Basketball: Top US coaches share tips with locals

Women's Basketball Hall of Fame member Jim Foster in action at ASB Arena yesterday. Photo/George Novak

The recent royal visit gripped New Zealand in recent weeks, but it was the exploits of royalty of a different variety that enthralled onlookers at ASB Stadium yesterday.

Tauranga City Basketball development director Rachael Gwerder, who worked under Chattanooga women's head coach Jim Foster with a group of elite girls, considered the arrival of Foster and World Association of Basketball Coaches president Patrick Hunt a far bigger deal.

"It's like they're royalty to be honest - they are coaching royalty," Gwerder said.

"For a coach it is like being in a candy shop. We've got national coaches around and they are all soaking it up, and that information is going to be dispersed across the country and it's going to raise the standards everywhere."

Each association represented at the Basketball Pacific Easter Tournament had three spots made available in the clinics, but to Tauranga's benefit not all took up their full allotment.

"For the girls some of the associations didn't fill their quota, so very quickly we snapped those spots up for Tauranga. We've got six local girls out on court with him. It's just an opportunity these ladies wouldn't get, even if they were Americans, it's very rare. To be the Olympic assistant coach for the USA team, probably they'll never be in the presence of a coach of that standard ever in their career again."

Foster emphasised the basics in an intensive, fun session that tested the true fundamentals of the game. "Footwork is huge and something that once you learn you can do on your own. It's really important and there is so little time available on the court, but you could take a ball and go in your driveway and practice footwork.

Foster was impressed with a number of players - notably Otumoetai College's Kelcy Ballantyne - but said many still had to improve their fundamentals.

"They pass really well, they snap it and get it out there. Their ball-handling has got to go to another level but that's just work. A couple of them jumped right out and were natural right away. I want to get them to the point where they realise the significance of footwork."