Basketball: Integrating Mental and Physical Skills for Students
The Iyas bin Muadh Center, affiliated with the Summer Clubs Department under the Ministry of Education, continues to offer its sports and educational programs aimed at productively utilizing students’ free time during the summer vacation, developing their physical and mental capacities, and promoting healthy practices through a variety of sports activities.
Shaker Mukhtar Hussein, Director of the Iyas bin Muadh Center for Summer Clubs, stated that the center provides specialized training programs in three sports: football, handball, and basketball. Students are divided into three academic stages—primary, intermediate, and secondary—with specific training schedules tailored to each stage’s age group and needs, as organized by the center’s administration.
Hussein explained that summer clubs strive to achieve a set of educational and sporting objectives, foremost among them being the development of students’ mental and physical abilities, instilling habits such as early sleeping and healthy eating, and ensuring their time during the summer is spent away from sedentary lifestyles.
He added that the center works to break the summer routine that may dominate some students’ lives, characterized by late nights and excessive use of electronic devices such as iPads and smartphones, by providing an attractive sports and educational environment that allows students to engage in physical activity and make positive use of their leisure time.
He noted that the center employs specialized coaches holding local and international certifications in sports training, whether in football, handball, or basketball, thereby contributing to delivering specialized training based on appropriate technical and educational foundations for students.
The center’s director addressed a message to parents, encouraging them to support their children in benefiting from summer clubs, and expressed hope that this initiative would continue and that summer clubs would resume operations in October next year, given their importance as a key opportunity to discover promising sporting talents.
He highlighted that the Iyas bin Muadh Center has recently identified several students who have been distributed across various sports clubs, emphasizing that summer clubs represent a genuine opportunity to uncover talents that may not have been previously known or apparent, and to guide and maximize their potential.
For his part, Fahad Ali Al-Munir, a basketball coach at the Iyas bin Muadh Center, said that the basketball training program integrates mental games with physical exercises, aiming to provide diverse training sessions that maintain students’ enthusiasm and prevent boredom or difficulty in learning sports skills.
Al-Munir clarified that the program primarily focuses on teaching students the fundamental skills of basketball, which they can benefit from both during their participation in summer clubs and upon returning to their schools at the start of the new academic year.
He pointed out that although basketball is not among the most popular sports among students, it remains an important activity that can be beneficial during the summer, especially given the suitable environment available in indoor sports facilities. He noted that diversifying training between mental and physical games helps comprehensively develop students’ skills.
He stressed that participating in sports at summer clubs is not limited to physical benefits alone; it also contributes to enhancing mental health and fostering children’s personalities, while providing a fun and productive way to spend the vacation.
Al-Munir addressed a message to parents, urging them to support their children and encourage them to register for summer clubs and engage in sports. He emphasized that these programs are not merely aimed at filling idle time, but rather contribute to fostering a generation that loves sports and is more attentive to their health and physical fitness.
He added that engaging in physical activity at an early age is gaining increasing importance amid rising rates of chronic diseases. He pointed out that summer clubs provide students with the opportunity to enjoy a fun experience that combines sports, learning, and social interaction, thereby enhancing their physical and mental well-being and contributing to the development of a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.
