STEPHEN UHLER

stephen.uhler@sunmedia.ca

Balance and quickness are the keys to success in any sport, particularly basketball.

This is the lesson 17 members of the Fellowes Falcons basketball team learned recently, as they gave up their time off to take part in a special clinic designed to hone their skills under the guidance of a legendary coach.

Hugh Meyer, creator of a high performance camp under his name and the former coach of the Timmins High and Vocational School, has five provincial championships under his belt, taking home gold in OFSAA, plus four silver and five bronze in their trips to the Ontario finals.

He won the 1999 Reebok National Invitational Tournament, collected some 102 invitational tournament titles and has a career record of 1,021 wins, and only 214 losses.

He and a team of instructors, including Fellowes coaches Pat Childerhose and P.J. Weller, put the players through their paces in an intensive clinic complete with drills, proper forms and stances, one-on-one tutoring and classroom work, all designed to get their minds into the game by focusing on the fundamentals.

"The way to beat the other guy is get him off balance while you maintain yours," Meyer said, "and to be quicker about it."

He qualifies that, stressing the word "quicker" over "faster."

"In basketball, you don't have to be faster than your opponent for 50 yards," Meyer explained, "you have to be quicker in one step."

The rest is just physics and knowing how to apply it. Force, torque, trajectories all play roles in handling the ball, as well as passing and shooting it correctly. He said one big reason so many scoring chances are lost is because players rush things, or use the wrong form when attempting to get it in the basket.

"I don't complain about missed shots," Meyer told his players on the court. "I complain about bad shots."

Childerhose said Fellowes was very fortunate to get someone of Meyer's calibre to run this clinic, which ran throughout the weekend.

"We wanted to give Fellowes students a chance to get some instruction from someone of status, and Hugh Meyer is certainly that," he said.

"We're hoping they pick up on the fundamentals and become better players."

Childerhose praised the players who came out to do this, giving up their weekend in order to improve themselves. He said throughout the clinic, they have all been very attentive and engaged. So have the coaches, who have been paying close attention to Meyer's lessons.

The clinic was also video recorded for future reference.

Childerhose said he hopes to have Meyer back this August when Fellowes hosts a pair of summer basketball clinics.

From Monday, Aug. 13 to Friday, Aug, 17, a clinic for Grades 5-8 is being held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. with the Friday session ending at noon.

This is followed by a clinic for those entering Grade 9 to 12, which starts Friday, Aug. 17 at 1 p.m. and runs daily from there through to Tuesday Aug. 21, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Both clinics will be held at Fellowes High School. For more information, call Pat Childerhose ay 613-401-9887, or 613-735-6858 ext. 532 or e-mail childerhosep@renfrew.edu.on.ca.

Stephen Uhler is a Daily Observer multimedia journalist