A successful National Licensed Mini-Basketball Trainer’s Course was held on the 5th June at the Danescamp Leisure Centre Northampton. The course is organised in conjunction with Val Sabin Publications & Training.

Participants: David Barlow SSCo NW Surrey SSP, Daniel Carter  Sandye Place Middle School Sandy Bedford, Devon Ellis Playin’ 4 Success Coach Solihull, John Harris Community Coach Baldock Herts., Joanna Gibbons SSCo Newcastle under Lymme SSP, Steve Mellors SSCo Erewash SSP Derby, Michael Parry Coach City of London Academy, Peter Tomley SSCo Lakers School Gloucs., Julia Tucker-Blackford Assistant PDM Southampton SSP, Michaela Tucker-Blackford Coordinator Havant College of Recreation Southampton, David Winford Coach Shelley College Huddersfield .

The course prepared the participants to run Mini-Basketball Teacher and Young Leader courses based on the principles used in Take Six Mini-Basketball as well as preparing basketball coaches who will be working with the Mini-Basketball age-groups. If you have potential candidates please contact Martin.

‘Hotshots Basketball’

The Mini Basketball Project that is leading the way for primary school sport in the city of Sheffield.

Lorraine Gayle writes:

As Basketball Development Officer for Sheffield City Council, I have worked in close partnership with the Hotshots Project to strategically deliver many elements of mini-basketball across a wide range of ages and abilities in most primary schools in Sheffield.

Since “Hotshots” introduction in 2005 it has been one of the most exciting and successful projects going from strength to strength over the last two years. Over 1200 children between the ages of 8 and 11 participate each year alone through the primary school competitive element of this programme. September 2007 saw the fourth and final School Sports Partnership coming on board with the project so that almost every primary school in the city will now be involved with the Hotshots programme!

The Hotshots project has had a massive impact on basketball in the city, with an increase in the out of hours opportunities provided by schools in partnership with the Sheffield Basketball Development Group, local clubs and my department to ensure quality of provision and a good standard of coaching. The increase in participation and popularity of the sport has lead to a demand for further opportunities outside of school, therefore enabling more satellite development clubs out in the community Handsworth Hornets, Tapton Tigers and Wisewood Wizards to name but a few. The infrastructure also ensures a performance pathway for players through to Junior club basketball with Steelers (wheelchair), Hatters (girls) and Sharks (boys).

Through additional support of the work of the Sheffield Basketball Development Group, the programme has been expanded to include children with special needs. The 2006/7 academic year saw a “bolt on” pilot scheme to include the Hotshots Special Needs Competition, which is a version of the running game that accommodates children with a learning disability. As a result of the increased interest amongst players the “Lynx” basketball club was set-up and has full membership In 2007/8 the launch of the Inclusive Zone Competition that integrates children with a mobility problem into the Hotshots programme has proved to be a great success. Players in wheelchairs can now battle it out in the same competition as their running basketball peers!

The Hotshots programme has not only been a great success in terms of participation but also as a vital tool in the recruitment and training of young volunteers. Young sports leaders from across the city have had the opportunity to gain apprentice level qualifications and practical experience through the competitive element of the Hotshots programme. This element is vital to sustaining the programme and ensuring the future growth of the sport. The project not only delivers opportunity for many young people in the city, but also maintains a high quality of provision and good practice. After attending a number of the Hotshots Events, Ian Annis, PE Adviser for the Local Education Authority stated publicly that Basketball was leading the way in school sport, a proud achievement of the Hotshots programme and all those involved with it.

At the recent National Licensed Mini-Basketball Trainer’s Course 17 candidates completed the course successfully. The course was held at the Benham Sport Arena, the location of the new Northamptonshire Trampoline Club’s world class facility.

The course includes the following content:

• How to adapt the game of basketball for children
• Planning and delivering a workshop
• Familiarisation of the Mini Basketball FUNdamentals: Agility, Balance & Coordination
• Developing game skills
• Introducing game rules
• Competitive Experiences
• National Curriculum: A programme of study for Mini-Basketball
• Risk Assessment in Mini-Basketball

We were delighted that Ivan Riola, Chairman of the Mini-Basketball Commission of Malta, could join us for the course. Ivan is also a senior lecturer at Malta’s University which has a highly regarded PE teacher training faculty. Ivan is very keen to foster closer links with Mini-Basketball in England and hopes that Mini-Basketball groups might like to visit the island. Malta retains close links with England with the majority of the island’s population fluent in English, Italian & Maltese.

