Culling lessons from old mentor, experience, Uichico helps local coaches grow

TEACHING TEACHERS Former national coach Jong Uichico shows local coaches in Iloilo how to run defense drills. —PHOTO FROM THE SBP COACHES ACADEMY FACEBOOK ACCOUNT

More than two decades ago, Jong Uichico was a coaching disciple, soaking everything he could from his mentor, the late Ron Jacobs.

“He became my mentor, my friend,” said Uichico, Jacobs assistant with the San Miguel Beer squad of mid-1990s. “We became close, and he always cared for my success.”

Nowadays, he hopes to be just that kind of mentor.

Uichico has spearheaded the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) Coaching Academy, a coaching clinic that provides professional training to aspiring coaches from the provinces.

“This program is important because [the] beginning of [a player’s] basketball [career] mostly comes from the provinces, and the level of coaching should be the same [as] in Manila,” said Uichico, the academy’s lead coach since 2018.

“The SBP’s thrust is really on grassroots … the coaches that need the seminar, clinics, teachings and instructors more,” he added. “Most, if not all [who participate] are grade school coaches, high school coaches and barangay coaches in the provinces.”

What exactly happens during coaching clinics?

While basketball clinics feature drills that build the basic skills a player needs, coaching clinics teach participants how to run these drills. In the Level 1 and Level 2 coaching sessions, participants are taught the basics of offense and defense.

“On offense, for example, we break down the basics of the motion offense,” Uichico said. Defensively, coaches are guided how to teach basic man-to-man coverages, including additional quirks like help-side, ball-side and help-and-recover routines.

After studying the basics of each concept, participants run the drills with demo players.

Beyond that, Uichico preaches proper leadership and how to build solid coach-player relationships.

“Coaching goes beyond X’s and O’s. Its more than that,” Uichico said.

And one of the leadership lessons he imparts is something he learned from the darkest chapter of his career.

Uichico was part of the national team coaching staff during the infamous brawl against Australia in the Fiba World Cup Asian qualifier last 2018. He admitted that the incident nearly made him quit his clinics because he felt he had no moral authority to be a mentor.

“Somehow, it [the brawl] was not a good part of your career, but it led you to do something else, to do another good,” said Uichico. “Not just to make up with what you did, but it led you to another path that is still relevant in basketball, and it makes yourself even more relevant in society.”

And so he reminds coaches attending his clinics to always be mindful—and in control—of situations within a game.

The SBP program already has accredited over 2,000 coaches from the clinics. And Uichico and his team aren’t slowing down, not even with a pandemic prohibiting them from traveling to provinces.

“We came up with the virtual clinic [e-learning] with the resources we had,” the nine-time PBA champion said. “It’s difficult because the content should be very detailed that when you read it, you can visualize what has written. At the same time, we have to do demonstration videos to describe what we’re trying to convey to the coaches.”

And if a pandemic can’t stop Uichico and the SBP, nothing will: “As long as I am here, I will continue it to the best of my ability.”