Dribbling, throwing balls, rebounds, lay-ups – again this year the basketball summer camp was a magnet for young Karben basket hunters. The holiday program was led by two players from the Okarben Defenders.
After the premiere in the previous year, the large sports hall of the Kurt Schumacher School was again available to the boys and girls at the TV Okarben basketball camp. There they could, as in real training, practice tactics on the offensive and defensive, passes, fast breaks and basket throws. The three-on-three game variant (“3-on-3”), which was recently added to the program at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, enjoyed great popularity.
The tutorial was taken over by Max Kissner and Marvin Voigt from TV Okarben. Both are active basketball players and play in the first and second TVO men’s teams. Kissner is also a youth coach. The club’s basketball department, called Okarben Defenders, organized the holiday event together with the city’s youth culture center.
In the second week, the U-14 youths were allowed to work out in the hall. You could tell immediately that most of them had been playing for a long time – also at club level. Attempts at the basket while standing or while moving mostly hit their target. The interaction seemed natural. One girl and eleven boys were there. The tallest participant already measures almost 1.90 meters.
“The basket also hangs at the normal competition height of just over three meters for the children and young people,” explains trainer Marvin Voigt. “Of course, a certain size is an advantage. With the exception of three boys, all of them play in the youth of the TVO. In this way, the summer camp becomes, so to speak, a preparation camp for the coming season. That’s not so bad for our club either. ”And Voigt sees another advantage: You don’t have to keep re-explaining the rules because the youngsters from the club are already familiar with them.
»In the morning we start with tactics training, then we usually play around midday and in the afternoon. The participants are often no longer as receptive as they were at the beginning. Of course, everyone gets enough breaks in between to drink and breathe, ”said the young man.
Target for accuracy of fit
But somehow it seemed that the twelve girls and boys didn’t want to rest that long. Three sips from the water bottle, then they were back on the parquet and let their balls fly towards the basket.
They are all enthusiastic about sports anyway. Football, judo, cycling, skateboarding, dancing – hardly anyone “only” plays basketball. Tiana was there both weeks and raved: “I really enjoy being together. Here everyone really feels like playing basketball. Everything is like training in a club. «Like almost everyone, Tiana plays in the youth of TV Okarben. It was the second time that she was at the camp.
The holiday program focuses on fun and games. Especially with the nine to eleven year olds in the first week it is more about getting a taste of the sport, emphasized Kissner and Voigt in unison. Many exercises could be modified again and again, nothing is repeated. On one wall of the sports hall, for example, you could see a kind of target, which was used to train the throwing and passing accuracy of the growing basketball hunters. The more precisely the balls landed in the middle, the more points you could get. In addition, the sporting ambition was promoted, without which successes are hardly possible.
To participate in the basketball camp, all children and adolescents had to show negative corona tests.
The U14 youth of TV Okarben with the coaches Max Kissner (left) and Marvin Voigt (right). JSL
© Jürgen Schenk
