SAN JUAN (Puerto Rico) – With the launch of a new digital platform to prepare their coaches, the Puerto Rico Basketball Federation (FBPUR) has its sights set on becoming the model for digital workshops for coaches in the Caribbean.

The Basketball School for Coaches will provide online courses – covering both theory and practice – on teaching individual basic basketball concepts, exercises and general movement skills. The digital aspect of the project is overseen by former Puerto Rican national team player Garry Joe Burgos.

The goal of this app is to provide an educational platform that helps coaches in Puerto Rico and all Latin America with information about the best practices and the most recent tendencies in teaching basketball.

“Through the Technical Commission and its President, Juan “Pucho” Figueroa, we're trying to see how coaches can have constant access to see materials, take courses, learn and be up to date to what's going on in basketball around the world, but without having to wait for a twice-a-year course where there are probably 50 people,” said to FIBA.basketball Gustavo Cañas, veteran coach and leader of the FBPUR's Technical Commission.

The project is currently on its beta stage. However, it already has nearly 670 subscribers, and although it's yet to be officially launched in November, it may already be accessed at: www.coachdebaloncesto.teachable.com

The platform not only fosters the acquisition of information by coaches; it also invites them to interact in a feedback process where participants must do various tasks that include didactic videos and written essays to meet the course’s requirements.

“It's a digital and interactive platform. You receive input and then you have to send your output, so that professors that are part of the platform can see that you sent the work needed to move forward in the course,” Cañas explained. “That helps us because you have the materials online, you can do the video and upload it to the program, and it gives you back the certificates. Currently in Puerto Rico there are certificates needed to coach in the Federation and you have to meet continual education requisites.”

The initiative is quite revolutionary for the Caribbean zone, where there wasn’t any completely online professional enrichment experience for basketball coaches. The system is open to subscribers of the entire zone and FBPUR hopes to become the technological pioneer in this area.

“In Puerto Rico we needed to be a part of this type of dynamic. The whole world is online, and we wanted Puerto Rico to be the first in Latin America,” Cañas concluded.

FIBA