Exactly 5 years ago, in October 2011, I was fortunate enough to be invited to Denmark to visit a friend and former Simon Fraser University teammate, Craig Pedersen, at a school where he teaches and coaches in Nyborg. Craig is now the National Team Coach for Iceland. The school is called EVN which stands for Efterskolen ved Nyborg. It’s a unique concept in education.

My understanding of the Efterskolen concept is that in Denmark, in the 10th grade, students can choose to go to an Efterskolen. Wikipedia states: “The Efterskole (literally “afterschool”) is a unique Danish independent residential school for young people between the age of 14 to 18 years. … The schools are open to students from abroad.”

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Nyborg is a beautiful little town and Denmark is a beautiful country and I loved my short stay. I got to work at the EVN Basket Camp and took many photos and videos which I will share below. I stayed in one of the school dorms which was just steps from the gym and we ate in the school cafeteria and the food was amazing.

 

 

 

The coaching at the camp was great with all kinds of eager and enthusiastic young coaches and very experienced older coaches. The Camp was open to anyone and many kids came from all over Denmark to attend. EVN also has international students and there were 2 students from Canada plus others from different countries.

The players were so enthusiastic and really wanted to learn. It was so fun helping coach. I always try to learn from new coaches and at this camp I learned a lot and had fun in the process. Special thanks go out to all the staff at EVN, including Keld Schmidt, Soren Munk, Craig Pedersen, Geoff Kotila, Karen Kotila and all the people I met there. The people were so friendly and showed tremendous hospitality.

I also got the chance to watch a few Danish Professional games while there. Craig Pedersen and Geoff Kotila both coached different teams in the league. Craig coached the Svendborg Rabbits and Geoff coached Team Fog Naestved. I’ll post some video of the pro games below.

Coach Trevor Bligh from the EMCS Wolverines in Sooke, B.C. on EVN Basketball: “I know the basketball culture in sooke has benefited from their visits here every two years. My relationship with both Geof Kotila and Craig Pedersen has helped me personally in coaching technique and strategy. Our kids here in sooke have built great relationships over the past decade. Two of our students have attended Evn in the past. Quinn Yates and Erin Nielsen. Both have had the greatest of experiences in their year at Evn.”

Naestved Warm-up

Referees discuss ejection

Nasetved game action

Player get ejected versus Bakken Bears

Here are some of the videos from the EVN Camp with some great warm up drills, passing drills as well as lay-up and footwork drills. Thanks to Bogdan Karaicic for many of these.

Spinning footwork warm up:

Proper landing technique:

Deep lunge stretches:

Fancy Lay-ups:

Dribble Moves:

Crazy Hop Lay-ups:

Mass Follow the Leader:

3 on 3 action:

Keld Schmidt behind the head, blinfolded shot PRANK:

Lastly, please enjoy a gallery of some of the photos I took while in Denmark.