ONTARIO (Canada) — Aside from having one of the most stable elite programs in the world, Canada Basketball employs a youth and sports development system at a base level that goes beyond producing great players, providing the tools to sustain a healthy lifestyle throughout their careers.

The program’s first phase is the Jr. NBA, an initiative that offers, through basketball, alternatives for the youth and their coaches, where they can develop basic skills, sportsmanship, character, and love for the game.

Ron Yeung, Domestic Development Manager for Canada Basketball, explained that the program has impacted more than 22,000 girls and boys in the entire nation.

“At a base level we have a National Development Program for basketball with Jr. NBA,” said Yeung. “It's for children from the ages of 5 to 12 and it's basically a program where we go coast to coast working with clubs and associations. We also work with different municipalities, recreational programs, and the YMCA to bring this program to them.”

“The core of this program is to ensure that boys and girls learn to play basketball from a young age, following our national development program that states what children must be doing and what is appropriate for each age group,” Yeung added.

The manager highlighted that more than a competitive focus, Canada Basketball is decidedly teaching the sport correctly as early as possible in the lives of participants.

“From the Federation's point of view, we're working to build a program at the base level and for the community, so that they basically learn basketball correctly,” said Yeung. “More than 22,000 boys and girls have been impacted by the project up to the moment.”

The initiative is in tune with the Long-Term Athlete Development Framework established in 2003 according to the Canadian Sport for Life movement.

This is a working model used by most organizations in the nation, emphasizing “the importance of a systematic and consistent approach” to take athletes from an active start to an active lifestyle for the rest of their lives.

The process is based on several phases or stages that begin with focusing on fun and move on to foundations, learning how to train, training to compete, training to win, and finally, on to how to keep a healthy lifestyle forever.

The program has to main goals. The first is that participants find opportunities to find fun, fitness, social interaction, and self-fulfillment through an all-inclusive sports environment. The second goal is to develop a competitive pathway that is developmentally appropriate and leads players to the highest possible levels of achievement.

In conclusion, Canada's basketball wants to be a world powerhouse for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Already, in 2019, their senior men’s team will play in the FIBA Basketball World Cup. In 2018, the women’s team was seventh in their corresponding World Cup. The men’s U17 team, meanwhile, were fourth in their World Cup, and the women's team were ninth in Belarus.

The next steps for the youth teams are the U19 FIBA World Cups for both genders, which will take place in Greece for the masculine category and in Thailand for the women's teams; both in July.

FIBA