The first chief of Vilnius “Rytas” Georgios Dedas, assistant of coach Giedrius Žibėnas, met with both coaches of basketball schools in Vilnius.

2018-2020 The Greek, who worked at the Olympiacos coaching staff in Piraeus, assisted David Blatt and later Kęstutis Kemzūra.

During the practical seminar, G. Dedas together with the coaches of the Capital Basketball School (SKM) and Vilnius Basketball School (VKM) discussed the latest trends in youth basketball and topical issues of discussions.

In the practical seminar organized by SKM, the students of coaches Tomas Pur (SKM-I GEALAN, 5/0) and Arvydas Menkevičius (SKM-II Tigers, 3/2) will take part in the U16 Championship of the Student Basketball League (MKL).

The workshop is one of the events of the #RytasYouth project, which aims to share good practice and build a supportive community. The coaches of the basketball schools deepened their knowledge a little earlier. at the seminar of coach Giedrius Žibėnas. SKM and VKM students can watch Ryto’s home matches in the FIBA ​​Champions League and Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL) free of charge, and the best of them can train with the representative club of the capital.

– What are your impressions and how do you feel? – immediately after the practical seminar SKM.lt asked G. Dedo.

– It was a really good seminar. At first it was a bit difficult for me to figure out what I wanted from the young basketball players, but later it came in and everything was fine. If the coaches and the players themselves took at least one thing with them from the workshop home, that’s enough for me.

– What topics were covered?

– In the beginning we studied in the location square. We later worked on a 3: 0 brakdown attack. We finished my important elements in basketball – a quick transition to offensive and defensive. We analyzed how we should model the rapid attack and how we should position ourselves as quickly as possible and return to defense. We spent the most time on that.

– What was your impression of the discussions with the youth coaches?

– The coaches had a lot of questions, wanted to delve into the material and I really enjoyed it. I tried to explain everything in as much detail as possible – why one or another exercise is useful, etc. I think the main youth coaches – to develop good basketball habits. Good habits – to perform correctly, to communicate quickly and accurately on the basketball court, and finally – to arrive on time for training. I think the Lithuanian youth is doing it perfectly and those coaches have their own coaches for basketball players and we will be very useful for the coaches as professionals.

– What do you think about the Lithuanian youth basketball program?

– First of all, Lithuania has always been, is and will be a basketball country. In my opinion, youth teams cannot be at the highest level every year and take prizes in European and world championships. There are times when you win everything and it’s great, but it won’t be like that all the time. Lithuania has smart coaches who know how to train good basketball players.

– Could you compare Lithuanian and Greek youth programs? What are the main similarities and differences?

– In Greece, a large number of youth coaches, when they start competing in school championships, want to win here and now, rather than educating better players for the future, perhaps by sacrificing today’s. There are a lot of such examples in Greece and that is really a problem. I understand that victories bring joy to children, their families, the city. It’s all great. But in order to win with youth teams, we should not forget about the full development of the player and his preparation for the future. I do not know what the situation is in Lithuania in this regard, but it can be a problem in many countries, which is why we are losing the talents we could have.

– What could you learn from Lithuanian basketball and what could the Greeks learn from Lithuania?

– In recent decades, it has been possible to learn one main thing from Greece – we had a lot of basketball players at the highest level with a very high IQ of the game – Theodoros Papaloukas, Dimitris Diamantidis, Vassilis Spanoulis, Nikos Zisis. They were the best players in Europe, although they were not the most athletic, the fastest, but they were very smart and understood the game. We no longer have such players. Yes, very much Nick Calathes, which of the current players would probably be the closest I mentioned, but this is not your typical Greek player. Nick is a more American basketball-oriented product. We need to accept the reality and realize that the smart basketball that was played by the basketball players I have named no longer exists in Greece. Next time, next time, the NBA champion, the league’s most useful player, Gianni Antetokounmpo, Costa Slouk, or that guarantee, N. Calathes and we, as a country, are very good at adapting.

Lithuania has NBA players Jonas Valančiūnas, Domantas Sabonis and many players in good European clubs. For me, Lithuania has always been and is the Top 4 basketball country in the world. Nothing has changed. Okay, he didn’t make it to the Tokyo Olympics because he lost one match to the national team, which had a successful Lukas Dončičius. Luka is one in the world, so it’s not easy to stop it. I know you are very successful because of all your failures, but Lithuania will soon remind you of itself and all Lithuanians will be happy again. You have a new national team coach (Kazis Maksvytis – the author’s note), who brings new ideas, so the future of Lithuanian basketball is bright.

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