There is a wealth of information available for the beginning basketball coach, however a lot of it is too advanced for someone who may be just getting started. Those men, women, or teenagers who will be coaching youth teams need to be fed information relative to their own knowledge and level of experience, and to that of the youth they will be coaching. They need to learn how, what, and when to do the things relative to that sport. Then, they need to be able to translate this information into meaningful teaching activity for the youngsters.
Teaching requires that learning is taking place. Just going through motions isn’t teaching. Just telling or directing traffic is not teaching.
Let me make something clear right here—there is a difference between coaching and teaching. Coaching is telling or directing. Teaching is explaining and showing how something is done, and why. New players to the game need more of the latter. Professional basketball players still need teaching, so teaching certainly can’t go missing at the youth level. Most people don’t even give a thought to the difference between the two terms, yet it is vast. We teach in practice—we coach during a game. A lot of “coaches” yell, direct and play traffic cop while moving players around. The good ones teach. Here is an example: A class room teacher teaches the basics of math, with all the nuances of the particular kind of math being taught–lots of explanation, demonstration, examples, practice, homework, etc. When it comes time to take FCATS or SCATS, etc., the teacher now coaches the students on how to take the test—not on how to do the math.
In sports, the basics are taught for every aspect of the game. They are explained, demonstrated and drilled. They are instructed in how everything they are learning comes together in order to play a game. Once the game begins, the teacher becomes a coach, directing the play of the game. The game moves too quickly for any more teaching to effectively take place—especially for young children. Once the game is over, the coach reverts back to the teacher, using the game experience to illustrate areas where weakness needs to be worked on and encouraging the areas where what has been taught was indeed caught by the youngsters.
If an adult can’t play the piano, how can they possibly teach a child how to play the piano? If the coach of young players has never played basketball, how does one teach movement, passing, dribbling, floor balance, shooting, etc.? We would rarely see such a novice at the game attempting to guide a group of teenagers. It could be disastrous. The teens would most likely already have some experience at the game—maybe several years of playing—and already are advanced over the newbie coach. The new coach would be better working with very young players with little or no experience, where the coach can learn skills as they go and impart them to their charges without so much angst.
God Bless the Volunteer Coaches! Where would most sports programs be without these volunteer adults, parents or teenagers who show up, regardless of game experience, to direct a group of youngsters? Now comes the hard part.
Even if a coach has played the game, or is not “brand new” to coaching, is that coach well-schooled in how to coach basketball—especially at beginning levels? How have they been trained in child-play and psychology? Well-meaning adults often have no clue how to formulate a teaching plan for this age level, much less carry out the teaching of the varied skills necessary to play the game, even moderately well.
The children are really coming out for a sport to have fun and learn a little about the game. These kids are not pros in training. The coach can take it slowly and instruct at a very basic level. This is an important set of concepts for coaches to understand. Young kids just want to have fun. They want to learn. They want to play. But if it’s not fun, we’ve probably lost them.
We should feel fortunate if a 6-9 year old can tie their own shoe laces and walk and run without stumbling. The time for other-handed layups, between-legs dribbling, and attempts from 3-point land are for the future. The time for team offenses and defenses, out-of-bounds plays, etc., is for the future. The coach that places focus here is not teaching. This coach is creating frustration for himself/herself and for the youngsters. Because this coach is trying too hard to bring advanced skills and play to players not physically, emotionally or experientially ready, the fun will not be there for players or coach. This kind of focus will usually mean winning games is very important to the coach.
Coaches, I challenge you to ask the kids—what would they most like to do–win games or have fun? Later on in a playing career, part of the fun is connected to winning, for sure. But at the lowest levels, at least through grade 6, let there be fun and let the game be for the children, not for the adults.
Youth sports are a great universal pastime. They are a place for children to learn skills, to experiment with a sport to see if it resonates with them, to be socially interactive, and to have fun. Sports are indeed a metaphor for life. All the lessons for group dynamics are present here–how to function in a scaled down society, how to act and react to the myriad of experiences that will come into play as they progress in sports. Yet the fundamental experience here must always be to allow the child to be a child—not to have to think, behave and participate as an adult. That’s for the future. Youth sports are for the youth. They are for the participants to learn, act and participate in a child’s activity. The best thing an adult director or coach of a youth sport could do for the children is to allow them to be children, functioning within a child’s society, and to above all, have fun.
