‘Pod of One’ indoor training drills for clubs, coaches and players

Basketball Ireland, the technical coaching team and ‘Return to Play’ committee have put together some useful resources for basketball clubs, coaches and players when having an individual training ‘Pod of One’ session. These will help the basketball community to plan and facilitate a supervised individual session and can be found below.

The government’s ‘Return to Sport Expert Group’ defines the ‘pod of one’ concept as ‘Individual, physically distanced, non-contact activity, completed in a pre-defined area, within a controlled environment and without the sharing of equipment.  

---

This makes the training session a 1v0 and here’s the guidance:

• Individual here means one player, physically distanced and in a pre-defined area.This area has to be big enough to facilitate the training activity. There has to be two metres (social distance) between each of the pre-defined areas.
• No sharing of equipment, own ball and sanitise as per the protocols.
• No contact, no scrimmage, no 5v5 or 3v3 etc.

---

This means that if there are six baskets in a hall and there is enough space to social distance, there may be supervised individual ‘Pod of One’ training indoors, with one player per basket and no sharing of equipment and no contact.

If there are only two baskets, and there is enough space to social distance, there can be supervised individual ‘Pod of One’ training indoors, with one player per basket and no sharing of equipment and no contact. It is still also possible to have the ‘Pod of One’ session elsewhere in the hall away from the baskets, using other techniques such as ball handling and dribbling, basket attack drills, as well as shooting off the dribble, free throws and using a sanitised chair (if no other equipment is available) as screen training and defence/offence training.

The space required in the areas should reflect the nature and intensity of the activity.

Coaches need to be creative while working within the guidance and keeping our community safe.

It is important to use the Basketball Ireland Covid app (details here), do COVID checks at the door, have the sanitisation stations and hand sanitizer available. Follow the protocols if there is a suspected case i.e. stop training and follow the HSE guidance. 

“We know that it has been a long 17 months for all of us, but using the skills and knowledge we have, we can make a great start to this season, albeit a different one. We hope to get more clarification from Sport Ireland on a resumption for indoor sport in the coming weeks and we remain in constant dialogue with them and the government’s ‘Return to Sport Expert Group’. We shall inform the basketball community as soon as we get any updates.” 

Chair of Basketball Ireland’s ‘Return to Play’ group, Charles Higgins.