Tobolsk’s athletes attend #SIBURCAMP-2021, a basketball camp
15 july 2021
Nizhegorodskaya Oblast’s "More Sporta" compound is hosting #SIBURCAMP 2021, a basketball camp organized by SIBUR as part of its Formula for Good Deeds social investment program.
The camp is being attended by 50 young basketball players who had won their regional selection rounds conducted as part of the fifth season of SIBUR's Basketball School, and by their coaches. The Spring 2021 selection rounds were held in 8 cities of SIBUR's presence regions and were attended by 760 children. At #SIBURCAMP, the budding athletes will be honing their athletic skills under the guidance of the camp’s experienced mentors while their coaches will be enhancing their level of expertise by attending lectures and master classes. The camp’s best athletes will be invited to attend selection camps put on by BC Zenit’s youth teams. Tobolsk is represented at the camp by trainees of "Irbis", the city’s children's basketball club.
On their arrival day, the camp’s attendees were welcomed by Nikita Morgunov, an Honored Master of Sports and a European champion. The star athlete greeted the children and gave them their first instructions. The next day the budding athletes had a face-to-face meeting with the legend of the Russian basketball, Olympic champion Sergey Tarakanov, who shared his stories and experience, told the children about his athletic career and gave several master classes. As early as Day One, the young players were split into several different teams and started their ring shooting practice.
The program of the camp that is expected to run through July 19 includes daily basketball practice sessions in the mornings and in the evenings, tournaments based on both the traditional variation of the game and its 3x3 format, a new Olympic sport. Also awaiting the camp’s attendees is an expansive education and entertainment program that includes association football games, master classes, a Nizhny Novgorod-based tour/quest, and attending the Drag Monsters, an auto racing festival. Mindful approach to choosing the athletes’ future careers has a special place on the camp’s program. Yulia Vorotnikova, head of practice at SIBUR’s Corporate University, will introduce the young athletes to the lifehacks of a successful life including a discussion of why goal setting and career guidance are needed.
The kids that I brought here have got what it takes to be among the best at this session. And, being a coach, I regard this as a great opportunity to learn the theory and practice of training child athletes. Learning from experienced coaches with stellar careers behind them is really worth a lot. Their approach to coaching is, of course, different from mine. I'm softer, more forgiving, and ungrudging while they are stricter and more demanding. But that’s the way it should be. I’ve been learning a lot, taking copious notes and drawing schemes. In my future work, I am going to stick to this methodology, I will analyze myself more and teach my players to do the same. SIBURCAMP really helps elevate regional talents to the national level and equalize the chances of children hailing from different regions, which is very important, Daniil Makhmutov, a coach from Tobolsk, noted.
I'm very glad that I was able to get here for the second time. It was not something that happened to me by some stroke of luck but rather it was the fruit of a lot of hard work. Despite my past injuries I gave my all during the training sessions to get to SIBURCAMP again. Here you are getting better with every training session, but you cannot afford to stop, you need to move on and try more. I am very hopeful about this session: I want to make myself stronger. I dream of striking it big in basketball and I'm sure SIBUR will help me fulfil my dream, Mikhail Sidorov, a Tobolsk player, commented.
SIBUR’s Basketball School is a nationwide social project with a mission of supporting children's and youth’s basketball out in the regions. Over the four seasons that SIBUR’s Basketball School has been around, 4,133 young athletes have attended its sessions. In 2018-2019, 840 coaches were involved in the training. In 2021, the project held its first inclusive program that included regions-based master classes for children with special educational needs, as well as unified matches that mixed athletes with and without special needs playing for the same side. In addition, an educational program was put on for coaches on how to teach basketball to children with mental disabilities, conducted in cooperation with the Special Olympiad organization.