Junior Training Changes...

As this season started, we expanded our club’s junior training programme, in a bid to offer more youngsters in our area the opportunity to play for Bury St. Edmunds Basketball Club.

Our Move (from one, U16’s Junior team to three teams split across two sessions) was undertaken with several aims in mind:

- To increase Junior Membership & participation in the sport

- To get more playing opportunities at relevant age groups for our junior members

- To have a better player to coach ratio at training sessions

- To better manage the development of our playing groups, by having more players of a similar talent/size/experience range training together

To-date, we think the changes in the programme have worked well (although if you have any feedback, please communicate that to us via Teamo!), but the older age group has grown significantly quicker than the younger age group, bucking the trend of participation in sport “dropping off” as children get older.

Whilst the increase in membership in our U15/U17 age group is undoubtedly a positive for us, it means there’s a challenge for our coaches in balancing the needs of our youngest members of that group (aged 13-14) and the eldest (some of whom are 17).

Furthermore, we're struggling to find fixtures at an Under 13's level.

In light of this, from November, our Junior sessions will be organised as follows:

3:00 - 4:30: Under 14’s training

4:30 - 6:00: Under 17’s training

Some players may be spoken to about ”training up” or training across both sessions based on their experience, which will be a discussion led by the Junior coaches.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the club’s coaches through Teamo.