Tag Archives: youth basketball coaching

by | December 28, 2010 · 2:42 pm

Nasiphi Khafu Is PPI-South Africa

Nasiphi Khafu, one of the rising stars of PPI-SA, leading a life skills session.

A quick update on the bio of the young woman whom we introduced you to during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, who might just one day be the Managing Director of PeacePlayers International – South Africa.  Not making this up: I quote, “One day, I want Sbo Vilakazi’s job.”  We believe it.

Nasiphi (center) with other PPI-SA staffers.

Nasiphi Khafu is one several staff members who grew up in the PPI-SA system.  Her first time playing basketball was in our Leadership Development Program (LDP) and her passion and resolve cannot be beat. “At first, I just loved watching the game.  I watched, still watch, every game I could.  I had to get better.”  Today, Nasiphi captains her college basketball team and recently earned a starting spot on her provincial team (the Eastern Cape).  Her playing accolades just keep piling up.

The largest turnout of kids in Carringtom Primary history. 45 girls and 12 boys. Brought to you by Nasiphi.

Her steady climb to the Managing Director position seems almost inevitable to those of us around her.  Once a PPI-SA player, she’s now a PPI-SA coach – one of the best, actually.  Wherever Nasiphi coaches, kids pour in, and stick around even if teams are already over capacity.  The school representatives who help us with our program constantly ask to work with her.  Nasiphi just completed one semester as PPI-SA’s Area Coordinator for the Durban City Area, one of our largest with eight schools.  As if that wasn’t enough, she also volunteered her time to help with our basketball committee and fundraising initiatives.   Without Nasiphi, schools would not have been able to attend our 17th City-Wide Tournament.

Posing with two school representatives at a primary school basketball tournament.

No one doubts her climb to the top.  Despite her late start in basketball, she’s already accomplished her first goal, which was making the provincial team. Her next goal is to make the South African senior team.  She thanks PPI-SA and swears herself to the organization. “I love PPI-SA.  The program has helped me grow and molded me into a leader.” No one doubts she will continue to flourish as she moves through the ranks in PPI-SA.  One day, she will make the SA Senior team.  And one day, you should expect to see her running the PPI-SA program. No doubt about it.

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by | November 23, 2010 · 1:54 pm

6:30 Basketball!

This week, PPI Fellow Claire Perry reports on the birth of a new staff tradition in South Africa.

The coaches tend to play more "AND1"...

The staff here at PPI-SA have started this ridiculously amazing pattern of waking up at 5.30am to play some 3-on-3 basketball. It started out as just a crazy notion, bot our staff now looks forward to these mornings with great anticipation.  For the past month, we’ve played at least three times each week. One of our staff members wakes up at 4am every single morning to be at the court by 6:30.  Our staff is dedicated.

Our coaches have now joined the show.  Car pools are arranged and coaches picked up to play the two hours of our “old man/woman” basketball.  Not that we’re old, necessarily – rather, the staff’s style of play is more Women’s NCAA, while the coaches are wanna-be AND1 players.   For clarification – by “Women’s NCAA,” I mean the basics: screens, set shots, cuts, and crisp passes.  And by “AND1,” I mean none of the above.  All the more reason why the recent addition of coaches at our morning sessions has made our games more valuable – helping our coaches as individual players and, more importantly, helping them improve as coaches of our participants.

...While the staff plays a little more fundamental.

This past week we switched venues to a more centrally located court, Cele in Lamontville, and the change was immediately apparent.  The total count of players was 15, instead of the consistent 6 to 7, and included area LDP players, PSP coaches, staff, and Fellows.  Our program may be on break for the summer, but we as coaches and staff keep increasing our playing time and basketball IQ with these morning sessions, not to mention that the games serve as a perfect medium to team-build within the staff itself.  As per our cheer, we continue to live and play together as family.

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by | October 21, 2010 · 1:36 pm

The Many Coaches of Ein Raffa

The girls of Ein Raffa, one of PPI - ME's youngest teams.

PPI believes that variety is a good thing. Our programs aim to bring together children from communities that wouldn’t normally meet, and through these meetings have them engage in dialogue. Most often, this dialogue revolves around the stuff that’s important to everyone: how to get better in basketball.  Different perspectives always enrich those taking part in the change of ideas.

