Former Owensboro Catholic and Duke Blue Devil star Becca Greenwell spent Saturday afternoon at the Owensboro YMCA for the third year of the BG23 Skills Clinic.
Greenwell said she didn’t have as much time to get the camp going this year because of COVID-19 and other factors, but when the final session ended on Saturday, she knew it had been worth it.
“It means a lot,” she said. “It takes a lot of planning, time, energy and effort to make something like that happen, especially with such short notice. But it’s definitely all worth it when you see the excitement on the kids’ faces and how much fun they’re having.”
“I feel like this year was probably better than the rest because kids haven’t been able to do anything in so long, so they were just so excited to get out there and play, just be kids and learn from some great coaches,” she added. “It was all worth it.”
At the beginning of each session, Owensboro Health Fitness Supervisor Nick Jones went through a warm up with the campers.
“One of the big things I take pride over is injury prevention and really trying to teach kids from an early age how to do things correctly,” he said.
Greenwell said she was adamant about adding that component to the camp, given her struggles with injuries during the latter part of her career.
“I think that’s what took this clinic to another level,” she said. “It was a nice touch. Warm-up is obviously important but I think Nick did such a great job emphasizing the importance behind each movement and did a great job explaining. It was more than just a typical warm-up you see at a camp, it was very dynamic and it was a different level of training that kids probably don’t get to experience a lot. I think he did such a great job, not only on the warmup but in his injury prevention station, just focusing on proper footwork and proper alignment of your body.
It’s so important — and I know that — just through going through all of my injuries. Hopefully, the campers took to heart what he said because the small details really go a long way in preventing injuries over time.”
Jones said he wanted to do an active dynamic warm-up with the campers to get their muscles firing on all cylinders.
“Just trying to get them prepped for what they’re about to do,” he said. “You try to mimic some things they’re going to be doing in a game so that way it’s going to come a little bit easier.”
He said with proper training, they could get to the point where they themselves notice that something may be wrong with their body.
Greenwell had several coaches to help her Saturday. She said that the best part of the camp for every coach was seeing something click for the campers.
“That’s my favorite part of training is seeing kids’ hard work pay off,” she said. “A lot of kids, they have it internally to be good and improve, they just don’t have the resources and the proper training to get there. That’s why I’m so passionate about clinics and training because if you just give the blueprint of what it takes to be successful, kids can easily catch on. That definitely excited me today, and I saw a lot of improvement.”
“A lot of the campers were surprising themselves that they were able to do some of the drills,” Greenwell added. “I thought it was a big success.”
