Sports Performance Specialist program hosted in Turkmenistan

BEIRUT (Lebanon) - A Sports Performance Specialist (SPS) program was organized by FIBA Regional Office - Asia in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan from 17-18 December.

The Sports Performance Specialist Program (SPS) is the Regional Office's initiative that aims to empower local physical trainers in Asia and to promote strength and conditioning in the national teams and local clubs.

"The Sports Performance Specialist Program was completely new to our coaches as it is now our most needful direction to work with," said Ardogdy Berdiyev, president of the Basketball Federation of Turkmenistan. "Strength and conditioning in basketball is vital and having a pool of trained and certified coaches will aid the development of the local clubs and the National Team.”

The objectives of the SPS program are to instruct coaches, athletes, and stakeholders regarding the strength and conditioning of the Basketball game; spread awareness through education to have better return on investments for basketball clubs and managements; have a pool of local candidates to hire qualified strength and conditioning coaches for planning and implementing programs across national teams and clubs; improve the athletic capabilities of the national teams and Clubs by building young generations with proper biomechanics/human movement; and decrease injury incidence among players.

“The SPS program has given me a new perspective and widened my knowledge in the domain of strength and conditioning. It was a fruitful few days, said one of the participants, Serdar Durdyev.

Turkmenistan is the most recent country to have hosted the SPS program organized by FIBA Regional Office - Asia, with the first-ever program being hosted in Lebanon. Other programs were then later hosted in Palestine, Qatar, Maldives, Syria, Mongolia, Iran, Singapore, and Kuwait.

The Regional Office, through this program, is aiming to lay the foundation of physical training, through education, to elevate the standard of strength and conditioning coaches in basketball.

FIBA