Players Exchange 2008

The GAM3 Players exchange is a cultural and basketball program that will bring 12 Lebanese players and 2 coaches to Denmark in 2008 and 12 Danish players to Lebanon in 2009. It is designed to promote understanding accross cultures through the language of basketball.

The players will leave Beirut on August 4th and return on August 11th. Players will stay in group with the families of Danish GAM3 members, and will engage in basketball and other cultural activities. The trip culminates with players competing in GAM3 Finals, Scandanavia's largest street basketball tournament.

GAM3 Street Leauge: Summer 2008

Summary

GAM3 Street League is based on volunteer players with the drive to become a coach and lead their own team. These volunteer players, called “”, will create teams and hold weekly practices in their own neighbourhoods, then congregate monthly for tournaments in different locations around Beirut. This expands the reach of GAM3’s sport-for-all street culture philosophy into the courts and neighbourhoods where the most enthusiasm lies, in addition GAM3 Street League promotes the spirit of community service and leadership among volunteers.

At the beginning of the summer, xxs will be trained in street basketball coaching and team organization by experienced GAM3 coaches. Then, following their training each volunteer will receive a bag of basketball equipment. Throughout the summer teams will receive logistical support in setting up practice locations (a maximum of ½ of the cost for court rental will be paid by GAM3), games and forming more highly organized clubs.

In return, xxs are expected to lead at least three hours of practice per week, attend GAM3 Street League tournaments, and report their activities to GAM3 HQ. The tournaments, called “GAM3 Street League Battles”, are the pinnacle of the Summer’s activities which bring together xxs from around the city to test their team against a diverse array of street ballers from around the city.

A maximum of 20 xxs, each representing between 4 and 15 players, will be supported by GAM3.

Objective

The overall aim is to breakdown cultural and psychological barriers that separate Lebanese living in and around Beirut, and to encourage street-level leadership through basketball.

Good times at Hoops!!

"The trampoline,” Hana, 5, tells Fadi in Arabic after he translated my question of what was her favorite part of her day at Hoops. After the first day, the coaches and organizers at Hoops changed things around a little more in line with what Mac originally envisioned.

Each of the three courts was divided in half. One focused on football, one on basketball and one was designed for the younger kids. It had a trampoline and an inflatable castle-looking structure with a slide on one wall.

The other two younger kids Fadi and I talked to said the same thing, pointing over in its direction from the football court where we were standing.

Ahmed, who works at Hoops and organized the stations on each court, told me the idea with the sport courts was to build skills. The basketball court looked like an obstacle course. There were about 10 poles set up with kids slaloming between them dribbling basketballs along one side and an equal number of pairs of small orange cones connected with poles that created a mini hurtle course for kids hopping like rabbits holding basketballs tight to their chests.

The crew at Hoops also used orange cones to help kids learn how to shoot the perfect lay-up. To the right of the hoop about a meter or so before it four cones were laid flat on the court in two lines. Run and dribble up to the cones, grab the ball and step over the first line with the right foot, left foot over the second line and shoot. “Right, left, shoot,” one of the coaches kept yelling as kids either put both feet between the cones, stopped to long to assess how to proceed or sidestepped the obstacle all together.

Over the course of the five days with stations set up, Ahmed told me they also played half-court competitive games, 5-on-5, small teams with the first to 10 winning, passing drills, shooting drills and dribbling blindfolded.
One of the boys there to play, Ahmed, 12, told me (through Fadi) his only complaint was he didn’t get to play basketball enough. The kids rotated between the basketball, football and play-time courts (the bigger kids, however, stuck to the sports).

The football court was similar to the basketball court, zig-zagging around obstacles or practicing passing, penalty kicks or headers. At one point, the littler kids were playing a game with the cones used as obstacles for ball-control drills. The cones were mid-field and the kids were to line up on the goal line. (Most of them huddled together inside the goal.)

When the coach blew his whistle, they had to run and grab a cone. There was one less cone than children, so someone was out each round. Mac and I stood and watched, surprised to see it was force over speed in the end. The faster, smaller girl made it mid-field first but dove for the cone, missing it. She was able to grab for it just as the slower girl probably 2 years her senior did. With less muscle, the faster girl’s tentative grip didn’t stand a chance as the other girl just pulled it away from her.

Overall, Mac said he was happy with the way things turned out. They brought around 150 different kids to Hoops during the five days of open court GAM3 arranged. All told, 487 kids attended (most more than once) and the folks at Hoops let them exceed the 75 participant goal that was the original plan, which they did every day except the last. On 7 July, the second day, there were 96 kids. The last day at Hoops, the kids who came were full-time residents of the two Palestinian refugee camps just south of Beirut. (Each other time, most of the kids were refugees from the fighting in the Nahr al-Bared camp in North Lebanon.)

