Shooting Touch Rwanda’s Pre-Season Tune-up for Coaches.

SHOOTING TOUCH RWANDA’S PRE-SEASON TUNE-UP: COACHESHaving already reached over 11,000 youth in Rwanda and beyond, Shooting Touch plans to

continue scaling upwards, establishing the countries first ever youth basketball league opening

the doors for tens-of-thousands of more girls and boys to the benefits of life lessons on and off

the court.

WHERE IS THE NEED?

Deep within the valleys of Rwanda’s Eastern Province basketballs are bouncing. There, hidden

in groves of banana trees and under a layer of red clay dust, is the village of Rwinkwavu, a

community where there exists major gaps in peoples' ability to access basic services and life-

saving information. Not unlike other villages in the region, Rwinkwavu is a victim of the poverty

trap, which takes its roots in problems like secondary education enrollment rates as low as 6%

and an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate rising for the first time in 20 years. These are just a few of the

challenges that Shooting Touch has been able to target by employing the mobilizing power of

Basketball in communities throughout Rwanda’s Eastern Province.

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WHAT IS SHOOTING TOUCH?

Shooting Touch is a locally registered NGO that uses basketball as a platform for providing

underserved youth with access to health education and social development opportunities.

Shooting Touch Basketball Fellows mobilize communities by constructing courts, training

coaches, and building teams; identify needs and target points of intervention; and act to provide

access, education, and opportunity with program curriculum, tournaments and collaboration with

our partner organizations on the ground.

One example of this was the Shooting Touch Tournament of Champions which hosted 10 teams

from all 4 Shooting Touch sites for a day of basketball, health messaging, and access to

counselling, and testing at the Kayonza Youth Friendly Community Health Center for the first

time ever. Hundreds of young athletes and members of the community came out in support of the

event and rallied around the goal of the day- to encourage fair play and promote health.

BUILDING A LEAGUE

Having already reached over 11,000 youth in Rwanda and beyond, Shooting Touch plans to

continue scaling upwards, establishing the countries first ever youth basketball league opening

the doors for tens-of-thousands of more girls and boys to the benefits of life lessons on and off

the court. An organized youth basketball league will extend access to the sport and the lessons

that it teaches on and off court to tens of thousands of others in villages like Rwinkwavu- just

one of 5 Shooting Touch sites. Shooting Touch is devoted to working in Rwinkwavu and

surrounding communities. To do this Shooting Touch needs to train a large number of coaches to

keep up with the rising demand for court time.

In order to start a successful youth league in the eastern province, we are aiming to establish a

mini league at each site. The goal is to establish 3-4 teams made up of 8 players at each site. In

order for this to be possible, we need each team to have a coach. Since we currently have 4 sites,

we need 12-16 junior coaches. Most current Shooting Touch coaches are about 19-23 years old

and we are targeting the same age group for the new coaches.

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COACHING CLINIC

Target Number of Participants: 16 coaches

Target Age Group: 19+ years old female and male

Location(s): Kayonza Youth Friendly Center, Rwinkwavu Isomero, Rukara Secondary

School, Nyamirama Health Center (Nyamirama and Rwinkwavu on, Kayonza and Rukara on

Tuesdays and Thursdays)

Dates: Mondays-Thursdays, September 1, 2014-September 25, 2014

PROPOSED TRAINING TIMELINE

AUGUST 18TH – 24TH - RECRUITMENT

Existing coaches and the Shooting Touch Country Director Isa Guzman will identify

potential new coaches at each site for September’s clinic. Once recruited all potential new

coaches will take part in baseline survey highlighting their basketball and coaching knowledge

before the clinic. The goal of this survey is to pair it with a final assessment of the knowledge

and skills learned which will take place at the end of the clinic.

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SEPTEMBER 1ST – 4TH - WEEK ONE: INTRODUCTION TO THE SHOOTING TOUCH LEAGUE AND COACHING BASICS.

Monday and Tuesday: Off Court Session - New Coaches will participate in classroom sessions

highlighting FIBA rules, basketball terminology, and what it is like to be a Shooting Touch

Coach. Participants will be provided with written material, will be shown informational videos

and take part in lectured and group discussion facilitated by Shooting Touch Basketball Fellows

and existing coaches. It is our desire to have a cohort of FIBA Africa representatives to take part

in these sessions.