Limor Mizrahi With the All Star Girls

Similarly, PPI – ME believes that every coach has their own perspective, their own way of teaching, their own way of conveying what is most important to them. That’s why even though every team has its own regular coach we try to have guest coaches come every so often and share their insight of the game of basketball. For example, a couple of weeks ago Limor Mizrahi had the first of her monthly clinics with the All Stars teams.

Khaled, who's learned to coach during his time with PPI - ME, leads a shooting drill.

On a regular basis yours truly is the coach of the new PPI – ME program in Ein Raffa. Kids from the village, 1st and 2nd graders, assemble twice every week to hear what I have to say about the game of basketball. But this is not all they hear. True to our commitment to variety, the children’s first practice was given by Khaled, a young coach, only 18 years old, with whom they connected so deeply that they still ask how he is, even though he has been unable to come to Ein Raffa since then.

The players making 'basketball ice cream cones'.

Last week, one of PPI – ME’s veteran coaches, who has been with the organization since it kicked off activities in the Middle East, came to run a practice for the children. For forty-five minutes he bestowed his wisdom as a veteran coach and a schoolteacher, running drills to sharpen coordination and on-the-court skills.

More is to come. The kids will meet Vito Gillic, PPI – ME’s resident basketball expert. And they will meet more coaches and mentors throughout the year, including in special events like a tournament planned for this December.

Every coach has a different outlook on the way to learn basketball and life-skills. When we at PPI – ME try to teach children basketball, life-skills and tolerance to other people it means that we’d like them to meet as many teachers and community leaders as possible. This is because we believe everyone has something worthwhile to pass forward.

Want to add your own perspective on why PPI’s work is important? Want to make an impact on the children playing with PPI? Go to http://ppisixthman.com/ for ideas how you can bring your skills and ideas to help PPI at our work, or how to educate people about us and what we do.

This project is partially made possible by the generous support of the American people through USAID.

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by | August 24, 2010 · 12:44 pm

High School PPI-SA Participants Shine in Weekend ’1.2′ Camp

PPI-SA players warm up their muscles with "Dynamic Warm-Up" exercises, a system just introduced to PPI-SA.

Sizwe Nxumalo, a PPI-SA ‘Basketball Fellow’ for the past six months, has worked tirelessly to create a showcase of Africa’s most talented basketball guards.  A push for African basketball talent to be cultivated and nurtured has recently been featured in the New York Times and on ESPN.com.  The grand opening of an NBA office in Johannesburg, South Africa, will hopefully increase the popularity of the sport, which hopefully will increase the amount of basketball played in Africa, now playing fourth fiddle in popularity to cricket, soccer, and rugby.

Sizwe Nxumalo worked tireless for six months to create the two-day '1.2' camp.

Sizwe’s ’1.2′ camp (1 = point guard, 2 = shooting guard) brought together PeacePlayers Leadership Development Program (LDP) players for a two-day point guard and shooting camp.  All PPI-SA managers and staff volunteered their time to break down shooting to it’s most simplest BEEF (Balance, Elbow, Eyes, Follow-Through) form, while point guards learned invaluable ball handling and dribbling drills.

The camp also hosted several guests, including fitness trainers for some intense agility workouts, Red Cross volunteers who spoke about HIV/AIDS, and the Vice President of Development for the new NBA Africa office, Amadou Fall, who dropped by to watch the camp’s drills and game sessions.

As coaches, we saw the impact of the packed two-day camp immediately.  What might be second nature to ninth graders in America – stepping into a shot, or a 3-man offense of pass and pick-away – is probably more like tenth nature to our South African players.  While basketball was popular in the region in the early 2000′s, when PPI-SA was founded, it dropped into a valley of participation.  Recently, though, with help from PPI-SA and other basketball organizations throughout the country, basketball’s popularity is climbing.

PPI-SA's Operations Manager, Ryan Douwie, teaches proper BEEF (Balance, Elbow, Eyes, Follow-Through) form to participants.

Sizwe’s 1.2 camp exposed our participants/players to that next level of basketball, so as to catch up with those ballers who have had the chance to watch the game played on TV, on playground courts, and in their own backyard.  The 1.2 camp was a fantastic start to hopefully many more camps/clinics PPI-SA will host throughout the coming months.

