Tag Archives: youth coaching

by | February 24, 2011 · 2:18 pm

The Route of Learning Peacemaking and Basketball

In today’s post, Aran puts PPI – Middle East’s various programs in context, taking us from a team’s initial practice all the way to where we hope each of our players ends up, giving back to the next generation of PeacePlayers.

LDP members guide younger PeacePlayers at PPI - ME's MiniFest.

Most PPI – ME teams practice regularly within their local communities twice each week. Twice each month, they meet another  team from the “other” community for a joint practice called a “Twinning.” The first challenge for any team is to get to know each other, and within PPI – ME this happens on three levels – first, amongst a team’s players themselves; second, between the young PeacePlayers and their coach; and finally, amongst all the members of two twinned teams.

The Keshet School children host their twinned team from East Jerusalem.

One example is the program at the Keshet School in West Jerusalem where PPI – ME engages some 40 children, all of them new to basketball and new to PPI – ME. Before their coach could introduce them to their twined team from East Jerusalem, he had to gain their trust. This was accomplished by through a series of activities with three goals: to introduce the children to the game of basketball, to have fun (and through this fun, to build trust), and to prepare the children to meet their twinned team using PPI – ME’s key values and teachings. Last week, on a rainy day in Jerusalem, the two Keshet teams went through special classes that are based on the curriculum developed by PPI in partnership with the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation and the Arbinger Institute. In this class the children learned that every person on a team is important, no matter how small their role sometimes seems. Coaches will later build on this lesson to illustrate to children how any one person is equal to any other person.

Practice in Ein Raffa.

The program in the Arab community of Ein Raffa presented even more complex challenges, since the team’s coach is Jewish and does not speak Arabic. He has with him a translator from the community. In four months of practice, the team developed some special signals and code words. Though most of them don’t speak English, all the children know what the “baseline” is and how to assume the basic defensive stance in basketball. Progress is slow, but communication between the players and their coach is running more smoothly every practice.

LDP members learn from PPI's curriculum in-depth.

The ideal for all of our participants are the All Stars teams and the Boys LDP team. These teams are fully integrated. They are made of youth that understand not only the codes and tactics of basketball, but also the special mission of PeacePlayers International – to understand the lessons of equality and of seeing people as people, to be open towards the “other” and act according to these lessons, taking them outside of the basketball court to their communities. In the first MiniFest of the season, help a couple of months ago, the LDP boys and girls acted as instructors to our younger PeacePlayers. The young PeacePlayers have a long road ahead of them before they are able to live out this vision of openness and acceptance. Luckily, they have PPI – ME’s veterans to guide them.

PPI’s work in the Middle East is partially made possible by the generous support of the American people through USAID.

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by | October 26, 2010 · 3:24 pm

PPI – South Africa’s Leadership Development Program Gives Back

Primary School children line the court during the LDP's recent community clinic.

One of the goals of PPI – South Africa’s Leadership Development Program, which serves young people between the ages 14 and 18, is to train participants to serve and assist their respective communities. Recently, many of our areas decided the best way to do this would be by hosting a two hour clinic at our community court in Lamontville for PPI – SA’s younger players, members of the Primary School program, which serves children as young as 10 years old.

The LDP players serve not only as occasional coaches, but also mentors for Primary School players.

On a gray Friday afternoon, 14 LDP players became coaches for a day.  Under the guidance of our regular coaches, the players ran their clinic without a hitch, as 100 Primary School children rotated up and down the court through three stations, featuring shooting, defense, and passing.  The day ended with a raucous, four-team game of “Pass Forward”, which ended with every squad in a four way tie.

Afterward, the LDP players said they were surprised at just how hard it was to coach the youth.  The most frustrating part was that they couldn’t understand why players didn’t always immediately process seemingly obvious instructions.  One player said, “I learned that I could not just say, ‘Do this. Stand there and move.’  When explaining shooting, I had to demonstrate BEEF (Balance, Eyes, Elbow, Follow-through) for the younger kids to understand me. I had no idea the patience a coach has to have.”

An LDP player helping a participant into the right defensive position.

