Third Camp

Camp 3

The last 2 day camp! This was the big group. 21 young ladies and 17 young men. Luckily for me Peter was around to help me. Peter took the young men and I took the young ladies.

I will ask Peter to write in his words his experience with the boys!

These young people are the same age as the kids from the village; however they are a little bit more “mature”. I assume it is because they are from the “city”!  They seemed more physically fit, though this does not mean that they are better than the village kids!

Day 1:

Session 1:

I began with the basics. Showing the ladies how to pass and catch properly, basically how to control the ball. They quickly caught on.

I then began showing them dribbling techniques and how to control the ball while dribbling.

Again, not an easy task considering the surface.  All in all a very productive Session 1.

Day 1:

Session 2:

As we deal with the heat, we begin session 2 with a little recap of the morning session.

Once we were back in basketball focus we went into shooting. I showed them the basic technique

of shooting the ball. It was very difficult for them to catch on and understand the form. They are use to shooting the ball with 1 hand or using the “set pass technique” as they do in volleyball!

Finally a few of them caught on and were very close to scoring, the others slowly caught on.

I explained to them the setback of not having a backboard and assured them that if they can hit the rim constantly that was a victory in my eyes. By the end of the day a high percentage of the group was hitting the rim constantly.

Day 2:

Session1:

We decided that due to the heat we would make 1 long session, approximately 2.5 hours – 3 hours.

We were late due to the fact that we went to the local cement company to hear about them donating some cement or at least giving a good price for cement to assure the 2 schools. They agreed to give a good price.

When we arrived it was a great feeling to see the girls working on the drills from the previous day!

We immediately picked up from the day before and we fine tuned their shooting skills. No more set shoots, the all showed good form! What a JOY!

We continued for a short time then we covered some defense tactics and the basic principles of how to guard the offense!

They caught on to this rather quickly so we went into 2on2, 3on3, and then 4on4.

As time was winding down and the heat was rising we broke out the uniforms and let them all play.

We made 4 teams for the girls and the guys had 2 teams (with subs).

It was important for them all to get the feel of playing a game.

We started with 2 of the girl’s team. It was a true pleasure to see the joy on their faces!

Even more so was to hear the girls watching yell out things for the players to remember.

The games went on for another hour or so, each game lasting about 15min.

So my time has come to an end here in Tororo Uganda. It has been an amazing time and moments that will stay with me forever.

Second Camp

Camp 2

Camp 2 was a short affair. Just about 45min as we were delayed in getting to the college!

We immediately began with layups to warm up then we quickly divided the team up into

2 groups and proceeded to give the team some shooting drills to work on. We assisted them with their technique when needed!

I was lucky to have the services of Peter!

We had to hurry back to attend a wedding in the village. There was only 700 people in attendance J

First camp

Sorry for the delay, but internet connection is said to be good here in Tororo Uganda.
Good is good, and we just have to take it with a grain of salt!
Anyway, the 1^{st camp was a 2 day session. It was a group of 24 youths between the ages of}
14-18. They were all very eager to meet and see me as well as learn the game of basketball. The conditions were not the best. The court was a just a dry field filled with bumps, rocks, weeds, you name it. They also had the disadvantage of playing without shoes, some were so lucky they played with flip flops! The baskets were actually better than what was in the picture previously posted.
Each day was to consist of 2 x 1 ½ hours.
Day 1:
Session 1:
An introduction to who I am and what my idea was for the day! I also addressed that the basketballs were donated by dear friends and that the uniforms were donated by Falcon Basketball Club. It was an amazing feeling to see the joy in these kids faces. It was way better than Christmas to them. I truly feel that it gave them all a piece of HOPE!
Now we had to see what skills they had. These young people (8 were young ladies) were all very coordinated as well as athletic enough. Now it was a matter of fine tuning them with the knowledge of dribbling under control (tough with a bumpy surface). A majority of them got the hang of it under the tough conditions. The others had it also but often just couldn’t hide the joy!
As many of you know we started a "water for kids" campaign via facebook. Although I must admit that we were hoping for more money, we were able to feed these kids lunch and water both days. Day one they got to enjoy meat… They usually only have meat for Christmas. A truly warm feeling when they all came up to me individually and said thank you.
Day 1:
Session 2:
We refreshed ourselves on dribbling and then we went into the basic fundamentals of shooting as opposed to throwing the ball. They were very excited about this part. It was a huge change for them but many adjusted well and at the end of the day there was already light at the end of the tunnel. The first winning team of the shooting completion was 5 young ladies and a young man. I enjoyed the presence of the ladies!
Day 2
We refreshed our drills from Day 1 then we went into more shooting techniques and ended the first session with a "knockout" competition. The winner received a Scheme Team cap. Happy to say it was one of the girls. After lunch and water the second half of the session was filled with playing some basketball. As the court was so big we played 7 –vs- 7 with their new jersey’s. They were so excited! I wanted them to enjoy the team spirit.
They were very eager and excited. I was so thrilled when already after 3 minutes there was a score. All of the "audience" was so excited. A blessing occurred when a former student returned and wanted to assist. Godfrey is his name and I will see to it to send him some printed documents to assist during my absence.
We ended the 2 day training with another round of knockout and an unexpected visit of a Uganda National team player named Peter. Now the kids were very excited. The demanded that Peter and I return over the weekend! I had to sadden them but assured them I would return in October.
Upon completion of this 2 day training I could sense that the young adults were eager and ready to learn more.
Everyone in this world deserves a chance.
A special thanks goes to: Hands of Hope, SFOF, and all the many participants both in Denmark and in Uganda. You will all be thanked personally!

Our Volunteer is very excited

Just days away before our volunteer arrives to begin Phase I.
He is extremely excited about this venture.
About 10 days ago he found out that there was only 1 basketball for the approximate 60
young men. He immediately contacted his basketball connections in Copenhagen and has managed to gather around 10 basketballs to bring down. These balls will stay at the Tororo Basketball Academy!
Special thanks to Karsten Lollike, Patrick King, Martin Holm, and Lasse Heegaard!
More info to come.
Please remember to spread the word!
Jones and Rebekka