More Than A Game Magazine Issue 10

Note from the editor
Welcome to More Than A Game
Magazine Issue 10 and thank
you for reading!
We spoke with the organiser as
well as some of the coaches that
brought their teams to Sussex.
We always appreciate readers
choosing More Than a Game
Magazine and we are sure you
will enjoy!
In this issue we have the TWO
articles from our resident Tennis
coach Leon. We have part 5 of
the popular article Loosen Up as
well as a review on the US
Open.
We attended the World Club
Basketball Tournament in
Hastings. We witnessed some of
the brightest talents from the
USA Select as well as the Lake
Admirals. It was great to see
grass roots Basketball in action
and see the passion by the
organisers.
We look at the top European
players that have made a career
for themselves in the NBA. These
include Tony Parker and our very
own Luol Deng.
In September we witnessed
history after Wayne Rooney
became England’s all time goal
scorer. We look back at Rooneys
career and why opinion is still
divided about the striker.
Remember all issues are
available at our website
www.morethanagamemagazine.c
o.uk
1

World Club
Basketball – We attended
the World Club Basketball
tournament in Hastings. The
tournament had some great
Basketball on display and drew
in players from North and South
America!
In this issue..
The Europeans that
took over the NBA –
We look at some of the great
Europeans to take the NBA by
storm over the years!
Loosen up part 5! – Part
5 of our resident Tennis coach’s
article about the importance of
staying loose on the court and
what we can learn from the
greats!
2

The USA Open
Review –
Leon looks back at the USA Open
and who stars shone throughout
the historic tournament.
Wayne Rooney –
Over-rated or
underappreciated? –
We look at Rooney’s
transformation from local Everton
lad to England legend and why
there is divided opinion on the
striker.
3

World Club Basketball
comes to Sussex!
Bexhill Giants hosted the
World Club Basketball
tournament for the 3 rd year on
the 12 th and 13 th September in
Hastings. The tournament
consisted of teams from the
UK, North and South America
and the Philippines. The
tournament was organised by
Eric Douglin, who coaches the
Bexhill Giants. After the
success of the event last year,
Eric worked tirelessly to
promote the event this year
and also had returning.
teams.
One team that entered the
tournament was USA select, who
had been touring Europe for the
summer. They have made quite
the impact, even beating 2 BBL
teams in Manchester Giants and
Bristol Flyers. USA select had 2
teams in the competition and
have been to 5 countries during
their whole tour. The USA Select
team won this year’s tournament
against last year’s winner Lake
Admirals. They won the final 56 –
49 in a tight game, much to the
delight of the crowd.
USA Select head coach was
happy with the way the team
played during the tournament and
the mentality the players showed.
“We came here on a mission. We
wanted to establish aggressive
defense and a consistent offense,
and we felt like this display is
something that we should be
proud and pleased with.
4

this is something that any scout
or manager can look at my
players and know they are
getting a quality player. My men
came here prepared, conditioned
to play really tough. Whatever
opponent that we face, we would
be prepared for them”
The main objective for the USA
Select tour was to get players
noticed around Europe and the
coaching team were keen to play
at a high tempo throughout all
the games.
“With intensity there comes
peaks and ballets; so I just want
to make sure that the emotional
output isn’t too much that it zaps
their energy. I keep them
pumped up then I level them out,
then I sub them out. It is a
system that has worked for me; I
believe that a fresh man is a
competitive man. Additionally a
competitive man is a winner, and
that’s what we are here to do”
They contested the final against
last year’s winners Lake
Admirals. Chris Glisson runs the
Admirals and takes the team on
tour to help the players find clubs
around Europe.
Plans are already in place for the
tournament next year. Organiser
Eric Douglin has already
enquired about using the K2 in
Crawley to attract more
international teams.
5

