Professional basketball player and agent Nadezhda Grishaeva has long harbored aspirations to found a basketball academy. Her journey, encapsulated in her words, “Dreams are like that: today you are dreaming it, tomorrow you are living it,” has led her to establish the unique Anvil fitness club.
Nadezhda’s focus has been the Middle East for the past two years, where she has diligently gathered insights from various interactions and observations. Her extensive research and analysis have afforded her a comprehensive understanding of basketball in the Gulf region and its development objectives.
“My analysis shows that the existing financial and technical foundation is insufficient for the promotion of basketball both as a mass sport and as a sport of the highest achievements. At the same time, the growing popularity of basketball in the Middle East is associated with great potential for growth,” Nadezhda explains.
Despite the positive reception for basketball’s growth, Nadezhda identifies key issues hindering its full potential. She notes, “The first problem is that the population of the Gulf countries have either poor or superficial knowledge of the rules of this sport. The majority of the population has little understanding of the merits and benefits of playing basketball.”
She highlights the absence of a structured system for youth sports and the unresolved issues in various support areas that impede basketball’s development and training of national teams.
Additionally, Nadezhda points out the inadequate infrastructure for playing basketball, a sport she envisions as accessible to all society segments.
Her vision for a basketball academy aligns with the local and expat communities’ strong desire for quality training facilities and professional coaching.
Nadezhda acknowledges the significant role of government in addressing these challenges, with the primary aim of fostering a healthy lifestyle through basketball and enhancing international competitiveness.
Among the main problems that need to be solved in order to achieve this goal, she will include the following:
1) develop and implement a set of measures to promote basketball as a sport
2) improve the training methods for top-class athletes and sports reserves to increase competitiveness on the international sports arena
3) increase and further develop organisational, managerial, personnel, scientific, methodological, medical and biological support
4) develop infrastructure.
Nadezhda views the following activities as the main focus areas of my basketball academy:
– Improving the training of top-class athletes
– Developing children’s and youth sports and preparing the most viable and prospective sports reserves
– Putting research into practice and implementing latest developments in the field of theoretical and methodological foundations of the athlete training system.
In conclusion, she states, “I am convinced that the successful implementation of the proposed measures will ensure that more people will take an interest in basketball and it won’t be long before there is a need for systematic PE classes and sports training sessions.”
