SANTA FE (FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2018) - Some 600 coaches from four countries around Latin America attended the Coaches Clinic at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2018, learning valuable lessons from elite coaches such as Sergio Hernandez,  Svetislav Pesic and Don Showalter.

Argentina's Basketball Federation (CABB) and Argentina's National School of Basketball Coaches (ENEBA) welcomed male and female coaches from Argentina, Peru, Chile and Mexico to the CILSA gym in Santa Fe on the days of the Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals. 

"This is very, very important. When I talked to the coaches I felt a lot of admiration among the young coaches," Argentina's senior national team play-caller Hernandez said. "We have 600 coaches here without obligation. You get up at 8am in winter in Argentina to listen to different coaches. It's because you want to learn about basketball."

Hernandez was fresh off leading Argentina to a 5-1 record in the first Group Phase of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Americas Qualifiers, and he gave the coaches lessons about spacing - something for which Argentina are well known at the senior level. 

"I talked about spacing, especially what the players have to do without the ball. Many young guys love to play with the ball in their hands, but they don't know how to play without it. For us it's so important, in Argentina we don't have the athletes like the United States, so for us team basketball is really important; what to do together," Hernandez said.

The United States U17 coach Showalter had his session in the morning of the Quarter-Finals and he talked to the coaches about organizing practices for young players. 

"I tried to give them something that would be good for all the age levels: how to conduct practices. There are some things that go into a good practice. I showed them some good drills I think they need to consider when they are putting together a practice plan," said Showalter. 

"When you try to spread the word about getting better at basketball, it starts with the coaches and you draw in coaches that have a positive effect on kids and how they teach it. I think FIBA has done a great job in trying to implement some teaching along with the games." 

The other speakers at the clinic were veteran Svetislav Pesic, Marty Clarke, the director of the NBA Global Academy in Australia; FIBA instructor Nelson Isley; and Silvio Santander, director of youth programs in Argentina.

The sessions were streamed live on YouTube and can be re-watched below.

 FIBA