“Next year we want to learn from
bits that didn’t work so well and
improve on them. We have
already looked at a venue in
Crawley as it is closer to Gatwick
and there are more hotels
available”
With running a tournament of this
scale comes a lot of pressure to
market the event. Eric struggled
to get the tournament recognised
with England Basketball and the
BBL and was left frustrated with
the lack of exposure given by
these boards.
“A few years ago, I took a group
of players over to France for an
amateur tournament. After talking
to a French coach they were
shocked when I told them that we
paid ourselves to be here. He told
me that they received a local
council grant as well as Air
France grant”
Eric continues to push to get the
sport more exposure in this
country and hopes by holding
these types of tournaments it will
help get the game out in the
public more.
“We tried to contact both England
Basketball and the BBL but heard
nothing back. It is very frustrating
that we have talented players on
show and show them what we are
doing for the sport”
Eric has been involved in
Basketball for many years and
took his team Bexhill Giants to
France for a tournament several
years ago and was shocked with
the difference in the sport
structure over there.
Details of the tournament can be
found at their website
http://www.worldclubbasketballtou
rnament.com/
Also check out Hoops Asylums
video covering all the best bits of
the tournament!
6

Looking back at some of the past
and present European talent in the
NBA
The NBA has seen some great
players from the European shores
over the years. We look at some
of the greatest European players
who have played in the best
league in the world!
Tony Parker (France)
Parker fell in love with the game
and at 18 was invited to the Nike
Hoop Summit and played against
the likes of Darius Miles and Zach
Randolph He did spend a season
in the French league before being
drafted straight into the NBA with
the San Antonio Spurs. Parker
has played a huge part of the
Spurs success and has 4 NBA
championship rings to his name.
Parker is currently the leader of
the Spurs all time assists boards
and has been an all- star 6 times.
During the 2011 NBA lock -out,
Parker did play back in France
with ASVEL Basket which he
owns a percentage of.
The iconic point guard was
actually born in Belgium but was
raised in France. Parker’s father
played professional Basketball
overseas and attended Loyola
University Chicago.
Luol Deng (England)
7

Deng fled South Sudan with his
family when he was a child and
went to Egypt. The Deng’s left
Egypt for Brixton, England and
Luol became a British citizen in
2006. Deng is from a family of
talented Basketball players; he
trained with his older brother Ajou
and was mentored by former NBA
player Manute Bol. Deng left the
UK for America to play in High
school, he then went to the
famous Duke University. It took
Deng 1 year to make the jump to
the NBA and was drafted by
Chicago Bulls and stayed there
for 8 years. Deng was in the All-
Rookie first team and also a 2
time All-Star. Deng represented
Team GB at the London 2012
Olympics and acted as an
ambassador.
Dirk Nowitzki (Germany)
Nowitzki is arguably the finest
European import to play in the
NBA. Nowitzki was spotted at the
age of 15 by the former German
international Holger
Geschwindner; who trained him
3 times a week. He signed with
German side DJK Wurzburg and
stayed until the age of 20 years
old. In 1998 he made the jump to
the Dallas Mavericks, the club he
has played for ever since. The
risk of picking the German has
paid off extremely well for the
Mavs; Dirk is the leading scorer
in the clubs history as well as
being a 13 time All-Star. Dallas
have won their one and only
championship with Dirk running
the show in 2011, he also won
the finals MVP that year too.
TURN OVER TO SEE
THE NEXT
EUROPEAN
PLAYER!
8

Zydrunas Ilgauskas
(Lithuania)
Detlef Schrempf (Germany)
Llgauskas is a retired 7 foot 3
centre who made his biggest
impact at the Cleveland
Cavaliers, who recently retired his
number 11 jersey. He was drafted
by the Cavs in the 1996 draft and
stayed with the Cavs for 14 years.
The big man averaged 13 points
and 8 rebounds and was an All-
Star twice in his career.
13 years before fellow German
Nowitzki, Shrempf was drafted 8 th
overall into the NBA by Dallas
Mavericks. Shrempf played for 4
different teams in his 16 year
NBA career; including Pacers,
Supersonics and finally at the
Trailblazers. He played small
forward and was an All-star 3
times; also famously got ejected
for fighting with Patrick Ewing in
1991. He also played in 4 major
tournaments for his country and
now runs a foundation.
9

