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
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