Ph.D., Associate Professor S.G. Fomin¹
Ph.D., Professor O.E. Likhachev²
Applicant R.G. Ganiev^2
1Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sport, Youth and Tourism (GTsOLIFK), Moscow
²Smolensk State Academy of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism, Smolensk

Keywords: professional basketball, young basketball players, pre-vocational training.

Introduction. Increased competition in the world professional sport is characterized by high density of results, when the winner has a lead of just a few centiseconds, centimeters, one or two points. Such high competition promoted the search for the ways to increase the effectiveness of organization and methods of reserve training in professional sport in different countries.

The purpose of the study was to analyze the specifics of organization and training of young athletes for professional basketball overseas.

Results and discussion. It is reasonable to start the analysis of the present system of reserve training for professional basketball with the US National Basketball League - the absolute leader in the world professional basketball in terms of sports and financial productivity. The league is fully commercial and operates due to the earnings from television, sponsors and advertisers. The majority of the clubs cost more than a billion dollars. In terms of basketball show business, it is an absolutely self-funding league.

There are two ways to arrange reserve training for the league during the season: the first one – within the teams of the popular student championship among the universities, the second one - in the so-called D-League. Professional league has nothing to do with the student championship; it is rather independent from the NBA (National Basketball League) and is focused on the solution of its inner problems. Moreover, the rules in the US student basketball championship differ from the ones in professional league. However, the US student teams have all necessary conditions for successful training and the most talented basketball players have an opportunity to join the NBA in the future.

The D-League is a creation of the NBA. It has another, more accurate name - “The Development League”. Compared with our country, there are no training groups, reserve squads in the NBA, as it is not considered to be economically feasible. The scouting departments form the teams according to the following principle: “find, see the talent and purchase (sign a contract)”. The first team, which actually plays in the NBA games, consists of 12 athletes. Besides, 4-6 basketball players sign preliminary (minimal) contracts, but they do not belong to the first team, do not participate in their games at all or play occasionally. The League was created in order to keep them in good shape and enhance their skills to the level of the first team basketball players.

Another specific feature of the League teams’ formation is worth mentioning. These teams consist of such players, who have continuing contracts with more than one NBA team and despite this fact, they can play in the same D-League team. This kind of organization helps integrate teams’ funds and significantly save money for reserve training. To some extent, this league can be compared with the minor leagues in our country (Super and Premier Leagues), representing a sort of “farm clubs” league, where each club has players, who belong to different clubs, which is rather unusual for our country.

During the NBA Championship, these players can be transferred to the first team in case there is a need to substitute the injured player from the club they belong to. For instance, S. Karasev - a member of the Russian national team, who signed a contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA team, did not belong to the main lineup, but had been sent to the D-League many times in order to keep fit and obtain the game practice. This is a truly American approach to train young professional athletes, which is based on pragmatic, economically reasonable way of problem-solving. Such approach is effective due to high popularity of professional basketball and spectators’ desire to watch basketball games in cities with no NBA teams.

Special attention is paid to the training of the NBA immediate reserve players in the summer period [2,4]. When regular season ends, the majority of the basketball players from the D-League, student basketball players and young “drafted” players (the ones, who signed a preliminary contract) participate in training sessions and games of the “summer league” in June-July. In our country, it is defined as training camps in off-season, in which basketball players of several D-League teams are engaged. It is a sort of a sports camp, which is organized for training and examination of basketball reserves with the intention to sign a contract. Only the core, leading team players are released from the participation in this camp. Several years ago, at a risk of being locked-out, but with the help of their trade union (players) they got an approval from the clubs’ owners and were released from the participation in these summer training camps.

