If you give people the opportunity to engage and let them in, everyone can benefit. Today, these kinds of spaces and pastimes still play a massive part in shaping a Team. ... 'Be firm and set boundaries where and when needed, but always do it in the spirit of the warrior, just the same way that you love to be loved. When that happens, others will follow you to the ends of the earth.' ...

When you are all living, playing, and dialoguing together, you become acutely aware of something being created between you, a bond of experience that no one else in the world has or can ever properly understand. That bond must inevitably find a way to express itself, whether it’s through in-jokes, heartfelt conversation, nicknames, someone laughing or someone singing ... our Locker-room, our BTA Tea-Time.

A SHORT HISTORY OF AFTERNOON TEA

“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.” - Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady.
During the early-19th century, it became fashionable for the evening meal to not be served ‘til around 8 o’clock – far later than it previously had been. As a result, people became peckish in the gap between luncheon and dinner and so it was that one afternoon in 1840, Anna Russell, the 7th Duchess of Bedford, asked for a tray of tea and light refreshments be brought up to her room to stave off her pangs of hunger before the evening meal. It wasn’t long before she invited friends to join her for this in her rooms at Woburn Abbey and she continued the practice upon her return to London. By the 1880’s the pause for ‘tea’ had become a social event in its own right and respectable enough to now be served in the drawing room. The upper classes would take afternoon tea around 4 o’clock before a fashionable promenade in Hyde Park and by the late 19th century, tea rooms were all the rage as places for ladies could meet. With the addition of music, ‘tea dances’ began to take place in the most stylish hotels – a practice which continued right up until the Second World War.

And now, nearly 200 years after the Duchess of Bedford’s innovation, the custom of taking afternoon tea remains synonymous with enjoying a light refreshment with friends in elegant surroundings, a tradition that BTA - Basketball Training Academy in particular is proud to uphold to this day, including it into its locker-rooms for building through words and moments ... a Team.

IN LIFE, THERE ARE MANY PATHS OFFERED TO THE SAME LIGHT, AND THIS 'WORLD' IS JUST ONE OF THEM

We are very grateful for your choosing us to be part of this journey, and for your willingness to open your heart to the universal ideas in this 'book', both new and old. We send you much love, hope, and energy for the next step as you apply what you have learned from this 'World' and use it to connect deeply with your team-mates, lead  them with a servant's heart, compete with your hair on fire, and leave the shirt in a better place. When you do, we know you will find great fulfilment and joy in these beautiful and extraordinary journeys called sports and life. The journey is about to begin. We have done our work, now it's time for you to do yours.