Effectiveness of Basketball Coaching Enrichment Program for Youth and Elite Female Basketball Players in Pakistan

Basketball demands skills that must be executed in a dynamic environment, frequently during high-speed movement or altering directions. Working only on athlete development is not enough. It is vital to empower both coaches and athletes for the advancement of basketball, particularly for female basketball. The current research aimed to check the effectiveness of a curriculum-based coaching and training program for both basketball coaches and female basketball players. In Phase I, twenty-seven participants, comprising female coaches, elite basketball players, physical educationists, and students, were invited to participate in a fourday workshop. This workshop included theoretical and practical sessions for training. In Phase II, the coach who achieved the top position in the workshop trained twenty-four universitylevel female basketball players using a 6-week player development curriculum for improving performance. The evaluation of basketball players was done both before and after the training on general fitness and technical skills, including weight, sprint speed, agility, explosive leg power, and beep test timings. Lastly, in Phase III, to further validate the effectiveness of the training, the basketball athletes appeared in the 35th Basketball Intervarsity (Women) Championship, which was held among nineteen different institutes. Out of 27, twenty-three passed the written test after attending the workshop. In Phase II, the female basketball players also showed notable improvements in all technical skills. Subsequently, the Basketball Championship was won by Lahore College for Women University. These findings suggest that player development, paired with coach training, can lead to improved performance.