coachmccormick
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Re:response to creativity - 2008/04/01 21:01
No, I meant I disagree with the talking heads on espn that say kids are undisciplined and only want to run and gun.
I want players to stop looking at me for all the answers and to take on the responsibility for themselves. From a fan's perspective, we put way too much emphasis on the power of the coach - who goes to a game to watch the coach? From a coach's perspective, what's the point of dictating everything? It just shows that you don't trust your players and you aren't confident in your pre-game preparation.
Now, at different levels, things change. When you have million dollar contracts on the line, it's much more difficult to sit back and allow an 18-year old to control your fate. However, at the youth level, we need less ego from coaches and more teaching. My team looked awful at points this year. I'm sure some of the opposing coaches looked at me as some kid who had never coached before. But, it was a process. By the end of the season, the thing that scared my players most - a press - did not even affect them and it did not matter what press a team ran because we did not have a press break. We had principles.
Now, taking a team that has only memorized plays and press breaks and one counter for each defense and trying to get them to be a motion team without much structure is a difficult process. It is not a quick and easy solution. If winning immediately is the only goal, I do not advise it. But, if teaching basketball is the goal and helping players understand how to play the game, I don't see any other way. Once they understand different principles, then as the levels get more competitive (and I don't mean 12-year-olds playing better competition, but varsity and college basketball), coaches can add some structure onto the principles.
Unfortunately, we start kids with memorizing plays rather than playing the game, so at every progressive level, a coach either starts over, as I did, or uses more plays because that is all the kids know and it is a long process to teach a bunch of players all the different principles. So, some kids get to the NBA and they have never learned basic principles that should be taught to 10-year-olds, but aren't because coaches care more about winning and looking good (ego) than they do about teaching the game and helping the players develop.
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