Jamaica Rising Stars Camp hopes to improve ‘fundamental skills’
Published:Thursday | August 10, 2023 | 12:08 AMOrane Buchanan/Staff Reporter
AS THE 2023 Jamaica Rising Stars Camp enters day four of six, Wayne Dawkins, technical director of the national under-17 basketball programme and founder of PHASE1 Academy, organisers of the event, believes that the information to the young players has been well received so far.
The camp, which is being hosted at the Montego Bay Community College, is geared at the development of young players aged 11-16, and according to Dawkins, the feedback since day one has been great.
“Our group is half local, half international, and we have close to 40 kids in the camp, so that’s really exciting. We have kids from ages 11-16, which is really important in the development years,” said Dawkins.
In a Gleaner article - ‘NBA agent sees natural athletes in Jamaica’ – NBA agent Mike George said as a country, Jamaica has the talent to become a force to be reckoned with, but skills development needed to be done at an earlier age. That prompted Dawkins to consider using age 11 as the starting point for the camp.
According to the technical director, 11 is a pivotal stage in basketball development.
“That’s absolutely correct, and even if we can go younger, we will do that. Age 11 is such a pivotal development age that if they go too far beyond that age, then their coordination development becomes a lot more difficult to recover. It’s not just about the basketball skill with the ball, but the fundamental movement of a basketball player that they start to lose ground on,” Dawkins explained.
IMPROVING LOCAL SKILLS
The boy’s under-17 team recently returned from the Centrobasket tournament in Belize, where they finished sixth, and Dawkins sees this latest camp as another move to not only improve on local skills, but to be better prepared for future tournaments.
“Countries like Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, have a system that goes right down to the youth age. So by the time we go to compete against them, those countries have years of competing and developing together, and then it’s just not realistic for us to try and put the country and kids in those positions. It’s just not fair.
“People from the outside don’t know why we’re performing poorly, and when they don’t understand then they don’t want to support you. So this is to show the world that we’re taking the necessary steps to close that gap, between us and the Puerto Ricos of this world,” he added.
The ongoing camp is being conducted by NBA skills trainers Darren Mclinton and Ibn Muhammed. Dawkins added that this camp would allow local players to see a future in the sport.
“For these kids it’s a chance for them to see if they can catch up to their peers and say, ‘Hre are some things that are in place to help me’,” said Dawkins.