Peja Stojaković (Serbia)
Other Basketball related
articles:
Issue 2 – Interview with GB
international Kieron Achara
Issue 4 – Interview with BBL star
Demond Watt
Issue 5 – Interview with Sheffield
Sharks star BJ Homes
Strojakovic is certainly loved in
Sacremento where he played for
8 years. Known for his 3 point
shooting ability, he was the first
European to win the All-Star 3
point shooting competition in
2002 as well as in 2003. He
played in Greece until the age of
21; he was then drafted by the
Kings in 1996. Stojakovic’s
standout season was in 2003
where he averaged 24.2 points
per game and played over 40
minutes per game. In 2006 he
was traded to the Pacers for Ron
Artest, he also went off to play
for the Hornets, Raptors and
finally the Mavericks. He is still
involved with the Kings where he
is the director of personnel and
development.
Issue 6 – We look back on the
2014- 15 BBL season at the highs
and lows with the awesome finale
at the o2!
Issue 8 – GB take on New Zealand
for Drew Sullivan’s 100 th cap at
Olympic Park, London.
10

Loosen Up Part 5!
Loosen Up is written by our
resident Tennis coach Leon. Be
sure to check out his Facebook
page “
A player can only pause at the end
of the swing if they are nice and
relaxed in the swing. When a
player’s racket goes over the
shoulder on a forehand or two
handed backhand and then
bounces back with great vigour, it’s
a sign that they’re not letting go.
Removing some of the fingers from
the racket is one way to help
loosen the grip on the racket. By
removing the little fingers, it will
help ease the grip on the racket.
On the two handed backhand,
letting go of up to all four fingers of
the dominant hand will help let the
non-dominant hand give the swing
a loose full follow through. Pete
Sampras used to use this trick on
his service, as can be seen in the
photo.
One thing you want to avoid is just
before hitting (usually an easier)
ball thinking ‘I’m going to WHACK
this!’ You can bet that as soon as you
think WHACK, you’re going to tense
up resulting in a much slower, rigid
swing and a greater chance of a misshit.
Instead look to increase the racket
head speed, you will then have a
much greater chance of staying loose
and getting the desired power and
accuracy.
11

I like to get players to practice
swinging without the ball. An easy
way to identify how loose they are
is by how loud the sound of the
swoosh is made by the racket.
Someone not letting go and being
too tense will not make any sound
whereas someone loose and
relaxed will make a nice loud
swoosh with their swing. In an
ideal world I would like them to
swing without the ball hundreds of
times to help get looser and to
improve the swing.
In The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle
visited Spartak Tennis Club in
Moscow, the club that has
produced the likes of Marat Safin
and Anna Kournikova to name
just two. Coyle discovered that all
Sparta players from five year olds
to the pros rally in slow motion
with an imaginary ball. Something
I don’t think you would see here in
England where players are often
less patient and want results
yesterday.
And usually if they’re young, will
ask to play a match every ten
minutes!
You can adapt the swoosh to a
blur when they are hitting a ball
by asking them to keep their head
dead still on the contact point and
just looking to see their racket go
by in a blur. I think keeping the
head completely still on contact is
one of the most ignored aspects
of all shots by many tennis
coaches. When the head moves,
the whole dynamics of the shot
change. The eyes move, the
shoulders follow the head’s lead
causing mistiming and the swing
to slow down. When someone’s
head and shoulders make a 180
degree rotation in the forehand or
backhand, their racket can go
from pointing towards the back
fence to pointing towards the nets
without the arm even swinging.
12

