Despite all the frustrations involved with living with COVID-19 in Melbourne, at some stage we will emerge from our enforced hibernation endured through restrictions. Sports clubs and organisations are all working out how to return to training and competitions when those restrictions are lifted.
In that regards the BMBA Templar Warriors are on the front foot and ready to introduce a new and exciting way to run their basketball programs, training and teams in competitions.
If you have been around the basketball scene for long enough, you would know it’s drawbacks include club politics, inadequate coaching and training, cliques and friendship groups taking preference over legitimate team selection and reward for effort for players working on and improving their games and sadly a total lack of missed opportunity to develop players to their fullest potential.
All of this means that players miss out on achieving the maximum enjoyment from the game and the opportunity to be a part of a great environment that mentors individuals and builds great teams where players can enjoy success but more importantly provides great fun while building great friendship groups for your son/daughter.
If you are looking for a program that eliminates these issues and provides the enjoyment, development and opportunities that basketball should provide then read on
BMBA stands for the Bob Mann Basketball Academy and is the brainchild of its founder Bob Mann. It is aimed to be exactly what its name implies, and Academy of knowledge for all things basketball.
After thirty years in the sport, Bob has become frustrated with the normal club administration, where club politics takes precedence over providing genuine coaching, education and development for a sport that Bob considers a game of chess with humans as the pieces. “The strategy behind the game is rarely understood and like chess, it can take considerable time to learn that strategy along with acquiring the necessary skills to play the game at a high level.”
“It averages out to a two-year journey to have players and their teams reach that goal and that’s if they stay together. It also vitally important that players are taught in a structured environment, with proper planning, goal-setting and leadership that builds on players skills and knowledge week by week, term by term and year by year.”
Bob has set up his Academy as a sports business as opposed to a club 
where quality training and education are provided and independent coaches will be appointed and trained. He does this as he wants every player who works hard to improve their game and accomplish established goal setting to be rewarded.
“Too many times in a club environment opportunity and court time is given to players who are sons/daughters of coaches, club administrators or close friends of those peoples children. While there are some very good parent coaches, they are way too few in number and are incredibly rare and I have seen too many parents who are such control freaks that they not only insist on coaching their child’s team without any credentials to do so, but they then take on club committee roles to ensure they maintain that control. Even worse once established on a committee they recruit like-minded parents to that committee and in doing so just compound the problem.”
“There is also no doubt that there are people who hold these positions who do it for the right reasons, but for whatever reason, I have seen too many times in my involvement with the sport that these control freak personalities infest basketball at both a domestic and representative level. Ultimately, who misses out? the kids do of course. This is especially so for the kids whose parents are too busy working to put food on the table and pay school fees etc and just don’t have the time to get involved on club committees.”
“This won’t happen at the BMBA, every child will be coached by an independent coach who knows basketball and can teach the game while the people running the BMBA will be people with genuine basketball experience who won’t need to worry about politics, but will be focused on performance, outcomes and rewarding players who work hard, show genuine improvement and achieve set goals within the Academy program.
A basketball program run by basketball people.”
Over the next twelve months, the BMBA will be looking to implement the following programs commencing from term three this year.
- Junior boys and girls teams in domestic competitions initially at the Sandringham Basketball Association. Over time this will expand out to entering teams in other Associations so we can expand the reach and quality of our programs while also providing flexibility to its players and their families.
- Kids First Basketball – This is a program designed to introduce youngsters (5 to 10 y.o.’s) and beginners to the sport. Kids First is designed to introduce kids to the sport in a fun, non-pressured environment until they are ready to join a team.
- We will be more than happy to bring this program to your child’s school where this can be arranged and we have a minimum of eight participants.
- Holiday camps and specialized training designed to improve players skill level and give them the ability to enjoy their basketball more. This program will not be available to BMBA players but any player from any club looking to improve their game.
- Regular tournaments through the calendar year.
- Opportunities to participate in basketball tours to country regions and even interstate.
- Access to an online library full of teaching aids for players who want to study and work on their game from home.
More interestingly Bob has quite deliberately chosen “The Templars” as his team’s mascot/logo. 
Since his childhood, Bob has been intrigued with history and through that the legend of the “Knights Templar”. Through that interest, Bob has decided to introduce a code of conduct/code of honour similar to ones that Chivalrous Knights orders may have embraced back in the day.
Bob doesn’t only want to develop good basketball players, but he wants to mentor good people and even more importantly have kids participate in an environment that promotes values that will help them throughout their lives and one that ingrains a deep respect for others and pride in the program and their achievements. This will be done by implementing the club’s own Templar code outlining all the values and behaviours that it expects from both the players and their parents register with the BMBA.
You can see the BMBA Templar code by CLICKING HERE
Bob is looking to start his basketball programs once more whenever COVID-19 restrictions begin to lift. This resumption will obviously depend on the continued lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, but Bob wants to be as organised as possible when that happens. Through registering your interest you will be placed on the BMBA database and receive regular updates about program resumption and proper registrations.
To register your expression of interest for one of the BMBA programs you can do so by CLICKING HERE
So if you want your son or daughter involved in a basketball program that:
- Has no politics.
- Provides the best coaching and development of skills in the region.
- Rewards players for the efforts they place into their development and the goals they achieve rather than what clique they belong to or whose friend they are.
- Provides coaching that is independent, structured and transparent and builds on players skills, term by term, season by season and year by year.
- Provides an online training service that allows players to work on and learn about the game at home.
- Develops their players both on and off the court ensuring we develop not just not good basketballers but really good people.
- Places your son/daughter in an environment that encourages skill & knowledge development, fantastic mentoring, growth of the individual and greater enjoyment of the game.
Then the BMBA Templars are the program that you are looking for. Register your interest today.
You can gather more information from the BMBA website at bmba.net.au
Or you can contact Bob directly via his email at bob_mann@bmba.net.au
