R. Butautas, who assessed the carousel of dismissals of coaches: “You’re afraid of the wolf – don’t go to the forest”

Even six out of eleven such teams. As the championship battles progressed, Kaunas “Žalgiris”, Vilnius “Wolves Twinsbet”, Panevėžys “7bet-Lietkabelis”, Klaipėda “Neptūnas”, Mažeikiu “M Basket-Delamode” and “Šiauliai” changed their captains.

The portal LKL.lt talked about this phenomenon with the former manager of the Lithuanian national team. coach, now head of the Lithuanian Sports University (LSU) basketball studies and research center, Ramūnas Butautas.

“Dismissal is one of the specifics of a coach’s work,” said the specialist preparing the new generation of coaches. – You can’t escape from that, because the coach bears responsibility for the team’s results. He is often forgotten during victories, but always seen when the team is not doing well and loses.

We have to take these things philosophically. Yes, it is painful, I have experienced it myself. But that’s part of a coach’s job, and it’s a difficult job. Great psychological pressure, not everyone can withstand it. But if you are afraid of the wolf, don’t go to the forest. If you love basketball, that love overshadows all the inconveniences and painful events.”

There is no shortage of LSU alumni or students on the Betsafe-LKL coaching staffs. Only the man in coaching positions, R. Butautas counts a group of strategists who received their education here: Giedrias Žibėnas, Neda Pacevičius, Virginijius Šeškas, Gediminas Petrauskas and Aurimas Jasilionis. The ranks of assistants, physiotherapists and physical training trainers are even wider.

“We are proud that almost all teams in the league have our former pupils on their coaching staffs. We believe that our younger generation of students will complement and replace our older colleagues. We are leaders in this field and we will try not to lower the bar. Our goal is to prepare a complete modern coach. This is what we focus on in our training programs as well”, asserted R. Butautas.

Comparing the generation already working at a high level with the future coaches who are still learning the science of coaching, R. Butautas singles out a clear advantage that the next generation will bring with them.

“When comparing the old generation and the upcoming young coaches, it is necessary to mention the new technologies, computer programs with which our players learn to analyze matches from the first year, scouting. Here they have a great advantage over us, because in our time there were no such things. The flow of information is endless, all you need is the desire and ability to choose what is valuable and what is not.

Basketball is probably the fastest changing sport. A coach must constantly improve. With each season, the rules change, innovations, new methods appear. We try to give them our practical knowledge, so that they learn from our experience and mistakes we make, avoiding them on our way,” the former national team captain shared his thoughts about the intricacies of training coaches.

LSU students will have a great opportunity to deepen their knowledge and acquire various competencies in a practical way in the near future, when the “LKL Street x Rimi” project will start. These are free basketball trainings that will start in May and involve local communities in the cities of “Betsafe-LKL” clubs, and more precisely – on outdoor courts. It is these young specialists who will become the training coordinators and take care of the cozy atmosphere and the smooth process of the classes.

“This is a very welcome project, we participate in it with great desire, because it is also a kind of social mission. Such initiatives are very important and useful for our society, for the popularization of basketball, so that this sport becomes accessible to absolutely everyone, without dividing people according to any criteria. Our students are engaged, they willingly participate in the preparation and are looking forward to the first training sessions,” said R. Butautas.

Earlier this week, students from LSU’s coaching degree programs took part in training organized specifically for this project. Here, the founder of the Capital Basketball School (SKM) Andrius Čerškus, Darius Tolušis, representative of the “Skills Laboratory”, social worker of the social hostel “Chata” Inga Antanavičiūtė, the best referee of Lithuania Gytis Vilius, former basketball player of the national team Šarūnas Vasiliauskas and “Active Youth” shared their experiences with the young people. head of the institute, Kamilė Kucharskaitė.

All of them provided students with knowledge and useful insights that help develop the qualities needed by a modern specialist – leadership, communication, crisis management, knowledge of training methodologies, the ability to involve different personalities and reflect.

“All lectures with lecturers were really useful. Students actively participated and had many questions. After that, they showed their skills on the pitch, as we imagine those training sessions in the field.

It is a great experience for students. They will conduct training individually, without serious supervision. This is a great responsibility and an opportunity to improve your communication, as representatives of various ages and social backgrounds will participate in the training.

If we talk about professional benefits, then without a doubt, the vast majority of our students will start working in basketball schools with young children. Those workouts are specific. They must be mobile, fun, and acquire various shades of the game. This is the type of training that is being prepared in this project. This will have an impact on them gathering experience before future jobs”, R. Butautas was happy about the mutual benefits of the project.

The ambassadors of “LKL Street x Rimi” are well-known basketball players: Deividas Sirvydis, Arnas Butkevičius, Mindaugas Kuzminskas and others. A safe and tolerant environment will be guaranteed during the sessions, followed by discussions and reflections with the participants.

In total, it is planned to organize up to a hundred such activities, which will finally be crowned by the street basketball festival to be held in September.