Carry On Camping With Lions

Teesside Lions have completed nine days of their summer camps with more than 450 places secured by aspiring basketball players from around the area.

Children from the age of 5-18 enjoyed the extra training camps which involved five hours of training, coaching clinics and guest coaches providing a great experience in addition to developing skills, abilities and confidence.

More than 12 players attended all nine days of camp resulting in a mammoth 45 hours of additional training. New addition to the Lions u18 team Dan Millican, 16, showed some serious dedication as he travelled from Newcastle for each of the camps. Father David was chief chauffer but more than happy with the results, stating:

“My Dan has really enjoyed the camps. It’s not often he has been tired at camps, but the first week really tested him. The level of coaching and detail in teaching the fundamentals from the coaches is excellent and we are really pleased with his development.”

In addition to coaches from the Lions team, the camps also brought in some special guests including legendary basketball coaches such as American shooting coach Bob Martin and BBL Trophy winning coach Matt Newby.

Camp Director and Coach James Thomson was pleased with the camp, despite the trepidation of a post covid return, adding: “This was our first camp for more than 15 months so we were a little unsure of how it would go, but the results were very rewarding with so many players enjoying the experience. We were really pleased to see the work ethic of the older players along with the rapid development of the younger ones.

“In addition to the skills progression, there was a very visible improvement in confidence, and it shows how valuable these camps are. Where a normal training session may be between 1-2 hours, the camps are 5 hours with the value of each day being closer to 10-15 hours.”

Coach Bob Martin, 68 years old and currently residing in Doncaster is a world-renowned coach with a specialism for shooting. In his playing days he once led scoring across the whole of Europe with 37 points per game. In his first visit to the Lions camp he was very complimentary of the camp, players and club, stating:

“Fantastic camp, I have done camps all over the place and the Lions have done a great job. The players gave me hard work for the full camp and that really impressed me. There are some really good players here.”

The Lions are planning to run camps at each half term moving forward and information will be released in due course.