Playing a new GAM3

Sunday, July 1 -- I arrived at Hoops (where I’d never been before) a few minutes before the first practice was scheduled to start and knew I was in the right place from the river of children I saw flowing from the corner of the block along the narrow sidewalk in through the front gate.
GAM3 in Beirut had funding until the end of July, and the Qas Qas practices had only one week left, so Mac saw an opportunity to brighten some kids’ lives, and he took it.

The 75 kids I saw streaming into the Hoops court complex were Palestinians temporarily living just south of Beirut’s city limits in two refugee camps after fleeing fighting between the Lebanese Army and a group of armed militants at their camp in the North.
Mac’s friend, Ahmed, lives in the Burj al-Barajneh camp and told him most of the refugees from Nahr al-Bared were staying there.

He knew Hoops was close by, so he set to work on organizing hour-and-a-half open-court sessions over six days throughout the month for two groups of 75 kids.

The kids aren’t here only to learn basketball. Hoops has three courts under enormous tents attached to a smaller building with offices, bathrooms, storage space and a concession stand.

The court-area is like a building with chain-linked walls.

Today’s group of 75 was broken into three smaller groups and loosed on the floors. The two outside courts were football pitches and the middle court was for basketball. Football matches started and the kids playing basketball practiced dribbling and took turns shooting.

They weren’t really taking up the entire court, so I decided to take pictures of the basketball first. I got about 3 shots of some little girls dribbling, and my photography days were over. After each click, the kids would run over to see themselves on the screen of my camera. They were almost running over to see the picture before it’d even be taken.

The crowd of posers gathered and the scrum of little hands wanting to catch a glimpse of the picture grew wider. Pretty soon the camera was out of my hands and the kids started having a ball.

It was great because they spoke almost no English and I speak almost no Arabic. They’d ask me things. I’d understand one word, then try to imagine what their question was and answer it with the other 8 words I know.

They loved taking pictures and then looking at themselves. It was this hour-long flurry of activity punctuated by repeated 2-second moments of stillness. They traveled in a pack, trying to get ahold of the camera.

I just followed along, occasionally attempting to arbitrate when one little kid thought another had taken too many pictures. I’m pretty sure, “Hey, it’s my turn,” or some variant was what kids kept pleading with me, as if I was in any way controlling the swarm.

They loved it. They’d move over to the sides of the basketball court to catch a shot of one of the football matches and the 1, 2, or 3 kids within the camera’s range would stop in the middle of the game to pose and then run over to see themselves.

The coaches weren’t really thrilled, but none of the kids seemed to mind.

Last Day!

The final GAM3 crew was definitely smaller than when we started, but these kids are dedicated and had one great time. There were 18 girls, 7 older boys and 4 younger boys. The last day moved along like Sundays have for the past few weeks. The older boys have taken to just playing games with whoever else is hanging around the courts. (Two weeks ago coach Rabiah joined them, not letting the heat of the game take him away from coaching, yelling to his guys to put their arms up to defend as he ran down court behind one of the opposing team’s players driving toward the hoop.)
Mac says next year, he’d like to form a team with the older boys.

“The older kids seem to want to compete more and have a focus,” he told me. “I’d like to have try outs and get a team together.” If there’s enough interest, there could be several.
Unfortunately I spent most of the last day’s practice trying to find batteries for my camera. I didn’t get to see much of the action.

When I got back to Qas Qas, my breakfast, a cheese and spice pita called a manouche, was needed. One of the boys fell and cut his head right above his eye. He had an empty stomach and was feeling a little dizzy. Mac was patching him up with a first aid kit, having him hold gauze to the cut.

The girls and younger boys were playing the grab-the-ball-off-the-head game again. It looked like fun.

Talar, hanging out on the sidelines, took the chance to try teaching one of the kid’s younger siblings. I’m terrible at judging these things, but the little guy looked around 5 or so. He’s standing below the net, trying his hardest, but can’t seem to get the ball more than half a meter over his head.

So, Talar came over. She stood in front of him and put her hand out, a little above her own head (so, around 2 meters off the ground). She tells him to aim for her hand. He shoots her a glance, brings the ball down between his knees and heaves it up into the air. High enough, but not exactly accurate. Talar fetches the ball and tells him to shoot it proper. He holds it, eyes her and drop kicks it, this time neither high enough nor anywhere near the right direction.

Meanwhile, some guys Mac hired had been setting up a grill and firing up the coals all morning. I could smell the chicken kebabs cooking while Talar tried to teach little Pelé how to play basketball. My stomach was rumbling, but first we had some awards to present.
Mac took center stage under a tarp Mohammed Fataerji, leader of the Baladna Scouts, loaned GAM3 for the occasion.

Members of the groups that helped GAM3 get started here in Beirut were seated on plastic chairs in the audience. The groups in Beirut who helped Mac get GAM3 off the ground here were really invaluable.

