10 Step Plan to Devastate a High School Basketball Program

As observed by Coach Atwood

 

1.    Start by recruiting the best players in the area when they’re still kids to play together on a travel/tournament team, and make it all about winning, when it should still be about developing movement skills, and fundamental basketball skills. Enjoy their early success, and make the mistake of assuming that their early success must be because they are very talented & well coached, instead of the possibility it could be just the natural result of accumulating the best players from several schools, and/or several recreation league teams.   

 

2.    Teach the strategy first (plays), and give scant time to teaching the tactics (fundamentals).  Don’t teach the kids to play the game by focusing on basketball principles (pass & cut, screen & roll, pass & screen away, etc.) and the development of fundamental skills (dribbling, passing, pivoting, screening, cutting, shooting, etc).  Instead, teach the kids to rote memorize plays even before they have acquired the offensive skills to make set plays have a decent chance to work.  

 

3.    Further weaken them for the future, and make it more difficult for their future High School Coach by also neglecting to develop their individual defense ability.  Instead of teaching them how to guard a player with the ball, all over the court, and how to protect the basket when the player they are guarding doesn’t have the ball, have them just get back into basic zone defenses every time and learn to guard a spot on the floor. 

 

4.    Observation shows us that as often as not, the kids who appear to be the most advanced when they’re very young, are just as often no longer the most advanced at 15, 16, 17 years old, and all too often have even quit playing by the time they are in High School.  Really hurt the program down the road by ignoring this observation, and consistently treating 1 or 2 little kids like they are All Stars.  Short change the development of the rest of the kids by having the kids who appear less skilled get the ball to these 1-2 kid so that they can do the scoring in an attempt to win tournaments.

 

5.    When these kids get to the High School level, if it turns out they under-achieve, and don’t win as consistently as they did in Jr high, assume it has nothing to do with how they were developed during their most developmentally pliable ages.  Ignore the fact that of the group of players who won tournaments at 12 and 13 years old, some have quit playing altogether, and others are spread out at more than one High School.  Fail to connect the early emphasis on winning, and the de-emphasis of skill development with under performing, and jump to the conclusion that it must be because their High School coach is terrible.    

 

6.    Parents of players may contribute to a losing environment in a number of creative ways.  Commiserating openly in the stands during games with other parents about how bad you think the Head Coach is.  After games, continue this inappropriate, careless and harmful activity with your own little student-athlete.  Let anyone who will listen hear you criticize, nit-pick, and whine about how bad you think the coach is.  Do not underestimate this tactic; after all these are still kids, and this is very effective at eroding a team’s morale, as well as their respect for their Coach. 

 

7.    If she comes home complaining about the Coach after practice or games, assume the Coach is wrong.  Assume that it couldn’t actually just be an opportunity for a young person to learn a healthy and innocent lesson about perseverance, or toughness.  Ignore the concept that at 15, 16, 17 years old, they probably don’t have a whole lot of life experience to draw a fair perspective from.  Balk at allowing your child to experience humbleness and difficulty, even though we all learn much more from difficult circumstances, than we do from the insulating effect of being protected from experience.   

 

8.    Parents shall further undermine any hope of having a fun and successful season by making it as difficult as possible for the Coach to lead with poise and self assured confidence.  Withdraw any support for the Coach and rally others to do the same if he doesn’t bend to meet what you believe is in the best interest of your own child.  Try to get him fired before he even has a chance to get started.  Make sure during his first season that the new coach feels unwelcome.  Don’t even give him half a season’s worth of benefit of the doubt, or consideration.   

 

9.    In order to perpetuate this same behavior in the future when your kids have their own kids, set the example for them to follow by personally modeling the opposite of the behavior and leadership traits that you should want your child to be exposed to through participating in high school sports.  Achieve this by openly and creatively undermining, disrespecting, and doing all that you can to make sure your kids, and any kids who play for the Coach will not be fully committed to him and his instruction, nor to the program.  Take it to the next level- circulate petitions, harangue the Athletic Director, whine to anyone who will listen. 

 

10.     If the local basketball community has followed these instructions, the High School program should be damaged.  The overall strength of the program and the morale of the players in the program should be very low.  The High School coach will feel polarized and beat down. The most evident results will be poor off season program participation, and possibly a residual underachieving team the following season.  If you are a parent who participated in this 10 Step Program, your work here is done.  You can pick up & move to the next School District, where you will hopefully not repeat the same foolish meddling, uninformed, and myopic behavior again.   

Tags: Add new tag