Music to our ears! Not only did the LDP team win points for a successful community service project – they planned the entire event on their own, from transportation logistics to drills to overall structure and design – they also learned how to teach effectively, to be patient yet energetic, as they taught the basics of basketball.  I couldn’t help but smile as I saw our young leaders positioning players’ hands in the right defensive or shooting position, or stressing the points that we continually stress in our own practices, like always saying the names of players before passing to them.

Our LDP players gained courage and confidence in their own ability to play as they taught their younger counterparts.  They also grabbed the attention of the community, as residents peered outside their homes to the quite unusual sight of some 100 players playing organized basketball.  Furthermore, we introduced our youngest children to the next step in the PPI-SA program. We hope that after graduating Grade 8, these players will also join the LDP, leaving it teeming with leaders like our current LDP.

All our Primary School girls came ready to play - shoes or not.

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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 30, 2010 · 1:03 pm

Video Vault Part II – PPI-South Africa and Life Skills

PPI-SA now utilizes coach-player bonds to transmit lessons about how to live a safe and healthy life.

Last week, we went deep into PPI’s archives to bring you this video, which takes a look at the earliest days of PeacePlayers International in South Africa, our very first area of operations.

Today, we’re going back to Durban, but fast-forwarding just a touch. Founded with the original purpose of bridging post-apartheid divides, PeacePlayers International – South Africa quickly realized that that was only one of the problems facing the country. HIV/AIDS was an even greater threat, decimating the population and weakening the very fabric of society – today, South Africa has the world’s highest population of HIV-positive individuals, and the province in which PPI is based, KwaZulu-Natal, has the country’s highest rates of infection.

By 2003, PPI had adapted to address this change, working with the Harvard School of Public Health’s Centre for the Support of Peer Education to develop a unique life skills curriculum, that capitalized on the power of a coach-player bond to teach children crucial lessons about how to live a healthy life. This video, narrated by PPI’s first Life Skills Coordinator, Andrew Gordon, describes those early efforts to combat the virus.

Learn more about PeacePlayers International in South Africa today here.

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by | August 4, 2010 · 5:27 pm

PPI-NI Takes Part in Anatomy of Peace Conference

This week, PeacePlayers International – Northern Ireland asked its Managing Director, Gareth Harper, to comment on his trip to Cyprus for the Anatomy of Peace Training event held last week, designed to help several different organizations, including PeacePlayers International – Cyprus, scale up their training efforts. Gareth was on hand to help facilitate the interaction of all groups at the training, share his own experiences and think about how the curriculum can best be implemented in Northern Ireland.

Gareth (middle, in blue) takes part in a game that illustrates how allies can function in interpersonal conflict during last week's Anatomy of Peace training.

What a fantastic event!

The Managing Directors from PeacePlayers International’s programs in Cyprus, the Middle East, Northern Ireland, and South Africa were joined by colleagues from the Sister Cities Association of Morocco, Sts. Cyril and Methodius School in Bulgaria and Insaka-Ireland/Sports Against Racism Ireland from the Republic of Ireland during the week-long Anatomy of Peace training session.  The training was led by Chad Ford of The Arbinger Institute, who was assisted by PPI’s own Karen Doubilet (Managing Director, Middle East) and Tal Alter (Director of Operations), in a seminar that focused on ‘The Choice in Peace Building’ and its use in sport.

According to Chad Ford, “PeacePlayers International creates out-of-the-box places for the young people with whom it works."

The training kicked off to a great start when each attendee presented information on their respective country. A special thanks to Iliasse, Rebab, Asmaa and Hassan from the Sister Cities Association for the delicious biscuits, which added real flavor to the Moroccan presentation!

In the following days, Chad, Tal, and Karen encouraged everyone to explore the concept of “Way of Being” and the idea that there is something deeper than behavior that others can sense – something that, when wrong, undercuts the effectiveness of even the most outwardly correct behavior. The overall theme of the five-day training challenged us to “get out of the box” and dared us to see people as people and not as objects. Both in the seminar room and on the basketball court, we explored ways in which we as coaches can use these concepts to create an environment powerful enough to engage the young people with whom we work.

