3 мин.

Clinic – to keep my mind occupied

101

This year I will run the Euroleague online clinic that starts February 18, between our first and second game in Top-16. It was a Euroleague idea to get in contact with coaches all over the world. As you know, the Euroleague is trying to market its brand on Chinese and many other markets. Our games are broadcasted in over 160 countries of Europe, Asia, South and North America.

This clinic consists of two parts. The first one will be provided via internet. I prepare some articles or some chapters from my books on the most important aspects of the game, the Euroleague is translating them in English, I review the translation. I also prepare video clips on given subjects. The online part of the course will run from February 18 to June 18 and will consist of 21 sessions. The participants will have a password and they will connect to the materials of the course the same way they connect to Euroleague TV.

The clinic is not elementary. We are not going to talk about individual fundamentals, we assume the participants should already know it. We work on tactical aspects of the game in terms of building defense and offense.

The second part will take place from June 26 to June 29 in Barcelona. I will meet in person with all the participants and we will work on the court. We'll select 40 players who will help us, and for the two nights the participants will coach the teams under my supervision. At the end they will prepare the paperwork that we will discuss over internet again.

It's a big program and at the moment we have over 100 applicants from all over the world. There are people from the Philippines, a coach from Australia, coaches from Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, a TV broadcaster from Italy who used to be a coach, Fabio Tranquillo, assistant coaches from top European clubs, former players like Marcelo Nicola, who is now an assistant coach in Treviso. Though, I haven't seen any coaches from Russia on the list. To sum up, we have many interesting people who applied and it's a great motivation for me to do this for the Euroleague and for basketball.

Running a clinic might seem like extra burden that nobody wants when entering the crucial part of the season. But for me it's something that will help me to keep my mind occupied before the big games.

I don't think that it's a good thing before the big games to think only about them. There was a great coach Petar Skansi who coached Lele Molin in Treviso when they won the national championship of Italy. He always went to dinner the night before the game. When Lele asked him «Why?» he replied: «Because we haven't lost yet. If tomorrow we lose, at least I had a good dinner the night before. If we win, I'll have the reason to party for the second time».

This is an incredibly smart approach and a good way to relax. This story changed my attitude. Personally, I don't like to go out after the game. I'm tired no matter whether it was a Russian league or Euroleague game. If I don't have people who are visiting me or special guests of the club, I'd like to go home or maybe have a very quick pizza with my wife and my son. I'm curious to watch the game on DVD. So if I want to relax a little bit, I follow Petar Skansi's theory and go out with my wife and my son the night before the game.