Since I’ve gotten to talking about them, let me just formally recognize them quickly. GAM3 in Beirut wouldn’t have worked as well without the Municipality of Beirut, the Makassed Youth Voluntary Affairs Department, the Baladna Scouts, the Lebanese Physically Handicapped Union, the Tariq Jdideh Women’s Council, the Social Health Department of the Hariri Association, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Lebanese Basketball Federation.

Seating was limited so most of the kids plopped down on the asphalt.

Mac presented one of two Most Improved Player awards to Somaya Mnaimneh, a 17-year-old girl who’s been to every single practice. She really has gotten noticeably better.
Her biggest challenge after all the work?

“Lay ups,” she tells me. She’s learned a lot working with GAM3, had a great time and will most definitely be back next year.

Nabil, the older guy who tried his hand at coaching a few weeks ago, went home with the other Most Improved Player award.

Talar and Big Mohammed passed “diplomas” out to all the kids who came, a little keepsake to go with their T-shirts.

The older boys cooked up a plan to show Mac their appreciation for all his hard work the past 19 weeks. I was hoping for the big Gatorade splash, but there wasn’t any Gatorade or a big bucket, tub thing of any liquids. They called him over and hoisted him up on their shoulders to show their appreciation for all of his hard work the past 19 weeks.

Rita and Rafi took a few minutes after the festivities to talk with me a bit about their thoughts on their time with GAM3.

Rita really enjoyed coaching and especially liked “working with kids from different cultures and backgrounds and getting them to work together.” She says she was a little afraid the kids wouldn’t really get much better over the course of the program.

“I was shocked at how much they improved,” she tells me.

“We started with 50, and now there’s only about 25, but I know they’ll come back next year,” she says. The dwindling numbers, Rita said, were largely influenced by the precarious security situation in Lebanon, with fighting that started on 20 May continuing between the Army and a group of militants in the North.

“The situation in Lebanon affected our practices,” she says, “Some kids wanted to come but couldn’t. I’m thankful to the ones who did and their parents for trusting us.”

As a weird side-note worth mentioning, the courts hired their own private security team one week before our last practice. They guys didn’t appear to be armed, and the law actually says their guns have to be visible, they just walked the courts keeping an eye on things, I guess.
Rafi told me he thinks next year will be even more successful.

“We trained the kids and took care of them, and their parents can have confidence in us now because they’ve seen what we’ve done with the kids.”

What difference can a basketball make?

The kids surround me. They are pushing each other, looking down to the ground and whispering to each other in Arabic. Finally one of them musters up the courage and asks me ”What is your name?”. They giggle when I reply and then they run out to participate in the weekly GAM3 basketball training here in Nasr City in Cairo [...]

SELA Advisory Group has been following GAM3's activities in The Middle East over the summer. Read what Olga Ege got out of a visit to one of the practices in Cairo this summer in the full article What difference can a basketball make?

Summertime

The summer’s caught hold in Beirut, and the kids have seemingly hit the beach, a favorite weekend pastime for the Lebanese (and pretty much everyone else stuck in sweltering heat next to a body of water). Only two of the older guys showed up, and one of them was an hour late. There were also only three younger boys who came.

Mac, Coach Rabiah, and one older guy played a quick game with some of the other guys at the Qas Qas court. Afterwards, Coach Rabiah sat on a bench on the sidelines, talking and watching his lone player in a game with some guys on the court not with GAM3. He was itching to get to the beach himself, confessing he hoped his wife and kids didn’t leave without him.

Coaches Rita, Rafi and Talar worked with the mix of mainly younger girls, a few of the older ones and the two young boys. About half the time they were playing keep away, and a sort of race. One of the kids would sit mid-court and hold the ball on their head. There were two lines of kids under each basket and one each would run to the middle to try getting the ball first. A hat was the essential accessory for the kid in the middle and two girls took turns passing a pink one between them.

Coach Rafi was a bit put off they weren’t actually working on anything, but the group managed to get some practice in. Coach Rafi worked on chest and bounce passes and a bit on shooting. The kids loved the shooting. They stood in two lines under the net at one end of the court, taking turns dribbling down court and staying at the other end until they made a shot.
The kids waiting hooted, hollered and cheered their peers on, tensing with anticipation as the ball soared through the are and alternatively jumping and clapping at a score or looking on with a bit of disappointment as their turn took that much longer to come. One little boy was so excited after making a shot he forgot to bring the ball back to pass to the kids waiting, spinning on his heels half-court when he realized his mistake.

With two weeks left to go and the days getting hotter and hotter, it’s to be seen how many make it to the end. There have been some kids who’ve come every single week, and they don’t seem likely to stop. Mac’s planning a feast of grilled meat and chicken for the last practice and trying to get some of the Riyadi players to come, so maybe there will be a crowd. However, Coach Rabiah offered the advice Mac was mulling over a few weeks ago, next year it would be better to end the practices before summer kicks in.