India’s Foreign Basketball Coaches to host ‘Train the Trainers’ Clinic

The Basketball Federation of India (BFI) has announced that its three foreign coaches – Kenny Natt, Pete Gaudet, and Zak Penwell – will be hosting a first-of-its-kind, formalised ‘Train the Trainers’ clinic for Indian basketball coaches from April 13-15th at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi.

Former NBA Coach Natt (Head Coach of India’s Senior Men’s team), Former NCAA coach Gaudet (Head Coach of India’s Senior Women’s team), and Penwell (Strength & Conditioning Coach) arrived in India a year ago and have been heavily involved in various basketball programmes throughout the country. While their primary responsibilities have been with India’s Senior National Basketball squads, they have provided a boost in basketball organisation and held several coaching clinics across the country in their time here.

The last such clinic was held during the Federation Cup in Kochi last month – and taking a cue from the response received from local coaches in the area, the BFI and the foreign coaches decided to host a more formalized three-day event in New Delhi this week. Basketball coaches from several northern regions in India – Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, and even Jammu & Kashmir – have been invited to learn from the experienced foreign coaches.

Here’s more about the upcoming clinic from the Indian Express:

The main idea behind this initiative was to bring parity between the kind of style the national coaches are teaching to the India teams and those that are taught at the beginners level. “I strongly believe that a proactive initiative like “train the trainers” is a must to enhance the performance of the coaches. It is the best way to keep them abreast with the games strategies and skills which are required to improve the playing standards of basketball. The coaches with upgraded technical knowledge would definitely motivate the players at all levels. These kind of programmes will be a part of BFI’s on-going efforts,” commented Roopam Harish Sharma, who is the CEO of the national federation.Interactive demonstrations, and knowledge-sessions that will include informative tools, such as game strategies, skill enhancement techniques, code of interaction with athletes, along with a talk on athlete’s fitness standards will be some of the things on the agenda of the coaching clinic.

According to the article above, the BFI may look to expand this clinic to further centers such as Patiala and Ludhiana in the future.

Here is the schedule for Delhi ‘Train the Trainer’ Clinic at the KD Jadhav Indoor Hall at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in New Delhi:

Friday, April 13th: 5 PM – 7 PMSaturday, April 14th: 10 AM – 1 PM & 3 PM – 6 PMSunday, April 15th: 10 AM – 1 PM

UPDATE: BFI’s ‘Train the Trainer’ clinic also added to Patiala from April 16-18 and Ludhiana from April 20-22