Thank you to Sizwe for his efforts to organize such an event.  We at PPI-SA will continue to teach our players the deeper levels of basketball and ways to live healthy life, as well as showcasing our participants in hopes someone (Amadou Fall?) will recognize enough potential in him or her to continue to play at the next level.

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by | August 23, 2010 · 2:41 pm

Video Vault Part I – Playing for Peace in Durban

Like Chauncey Billups’ scoring touch, diligent record-keeping is a skill PPI developed relatively late in life. While that presents its challenges, it has some unexpected benefits – for example, stumbling on old pictures and videos from PPI’s first days. Recently, we discovered a whole cache of long-forgotten videos, exploring some of PPI’s very first work. We’ll be releasing it slowly over the next few weeks, but for this intial installment, check out this look at PPI – South Africa c. 2005, when “PeacePlayers International” was still known as “Playing for Peace.”

Shoutouts to Sean, Manny, our coaches, and everyone else who laid the groundwork for what PPI is accomplishing today – we can’t thank you enough!

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by | June 1, 2010 · 1:35 pm

The City-Wide: “A Picture of the South Africa We Are Trying to Build”

A life skills presentation by a PPI-SA participant before the basketball tipped off this weekend. Photo by Chris Middleton.

This weekend, PeacePlayers International – South Africa held its semi-annual City-Wide Tournament, a celebration of the work that’s been done by participants and coaches alike throughout the year. More than 1,200 children participated. We’ll have more from the City-Wide shortly, but as a preview, check out this article by Chris Middleton of the International Platform for Sport and Development:

Each school attending the event was requested to organise life skills presentations, with a specific focus on HIV/AIDS awareness. Group presentations provided basic information to their peers about HIV/AIDS, stigma related to the pandemic were discussed in a second stage, and issues related to decision-making and peer pressure were finally addressed.

According to Magwaza Edwin, teacher at the North Crest primary school, this is the added-value of such initiatives: “These events, and the work carried out by PeacePlayers throughout the year, enable to get the message across to the youth. We assume that life skills are dispensed within the families, at school or at church. However, in some cases, the connection with the youth is lost due to age difference. The coaches who are part of this programme help bridge this age gap, they represent role models for the participants and have established an important trust relation with them.”

For the full article, visit the Platform.

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by | April 28, 2010 · 1:36 pm

It’s Spring….the Season for PeacePlayers International-Northern Ireland’s Community Centre League!

This past week, PPI-NI got into the swing of things with our Community Centre League (CCL). With seven centre’s on board, the ten-week curriculum gives kids a well-rounded dose of basketball, teambuilding, and community relations.

Amidst all the action we got a chance to hear from two participants, Lauren and Justin, to tell us what the CCL was all about. We will catch up with these two once more during the final week of the CCL to see what they got out of their PeacePlayers’ experience.

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by | April 22, 2010 · 4:18 pm

PeacePlayers International in On Court Online

Read about Danny's experience using basketball to build lasting friendships like this one at On Court Online.

On Court Player Development offers specialized training plans and tools to basketball teams and players of all ages. Danny Ourian, who wrapped up his term as a PeacePlayers International Fellow in Israel and the West Bank last summer, was a regular contributor to On Court’s magazine, In the Paint. You can read his latest article, looking back on his whole term of service in the Middle East, online now at On Court.

How do you describe the look on the face of a child who starts to “get it?” A child whose face says, “What I thought before is wrong;” a perception changing right in front of your eyes. How do you describe a newfound understanding in the eyes of a 14 year old, drenched in sweat, after a basketball game he never thought he would play?

Click here to read the rest of Danny’s article.

Danny and a young PeacePlayer in 2008

He’s written about PPI in the Middle East for On Court before, here and here. You might also remember Danny from the recent event he organized on PPI’s behalf with his new employer, the Safe Haven West Side Basketball League.

To learn more about Danny’s current work with Safe Haven, serving as a private basketball instructor in New York, and working in the Knicks’ community relations department, check out his LinkedIn page.

Stay tuned for more from PPI and On Court!

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