The trip wasn’t all work: our very gracious hosts Marina, Gunnar, Adam and the entire PPI – Cyprus team arranged for us to soak up some of the rich culture of the island. Along with PPI – CY’s Greek and Turkish Cypriot coaches, we visited Kourion Amphitheatre and Apollo’s Temple and enjoyed meze after meze – until we could hardly tackle another traditional Cypriot meal.

After the training in Agros, the entire PPI team moved to Kyrenia, in the island’s north, where we were joined by PPI Executive Director Brendan Tuohey for our annual Managing Director retreat or “Indaba” – a term borrowed from PPI-South Africa meaning “a council or meeting of indigenous peoples to discuss an important matter.”

A big thank you and congratulations to the PPI-CY team for a job well done! Special thanks to Chad, Tal and Karen for bringing the Anatomy of Peace training to life. I would be remiss if I did not thank The Anna Lindh Foundation and The Laureus Sport for Good Foundation for making this event possible, and PPI’s strategic partner, The Arbinger Institute, which has been hard at work with PPI to develop this training.

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by | July 29, 2010 · 7:47 pm

Coming Together to Build Peace Through Basketball

Chad Ford walking the attendees through the curriculum developed by PPI and Arbinger.

Earlier, we wrote to you about the first day of PPI’s “Anatomy of Peace” training event in Agros, hosted by PeacePlayers International – Cyprus with the support of the Anna Lindh Foundation and the Laureus Sports for Good Foundation. Since our last update, a lot has happened.

"Team Diversity" explains one of the Anatomy of Peace's key lessons to the group, discussing ways you can "betray" others' humanity.

First, on Tuesday, all the workshop attendees were introduced to the “Anatomy of Peace”, a philosophy for personal improvement and conflict resolution developed by the Arbinger Institute, PPI’s partner in peacebuilding curriculum development. Chad Ford, a longtime PPI volunteer and consultant better known for his work on ESPN.com Insider, led the sessions, helping all the attendees learn how they can overcome “self-deception” – in Arbinger parlance, the key to beginning to transform personal and communal conflicts.

Chad, with the help of PPI Director of Operations Tal Alter and PPI – Middle East Managing Director Karen Doubilet – both trained Arbinger facilitators – shared personal stories about how they’ve struggled with conflicts in the past and how the Anatomy of Peace has helped them overcome them. The theme of each was the same – by avoiding or overcoming mental “boxes” and seeing people as people and not as objects, any one can live a more peaceful life.

After a long day in the classroom, the group was ready for some more activity on Wednesday. At the Glafkos Klerides Sports Center, only a half-mile away from the group’s hotel, Chad and PPI staff walked everyone through the organization’s unique basketball curriculum, which uses a mix of on-the-court drills and storytelling to help teach children how to live more peacefully. In the video clip below, a group including PPI – Cyprus coaches, members of Insaka-Ireland and Manny Madonda of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, try a drill called “Out of the Box”.

The players on defense start out this drill “In the Box” – stuck to where they are, just as we can often get stuck in seemingly intractable conflicts. Meanwhile, the offense is free to pass the ball without difficulty. (They’re not allowed to score). When the defense gets “Out of the Box”, they are free to attack their challenges in a new light. Listen for Tal yelling “Out of the box!” and note the change.

According to Chad, the drill can also effectively help children learn how to play in a zone defense.

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by | July 13, 2010 · 2:24 pm

Subtle Changes for PPI-SA’s 2nd Semester

It's not only the players who are invested in PPI-SA's development and growth...

This morning a couple of us PPI-SA staffers brewed up some new ideas for our upcoming semester – not a complete overhaul by any means, but rather a new consideration of what coaches and staff members have recommended to further improve our program.

Some of the beneficiaries of PPI-SA's revamped program.

Last semester, our Primary School Program’s 37 schools competed sans a competitive scoring system.  Instead, we stressed the fundamentals, completing the first semester as an introduction to basketball.  Ensuing competition was a happy by-product.  This semester, each primary school will compete within their respective area and whichever team accumulates the most winning points will represent their district in an end-of-semester ‘World Cup’ championship.

