“Run a Play!”

By Coach Atwood

Have you ever been at a youth basketball game, and heard a frustrated voice in the stands repeatedly yelling, “run a play, run a play” in a sort of, what’s-wrong-with-you tone of voice?  I used to feel pressure to conform to that voice.  The implication was that teaching a set offense was something that I had to do, or I was failing.  But there is no kind of team offense that is effective unless the players can consistently make layups and wide open shots.  At the youth ages, those 20 minutes of valuable practice time spent teaching the cuts and screens of a flex offense are probably better spent learning how to shoot and make layups, because plays don’t make baskets, players with skills do.  A plays is supposed to help get players good looks at the basket, but the kids have to possess the ability to score or a set offense is a waste.  I believe this is generally true no matter the age of the players.  There’s a way to measure the effectiveness of your offense.  Look at the game video and count how many baskets you get from your team actually running a play correctly.  Then count how many baskets you get off put backs, busted plays, steals, fast breaks, etc.  If your team is spending significant practice time working on a set plays, or continuity offense, and then only making a few baskets a game despite running it over and over, is that good coaching?  I’m not really sure, but I’m leaning toward no. 

 

Someone once said, “Don’t confuse activity with progress.”  That principle can apply to practicing.  It’s easy to look busy and appear competent by running some organized drills.  Organization implies competence.  I look back on my first season and that’s what I was really doing, and I didn’t realize that.  I was going thru the motions of organized activity, but there wasn’t a whole lot of teaching actually happening.    When I put them into a lay up line, my instruction and attention was just as concerned with getting the mechanics of the drill right as with the actual skill.  I was concerned with their form, but unconcerned at first that they were only going half speed and no one was guarding them.  In my first season coaching middle school kids, the majority of the kids came to me with beginner skills- poor shot form, poor ball handling skills, and the inability to make layups with any consistency.  I had two weeks to prepare them to compete in games.    

 

While it’s true that any amount of time spent practicing and playing will improve skills, the point of a structured practice session is to make the best use of limited time to prepare a team to play games.  The old coaching saying goes, “Teams are made in the season. Players are made in the off season.”  There is a lot of pressure on a coach to prepare his team to play.  You have to come up with the best plan you can to compete with the talent and skill available.  When I was a kid growing up in a small town, there weren’t any leagues for 7, 8, 9, and10 year olds.  We played outside on pavement.  We learned the essential offensive skills from countless hours of small sided games.  Play to 11, winner’s outs, gotta win by 2, call your own fouls.  That’s where we learned to handle the ball and break a defender down.  That’s where we learned to create space to get a shot off, and finish a layup with someone hanging off of us.  Nowadays most of the kids come into our youth programs without those strong individual skills.  And we make them run offense anyway, because maybe 6-8 of them have the athletic ability and/or skill to make it work, and there’s that guy in the stands yelling, “Run a play!”   I believe that often times, running plays just serves to make our games look organized in the same sense that running drills can serve to make our practices look organized.  And the coach can respond after a loss that, “They didn’t run the offense right.”  But are they ready to run plays?  Do they have the fundamental skills to make an offense work?

 

In Brian McCormick’s book, Cross Over The New Model of Youth Basketball Development, McCormick makes a strong case for examining and making changes in how we prepare youth to play the game.  McCormick notes the demise of “free play,” and that basketball, and indeed today’s youth’s lives are generally more structured than past generations were.  Basketball is an activity my generation played in parks, school yards and driveways.  There were no grown ups there with us organizing, creating structure, holding down creativity and fun.  Nowadays basketball is something done from 4:00 to 5:30 and virtually every moment of it is structured.    McCormick believes that coaches tend to “over-coach,” that the influence of adults has made it about competing, winning games and tournaments.  He believes the USA youth basketball development model is essentially broken; that it short changes long term athletic development for short term gains (win today).  He calls this the “peak by Friday” mind set.  He believes we need to find ways to return the game to the kids, and that at the youth level we need to focus on teaching players to play, not on preparing teams to win.  Yes basketball is a team game, and yes even the kids want to win.  But this much we know for sure- confident players play well, and good teams are made up of confident players.  I say teaching skills that lead to confidence is far more critical than putting in “passing game,” and a zone offense. 

