Michael Smith of Personal Best: Health, Fitness and Wellbeing, a health and fitness company based in West Lothian, is extending an exclusive offer to all basketball players in Scotland.

The company has gone from strength to strength in recent times and now offers personal training, sports and therapeutic massage, cancer exercise rehabilitation and a GP referral scheme.

Michael has been working with the Scotland Under 18 Women squad this season providing sports massage at training while also travelling with the squad to the European Championships, Division B, in Romania.

Working with the Under 18 Women has helped Michael form close links with basketballscotland and as an official sports massage therapist for basketballscotland, Michael is extending an excellent offer for sports massage treatments.

For all basketballscotland players, Personal Best: Health, Fitness and Wellbeing are offering  fixed rates of £25 for an hour and £20 for a 45 minute treatment.

To find out more about any of the services Personal Best are offering, you can check out their website at www.personalbestuk.com.

To get in touch or book a sports massage at the basketballscotland rates then phone Michael on 07546 356 748 or email at info@personalbestuk.com.

Scotland’s national squads have kicked off perhaps the biggest summer of international basketball in memory.

Six Scotland teams are competing at European Championships in Armenia, Malta, Romania, Israel and Andorra.

These tournaments represent significant steps towards basketballscotland’s performance vision of competing at Division B level, including both under 18 teams competing in Division B and both senior squads playing preparation games again Division B standard opposition.

The preparation phase has been highlighted by the first ever GB Home Nations Joint Camp between Scotland, Great Britain, England and Wales attended by Scotland’s under 18 Women, under 18 Men and under 16 Men.

The selection of ten Scottish players to Great Britain squads adds to the team successes and adds weight to the second element of basketballscotland’s performance vision, namely Scottish representation at the highest international level possible.

National Squad activity is made possible by the volunteer commitment of coaches and managers. Together, they will contribute approximately 3,500 hours of their time to the national squads this summer. All the training, camps, tournaments and off-court preparation add up to an invaluable contribution to the game of basketball in Scotland.

The national squads are centred on the development of the 135 players selected across the nine squads. In order to represent their country these players and many parents make difficult choices and great contributions of time, energy and finance.

National Squad facts and figures for summer 2010:

• First time Scotland has had two youth teams competing in Division B in the same year
• First time Scotland has had six teams in the European Championships in the same year (involving 19,800 miles of air travel)
• Ten Scots chosen to Great Britain squads, including eight Scottish-born players and two naturalised or second generation Scots.
• 28 trips and hosted events
• 140 training sessions
• 410 hours of training
• 75 players registered with FIBA Europe
• Approximately 3,500 hours of volunteer time!

2010 International Schedule:

Senior Women

International friendly games v Austria, Linlithgow, 18-20 June

European Championships, Division C, Armenia, 25 June – 4 July

Trudie Hopgood – Head Coach

Tony Shand – Assistant Coach

Elif Yilmaz – Manager

Senior Men

International friendly games v Norway, Stirling, 24-25 April

Preparation games v Newcastle Eagles, Danum Eagles Newcastle, Everton Tigers, May-June

International friendly games v England, Worchester, 26-27 June

European Championships, Division C, Malta 3-11^th July

Tom Campbell – Head Coach

Robert Taft – Assistant Coach

Euan Campbell – Assistant Coach

Under 23 Men

International friendly games v Great Britain U20’s, Manchester, 5-6 June

Ben O’Connell - Head Coach

Adrian Flynn - Assistant Coach

Colin Lynch - Manager

Under 18 Women

Preparation camp, Highland, 18-20 June

Joint camp with Great Britain, England, Wales, Bristol, 25-27 June

European Championships, Division B, Timisoara 27 July -9 August

Donna Finnie – Head Coach

Jennifer Gallacher – Assistant Coach

Kara Gillies – Assistant Coach
Lorraine McAuley – Manager

Under 18 Men

Preparation games, Barcelona 10-13 June

Joint camp with Great Britain, England, Wales, Bristol, 18-20 June

International friendly games v Ireland, Wales U20, East Lothian, 25-27 June

European Championships, Division B, Tel Aviv, 20 July – 2 August

Doug Reilly - Head Coach

Alan Lamb – Assistant Coach

Jim Wright – Assistant Coach

Amelia Morgan – Manager

Under 16 Women

Preparation games, Leeds, 2-4 April

Preparation games, Barcelona 17-20 June

Preparation camp, Inverclyde, 9-11 June

European Championships, Division C, Andorra 23 July -1 August

Ian Gordon – Head Coach

Lorna Norman – Assistant Coach

Marianne Hayward – Manager

Under 16 Men

Copenhagen Invitational Tournament, Copenhagen 11-13 June

Joint camp with Great Britain, England, Wales, Bristol, 18-20 June

Preparation games, Manchester 9-10 July

European Championships, Division C, Andorra 24 July – 1 August

Colin Haldane – Head Coach

Russel Kesson – Assistant Coach

Trudie Hopgood – Assistant Coach

Neil Connell – Manager

Under 15 Girls

England U15 Inter-Regional Tournament, Sheffield 12-13 June

Friendly games, Belfast, 25-27 June

Darryl Wood – Head Coach

Roddy Gordon – Assistant Coach

Joanne Holmes – Manager

Under 15 Boys

England U15 Inter-Regional Tournament, Nottingham 5-6 June

Copenhagen Invitational Tournament, 11-13 June

Russel Kesson - Head Coach

Craig Nicol - Assistant Coach

Alan MacDonald - Manager

Craig Reilly

Ian Black

Fraser Canning

Vaughan Wilson

Douglas Taylor

Craig Nicol

Kieran Lynch

Marc Dickson

Eoghann Dover

Christopher Cleary

Kevin Scott

Craig Reilly

Calum Nicol

_____________________

Ben O’Connell - Head Coach

Adrian Flynn – Assistant Coach

Colin Lynch - Manager

Open sessions for the U23 Men Development Squad are being held in March and April.

The U23 Development Squad is designed to help bridge the gap between youth basketball and the senior ranks.

The sessions are designed to introduce players to both the physical and mental skills required to make the next step in their basketball performance pathway. In attending the sessions players will be introduced to key fundamentals and concepts that are required at both Scotland Senior Men and Great Britain level.

Players will also be exposed to the high level of physical conditioning required to compete at this standard. Each player will receive off-season workout examples and help in setting goals for improvement in these areas.

The coaching staff are setting high standards for themselves and are committing to ensure that every player that attends an open session will find them challenging and beneficial for their development.

Over the course of the U23 Men’s programme, head coach Ben O’Connell will be writing a series of short articles on the squad’s preparation and training.

The first articles can be downloaded below – an introduction from Ben, a review of the first development session and the practice plan for that session. Also included is an article of nutritional advice given to the players. We hope you find these useful.

Programme Introduction

Development Session Plan 1

Practice Review 1

Eat to Train

Session Plan 3

Practice review 3

For more information on the programme, please click here.