Skill Sessions Moved to Week Nights

***Important Note:  We intended to do very good work with the Tuesday/Thursday Skill Sessions described in this post.  But after our first session, we have decided to cancel the sessions.  There will be no skill sessions until further notice.

But I am going to leave the post below as is because it does share my thoughts about what we try to do in this area.

Will Avery instructs at a recent GAIS Mini Camp at Westminster Schools of Augusta

New Skill Session Schedule

Tuesdays and Thursdays at Patriots Park

5PM-6PM: Girls of all Ages and Elementary School Aged Boys

6PM-8PM: Middle School and High School Aged Boys

As the coaches of the 70+ GAIS Eagles participating in our homeschool basketball program, Will Avery and I conduct workouts for our players continuously throughout the 12 month calendar. The fact that this school basketball program is independent and subject to no association's rules or restrictions allows us the freedom to invest an extraordinary amount time into our players and also to coach them during the off season leagues we organize.

As many know, for the past two years Will and an army of highly qualified volunteers have been hosting free skill sessions for the basketball players throughout the community on Saturday mornings before Fall League play. The Saturday sessions have become so busy that we decided to move the sessions to week days and to Patriots Park where we have a lot of space and time.

Because it is only early September, we decided conducting sessions for the community and for our Eagles players separately is overkill or unnecessary duplication. So the sessions are at a time when everyone can theoretically be there. We are offering 2 big windows of time during the evenings. We hope to get some of the same volunteer coaching help from our network of contributors. We will try this for a time during the Fall and see how it works.

And of course we will continue to have games on Saturdays. We are essentially applying to the overall basketball community the same formula we use with our Eagles program. Spend time honing skills during the week and apply those skills during off season league play. This fits nicely with Will's teaching style. As he is always attempting to put players in position to improve their scoring, shooting, passing, and ball handling skills. The improvements made during the skill sessions are intended to translate into game success. And this success makes the game more fun. And fun and teaching young people to see the link between practice and improvement are the reasons we make these programs available.

As always, we'll try to keep everyone informed of our thinking and solicit feedback. Thanks for yours. It will be helpful.

See links to other ABR stories and videos about our free skill sessions here:

- After week one of last year's Fall League
- A more in depth story and video from last year
- After week one this Fall
- After week two this Fall