Chain Link Fundamentals: Coming To A Neighborhood Near You

The playground isn’t the problem — it’s the solution. That is the mantra of Chain Link Fundamentals, which recently finished up a string of successful clinics in Brooklyn at the Navy Yard Clubhouse and the Thomas S. Murphy Clubhouse of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Thanks to the Barclays Nets Community Alliance, young ballplayers from all over the area flocked to community gyms to learn the game from some of the best coaches in the New York area, gaining important lessons both on the court and in life.

The heart and soul of the clinic is Fieldston School head coach and New York Gauchos U-17 assistant coach Clifton Brooks. Coach Cliff, together with Lance Williams, run an energetic and intense clinic that always starts and ends with defense. Only once the kids master “sandwich feet” and “happy feet” while staying down in a defensive stance to the sound of Coach Cliff’s famous “one clap,” can they move on to ball-handling and shooting. The reason for the repetition? Mental conditioning.

“I think the first lesson is that there is no substitution for hard work on the basketball court,” says Eric Newman, who has worked with the clinic since 2007. “Working hard at something you’re passionate about is a fun process. We want these kids to realize that every teaching point we share with them they can take with them to their school teams, playgrounds, and AAU organizations and continue to work on.”

The clinics are open to students of all ages and skill levels. Typically, students aged nine to 17 share the court before breaking out into age-specific stations. As a result, the younger students learn from the work ethic of the older guys, while the more experienced players feed off the energy of the youngsters. It all adds up to lifelong connections made on the basketball court, an important aspect of the game the coaches preach.

To Coach Cliff, “Basketball is livelihood. How you play the game ultimately depicts how you will live your life.

“The ultimate goal in my opinion is the athletes’ coming away with a feeling of accomplishment by each clinic’s end.”

For more information or to get involved, visit www.chainlinkfundamentals.org.

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