Mission Statement:

The Valparaiso Basketball Skills Academy (VBSA) is an advanced basketball experience for student-athletes emphasizing age-appropriate development of talent, skill and attitude. Our players will be given proper instruction developing individual skill, team skill, talent, and game strategy. The program is a competitive environment where teamwork, commitment, sportsmanship, and leadership are vital cornerstones for our players to reach maximum potential. Basketball is a game of talent, skill and attitude. Necessary skills are taught while encouraging them to practice individually is important.In the basketball program results are important in that they are a large part of defining excellence and determining the quality of what we do, and yet how we do things is as important as what we do. Certainly, we will not be perfect but we can peruse excellence in all we do. Development of the qualities of personal and team leadership, accountability to each other, perseverance in the face of adversity, singleness of purpose and an understanding of the importance of doing our best each day will help these young men lead lives of significance.

 

​Objectives:

The main objective of the VBSA is to promote Valpo Pride, develop leadership skills and foster lifelong relationships with connections to the Valpo Community. An emphasis will be placed on teaching our young VCS basketball players the fundamentals and skills of the game in order for them to have future success within the program. We will focus on individual skill development while engaging the players in somewhat competitive situations by placing them on teams. We will emphasize the concepts of hard work, teamwork, determination, and most importantly – having fun.

 

Structure:

Students in grades 3rd through 6 th are invited to participate in the program. Players will learn to be great teammates and leaders, as well as develop and improve their individual basketball skills. Players will have the opportunity to learn the skills of basketball in an environment designed for player development.  60% of the VBSA time will involve individual skill development and team skill development. 40% of the VBSA time will be dedicated to playing controlled scrimmage games. After the skill development time is completed the players will be divided into teams and they will scrimmage. Each night the players will be assigned to new teams by the league Directors in efforts to let the players have different teammates and keepthe teams as balanced and commutative as possible.

 

Attitude + Talent + Skill = Basketball Player

 

Attitude:  A positive mental attitude is a primary tenet and coaches along with parents teach our players important life lessons about teamwork, commitment, leadership and sportsmanship. Our players will play hard and work to do what the coach is asking them to do. It is important for our players to focus on the task at hand and“never hang their head”.

 

Talent:  A player’s talent is God given and they don’t have a lot our control over this area. Height, jumping ability, speed, eye hand coordination, reach and strength are some examples of a player’s talent. These areas hand be improved with strength training, conditioning and the teaching of proper techniques. Players will develop body balance, quickness, and strength during the practices as well as becoming better conditioned athletes.

 

Skills:  Our players will learn and improve individual skills and team skills with the help of an experienced coaching staff. Proper knowledge + repetition = skill. Our coaches will teach our players the proper knowledge they need to know. It is the players’ responsibility to put the countless hours of practice and repetition in to become skilled. In every practice, open gym and workout time is scheduled and dedicated to our players’ skill development. However, if the player desires to become great they will need to put in extra time in outside those settings. Studies have shown that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become great in a specific skill. The individual skills our players will be improving include: body balance, lay-ups, shooting, catching and pivoting, dribbling, passing, screening, one on one facing, one on one back to the basket, and individual defense. The team skills our players will be learning will include: man to man offense and defense, zone offense and defense, and trapping offense and defense.Proper Knowledge + Repetition = Skill

 

Teamwork:  Teamwork and camaraderie flourish when everyone becomes a giver to something greater them themselves. Helping others and playing for teammates isa life skill, which transfers in all realms of life.

 

Commitment:  Our students need self-discipline to train mind and body to have confidence in their future abilities. Students need to learn to work with all their heart for an attainable goal. Instant gratification plagues our athletes and we want out players to learn to work for theirs goals.

 

Sportsmanship:  Good sportsmanship occurs when teammates, opponents, coaches, officials and fans treat each other with respect.

 

Leadership:  Our players will set the example in our community, school, and our team.Our athletes have a responsibility to model professionalism and excellence. Every Valpo basketball should strive to become a servant leader.

 

Game Strategy:  Our players will learn competitive strategies to gain individual advantages and team advantages during the course of the season.VBSA is Focused on Developing Position-less Players.Developing position-less players is super important. Position-less players' simply means developing players who can play all 5 positions on offense and defense.Coaches need to start creating position-less players by training all players to play every position and then allowing them to fill all spot during games.

 

Individual Skills:

1. Body Balance   2. Lay-ups   3. Shooting   4. Catching and Pivoting   5. Dribbling    6. Passing  7. Screening   8. One on one facing the basket   9. One on one back to the basket  10.Defense

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