As a teacher of the game for coaches and players, my particular specialty is working with beginning coaches. I feel that if, in the process of my teaching, the coach learns and understands how to perform the skills of basketball, they can in their turn become teachers of the game. Becoming a teaching-coach is the highest award I could bestow on any prospective coach. My web site is devoted to helping the “newbie” to become a teaching-coach.
In order to help new coaches get started and to learn the basics for teaching the game, I created a 4-hour basketball teaching DVD which should be beneficial for any new coach. CLICK HERE for a PREVIEW of the DVD:http://www.top-basketball-coaching.com/oldsite/basketball_high.wmv
I’ll impart this last bit of information. Any coach, or prospective youth sports coach, who really cares about the direction youth sports has taken, would be well-advised to get a copy of Bob Bigelow’s book, “Just Let The Kids Play”. It may just help the adults to get out of the way and let children do what they do best–just be kids.
Coach Ronn Wyckoff has spent more than fifty years in basketball. As an international consultant, his programs have reached hundreds of players and coaches around the world. He has coached four national teams and conducted national player camps. In forty-plus years of coaching boys, girls, men and women, from the playgrounds to national teams, they won over 70% of their games. The international club teams he coached won over 80%.
His 4-hour teaching DVD, “Basketball On A Triangle: A Higher Level of Coaching and Playing”, has received high praise. His soon to be released book of the same title has received accolades from those who have reviewed it, as being unique in it’s detailed approach to teaching life lessons through the teaching of the game, as well as teaching coaches how to teach fundamentals.
For more info go to http://www.Top-Basketball-Coaching.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ronn_Wyckoff
Defense is a key in basketball. A team that shoots hoops can only win if it has a great defense in place. Every basketball team needs to create a working defense system. And a team needs to be a well rounded one so that it can play even at high intensity.
Read how great defenders in basketball perfected their dense moves. Make notes of what will work for you and what will not. Get your mind to function like that of a soldier who is all set to defend his nation. Only in the case of basketball the nation is the ball and team position.
Here are a few defense tips:
1. Learn all about ball and man line. This is an imaginary line between the player you are defending and the man with the ball. Learn to position yourself on the basket side of the ball man line and form a defensive triangle.
2. Master the art of “cover down defense”. Position yourself to the level of the ball so that you can stop the ball before it reaches the lane.
3. Use double down strategy when a low post player gets the ball. Learn how to double team the post player.
4. Jump to the ball and be quick to make adjustments to your stance and position. Be in position and jump this will help you avoid front cutters and screens. This will make you a strong team player.
5. Use the strategy of strongside closure when your team member passes the ball and cuts to the basket. Jump to the ball side and slide along the lane.
Remember defense is what ensures that your team gets control of the ball so include in the basketball training aspects of team defense moves, post defense moves, on the ball defense moves, and off the ball defense moves.
A great basketball defense player is one who:
1. Moves quickly.
2. Has strength and stamina.
3. Trains throughout the year.
4. Has an in depth understanding of the game.
5. Is a communicator and team leader.
6. Studies the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent team before every game.
7. Is able to think on his feet and change strategy even mid-game should the need arise.
8. Is a listener and picks up clues as well as moves from others.
9. Plays strong-side and weak –side defense well
The World Wide Web is an information highway for basketball players. There are websites exclusively devoted to the game and these are full of coaching tips, articles on training, records of history of basketball, winning teams, great players, and on sports management. Use the in depth expertise of the internet and perfect your basketball plays to create a championship winning team.
Arthur Raise is a writer for
http://www.1888basketball.com , the premier website to find basketball, basketball court, history of basketball, basketball players, basketball rules, NBA basketball, basketball team, basketball jones, basketball team uniform, NBA basketball team and many more.
The news about Greg Oden’s injury was not pleasant. Unfortunately, the potentially franchise-saving center will miss his rookie year because of a knee injury; news that undoubtedly makes Portland Trail Blazer fans ecstatic. However, like it was pointed out here, all is not lost.The Blazers have a good nucleus of young talent and because of Oden’s injury; they should be in a position to add some more after the 2007-08 season comes to a close. This means the Blazers should be a force when Oden returns and his addition could be the piece that gets Portland back to playoffs and maybe even the NBA finals.
