Who am I
Akif Berber, basketball coach in Nijmegen
I’ve spent 15+ years around youth basketball in Turkey and the Netherlands — as a coach, but also, more than once, as the person who started the club and mopped the floor. I’ve worked with players from eight years old to professional level, and what I care about most hasn’t changed: helping a young player fall in love with getting better.
My approach is simple to say and hard to do. Teach through the game. Protect a kid’s motivation like it’s the most fragile thing in the gym, because it is. Coach the decision, never punish the honest mistake. Give every player real touches and a reason to come back next week.
I also come from a background in Computer Engineering, Psychology and Artificial Intelligence. That gives me some extra tools — video analysis, data-supported scouting, honest measurement of what each player actually got out of a session — but the tools serve the coaching, never the other way around.
Now
| 2026 – now | Skill Development CoordinatorBV Batouwe, Bemmel The extra Friday skills training, the season plan in layers and the coach clinics. |
| 2024 – now | Coach & founder, N-LABNijmegen A player-development programme for the Nijmegen region, starting with free Sunday sessions. |
| 2024 – now | Consultant & volunteer, EHCB Coaches AcademyEuroleague Head Coaches Board Practice-week coordinator across Belgrade, Madrid, Athens and Istanbul; lectures, clinic logistics and digital tooling for coaches. |
Before
| 2017 – now | Coach, Batouwe BemmelBemmel Youth and senior teams: XU12, XU14, VU14, VU16 and Heren 3. Individual skill work, positional coaching, a healthy competitive culture. |
| 2021 – 2022 | Assistant coach, Yeni SincansporTurkish regional women’s league |
| 2012 – 2016 | Head coach & co-founder, Ankara YB ÜniversitesiAnkara Built a youth programme from the ground up (boys U10–U20, girls U14–U18). League titles and national-tournament finishes; introduced video analysis and data-supported scouting. |
| 2011 – 2012 | Coach & co-founder, Karşıyaka Spor Kulübü (Ankara)Ankara |
Track record
From the youth programme in Ankara, 15+ players went on to play professionally and 5+ earned basketball scholarships. I share this not as a promise — no coach can promise that — but as evidence that patient, development-first coaching pays off over years, not weekends.
Education and licences
- NBB BT3 coaching licence (Netherlands)
- TBF Level 3 (C) coach (Turkey), international coaching clinics (7th–10th)
- 4th-generation EHCB Coaches Academy alumnus
- M.Sc. Artificial Intelligence (Robot Cognition), Radboud University, 2016–2018
- B.Sc. Psychology, Hacettepe University, 2012–2016
- B.Sc. Computer Engineering, Hacettepe University, 2004–2008
What I am working towards
| Now | Helping young players grow into what they can become. |
| Midterm | A signature academy: N-LAB. |
| Long term | A real contribution to European basketball. |