Serious and intense training is typical for such camps. Training sessions and games take place twice a day and players have to muster up all strength to perform the best they can in front of numerous sports agents and coaches not only from the USA, but from many other countries-participants of both training sessions and training games [3]. Increased competition occurs due to high prestige and public popularity of professional sports, high salary level (90% of NBA basketball players are millionaires), and endeavor for individual success achievement, which is developed in the US youth since childhood. The US basketball players are not the only ones who participate in the summer league. Both young athletes and highly-skilled basketball players come from all over the world with the intention to join the NBA clubs. Such tendency affected Russian young basketball players too. From the interviews of Russian young basketball players, it is clear that many of them are primarily aimed at joining the NBA team, rather than the national team, as it is the NBA they associate their career growth with.

European professional club basketball is the next in effectiveness of training organization of reserve athletes. It has much in common with the Russian system, but at the same time, they have a number of significant differences. Spanish clubs, the top-rank among European basketball clubs, have training groups, basketball academies, junior teams [1]. As opposed to the US professional teams, they are focused on training of young basketball players. Both European and American clubs concentrate their attention on the work of scouts departments, which play a significant role in the reserve training system - to search for the talented youth all over the world.

The clubs make good money through supplying the players to other countries, which, in turn, compensate the expenses involved in the operation of club schools. The main distinctive feature and advantage of reserve training overseas is sufficient financing and appropriate organization of training, which make it possible to completely meet the challenges related to training of junior basketball players. Pre-vocational training of young athletes is rather expensive; it costs more than a million rubles. But it is almost impossible for young athletes to achieve the required level of mastery without these expenses.

Specialized pre-vocational training of young athletes can be both free and paid in all countries. If a club evaluates the abilities of a potential young athlete as high, sufficient to cover the expenses for training in the future, then the club undertakes all expenditures. In case the club does not see any prospects, but yet a young basketball player dreams to become a professional player, he can take training courses in specialized educational sports academies established worldwide, at his own or sponsors’ expenses [2]. Along with this, they provide an opportunity to get professional sports training and acquire secondary education. One can study there both throughout the year and during the summer vacation. These establishments have something in common with our domestic sports orphanages. The difference is that our sports orphanages were free, the government paid for living and training of the selected student athletes. Foreign sports academies are open to everyone, they are equipped with a great sports center and have favorable conditions for effective training, but one cannot live and train there free of payment. A young athlete can choose from a number of academies in the USA and many European countries where to acquire education and train from highly competent specialists.

Conclusion. Russian reserve training system faced the following relevant task - how to adjust the domestic system of pre-vocational training of young athletes in accordance with the modern specifics of professional basketball as soon as possible, since its irrational organization has become one of the causes of the crisis in the domestic basketball.

References

1. Likhachev, O.E. Spetsifika mezhsezonnoy podgotovki professional'nykh basketbolistov (Specificity of interseasonal training of professional basketball players) / O.E. Likhachev, S.G. Fomin, A.S. Fomin et al. // Proc. of XVII theor.-method. conf. – Moscow: VNIIFK, 2011. – P. 76–77.
2. Yakhontov, E.R. Vnesezonnaya podgotovka basketbolistov v klubakh NBA (Off-season training of NBA basketball players) / E.R. Yakhontov, A.G. Kirilenko // Nauchno-metodicheskiy vestnik. Trenerskiy sovet Rossiyskoy federatsii basketbola (Theor.-method. bulletin. Coaching Council of the Russian Basketball Federation); comp. by B.E. Losin, E.R. Yakhontov. – St. Petersburg: Olimp, 2006. – Iss. I. – 92 P.
3. Brittenham G. Complete Conditioning for Basketball. /G.Brittenham.- Champaign, Ill./: Human Kinetics, 1996.-247pp.
4. Sigmon C. 52-Week Basketball Training/ Chip Sigmon.-Champaign: Human Kinetics, 2003.-207pp.
5. Tyson A. Jump metrics/Alan Tyson, ben Cook.-Champaign: Human Kinetics, 2004. – 185 pp.

Corresponding author: loe3@yandex.ru; olimpik_dolgoruk@mail.ru