The Step It Up Basketball Academy invites players in grades 7-12 to join a long-term program that includes residential and secondary education at the Ben Shemen Youth Village in optimal living conditions. The academic year 2021/2022 is the third year of our Academy in Israel. The Academy players will realize their athletic potential in a professional training program throughout the year under the management of Haim Hazak and under the professional management of Yogev Bardugo.
What do we offer?
Innovative and advanced training methods that combine the mind, head, heart and abilities on the field. Since the establishment of Step It Up in 2009, we have had the privilege of developing basketball players, young and old, in academia, at camps, in workshops and through personal training in the United States and Israel.
The academy operates all year round in a professional hall at Ben Shemen in a rural setting. Its goal is to make the players and coaches who study with us into better human beings and leaders, and turn them into professional players by combining an innovative training method, which emphasizes a combination of advanced mental training and international-level physical training.
The academy aims to contribute to society and we devote a central part to this in our activities, by integrating players into our annual academy program, which includes room and board and training at no cost to the participants and in accordance with the scholarships we distribute each year.
Yogev Bardugo - Founder of Step It Up, formerly a college coach in the United States, currently coaches the personal abilities of Israeli teams. Yogev has lived and coached in the United States for the past 25 years. In 2018, he made Aliyah to Israel with a clear goal - to help promote Israeli basketball. Yogev has rich experience of over a decade in developing players and coaches. His training method is aimed at children and youth as well as professional players in the United States and Israel.
Yogev began his career at a young age, played in colleges in the United States, played in the Israeli Premier League for Maccabi Givat Shmuel and about a decade ago turned basketball into a profession when he founded Step It Up in 2009.
Haim Hazak - Director of the Israel Basketball Academy and a Wingate graduate. Haim began his career in basketball as a player in the youth department of Maccabi Tel Aviv and at the basketball academy on the campus of Kiryat Sharet Holon. Previously, he served as an assistant coach in the National Adult League and was involved in production and entrepreneurship. Chaim has extensive experience in professional management in youth departments, education and training and he integrates these areas into the world of basketball.
Registration: https://timetostepitup.co.il/academy