INFORMATION

The Raiders development programme has now been running in it's present form for some 8 years. In that time we've coached more than 250 people. This summer, 2007, will see the programme expand to the point where we have nearly 250 players in the system in the 2007/08 season alone!

In this section, you can find essential information about us, who we are and what we do. You can download and read our child protection policy, find out about our 5 year plan, read what former players have said about us, and check on our progress, as we move from an England Basketball 3 Star club to gaining the Sport England Clubmark Award, and then progressing through 4 Star an hopefully to 5 Star by the end of the coming season.

Basketball is a fantastic sport, especially for young people. You learn a lot while playing basketball... about yourself, your team mates, how to win in life and how to lose. Basketball often changes what you'd like to do as a career, as you can read in the Testimonial section. Three of our coaches used to play for the Raiders junior teams, and they've returned to the club to give young people the opportunities that they themselves enjoyed. There's a very friendly and inclusive atmosphere in the club. During the 2006/07 season, the players had a few opportunities to be coached by the Raiders BBL senior players, and this is something we would like to build on in the future. This coming season, regular coaching sessions will be organised and some of the BBL team along with Gary Stronach will be actively involved with coaching the development players.

In March of 2007, we sent our Under 16 team to a tournament in Belgium. In August later this year, the Raiders Women and Raiders II are travelling to play in a tournament in Finland. Its our intention that at least every other year, each team gets to play in an international tournament. These tournaments teach players so much about the game, and they get to see how the game is played in other countries. The experience that they get helps speed up their long term development.

Along with the development teams playing national league basketball, we have training squads for boys at Under 10 and Under 12 years of age, and for girls at Under 14. We have plans to extend the number of these training squads to include more players and age groups. Development at such a young age isnt just about teaching basketball skills, it's about things like athletics, running technique, increasing eye hand co-ordination and so many other things.

The development programme isn't just interested in turning out players. Basketball, as with other sports, has a severe lack of qualified coaches, referees and match officials. For anyone who wants to train to be a teacher, coaching and refereeing qualifications are great on a C.V., and also help address the problem of lack of numbers. We therefore try to give our players the chance to gain qualifications in each of the three disciplines. We're also keen to boost the number of coaches within our own programme, to allow us to start new teams and to help out with present ones.

We work with many different schools (both primary and secondary), Plymouth City Council and the Schools Sports Co-Ordinators, Borough Councils, various sports organisations, and other bodies. Through our schools coaching programme, we reach thousands of children every year. There is huge potential to work more with these children and schools in the future, and we're looking into operating a number of very exciting projects.

The future of basketball in Plymouth is extremely positive, and we at the Raiders are proud to be a part of it.