like Joe Lipa, Manny Dandan, Rico Perez, and Lito Vergara. We tentatively scheduled the clinic for November to coincide with the Philippine Collegiate Championship.

I felt it was a fruitful first meeting, and immediately made plans to meet up with Coach Joe to enlist his support. We met in early September, and while Coach agreed to help out, he advised me to revisit our proposed November timeline because he had heard that the Basketball Coaches Association of the Philippines (BCAP) was planning a clinic of its own around the same time.

After that I sort of got hit by ningas cugon, and the project lost momentum. But one October night over a few beers I mentioned my aborted clinic to my inboundpass colleague Mike Abasolo, and he liked the idea so much he volunteered to help me market the project.  So it was back to picking up where we left off. While Mike was busy pitching our project to Corporate Philippines, I reconnected with Jojo and Ricky, decided on a venue, finalized the course modules, and sought the confirmations of our invited lecturers.

Slowly, the project began to take shape. Lecturers and courses started matching up. The first batch included Lipa handling Developing Your Coaching Philosophy, Ricky taking on Practice Organization, Jojo discussing Coaching Offense, Ed Cordero demonstrating Shooting Skills, and Lito Vergara handling Coaching Defense.  Since the plan was to have ten topics over two days, that left five more topics I wanted to cover: Motivating Your Team, Game Preparation, Skills Development, Strength and Conditioning, and Big Man Skills. The first three eventually found lecturers in Patrick Aquino, Jude Roque and Rico Perez.

A few weeks later, Ronnie Dizer agreed to discuss Strength and Conditioning.   That left only Big Man Skills, and for this topic I wanted the best big man coach available: Norman Black. Tracking down the Ateneo coach proved difficult at first, but Mike and I eventually managed to meet with him at the Moro Lorenzo center just before a Blue Eagle practice. We had only a few minutes to make our pitch, so I got straight to the point.

After listening to the concept and hearing that the venue would be at the nearby Blue Eagle Gym, Norman thankfully gave his consent. Sid for the win!  Almost improbably, we managed to assemble a pretty solid cast of speakers, if I do say so myself. We decided to name the clinic Coach Now, as in “you may start coaching now”, and hold it from March 5 to 6 at the Blue Eagle Gym.

The course schedule looks like this:

Thursday, March 5 8:00AM

Registration 9:00AM  Developing Your Coaching Philosophy – Joe Lipa

10:30AM  Strength & Conditioning – Ronnie Dizer

12:00NN Lunch

1:00PM Motivating Your Team – Patrick Aquino

2:30PM  Big Man Moves – Norman Black

4:00PM Shooting Skills – Ed Cordero

Friday, March 6

9:00AM  Coaching Offense – Jojo Villa

10:30AM Coaching Defense – Lito Vergara

12:00NN Lunch 1:00PM Practice Organization – Ricky Dandan

2:30PM Game Preparation – Jude Roque

4:00PM Skills Development – Rico Perez

Let me give you a brief background on the speakers.

Of course, everybody knows Norman Black and Joe Lipa, so I won’t waste your time writing about them.   Ronnie Dizer is a faculty member at the UP College of Human Kinetics and has served as trainer of the national team and some PBA teams many times in the past. He has promised to share his knowledge on the latest trends in physical conditioning.

Patrick Aquino is a former UPIS and Xavier head coach who is now connected with Mighty Sports. He led Xavier to the Tiong Lian title in 2006 and UPIS to the UAAP Finals the year before. He played for UP in the early 90s and has also served as an assistant coach in the PBL. He will share his many experiences in motivating a team, knowing which buttons to push, and how to deal with problem players.

Ed Cordero is currently an assistant coach at San Beda and is one of the finest shooters in the history of the UAAP, for which he served as commissioner in 2007. He will conduct a shooting demonstration to show the correct shooting form and how to teach this to players.

Jojo Villa has been coaching since 1994. He has been an assistant coach at UP and San Miguel and FedEx in the PBA. He was head coach of NU in 1996, Nueva Ecija in the MBA in 2000, and is currently coaching St. Stephen’s in the Tiong Lian tournament. He has attended several coaching seminars in the US, and was once invited to observe the practices of the Kansas University Jayhawks by no less than Kansas coach Roy Williams. He will teach participants the different offensive patterns and team drills.

Lito Vergara is currently head coach of Xavier School and an assistant coach of the JRU Heavy Bombers. He was head coach of the UP Maroons from 2003 to 2005. He previously led UPIS to its first-ever UAAP title in 2002. He got started as an assistant coach with La Salle Greenhills in the late 90s. Lito is known as an excellent defensive coach, making him the ideal lecturer for his topic.

Ricky Dandan is currently the program director for basketball in Ateneo. He was head coach of University of St. La Salle for six years. He also served as head coach in the MBA and assistant coach of Ateneo in the UAAP and FedEx/Air21 in the PBA. He also attended coaching clinics under Duke University coach Mike Krzyzewski and Temple University coach John Chaney. One of his peers has called him one of the most technically sound coaches in the country. He will share his insights on the importance of practice and how best to go about practice organization and planning.

Jude Roque most recently coached Taguig in the Liga Pilipinas. He is also in the coaching staff of the RP Men’s Basketball Team and was an assistant with the San Beda Red Lions until 2006. He likewise has had stints as assistant coach in the PBA and the MBA. He is currently working for the Samahang Basketbolista ng Pilipinas. He will give his inputs on game day preparation and actual game coaching.

Rico Perez is an assistant coach of the NU Bulldogs, where he also served as head coach for two years. He has also coached at La Salle Greenhills, and is an instructor at the Ateneo Basketball School.  He attended the Tom Newell Coaches Workshop a few years ago and will lecture on properly teaching fundamentals plus the most effective drills and programs for individual skills development.  I believe anybody who has always wanted to try out coaching but didn’t have the playing pedigree to get started, and current coaches who wish to further hone their skills under some of our best bench tacticians, to sign up for this clinic.

This won’t be just another clinic with no real measurable output. At the end of the two-day training, all participants will undergo a test covering everything that was taught to find out their overall aptitude and in which areas they excel. Results will be made available to all the lecturers for evaluation. So who knows? This may be your ticket to that coaching career you’ve always dreamed of.

To register, just go to www.icancoachnow.com and fill out a form.  The site includes information about the course with an extensive write-up on the lecturers to come.  The seminar fee is pegged at P3,500, inclusive of lunch. Early-bird rate is P3,000 good until February 20. And for large groups, get a big discount with a five-for-the-price-of-four package. You may pay in check or cash at Redmedia Solutions, Inc., 317A Computer Kingdom, Mile Long Building, Amorsolo St., Legaspi Village, Makati. Please make all checks payable to Redmedia Solutions, Inc.  Please feel free to e-mail Mike at mike@redmediacrm.com or myself at sid.ventura@gmail.com for any questions you may have.   Start coaching now!

Posted in Athletic Soul