Hi U8s & U10s,

We have a few things to go through.

Training Monday or Friday: as with all indoor locations there is a maximum number allowed in the area & every time we use the School hall we have to send them the number that have entered the hall on the previous day. This is why when asked if a member can go to both days I have to say no as we will be over our numbers and I will have to stop people from entering the hall which I never want to do. We do allow for children who miss their Monday session to come to the Friday session or if you miss a Friday session to come to a Monday session. So please be mindful that due to COIVID rules you cannot go to both Monday and Friday sessions.

We will have someone at the door checking if you are a Monday or Friday person so we get it right. You are also not allowed into the hall until invited, the cleaners have to tell us the floors are dry before anyone can enter – there is a safety issue as they spoke to me Friday about this.

You need to be registered with Southwest Metro to play on a Saturday. On Saturday we had 7 people who were not registered take the place of children who were registered at the 8 am session which was very disappointing to us. During this week we will allocate a team to everyone who is registered & if the time does not suit please say so, there does seem to be space at the 8.50 time slots. We will also have a register of everyone registered with Southwest & if you are not registered you will not be able to play as there are insurances in those fees & we have seen accidents do happen.

Last thing I promise.

Since coming back this term some of the teams in U10 have been moved into a higher division and this maybe isn’t working so well. I will be going back to Southwest to see what we can do. This has occurred because in the lower division these teams had won all their games or most of the games. Since moving up they may not be as competitive as everyone thought. In saying that, we have always said we teach life skills not just Basketball & one of those skills is continually working hard when you face adversity.

I was also asked about U8s or U10s training in teams. We have a 2 fold issue - firstly this will increase our costs as we have to find more courts but more importantly are the learnings. When players train as a team, coaches will sometimes then look to teach “plays” rather than teaching the “basics”. To give you an example you will see children shooting with their elbow sticking out and the ball in front of their head rather than elbows tucked in and the ball in line with the shooting arm, this is caused by the player not being able to do a normal layup and doing a “jump stop” and shooting.

In defence children will run beside the person with the ball, this has a lot to do with not being taught to slide which is normally done in group training. When children learn the basics and are proficient at the basics then they can learn to do more advanced things. Children play for many years so please be patient without learning how to do all these basic things very well they will not be able to complete more complicated types of things as they get older – they have to learn to crawl before they can walk.

Wow so many things for the u8s & U10s. I would also like to thank all the parents as these 2 groups represent the heart and soul of the club where they try hard, have fun, are respectful and look great in their Rockets gear.

Look really good in their Rockets gear.

See you all at the courts

Mark Smith

President Runcorn Rockets Basketball

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