The successful National Licensed Mini-Basketball Trainers were:

Graham Burgess SSCo Futures College Southend Essex; Warren Lewis PE Teacher Shoeburyness High School Essex; Annie Mooney SSCo & Isla McFadyen SSCo Thorpe St Andrews SSP Norwich Norfolk; Rhian Fuge SSCo Myton School Warwick; Bernie Bacon SSCO, Phil Dexter SSCo & Andy Killick SSCo Isleworth & Syon SSP Middlesex; Ian Shepherd PDM Stroud & District SSP Gloucester; Ivan Riolo Chairman Malta Mini-Basketball Commission Malta; Andy Hill Promote Sport Ltd Woking Surrey; Trevor Whitby SSCo Dr Challoners GS Amersham Bucks;Keith Limon SSCo SW Suffolk SSP Haverhill Suffolk; Mark Richmond SSCo Cleeve School Bishops Cleeve Gloucester; Paul Reisman SSCo Barnet South SSP Hendon; John Allin SSCo Corby, Oundle & Thrapston SSP Northamptonshire

Michele Furia, from the School of Basketball, Samoggia Bologna, invites a school or club team (children born in 1998) to visit him as guests of their club. (The coach on the right is Michele) He guarantees it will be a unique experience. Michele would also like to bring his team to a summer camp in England. Please contact us if you are interested.

• New management structure for MBE is working well
• A successful programme has been delivered on a limited budget
• A 3 year development plan 'Move Ahead with Mini-Basketball' has been adopted
• A growing corps of Licensed Mini-Basketball Trainers work with primary schools
• Competitive experiences should  be mainly development festivals using 3 v 3 games and not be highly competitive
• MBE commends the 12 panel Molten Mini-Basketball
• Take Six Mini-Basketball is a great success
• National publicity has been through respected educational publications and the MBE website
• A product of the Mallin review of Basketball will mean closer integration of MBE and Schools' Basketball with England Basketball
• Appreciation to Val Sabin Publications & Training,  School Sport Partnerships and Sports Development Managers, teachers, coaches and club administrators

Neil Johnson, School Sports Partnership Development Manager for Bury St Edmunds continues to support an
extensive Mini-Basketball development programme for his first and middle schools.

The initial training was undertaken by Ken Charles and Martin Spencer with a Teacher Awareness Workshop and a
Young Leader's Course. This was followed up by Martin who delivered a number of In-Class-Development Sessions
working with whole class groups. Neil was particularly enthusiastic about these sessions:

''Teachers particularly like to see how their pupils actually respond to new ideas. They were very impressed to see
how the selected mini-basketball activities help to develop agility, balance & coordination.''

Kath James, Basketball Development was able to observe the sessions. Kath, working with Colin Richards who is now
a qualified coach, continue to extend the programme into all primary schools. By the end of 2007 all year 3 & 4
children will have enjoyed playing Mini-Basketball.

Neil is also pleased to report that Bury St Edmunds now has a Community Club for all year 5 &6 pupils who wish to
attend a natural extension of the year 3 &4 programme. Neil would also like to provide more In - Class Development
sessions in the future as he feels these sessions really help the first school teachers understand the value of
Mini-Basketball.

Steve Burton, Licensed Mini-Basketball Trainer & Registered Take Six Mini-Basketball Provider held a successful festival at Fenton Manor, Staffordshire.

Three schools attended the festival; Abbey Hulton Primary, Kingsland Primary and Maple Court Primary. All the schools sent two year group squads of 6 children, both boys and girls.

An afternoon of shooting, lay up and passing "competition" took place with the final session devoted to an inter school rally, with the children showing off their undoubted skills.

MBE would like to give special thanks to:

        Fenton Manor & Mike Hill (Sixth  Form College) for providing the facilities;

        Faye Lunt, Abbey Hulton and Simon Lawley Kingsland, who assisted Steve in the coaching

        and especially Alan Cameron at Berryhill High School and Sports College for allowing Steve to develop the
        coaching programme.

Finally a big thank you to Steve Burton for ensuring Take Six Mini-Basketball ''takes off'' in Staffordshire.

Steve is planning more Take Six Mini-Basketball festivals for the Stoke & Staffordshire area as well as organising teacher & coach courses, so watch this space.

Congratulations to:

Sharon Simpson & Ian Moreton, Essex; Anthony Stewart, Northamptonshire; Michael Barnes & Olly Driver, Cumbria; Ian Webb, Kent; Tony Harris, Alan Evans & Richard Clark, Isle of Wight; Tony Malley, Wiltshire; Claude Banawe, Leeds; Jo Godfrey, Hertfordshire; Martin Roberts, North Yorkshire and Karl Brown Leicestershire who all successfully completed the National Licensed Mini-Basketball Training in Northampton.

We were delighted with their enthusiasm and commitment. We are also very pleased with the geographical spread of areas  from which the Licensed Trainers will now be working

Claude Banawe writes:

''I enjoyed the course very much and when I went to coach in Otley on Friday, I tried some of the new approaches to dribbling without looking at the ball, it was amazing. The teacher at All Saints Primary in Otley could not believe how well the children, by using the ideas we experienced on the course, adopted the idea of not looking at the ball.

I intend to preach your  Mini-Basketball gospel''

This was the last Mini-Basketball course to be held at Bridgewater Primary School which has been the National Training base for MBE as well as Val Sabin Publications & Training.

Headteacher Geoff Adams, Licensed Mini-Basketball Trainer and coach to the England Mini-Basketball Group who visited the First European Jamboree in Orvieto, Italy, moves his school into a brand new school building on the same site. Sadly the gymnasium, which was previously the Abington Vale Middle School facility, is to be demolished this summer.