Wednesday and Thursday: On-Court Session – New coaches will take part in on-court skills

training at Shooting Touch courts consisting of how to run practice drills (layups, shooting,

passing drills), and what it is like to be a coach on court. Participants will not only take part in

the physical aspect of coaching and playing but will be placed in mock situations they could face

while coaching.

SEPTEMBER 8TH – 11TH WEEK TWO: THE BEST OFFENCE IS A SOLID DEFENSE

Monday and Tuesday: Off Court Session – New coaches will review the lessons from the

previous week and transition into a similar session centered on establishing the concept of

defense.

Wednesday and Thursday: On-Court Session - defensive drills, rebounding, box-out, close-

outs, etc. This off-court session is organized in a similar fashion to the previous week.

SEPTEMBER 15TH – 18TH WEEK THREE: OFFENSIVE POWER

Monday and Tuesday: Off Court Session – This session will begin with a review of the

previous week’s material. Coaches will learn offensive strategy and drills to help develop their

player’s ability to pass, shoot, and score.

Wednesday and Thursday: On-Court Session- Coaches will demonstrate drills learned in the

previous days themselves and start to work with real players on the court.

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SEPTEMBER 22ND – 25TH WEEK FOUR: TEAM BUILDING AND LEAGUE PLAY

Monday and Tuesday: Off Court Session – This session will consist of classroom review of the

previous week’s material, team building exercises, and what is like to play against other teams at

Shooting Touch tournaments. Coaches will learn how to recruit players and ensure retention,

they will focus on building a sense of teamwork among their players with an ‘all for one and one

for all’ philosophy. Coaches will also be briefed in the organization and logistics of tournament

play and team rankings.

Wednesday and Thursday: On-Court Session – Coaches will go over plays with real players

whose expeience will range from those previously enrolled in Shooting Touch Programming to

those with no past play experience. The clinic will conclude with a general review of whole

clinic and a ceremony where new coaches are presented with a coaching certificate and whistle,

ready to coach.

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WRAPPING UP THE CLINICUpon completion of the Shooting Touch Pre Season Tune-up for Coaches, new coaches will take

part in a final coaching assessment aimed at calculating the development of each coach. This

assessment, modelling the clinic itself will consist of both an on-court coaching assessment and

off-court survey. These results will be paired against those of the baseline survey to track each

coach’s individual progress and give them targeted feedback for further improvement of their

coaching skills and will guide Shooting Touch in designing improved clinics in the future.

After this Pre-Season Tune-Up, the district of Kayonza will boast a cohort of technically trained

coaches who will be the extending arm of Rwanda’s first youth girls’ and boys’ basketball

leagues. Through FIBA certification, capacities will be built and confidence will be boosted,

teams will thrive and Shooting Touches mobilizing power will be increased. By extending access

to basketball across Rwanda, Shooting Touch is not only supporting our own mission and

aligning with the goals of the national and local governments, but we are providing underserved

youth with access to health education and social development opportunities.

WHAT WE ARE ASKINGShooting Touch is a growing organization with limited resources and reach. Because of this we

are requesting support from FIBA Africa in the form of both equipment and technical assistance.

EQUIPTMENT

Shooting Touch is requesting a coaching packet to be provided to each coach. Upon completion

of the clinic each coach would be provided with a whistle (16 total), two balls (32 total), 10

cones (160 total), 2 jump ropes (36 total), and a FIBA Africa jersey (16 total). We would also

like to request any written training material in Kinyarwanda and English for each new coach.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

Shooting Touch is requesting a total of four FIBA Africa certified trainers to co-facilitate on and

off-court training sessions with Shooting Touch Basketball Fellows and Coaches. We know that

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their participation will greatly improve the outcomes of new coaches and we hope to provide our

new coaches with a FIBA coaching certification.

FIBA AFRICA AND SHOOTING TOUCH FIBA Africa’s participation and support in the Shooting Touch Preseason Tune-Up for Coaches

is essential is building coaching capacities, broadening the scope of our work, and giving

legitimacy to the training. We hope that this first collaboration will be the jump off point for

more work in the future and a potential long term partnership. Because we believe in the

mobilizing power of sport and all the good it can bring underserved communities, we think that

we can be an effective extending arm of FIBA in rural Rwanda, where we have already

established ourselves as a reputable organization. Help us bring health education, social

development and basketball throughout the valleys and mountain passes of Rwanda!

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