Vlado Iskrov: The idea of ​​the International Basketball Camp is to serve as a springboard for young players

This summer, for the third consecutive year, Gabrovo will host the International Basketball Camp – one of the camps with a large number of participants, coaches from abroad and including a number of concomitant events. For the previous editions, the ideas for this year, the innovations and the mission of the camp we talked with the main organizer Vladimir Iskrov:

– IBC will be held in Bulgaria for the third consecutive year. This means the first two have been successful – what is your balance for them?

“The great mass of a camp speaks for itself. Children from almost all clubs in Bulgaria participated in the camp. A big advantage is that the event itself is different from all other camps – it brings together much smaller events within itself. This is of interest to the children, because in most cases they go, train and go home until they have the opportunity to go abroad. The camp is followed by scouts from the United States and Europe. The management agency works with players like Datoe, players who were in the NBA. They are a very serious agency and their purpose is to come to Bulgaria and find children to help them develop basketball and academics. This is our big advantage.

– Where will the camp take place, when and under what conditions in 2018?

– Traditionally, the camp is held in Gabrovo, this year we have decided to split it into two parts because last year there were a lot of participants. Only those in the camp were 332, and all of them coaches, national teams and volunteers were over 450 people. So we decided to make two shifts – July 7-14 and July 15-22.

– What can we expect from a campaign in 2018 – do we know about the pretty interesting practices you have developed over the past two years, how will you add that?

– We will organize the Hristo Donkov tournament, which is part of a campaign and will take part of three national teams up to 16 years – the Bulgarian, Romanian and we are waiting for confirmation from third, the fourth participant will be from children – participants in a camp. Ie. those who are not in the national team will have the opportunity to participate in the tournament and to prove it. In addition, the basketball basketball final will be held. This year there will be a BSE cup to be held there and the children will be able to see that there is practically no limit to human abilities. Another interesting event will be streetball, for which we partner with BBO. Campaign participants will also take part in the tournament.

– Will there be foreign coaches again and from which countries?

“I expect to have coaches from different countries, because in many places it has proven to be important to select and develop players not only from nearby cities and countries, but also from more distant. Apart from Italy, the United States, the UK, this year will also come from Germany, Spain. All organizations and sports clubs that send scouts will probably also send coaches, so we’ll have specialists from around 10 countries. This will help children’s basketball development and look at other methodologies and practices.

– What is your assessment of the success of a campaign in previous years – is there a link between coaches from abroad and Bulgarian players?

“Last year there were five people who went to England with full or partial scholarships. We were very close to making a transfer to Italy, but at the last moment the competitor decided to choose Spain and we could not really cooperate. There are people who have realized the idea of ​​a campaign – to give young players the opportunity to develop abroad, which for me is the big success.

– What are the reviews of the campaign participants in the first editions, how much of them do you expect to come back to and be part of again this summer?

– If we compare the first and second year – in the first we had over 220 participants, in the second – over 330. A very large proportion of these 220 in 2016 were also in a campaign in 2017. My understanding of a campaign is to provide a service to athletes include good hotel, quality food, very good coaches, unique equipment, perfect sports facilities and all this should be at a very affordable price. Because here the idea of ​​a camp is a non-profit – the kids go into better basketball systems and develop, to serve as a springboard for them. That is why we are trying to make everything as accessible as possible, while the municipality of Gabrovo also helps a lot for this to happen. We also have many partner organizations, which helps the price to be quite acceptable.

– What about future IBC participants?

– This is a unique event for Bulgaria and I think every young competitor who wants to develop in this direction should try because it is only once a year and because the quality of the coaches and the managers who come to camp , is unattainable, as well as good and quality work in clubs. I think the benefits to the participants will be very great.

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