Let them know you care about them

One of my favorite web sites is iyca.org  I like this site because it stands for a vision of training young athletes that I admire very much and have striven to pattern my own coaching philosophy after.  This article is representative of that philosophy.  Brian Grasso is the Founder of the International Youth Conditioning Association.  Brian is a a well-known, respected and outspoken leader in the youth athletic development industry, Brian has written feature articles for sport training magazines throughout North America including, Men’s Fitness, Men’s Health, SportingKid, American Track & Field and Personal Fitness Professional.

 Brian recently posted this in the IYCA discussion forum.

“In closing out 2007 with my final newsletter to you, I wanted to take a moment to discuss a topic that is of the utmost importance to me.  I’m going to tell you about Kenny.Now, I know you are used to me writing about speed training, strength development or coordination enhancement for young athletes, but with Kenny, I’m going to discuss a different side of the whole youth athletic development spectrum.  So sit back and enjoy where this story is heading…This past weekend, I drove down to Louisville Kentucky for a 3-day meeting with a couple of business-minded folks who are going to become part of Developing Athletics and the IYCA.  As I left my house in northwest Chicago, I decided that in order to make good time, I would resist the urge to stop at my local coffee house and instead, find a Starbucks along the journey… … A couple of hours into the drive and AFTER I had gotten through the horrendous morning Chicago traffic!  At around 8am, I found myself weaving through a small town called Seymour Indiana.  I needed some gas and conveniently, I had noticed a large sign on the highway proclaiming there to be a Starbucks somewhere within Seymour.  After a few minutes of searching without success, I decided to re-fuel first and ask the station attendant if he knew where the local ‘Bucks’ was located.  That’s where I met Kenny. Kenny is a 61 year old gas station employee in Seymour and has never really drifted too far away from the town that he has called home for over half a century.  I know all this because I ended up having a cup of coffee with Kenny and hearing all about his life and times. When I first met him, Kenny was only too happy to tell me exactly where the Seymour Starbucks was, and then added a quip about how he had never tasted anything from the corporate icon before – even though he only lived about 2 minutes from their only Seymour location.  I thanked him for the directions, paid for the gas and was on my way.  A Grande Sugar-Free Caramel Latte seemed like just the ticket I needed to get me the rest of the way to Louisville.When I got to Starbucks, thanks to Kenny’s perfect directions, I became overwhelmed with the feeling that at 61, it was high time that Kenny tasted what I have begun referring to as the ‘Starbucks Goodness’ that helps wake me up every morning.  So, along with my own cup o’ Joe, I took with me a Grande Gingerbread Latte and headed back to pay Kenny a visit.  Why this kind man inspired me to bring him back a $6 cup of coffee I really don’t know, but my story is about to take shape.

When I got back to the gas station, Kenny’s eyes lit up like he was seeing an old friend he hadn’t talked to in years.  I asked him if he enjoyed Gingerbread cookies and was very happy to hear that he absolutely loved them!  I handed him the ‘Starbucks Goodness’ and told him to take a sip.  I’ll never forget what happened next.

Kenny took a sip, smiled big, told me he loved it and then proceeded to walk around his checkout counter and give me a big hug.  “That’s the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for me” Kenny said.  We chatted for about 30 minutes and I was back on my way to Louisville.

My experience with Kenny was more profound and meaningful than I think I realized at the time…

… And of course, I started thinking about how it applies to training and coaching young athletes.

At face value, the fact a man who has lived for 61 years ranks someone buying him a cup of coffee as ‘the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for him’ seems a bit sad.  I mean, it was just a cup of coffee.  But when you dig into that comment just a little, you see something even MORE sad.

That it is ridiculously easy to put a smile on someone’s face.

It is easy to make people feel special.

It takes next to no effort to make people feel good.  The problem is, we seldom do it.

How many times do you give an unprompted ‘high five’ to a young athlete who, even though unable to pick up your new exercise with much proficiency, is working her tail off to try and get better?

How many times do you greet your young athletes at practice, in your facility or during class and tell them how happy you are that they are there?