Turning the head towards the net on
contact can result in the arm tensing
up and tensing up usually leads to
the head turning. Another big
benefit of staying loose is that it
makes it much easier to keep your
head still on contact like Federer
does so well.
as they do in a lesson/practice.
This is a combination of the fear
of making mistakes increasing
and trying harder, two of the
biggest causes of tightening up. I
first noticed the downfall of
fearing a mistake and trying too
hard when I first took up tennis.
How many of you have been
served to and the ball lands just
out and you hit the dream return
and then the following serve
lands in and you then hit a
nightmare return? Since noticing
that, I’ve tried to hit my shots
with the same mindset as when
returning a ball that has landed
out. I say ‘try’, I’m a long way
from achieving this as expertly
as the likes of Djokovic and
Nadal!
When you are physically loose,
you can bet you’re going to be
more switched on mentally too. I
think it’s extremely important to
get a player as loose as possible
in their lesson. If a player is tight
in a lesson, the likelihood is that
they will be even tighter in a
match, even tighter still in a big
match and even tighter in the big
points. You’ve probably heard a
hundred players complain that
they can’t play as well in matches
Again it comes down to
concentrating solely on the
process and disregarding any
thoughts of the outcome. I’ll
sometimes in a lesson put it in
Star Wars terms quoting Yoda’s
“feel the force” which like Nike’s
Just Do It sums up the need to
just let go. Empty the head of
fear, trying too hard, over
thinking and any frustrations and
just swing.
13

USA OPEN Review by
Leon
After looking forward to the
men's final at the US Open​ so
much, the biggest
disappointment was the rain
delay causing the final to start
after most of our bedtimes this
side of the pond in England. And
this being England, there was no
re-run of the highly anticipated
match between the best two
players in the world. Instead I
had to avoid the result all day
just to watch the highlights at
5.30pm Monday.
As a result, I can only give my
take on the match from the
highlights I watched. I think the
biggest stat to jump out at me
was Roger Federer​ only
managing to convert 4 of his 23
break points, almost half of
which he had a chance to attack
Novak Djokovic's 2nd serve. The
encouraging thing for Federer
from what what I saw was that
he played much better
than he did in the Wimbledon​ final
where he mishit a large amount of
backhands and hit a huge amount
of simple forehands into the net. I
feel this time he played with more
confidence and aggression and
many of his mistakes were the
result of going all out with his
forehand and backhand against
the best defensive player I have
ever seen. Though he played
more confidently and aggressively
than in their SW19 final, he still
didn't play with quite as much
self-belief and willingness to
attack the net as he did in the
Cincinnati Masters Final last
month. I think we would all love to
see Fed win at least one more
Slam and though I believe he's
playing the best tennis he's ever
played, I feel he just has that little
bit of doubt to beat Novak over 5
sets. 14

I hope that if he continues to
improve the way he has of late
(which is astonishing when you
think about what he has already
accomplished and the fact that
sadly he is nearer the end of his
career than the beginning) that he
finds that real belief in himself to
produce the tennis he plays
against Djokovic in 5 sets as he
does over 3 sets.
After all these years, Federer is
still an inspiration. The fact that
he is still working on his game to
improve all aspects when most
players' level of play is decreasing
at this stage of their careers. But
also the fact that despite being
the most successful player of all
time, confidence isn't just a given.
It shows us that even Federer is
human and that confidence is
something we all need to work on.
Saying all this, let's not take
anything away from Djokovic. He
played a fantastic match. This
year he has reached the final of
all 4 Slams, winning 3 of them.
He's closing in on Federer's 17
Slam titles and the way he's
dominated 2015, you have to
think he's going to be challenging
Fed's record over the next few
years.
to challenge for more Slams next
year. Though Kevin Anderson
played a superb match to knock
him out in the 4th round, I was
surprised to not see him
challenging for the title after he
was in such good form and so
confident leading up to the Open.
His brother Jamie had another
fantastic tournament reaching his
2nd doubles Slam final in a row.
And for me, one of the players of
the tournament was Johanna
Konta who played amazing
tennis, qualifying and reaching
the 4th round, beating a couple of
seeds on the way.
Roll on the rest of the year and an
equally exciting 2016!
Check out Leons Facebook page
“1 st Service Tennis Academy”
From a British perspective, I
expect Andy Murray​
15