That tournament will be held a couple weeks prior to our 17th semi-annual City Wide tournament, where teams will receive a final chance to represent their school in a program-wide tournament.  The semester long competition will, we hope, further encourage our primary school youth to learn more about the game outside of PPI-SA program time.  Many coaches taped the NBA finals and plan to share the games as part of practices to increase our players’ familiarity with basketball, which comes fourth fiddle to soccer, rugby, and cricket in South Africa.

Further changes include a vamped-up Leadership Development Program for our high school players.  This semester a point system will be introduced awarding points for games won, highest continual attendance and hands-on community involvement.   Each LDP team will be charged with recruiting  primary school participants to attend their games, serving as the living bridge between the program they played with in years past and the next step in their future progression.  The LDP players will serve as positive role models for our youth, effectively introducing our primary school participants to an avenue for further personal and professional development.  Otherwise, many players would never touch a basketball again, as many high schools do not have a basketball team, let alone a basketball court.

PPI Director of Operations Tal Alter with a group of PPI-SA players.

These changes came as recommendations from our school representatives, coaches, and other staff members.  Our overall design improves each semester as we gain insight from those deeply involved with the program.  What remains constant throughout the semesters, however, is the belief in basketball’s power to teach youth teamwork and respect, and serve as an effective platform to increase awareness in our South African youth of children’s rights, gender equality, and the threat HIV/AIDS.

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by | June 29, 2010 · 3:35 pm

PeacePlayers International – South Africa at the Laureus Workshop

S’bongiseni Vilakazi, our Managing Director in South Africa, recently attended the Laureus Sport for Good summit in South Africa.

S'bo at the Laureus Sport for Good summit in South Africa

The workshop incorporated  lessons about life skills, tips for making sessions interesting, and the importance of innovation and creativity.

S’bo learned a lot from the workshop to better the Leadership Development Program in South Africa:

“…The heart of our impact lies in leadership development. It was therefore quite useful to explore with other organisations what leadership development through sport means for us. The session on defining leadership development pathways helped me to think about a matter that is of great importance to PPI – SA.”

Read more from S’bo on the Laureus blog.

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by | June 18, 2010 · 12:57 pm

PPI-Cyprus Prepping for “The Anatomy of Peace”

Chad, leading PPI-CY coaches in the Arbinger Institute's "Choice" training this past April in Nicosia

At the end of July, PeacePlayers International – Cyprus will be teaming up with the Arbinger Institute to host an international peace and sport training. Sponsored by the Anna Lindh Foundation and the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, the training will focus on ways to coach basketball to kids while incorporating principals that promote peace and understanding.

PPI's peacebuilding curriculum, developed in partnership with Laureus and Arbinger, teaches children ways to lead more peaceful lives on the basketball court.

The training will revolve around the ideas from the “Anatomy of Peace“, a theory of conflict resolution developed by the Arbinger Institute. Arbinger is a worldwide institute that helps organizations, families, individuals, and communities solve the problems created by self-deception. Arbinger and PeacePlayers have been partners for several years, working together to make positive changes for all of our programs. Most recently, with the support of Laureus, Arbinger worked with the PeacePlayers International team in the Middle East to construct a new, organization-wide curriculum, using basketball to communicate the Anatomy of Peace’s key lessons. Watch the video below to learn more.

Attending July’s training are 35 people, including PPI’s Managing Directors from Northern Ireland, Middle East, South Africa and Cyprus, all of PPI-CY’s coaches and staff, certified Anatomy of Peace trainer Chad Ford, and several members from three other organizations using sport to effect social change: the Moroccan Association of Sister Cities International, the Primary School of St. St. Cyril and Methodius (in Bulgaria), and Insaka–Ireland.

The training will be located in Agros, a small village in the Troodos Mountains. Each day the participants will engage in seminars and exercises to help them understand the concepts behind the Anatomy of Peace, and work together to adapt the concepts to sport in a fun and functional way.

