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I have worked with youth basketball camps for 14 years now: 8 years running my own and 6 years with PGC Basketball. It is one thing to organize and run a camp and another to choose one for your own children. Having kids approaching the age range for these camps, I had to stop and ask myself, “What do I really want in a basketball camp for my kids? What is it that makes a good basketball camp?”
Excerpted from a PGC/Glazier Coaching Clinic session in Los Angeles, CA. Tyler Coston spoke on How to Develop Leaders in Your Sports Program. Leadership is more than just doing the right thing.
You need to give your players a realistic opportunity to demonstrate their leadership. Give them some leeway, some space. Make all the corrections and criticisms that you have to. Just hold them for a defined period of time now and then so your players have a chance to show you what they can do. You can’t expect your players to take initiative if you are always taking it for them.
Do players like playing for you, or do they dread coming to practice every day? Are you even aware of how they feel about you? Are you pursuing a career where you will one day be a character in their athletic horror stories or the hero that changed their lives? I am sure you have heard the quote from Billy Graham before, “One coach will impact more young people in a year than the average person does in a lifetime.” If we assume that this statement is even partially true then you, as a coach, have been empowered with one amazing task and one amazing burden.
THINK THE GAME
Join us this summer and discover how to become a playmaker, lead your team, and run the show.
Coaches, have you ever paused for a moment or taken the time to reflect on the balance you’re keeping between your family and coaching? I know that can be a tough question to ask yourself, but there may not be a more important one to consider. I challenge each of us to take a timeout today. A timeout to pause and reflect on our own lives. As we take this timeout, there are three basic steps that we must honestly contemplate in order to evaluate our coaching/family balance.
A zone defense should be one player guarding the ball and four players helping guard the ball. However, in youth basketball, zone defense turns into one player jumping out of position and reaching for steals while teammates stand and watch it happen. Most youth players have yet to develop strong man-to-man defensive skills, and so many youth coaches and teams tend to default to a zone in order to get cheap wins instead of developing long-term, winning basketball habits.