Catch them young: FIBA instructor Isley

KOCHI: For the development of basketball in the country, India needs to identify potential basketball players from a young age and give them specialised training, believes FIBA (International Basketball Federation) coaching instructor Nelson Isley.
"The Basketball Federation of India has to be responsible for finding out talents and moulding the future players. Their job is not merely restricted to picking teams and sending them out for tournaments.You have to groom kids from the age of seven or eight," said Isely, who was here for a seven-day FIBA Level-2 certification course for coaches at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium.
"I understand the culture of the country and that cricket is the main sport here. But basketball has made a huge progress in India I believe. FIBA sends me down here because they know a country with such a large population, you will find good basketball players too," said the 68-year-old Isley, who hails from North Carolina in the United States.
The development of coaches creates a solid foundation believes Isley, who has been to India eight times for development programmes in various cities. "We've worked with 500-600 coaches and that has created a base of teachers and now we have to create players. You can't fully depend on schools for that. We need development centres where children can come and work with these qualified coaches for at least three days a week," said Isley who had earlier conducted a Level-1 course in Kochi two years ago.
Over the course of the camp, Isley worked with 14 coaches who had successfully completed a Level-1 course. There were six coaches from Kerala too, including Prem Kumar VM, who was the coach of the Kerala boys team which won the national youth championship last month. Isley was assisted by Level-3 national coach PJ Sebastian.