Welcome to the Bob Mann Basketball Academy.
Over a 27-year period, I have coached at nearly every level in Australia’s toughest state for basketball. The State of Victoria features one of the world’s great sporting cities, the city of Melbourne and its basketball competitions are deep and talented and they can be ruthless in their intensity, especially at the top level.
I started as a basketball coach back in 1990 after coming from an Australian Rules Football background and initially I had no idea what I was doing, but over a 10-year period of reading books, watching videos and DVDs, attending clinics, completing courses, watching other coaches and on the job experience, the pieces of the coaching jigsaw puzzle began to come together for me.
Through my time in coaching, I have been fortunate enough to enjoy significant success. This was especially so from 2000 onwards in the toughest junior competition in the Southern Hemisphere, the Victorian Championships. This success at my Associations came despite a considerable disadvantage in the depth of playing talent, lack of playing and training facilities and being the dirt poor cousins to our much larger opposing Associations.
What I discovered in this period is quality was far more important than quantity and if you had the passion, energy and enthusiasm to be a better than the average coach you could achieve some very special things with a group of players just as committed and dedicated as you were.
I have also been extremely lucky to have had an influence on players who have gone on to play for their state, play for their country, secure College scholarships in the USA and in a few cases to go on to play professionally in Australia’s National Basketball League.
I know what a good program can achieve for both the individual and the team and both are just as exciting to be a part of.
There are a number of purposes for the BMBA, first and foremost we want to develop the abilities and opportunities for committed players with above-average ability, second we want to help educate and train coaches so they have the tools to be the best coach they can be to their players and third we want to help provide clubs with the programs to give their playing members real direction and an opportunity to develop.
However, our major goal is to set up a proper secondary college school in Melbourne that specializes in developing basketball talent while providing a respectable education at the same time. It is our goal to be opening its doors a the start of the 2019 school year.
In the meantime, it is our intention to provide a program of excellence that will attract players with serious ambitions and goals and through that program develop those player’s skills and abilities and knowledge of the game. This program will also provide the opportunity for players to travel throughout the country and for the super keen overseas on basketball tours.
The BMBA is the most exciting undertaking I have pursued in my 27 years involved in basketball and I can’t wait to get started helping you on your basketball development journey.
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