Solent Stars - EBBA Coaching Video

Yet another claim to fame for Solent Stars at the beginning of this part of the history was its involvement in filming a training video for the English Basketball Association. Not only did the club provide a player for the individual skills, but many of the Solent personnel helped in other capacities as can be seen when the credits run at the end of the video. The following article, taken from Basketball Monthly, describes some of the process.

"After several planning meetings and many faxes several groups of people came together on a February weekend at HMS Dryad, Portsmouth, to make a video which ultimately will complement the EBBA Curriculum Guide.

Top (left to right): Jim Rumsey, Brian Coleman, Jon Rumsey
In red sweatshirt: Trevor Pountain

Jon Rumsey (Solent Stars, England U15 & U17) had been selected to perform some of the individual skills. Years of coaching by experienced Solent Stars coaches had moved Jon on from the basic skills. There thus ensued several discussions ("if I shoot like that, I can say goodbye to my nose, when a defender swats the ball into it") between player and coach, in the form of Technical Director, Brian Coleman. Brian, working from his coaching manual did a quick, what he considered, re-educating job on Jon.

One new skill Jon acquired was to make sure the name of the ball appeared in view at the beginning of each take, to satisfy sponsorship requirements. This ability did not transfer, sadly, to the off-camera feeder (his father) and so several retakes were necessary on some moves.

The second session of the day involved the England Under-17 Girls team who demonstrated a series of individual and team skills.

On the following day, Brian was joined by the EBBA Vice President (Coaching), Peter Ray. They oversaw the sessions in which Paul Christensen's Gloster Jets demonstrated pair and team skills, finishing with a game.


Brian Coleman (Director of Coaching)

One feature that was in evidence during this session was the number of retakes needed. Perfectly executed moves would finish with a missed shot, a player would, 'travel' in the middle of a fast-break, a final pass would be dropped etc. The fast-break drill needed fifty re-takes! Filming director Trevor Pountain, the Solent based FIBA referee, required considerable patience."