How many times do you tell your team that you are so proud of how hard they played and couldn’t care less that they lost the game?

How often do you try to make a unique and individual connection with each of your young athletes even though you are working with 30 of them at the same time?

Kenny is an example on a ‘life’ scale of what we could and SHOULD be doing each and every day with the young athletes in our lives.  Go out of your way.  Make them feel special.  Put a smile on there face.  Be sure that they know they matter.  Sports and training are vehicles for life.  We have learned to walk with our heads down and become isolated even though our global community extends into the billions.  My challenge for you in 2008 is to put a smile on your young athletes face every single day.  Through sport and training, let’s work together to make sure the next generation doesn’t walk through life with there heads down.

I’ll be heading back to Louisville several times in 2008.  And yes, I’ll be making a stop to visit my friend Kenny every single time.  Have a wonderful holiday.  I wish you nothing but the best and brightest for 2008. ‘Till next year,”

Brian Grasso

Founder & CEO,International Youth Conditioning Association

http://www.iyca.org/

The Importance of the Game… what are we teaching them?

What is the most important thing a youth or High School coach does?  Is it teaching the skills of the game?  Is it preparing his team to compete in games?  Is it preparing his players to be successful at the next level of competition?  I believe these are the kinds of things that the players and their parents generally expect of the coach.  These are the things a coach is hired to do.  But anyone who has coached for very long realizes that coaching is about teaching much more than just a game.  I believe the most important thing a coach does is use the sport as a vehicle to teach kids lessons about life.    

 After the kids are thru playing the sport, in 10 years, 15 years, 20 years from now; what will they remember?  What will be lasting?  What will have an influence that carried over into their adult lives?  Will it be how to make a lay-up and dribble with both hands ?  Will the wins and losses from one season to the next be important and meaningful?  No, in fact if all the coach is concerned with is wins and losses, he cheats his self and his players out of what should have been a much more meaningful experience. 

Most coaches probably agree that the game is important, but School and Family are more important and they come first.  At least this is what they say out loud to their players and the parents.  But then these same coaches often trash their own credibility by saying one thing out loud, but contradicting them selves when a player chooses Family or School over the Game.  How do they contradict them selves and harm their own credibility?  By making a kid choose the Game over a School activity, or Family activity.  By telling the kid, “Sure, you can go do that, but you won’t play in the next game.” 

 I’m not saying that it’s not important for kids to learn to follow thru on their commitments.  I’m saying that being a Student and a member of a Family are commitments too.  And if I am going to teach a kid that Family and School come before Basketball, then what am I teaching them if I dole out consequences for missing practice to do a School or Family activity?  What am I teaching them by saying one thing, and doing another? 

 Coaches are put under the microscope every day by their players.  They see us as leaders and whether they understand it or not, they are learning how to lead from watching us.  This is a huge responsibility.  Sport psychologist’s claim that coaches often have more influence on a kid than their teachers, and even their parents.  This is because of the power of emotions that are brought out by competition, and the bond that is formed between the coach and the players; combined with pre and post  adolescence being very formative years. 

 How we choose to respond in front of the team in each moment matters; especially when faced with adversity.  It’s easy to do the right thing when we’re winning, or when we are getting all the calls from the referee’s.  But what really matters is the behaviour we model, and the lessons we teach by that behaviour when things aren’t going our way.  What are we teaching the kids when we scream and yell at them, or at referee’s?   If we yell when we are frustrated, we teach them to act out, that’s it’s ok to raise our voice in anger because we are frustrated.  If we quit before we finish, we teach them that when things get too difficult, it’s ok to just pack up and leave.  When the going gets tough, the tough lose their cool, or quit is not a lesson that will help shape quality leadership traits in young people. 

 I feel that the most important thing a coach does is to positively influence young people by using opportunities presented while coaching the game to teach life skills.  These life skills include things like dealing gracefully with disappointment, recognizing the rewards of hard work, taking responsibility for ones words and actions, and helping others around us to be  more successful.  Kids most likely don’t have the life experience to realize if their coach is a good strong coach, or not.  But from the perspective of 10 years, 15 years, and 20 years in the future, they will recognize what kind of coach we were, and what they learned from us.