20 December 2006
RWANDA : Pro cautions basketballers
A Rwandan,- South African based professional basketballer has cautioned home players to apply an ambitious approach to the game. Raoul Mballa is in the country to beef up the Rwandan National Basketball team ahead of the Zone V Championships scheduled for mid-January 2007.
Mballa turns up for Pretoria Heats, one of the leading basketball clubs in South Africa.
He joined the paid ranks three years ago, achieving the accolade of the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of this year, according to sources at the Rwandan Basketball Federation.
The 27-year old, called upon home based basketballers to have a vision of taking their career beyond Rwanda.
Rwanda has a lot of potential in basketball but the players are not ambitious.
“I have heard from almost all of them, but all they say is that they want to play so well so that they are either retained by APR or get onto the APR team,” revealed Mballa.
He added; “I think, it’s high time, the players started looking at playing in more competitive leagues abroad. That’s the best way to improve on their game. They need to leave their comfort zones and go and play with better players.”
Mballa also observed that players here only train when there is a big tournament and in the presence of their coach.
“One NBA coach said that if you want a skill to remain as personal, you have to do it over 15,000 times. This simply means that the minimal practice time for an ambitious basketballer should be two hours daily,” he hinted.
Mballa turned out as Rwanda’s best player during the national basketball team’s tour of Nairobi in October.
Mballa turns up for Pretoria Heats, one of the leading basketball clubs in South Africa.
He joined the paid ranks three years ago, achieving the accolade of the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of this year, according to sources at the Rwandan Basketball Federation.
The 27-year old, called upon home based basketballers to have a vision of taking their career beyond Rwanda.
Rwanda has a lot of potential in basketball but the players are not ambitious.
“I have heard from almost all of them, but all they say is that they want to play so well so that they are either retained by APR or get onto the APR team,” revealed Mballa.
He added; “I think, it’s high time, the players started looking at playing in more competitive leagues abroad. That’s the best way to improve on their game. They need to leave their comfort zones and go and play with better players.”
Mballa also observed that players here only train when there is a big tournament and in the presence of their coach.
“One NBA coach said that if you want a skill to remain as personal, you have to do it over 15,000 times. This simply means that the minimal practice time for an ambitious basketballer should be two hours daily,” he hinted.
Mballa turned out as Rwanda’s best player during the national basketball team’s tour of Nairobi in October.
# posted by afrbk : 11:02
