Kids program bearing fruit

Chinese Basketball Association vice-president Xu Minfeng said on Wednesday that the country's "mini-basketball" program attracted 180,000 children in 2019.

The national governing body has been pushing the initiative since Yao Ming was elected CBA chairman in February 2017. The program is designed for kids aged between 6 and 12, and features a lower basket, smaller ball and a smaller court.

"Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we couldn't hold any mini-basketball games. But we can organize online skills challenges," said Xu.

The program recently launched an online challenge entitled "I am the Teenage King of dribbling", which went viral to garner over 18 million views on social media platform Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

Yao and Shao Ting, the captain of Chinese women's national team, are acting as ambassadors for the challenge, encouraging nearly 4,000 children to upload their dribbling videos.

"We can let young basketball players compete with each other through different kinds of skill competitions to involve more children in the mini-basketball program," Xu said.

According to Xu, the program hopes to have one million participants by 2025.

"We've set three basic principles for the event: respect opponents, respect referees' judgments and be fair," he said.

"We see more and more young players salute their coaches when the game ends. And they keep their benches or locker rooms clean and tidy.

"They are forming good habits," he added.

Besides promoting the sport, the mini-basketball program also serves as a platform for identifying exceptional talents.

"When they are 15 or 16, the best of them can represent China in the FIBA junior events," Xu said.

The CBA has already created a database which tracks youngsters' development on the court with performance data that is updated annually.

Xinhua