FIBA U17W - Basketball Experience has something for everyone

AMSTERDAM (2012 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women) - The stakes are high at the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship for Women in Amsterdam as the tournament reaches its pinnacle and the defending champions USA look to successfully defend their title against tough opponents such as Canada, Spain and Japan.

But there has also been plenty of action to go around just down the corridor from the main competition court.

The "Basketball Experience" took over a part of Sporthallen Zuid for the duration of the tournament and has provided kids, 3x3 players as well as coaches everything they wanted and more.

A 3x3 World Tour Challenger event - out of which a team from The Hague qualified for the Madrid Masters - held centre stage in the side hall in the early stages of the tournament.

The Basketball Experience's main function though has been to serve as a basketball paradise for kids. It has done just that thanks to inflatable bouncing basketball court and other fun features like an interactive basket that speaks, innovative skill-improvement devices or more simply some baskets on which they could play pick-up games.

On Sunday 19 August, more than 120 kids from a daycare centre made their way to the Basketball Experience to learn basketball fundamentals from former Dutch national team players Mike Nahar and Cees van Rootselaar.

“It’s great that we were able to invite so many kids to get their first taste of basketball in this wonderful ambiance," said Nahar.

"I wish we had that in our days. It is very important that we catch them at a young age and show them how much fun the game of basketball is. And hopefully we can inspire some of these kids to develop their talents.”

After the clinics, the kids were able to take it some of the action from the FIBA U17 World Championship for Women.

Now, as the tournament draws to a close this weekend, the Basketball Experience is being put to great use as a place for Dutch coaches involved in women's basketball to learn a few things from some leading names in the world of basketball coaching. This in turn will make sure they can provide young players and possibly the stars of tomorrow with the best instruction.

While the audience to which it cattered varied, there was one constant in the Basketball Experience: the presence of Basketball Unites, a programme which stresses the importance of combining teaching the game of basketball with social and moral values like sportsmanship and respect to bring people of different backgrounds together in their love for the game.

FIBA