In other news, the upcoming NBA season is a lot closer than you think. Training camps open shortly and the first NBA preseason game is during the first week of October. Are you ready to follow your team to greatness? With Ticket Solutions, you certainly can be. Ticket Solutions has tickets for all the NBA games you want to see, including the Playoffs, the Finals and All-Star weekend. Getting tickets to these events are easier than you think and your satisfaction will be guaranteed.
The NBA is poised for an exciting 2007-08 season with a couple of rule changes in place that should prevent San Antonio/Phoenix debacles that can ruin an exciting playoff series. There are also some talented young players out there that will demand your attention, especially if you are a fan of basketball. Make sure you don’t miss the NBA’s continuing evolution as it continues to improve its product… and the best way to experience these games is in person.
NBA referee Joey Crawford was reinstated by commissioner David Stern on Monday, five months after he was suspended indefinitely for improper on-court conduct.
San Antonio Spurs star Tim Duncan contended that Crawford challenged him to a fight during a game against the Dallas Mavericks on April 15. Crawford ejected Duncan while the player was laughing on the bench. Stern cited a pattern of similar acts in suspending Crawford.
“Based on my meeting with Joey Crawford, his commitment to an ongoing counseling program, and a favorable professional evaluation that was performed at my direction, I am satisfied that Joey understands the standards of game management and professionalism the NBA expects from him and that he will be able to conduct himself in accordance with those standards,” Stern said in a release.
Crawford enters his 32nd season as an NBA referee. He has officiated more than 2,000 games during the regular season and 266 in the playoffs, including 38 in the NBA finals.
The history of basketball is much easier to trace than other sports. It is clear that Dr. James Naismith is credited with creating basketball and much of basketball history. Dr. Naismith, born in 1861 in Ontario, Canada first came up with the concept of basketball during his youth school days in the area where he played a game that involved knocking a rock off an object by attempting to throw another rock at it. The game obviously evolved from there and began the history of basketball.
Mr. Naismith taught at the YMCA School in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891, where the sport of basketball was created. He was faced with a problem of finding a sport that could be played indoors during the harsh Massachusetts winters. He needed to come up with a game that could be played in and outdoors and one that adopted a sense of skill and not just brawn. He first developed the game by involving a soccer ball and two peach baskets, who would have ever thought basketball history, could come from a soccer ball.
In addition to creating basketball Dr. Naismith became a medical doctor focused on sports science and was a minister. Naismith watched his sport grow to become one of the world’s most popular sports that saw its entrance in the Olympics in 1936 at Berlin and he fixed himself a spot in basketball history.
The history of basketball began with teams of five and was the sports standard by 1897. The sport became popular to both men and women and began to spread throughout Canada and the US. The US servicemen took the sport overseas with them in WWII and the history of basketball became global.
U.S. colleges accepted the game and began to have it as a standard college sport. College basketball history took off around the late 1890’s and the first college game began at the Madison Square Garden in New York.
Professional basketball history first began when the National Basketball League was created in the late 1800’s around 1898. The league however did not last and was broken up after 5 years providing a rough start to basketball history. The break up just led to a number of random leagues forming themselves in the early 1900’s and each was very loosely organized. Ironically enough the first super team was the Celtics but they were from New York City not Boston. The famous Harlem globetrotters were also founded around this time in 1927 and hold a place in basketball history as being the most entertaining of basketball teams.
It wasn’t until 1949 that two professional basketball leagues the NBL and the BAA merged to create what we all know now as the National Basketball Association or the NBA. The Boston Celtics dominated the NBA from the late 1950s through the 1960s. By the 1960s, professional teams had formed throughout the United States and basketball was a mainstream powerhouse. Players such as Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russel and Kareem Abdul-Jabar all became household names that drew millions to watch them play as they all found a spot in basketball history.
National Basketball Association fell off the charts and was surpassed by football in popularity through the 1970’s then got a resurgence from the popular Larry Bird and Magic Johnson era. Michael Jordan carried the league through the eighties and nineties and the torch has been passed on to Shaquille O’neal, Kobe Bryant and Lebron James. The history of basketball has never been so fascinating and it is all thanks to Dr. James Naismith.
Author is from http://recruitcity.com
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