The next National Licensed Mini-Basketball Trainer's Course will be in October but we have yet to confirm the location or exact date. If you would like to be a participant please register your interest with Val Sabin Publications & Training on Tel: 01604 580974

School Sports Partnerships across England include Take Six Mini-Basketball in their Development Plans

MBE is delighted that we now have 20 Registered Take Six Providers since our launch in January. The majority of Providers are Partnership Development Managers. In some School Sports Partnerships it has been decided to pilot Take Six within a family of primary schools whereas others have decided to give access to the whole SSP. In the registration process we have asked Providers to indicate the number of schools they plan to include in their programme. The grand total of schools presently stands at just fewer than 700 schools which could mean in 2007-8 Take Six Mini-Basketball is played by thousands of children.

This is the time of year when the SSPs are very busy with PESSCL surveys and planning School Sports Partnership activities for academic year 2007–8. Perhaps your SSP may like to consider whether to include Take Six Mini-Basketball in the SSP training and festival programme.

Competition Managers may have already received recent guidance concerning the Basketball's Schools Competitive Framework. You will be pleased to know that the Framework encourages SSPs to play 3 v 3 & 4 v 4 mini-basketball games at Key Stage 2.

Take Six Mini-Basketball is based on this principle of reduced numbers on court but also provides simplified rules of mini-basketball where the children assist in refereeing, timekeeping and scoring. The concept of Take Six is to emphasise that children learn to have fun playing Mini-Basketball but are also introduced to the important roles of officiating which will help provide the basketball officials of the future.

Take Six Mini-Basketball can also be used as a game where young leaders assist in the coaching and administration of the game. MBE recommends the two hour add-on Mini-Basketball Young leader workshop as part of young leader training.

Primary Teachers will be very comfortable with the similarities to High Five Netball and may like to use Take Six Mini-Basketball in intra-mural competition.

For those of you who watch the BBC Sportsround programme on a Saturday morning you may have seen a feature presented by Ades Adepitan, an International Olympic Wheelchair Basketball Star who regularly appears on the television.

Ade introduced the children from Brettenham Primary School, Enfield who gave a tremendous demonstration of how Take Six Mini-Basketball is played. Ade was very impressed with their standard of play and how they coped so well with the very important jobs of refereeing, table officiating and scoring which are all part of the Take Six Mini-Basketball experience.

Ade finished the feature with a shootout between himself and the best shooters which ended in a draw!

• Membership of the Take Six Mini-Basketball National programme
• A copy of the Take Six CD allowing the Partnership to access materials including a Course Leader’s Handbook, Teacher’s Guide, posters, stickers & certificates for print.
• Use of the Take Six Mini-Basketball logo for approved Take Six Mini-Basketball Festivals & competitive experiences.
• Advice by phone or Email
• Information updates
• Access to a Take Six Training Course at the approved rate. The course will introduce the essential aspects of the game in a practical session.
• Publicity via the MBE website of all their Take Six Mini-Basketball activities.

Molten, a world leader of ball manufacturing has designed a revolutionary new ball, featuring 12 panels and packed with ground-breaking technology to enhance player performance.

The Molten G7 ball is approved by FIBA for the senior game and will be the match ball for the Olympics 2008.

The G5 Mini-Basketball - i.e. size 5, suitable for children in Years 5, 6 & 7, are available at Newitts at Claxton Hall, Flaxton, York YO60 7RE

They are the main agent – If you seek to order –

Telephone: 01904 468 551
Fax: 01904 468 386
E-mail: sport@newitts.com

In April the G3 Mini-Basketball, size 3, best for children of Year 4 and younger, will be on sale.

Historically, the Molten Mini-Basketball has proved to be a good performer, durable, and holds the air. Some of us, who use them excessively, only need to pump up once a year!

‘Teacher Awareness Workshops’ Programme

Our programme this term will take us to Dorchester, Enfield, Hackney, Harlow, Helston, Hockley, Larkfield, Morecambe, Norwich, Southall, Steeple Morden and Weymouth.

MBE continues to receive the highest praise for the series of workshops. We cannot emphasise enough that all teachers from those who teach Reception through to Year 6 should be encouraged to participate.

It is two hours of physical activity; no one is at risk of being embarrassed and its Fun! Folks depart elated that they have experienced a wide range of activities they can integrate into their PE lessons.

Here’s a scenario that has been repeated again and again across the country……

“I never liked PE; I hated it at school as I was always the last to be selected. I love teaching. I have to teach PE, it’s the school policy to teach our own class. I didn’t want to come tonight but it was a staff meeting, so I did. Oh, I am so pleased; you have shown me how I can enrich my PE lessons. Thanks!!”…..

For us at MBE that’s the ‘jewel in the crown’.

Do you want us to visit you? Telephone 01604 517 732 Now.

‘School Sports Coordinator Award'

We are delighted to announce the 2004 Mini-Basketball England Award to the School Sports Coordinator who has made an outstanding contribution to the development of Mini-Basketball: