Coaching of the young basketball players of Sabonis basketball center ; Sabonio krepšinio centro jaunųjų krepšininkų treniravimas(is)
Relevance of the topic. Lithuania is not a large country and sports talents are not emerging very often. It does not depend on the social or economic situation of the country (Schnabel et al., 1994; Cedaro, 2000; Carling et al., 2009). When giving the opportunity for the talent to achieve positive results in sports, the talented personalities have to be selected, the purposeful training program has to be concluded as well as the monitoring of the practical implementation of the program has to be performed (Regnier et al., 1993; Durand-Bush, Salmela, 2001; Abernethy, 2008; Vaeyens et al., 2008; Bailey et al., 2010; Burgess, Naughton, 2010; Philips et al., 2010; Ford et al., 2011). Therefore it is very important that the training of the athletes has to be conceptualized, so a small quantity of the talented athletes is developed as optimally as possible. Inaccurate training system prevents the athletes from revealing their own potential. Thus, only the consistent sports training system shall stimulate a more rapid improvement of the sports results, as it is harder to identify a talent than to develop it (Balyi, Hamilton, 1999; Raslanas, 2001; Malina et al., 2004; Balyi, Williams, 2009; Stafford, 2010). It was considered for a long time that success in sports depends solely on the athletes, who are physically strong and developed tactically (Krasilshchikov, 2011), however, due to increase of the competition between athletes (De Bosscher et al., 2006) and major political and commercial influence of sports (Green, Oakley, 2001), there is a necessity to create long-term development programs with respect to different sports (Balyi, Hamilton, 2004; Balyi, Williams, 2009; Stafford, 2010). Long-term development of the young athletes taking place for a period between eight–to–twelve years before becoming elite athlete is a purposeful and integral didactic process (Ericsson, Charness, 1994; Salmela et al., 1998; Balyi, 2001; Balyi, Hamilton, 2004; Balyi, Williams, 2009; Stafford, 2010) which is significantly affected by the body composition of the athletes (genotypic and phenotypic factors) (Heyward, Stolarczyk, 1996; Jebb et al., 2000; Drinkwater et al., 2008; Ostojic et al., 2006; Abraham, 2010), training program (Trninic et al., 2001; Milanovič, 2002; Balčiūnas et al., 2006), exceptionally physical (Drinkwater et al., 2008; Delextrat, Cohen, 2009) and technical fitness (Apostolidis et al., 2004; Karpowicz, 2006), nature of sport performance (Hucinski, 2004; Dembinski, 2005). A reasonable long-term development system of young basketball players began to take shape in seventh decade of the 20th century. Different types of training were distinguished in such system: integral, physical, technical, tactical and theoretic (Stonkus, 1992; Butautas, 2002). The scientists have different opinions on the long-term development. Zeldovič and Keraminas (Зельдович, Кераминас, 1964) provide that 50 % of the total training time in the training cycle of the boys aged 11–14 years should be attributed to the physical and technical training. Dobry (1986) and Stonkus (1985) provide that physical training should prevail (at least 40 % of the total training time) in the training of boys aged 11–14 years. Other scientists (Mikulowsky, Oszast, 1976, Butautas, 2002; Milanovič et al., 2002; Cenic, 2004) state that the technical training is the most important type of training. Based on the opinion of the other group of scientists (Литвинов и др., 1996; Canadian Sports Centres, 2008), the time attributed to the physical training shall be reduced in parallel to the increase of age of an athlete, i.e. during the first year of training the largest part shall be attributed to physical training. One of the most important conditions of effective sports training is control and management of sports training in order to determine and assess physical development, physical fitness, change in the level of technical skills (Johnson, Nelson, 1986; Bouchard et al., 1997; Stonkus, 2002, 2003; Graham et al., 2004; Barfield et al., 2007; Mirkov et al., 2008; Balčiūnas et al., 2009; Robinson, 2010). According to some studies performed, age periods which are the most sensitive for the training of motor abilities (Komi, 1992; Shephard, Astrand, 1992; Kraemer, 1993; Pauletto, 1995; Alter, 1996; Donald, Chu, 1996; Dintiman et al., 1997; Donald, Chu, 1998; Viru et al., 1999; Baquet et al., 2003; Boisseau, Delamarche, 2000; Malina et al., 2004; Ford et al., 2011), technical skills (Schmidt, 1991; Latash, 1993; Burton, Miller, 1998; Schmidt, Lee, 1999; Cabodevilla, 2008; Kasa, 2006; Zambova, Tomanek, 2012) is childhood and adolescence. Scientists (Impellizzeri et al., 2005; Wolf, 2006; Ljach, 2007) provide that with respect to training of young basketball players fitness objectives shall be important next to the training objectives, as they influence achievement of the results of a young personality. Considering that the population of Lithuania is just below 3 million (2.96 million; http://www.stat.gov.lt, 2013), the results and achievement of Lithuanian basketball men national team (5th place in the world ranking, 406 points; http://www.fiba.com, 2013) and of national teams of younger age groups (3rd place in the world ranking, 261 points (http://www.fiba.com, 2013) in the Olympic Games, World and European championships should be treated as exceptional phenomena. A case study of an effective training institution could help to form an assumption on the peculiarities of the long-term development program successfully implemented by the Lithuanian coaches. The relevance of the problem is influenced by the following factors: • a special meaning for the development of a personality has genuine activity in childhood and adolescence (Jovaiša, 1993; 2001); • basketball is becoming a more important social phenomena as sports results represent the country (Wilson, Spink, 2006; Sakalauskas, 2010; Paulauskas, 2010); • in order to form a training concept of young basketball players, tendencies of the training of the training and fitness of the best athletes has to be analyzed (Leonardo et al., 2002; Stonkus, 2003); • train and manage the process of young basketball players so that the best results are achieved in the most important competitions (Balyi, Williams, 2009). It is especially important for Lithuania as it has limited resources of sports talent and finance; • only the scientifically-sound optimum training program of the young basketball players (aged 7–17 years) shall allow the athletes to realize their individual potential in order to achieve results in sports, as well as to realize sensitive opportunities for the development of personality (Aksen, Gunay, 2010). Research problem: due to different training of the young basketball players and different concept of the fitness influencing the training, it is important to determine, which peculiarities of the training programs applied effectively while aiming for the best results influence the fitness of the players during different age periods. Research hypothesis: a case study of coaching of young basketball players of Sabonis Basketball Center aged 7–17 years will reveal the structure of the long-term coaching of the players. Research object: coaching of young basketball players (aged 7–17 years). Research aim: conceptualization of the peculiarities of coaching of young basketball players (aged 7–17 years). Research objectives: 1. Determine the peculiarities of the content changes and amount of load of the training programs of basketball players aged 7–17 years. 2. Evaluate the body composition indicators, physical and technical fitness of basketball players aged 7–17 years by creating the rank scales of the indicators. 3. Determine the model values of the sport performance indicators of basketball players aged 12–17 years. 4. Reveal the selection and coaching model of Sabonis Basketball Center. Originality and theoretical significance of the research As basketball is becoming a more complex sport (faster, more athletic and more versatile), the results depend on many internal and external factors (Stonkus, 2003; Wissel, 2012). Training of young basketball players has become multidimensional, systemic process as multidisciplinary knowledge, methods and measures are used. A revealed phenomenological interaction between training and fitness of young basketball players aged 7–17 years is based on the following aspects: • a selection and training model of Sabonis Basketball Center has been revealed; • a training program of young basketball players aged 7–17 years applied in Sabonis Basketball Center has been revealed; • a rank scale of body composition indicators, physical and technical fitness of young basketball players aged 7–17 years has been formed; • the most sensitive age periods for the training of motor abilities and technical skills of young basketball players have been determined; • the characteristics of sport performance of basketball players aged 12–17 years have been formed. Practical application of the research Training programs and their peculiarities for different age periods provided in this dissertation shall help Lithuanian coaches to organize, plan and implement the long-term development of young basketball players more effectively. The rank scales of young basketball players' body composition indicators, physical and technical fitness and the model indicator values of sport performance, which have been formed for the purposes of this dissertation, shall help to select and train the players, prepare them for competitions and develop the highly skilled athletes. The established sensitive age periods for the training of motor abilities and technical skills shall assist the coaches in developing the abilities of young basketball players more effectively. Conclusions 1. It was determined that aiming to develop the basic skills of basketball technique and game awareness the specialized development prevail