Do you want to help build basketball players or do you just want to tell everyone that you won your youth league?"
This a direct question from Orlando Magic coach, Stan Van Gundy during a coaching clinic posted on Youtube.The Blog of former NBA coach Eric Musselman includes the following excerpts of Coach Van Gundy's speech on youth basketball:
"Quick frankly, we're failing pretty badly in this country as a whole in teaching basketball skills. You notice when you watch the NBA because there's a huge difference in just the skill level of the players coming from Europe and what we have here in terms of their ability to pass the ball and shoot the ball.
We can't even produce enough people to do those things here that we've got to go across and try to find people who can do them.
We're not developing skills here.
One of the reasons is we're much more interested in playing games, and winning and losing at a young, young age than we are in skill development.
[Youth coaches] have to make a decision -- if you want to teach the kids that you're coaching how to play basketball or if you just want to win games, because there's a big difference.
Last spring, I coached both my 12-year-old daughter and my 9-year-old son for two months in a YMCA league. I got to see every approach [to coaching].
Of the 18 teams that I saw in that limited time, there were maybe two or three coaches who were really trying to teach skills. Everybody else was just trying to win a game.
[How?] Leave your best players on the court as long as you can. Play zone defense, for God's sake. It was beyond me -- in a 9-year-old league -- to play zone defense for the entire game.
Obviously, don't let your biggest kids dribble the ball. Make sure they always give it to a guard, who is usually your son.
And then you wonder why, at the high school level, we've got so many kids who can't play. We never have a 6-5, 6-6, 6-8 kid who can dribble, pass, and shoot because, at the young age, you tell him to go stand under the basket and get the rebound and give it to somebody else.
[As a youth coach], you have a decision to make. Do you want to help build basketball players or do you just want to tell everyone that you won your youth league?"
We can't even produce enough people to do those things here that we've got to go across and try to find people who can do them.
We're not developing skills here.
One of the reasons is we're much more interested in playing games, and winning and losing at a young, young age than we are in skill development.
[Youth coaches] have to make a decision -- if you want to teach the kids that you're coaching how to play basketball or if you just want to win games, because there's a big difference.
Last spring, I coached both my 12-year-old daughter and my 9-year-old son for two months in a YMCA league. I got to see every approach [to coaching].
Of the 18 teams that I saw in that limited time, there were maybe two or three coaches who were really trying to teach skills. Everybody else was just trying to win a game.
[How?] Leave your best players on the court as long as you can. Play zone defense, for God's sake. It was beyond me -- in a 9-year-old league -- to play zone defense for the entire game.
Obviously, don't let your biggest kids dribble the ball. Make sure they always give it to a guard, who is usually your son.
And then you wonder why, at the high school level, we've got so many kids who can't play. We never have a 6-5, 6-6, 6-8 kid who can dribble, pass, and shoot because, at the young age, you tell him to go stand under the basket and get the rebound and give it to somebody else.
[As a youth coach], you have a decision to make. Do you want to help build basketball players or do you just want to tell everyone that you won your youth league?"
Van Gundy is right on point. Who's job is it to develop the young basketball player. Is it the job of the Youth Coach? Or is should it be the Middle School Coaches? What about High School Coaches? Here is a unique idea. How about asking all of these coaches to develop. Sounds good but here are some realities and obstacles in developing young ball players.
Youth Coach- Typically a parent who gets involved because his/her child takes an interest in the game. He/she may hit a library or bookstore to learn the basics but most of the time watching the Spurs is considered enough training. Even if the coach is a good instructor,the typical Y-team is so unskilled that it is very difficult to teach in such limited time. You also have to deal with a lot of parents who use Y-ball as baby sitters. The game should be fun at this level but improving IS FUN.
Middle School Coach- More often than not he/she is a teacher with little actual game experience. I mention this because it is hard to maintain the respect and interest of kids at this age. If Mr/Mrs. History Teacher can not SHOW their players how to execute an effective reverse pivot, why should the kids listen? They should listen because an adult with authority said so? These are the same adults who taught these kids that a heavy set man in a red suit flies across the world on a reindeer and slides down chimneys to deliver presents on Christmas eve. The point is that kids are naturally skeptical at this age and demonstrating goes further than imitating. Given the benefit of the doubt, the typical middle school coach is somewhat knowledgeable about the game and provides quality instruction. Again,one of the problems is the limited time to teach kids that have been taught very little before they are thrust into games. These games allow for parents to put stickers on the back of their SUV's saluting the conference champions.The truth is that the bigger, faster, stronger kids normally dominate at this age and lead their teams to victories. Quality skill-sets are an afterthought. Besides the South Texas practice of everyone making the team, another obstacle to developing quality players is that sixth grade players are not allowed to play. That would be a great idea if the sixth grade basketball players had to attend skill-set sessions the entire year without games.Practice and more Practice. The truly sad thing is that most sixth graders can not even take an entire year of P.E. and we wonder why our children are becoming obese. A survey of college athletes would show that a very high percentage of them became serious about the game during these important years.
High School Coach- I recently had a HS coach tell me " It is not my job to get players into college. My job is to win". WOW!!!!! Interesting but understandable.In other words, college athletes are elite athletes and this coach felt that it was not his job to help develop elite athletes. Oh well if Johnny/Sally can not use their weak hand. Who cares if Joe/Jill still shoot from their chest. As long as they make baskets and the team continues to win. These coaches must win to keep their jobs and stressing sound fundamental basketball does not always translate into wins in the short term. In fact the opposite is usually the case. If Sal/Sally finishes 80% of their shots with the right hand on the left side of the basket, why mess with it?It obviously is working. Never mind that as the competition gets better, that right handed shot on the left side of the basket is going to get thrown into the bleachers.Here is an all to common motto" As long as it gets us wins in district, don't fix it. "
The AAU Coach- More times than not, the AAU coach followed his/her child up from Y-Ball and created a team for them to shine. Their playing experience usually consists of hitting a few jumpers at the local health club and maybe some JV minutes in high school. How can you yell at a player about not "closing out" during the third game of the day if you never "closed out" while playing three games in a day? These coaches are playing an increasing role in the development of our young basketball players. A lot of them just roll the ball out and play. I have seen a local club team play over 100 games in a single year. Is it possible to add new skills and improve individually when playing so many games?In terms of winning, the AAU Coach is doing more good than harm as witnessed by the successful teams in SA. Take any top team in any district and you will find Travel Ball players leading the team more often than not. But, are these Travel Ball players being taught fundamentally sound basket? The answer is an obviously no.
All these above scenarios do not fit every program,team or coach. There are some great coaches(teachers, trainers, strategists) who are doing a remarkable job stressing fundamentals to local players.
That being said, I am not trying to bash coaches who never played the game. The reason for the blog, Stan Van Gundy, never played the game at a high level but he is one of the best teachers in the game. Van Gundy immersed himself in the game and he and his brother, Jeff ,basically stalked the great minds in the game in order to learn the game. There is a HS coach on the boys side in SA that never played the game but he has one of the most successful programs in the city. He encourages his kids to seek trainers, lift weights and live in the gym in the off season. He has sent numerous kids to college on full rides in the last few years.
The point is that if we all do not continue to learn the game and teach it to the youth, we all are to blame.