This training, and others like it, are vital to PPI-CY’s ability to affect change in Cyprus. Not only can we learn new and better ways to help our kids understand conflict, but training and networking events like these give us an opportunity to team up and collaborate with other NGO’s with similar missions to our own.

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by | June 8, 2010 · 12:34 pm

The Coaching Consultant: Meet Scott Mooney

Scott Mooney, a volunteer coaching consultant for PPI-SA

One of the perks of having a friend working abroad for PeacePlayers International is the excuse to take vacation to the far side of the world.  Having a friend working for PeacePlayers International in the World Cup host country should only make it easier to visit.  However, South Africa is a long (15 hours of flying from New York or Washington DC) and expensive journey that takes a lot of planning.  Luckily, I had one friend who was able to make the commitment and give three weeks of his time volunteering as a coaching consultant with PeacePlayers International – South Africa: Scott Mooney.

Scott and I have been friends our entire lives.  Since childhood, we have spent countless hours together on the court, from childhood basketball camps to high school varsity basketball and both of us have a strong passion for sports.  Scott has also chosen to make sports an integral part of his life by founding his own Volleyball apparel company (www.tantrumvolleyball.com), coaching high school varsity and Junior Olympic boys and girls volleyball, and assisting at the collegiate level for the University of Pennsylvania women’s volleyball team.  With nearly 10 years of coaching experience, Scott will add invaluable insight to the PPI-SA basketball team over his three week stay.

I interviewed Scott not long after he arrived to get a fresh perspective on PeacePlayers International’s work in South Africa.

PeacePlayers International: What made you interested in taking time off of work to come to South Africa and help out PeacePlayers International?

Scott Mooney: Obviously, I’m familiar with the program through speaking with Tim.  I really respect and appreciate the PeacePlayers mission and I think sports are a great way to reach kids.  Honestly, I wish I could be more involved, it’s a great program.

PPI: How would you compare the basketball in South Africa to basketball in the US?  And the style of play?

According to Scott, basketball in South Africa tends to be faster-paced and less structured.

SM: The game is definitely played at a faster pace here.  There is a lot of running up and down the court instead of setting up plays and working the ball around on offense (much like Americans play soccer).  I was impressed by the overall play, especially on defense, and I know the strategic elements will come along as the kids get more exposure to the sport.

PPI: What has been your most interesting experience so far?

SM: Heading out to the townships to play basketball with Claire was eye-opening.  I couldn’t believe how enthusiastic the kids were in the face of some pretty terrible court conditions compared to what I played on when I grew up.  Broken glass everywhere and some random bricks on the court.  A few kids didn’t even wear shoes.  Didn’t phase them at all.  They just laced up the sneakers (or didn’t) and went at it like, “No big deal.”  Awesome.

PPI: What lessons of being a coach can be passed on despite the differences between basketball and volleyball?

SM: I think coaching is pretty universal.  The object of the game may change, but you are always trying to foster an environment of self-improvement and teamwork.  In practice, we try to keep things fast and focused to maximize the number of repetitions a player has and replicate game situations.  During games, it’s time for a coach to encourage and motivate his players.   Most of all, keep things fun and challenging.  It’s amazing what kids can do if you empower them to play with confidence.

PPI: As a coach, how have you seen sports positively impact players’ lives?

Scott with his sister Carolyn, who played varsity volleyball at the University if Pennsylvania.

SM: We really try to instill a sense of self-confidence and discipline in our players that I think helps them outside the gym as well.  I have had a few players write to me and say that they want to be coaches one day.  That’s always extremely rewarding.  We’ve also had a few players from our teams go on to play volleyball in college and it’s a thrill to watch them play at that level.  Overall, it’s just great to see them develop lasting friendships and share a love for sport.

PPI: Finally, you extended your trip to catch a few World Cups games.  What are you most excited for and who will win it all?

SM: Tough question.  USA?  Wishful thinking, but I’m an unapologetic homer when it comes to sports.  If things don’t work out for the Americans, I’d like Bafana Bafana to come out on top.  Gotta pull for the home team!

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