Rooney – Over-rated or
underappreciated?
Tuesday 8 th September 2015
saw English history made when
Wayne Rooney broke Bobby
Charlton’s England goal scoring
record. Rooney has managed 50
goals in 106 caps to put him at
the top of the pile; a few weeks
before his 30 th birthday.
Rooney breaking the record has
come with its critics. Some say
he will never been deemed great
unless he wins an International
tournament, something that
seems like quite a distance for
the current England team.
Others say the amount of
friendlies the national team play
these days have made a bit of a
mockery of the record. The
reality is that Rooney may have
struggled in major tournaments,
(just the one World Cup goal) but
30 of his goals have been in
tournament qualifiers. We look at
the Manchester United man’s
career and why opinion
seems to be divided about the
striker.
Rooney’s individual
awards to date:
PFA Young player of the
year x2
Premier League player of
the season
PFA Players player of the
year
PFA Fans player of the
year x2
PFA Premier League
Team of the year x3
Football writers player of
the year x2
UEFA 2004 team of the
tournament
England Player of the year
x3
16

Rooney’s medal collection
Premier League winning
trophies x5
Champions League
Football League Trophy x2
FA Community Shield x2
FIFA Club World Cup
Rooney in his 14 year
professional career has an
impressive collection of medals to
show for his efforts. Along with
winning various trophies with
Manchester United, he has
gained respect from his peers.
Messi claims Rooney has
“exceptional talent” and “work rate
which separates him from the
rest”. Another admirer is Swedish
superstar Ibrahimovic who sees
similarities between himself and
Rooney; “he has a strong
mentality to win, like myself” and
claims Rooney does several
different roles within the team
“Rooney is not the player to score
40 goals, because he is the
player that helps his partner score
goals.
He is working for one, two and
event three other players”.
Looking at what Rooney had
achieved for his country, he still
has a fair amount of critics. It is
safe to say Wayne Rooney is no
David Beckham. Although they
have similarities on the pitch; for
example both have been sent off
for England at major tournaments
and bounced back. Both played
with a lot of passion, one thing not
a lot of fans can argue with.
Where they are different is the
style of Football. Rooney has
been labelled a “Street Footballer”
by many; this is because he has
been described as playing like he
did in the school playground. He
burst onto the scene at the tender
of age of 16 years old with
boyhood club Everton; however
he wasn’t like any other 16 year
old. He had a bullish and ruthless
approach to the game, something
so unique that then manager
David Moyes was keen to leave
Rooney to be “rough around the
edges”. He was arguably the
biggest talent to ever come out of
the Everton academy; he was
seen as one of their own. He
even wore a “once a blue, always
a blue” shirt after scoring,
17

which made his move to
Manchester United that bit more
painful for fans.
After his 2004 heroics; where he
scored 4 goals his tournament
was cut short when he was
cruelly injured against Portugal in
the quarter finals. Alex Ferguson
saw enough to splash out £30
million on the 18 year old and
reportedly even tried to sign him
when he was just 14 years old.
A reported twice Rooney has
asked leave the club, once in
2010 and again in 2013, Chelsea
even bid twice for the player
which were both rejected.
In 2014, Rooney signed a
mammoth £300,000 a week deal
with United when Moyes took
over as manager. This deal
makes him the highest paid
player in the league, with some
feeling the striker is not worthy of
the deal.
It had the makings to be a match
made in heaven, one was the
most experienced manager in
the world and the other was the
best young talent in the world. It
hasn’t all been plain sailing for
Rooney at Manchester United in
terms of his relationship with
fans.
Despite the issues Rooney has
had at United, the united faithful
still love the striker. The “Rooney
chant” is a regular chorus around
the theatre of dreams; and with
Bobby Charlton’s Manchester
United goal scoring record next
on his list, he will soon be top of
that pile too.
18

If you enjoyed this issue you will love our
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19

Check out editor Charlie Rowe on the ELR sport show every Thursday
from 7pm at www.eastlondonradion.co.uk . Charlie is a panellist with
Steven Hodges hosting the show.
20