News & Blog - Page 66 of 102 - Head Start Basketball Camps

Basketball on the Edge – Player Development (What Role Should Coaches Play?)

Published March 3, 2016 | By Mike Klinzing

What is the role of the coach in player development?

Obviously if your child is working individually with a basketball skills trainer the sole focus should be on player development, both physical and mental. A skills trainer is not responsible for balancing the needs of the individual player with the needs of a team. The skills trainer should be working to maximize the skill level of the player during their time together. A skills trainer has a responsibility to help a player to reach his or her potential. This means working to develop areas of a player’s game that may currently be weaknesses and not just focusing on a player’s strengths.

On the other hand, what is the responsibility of a “team” coach when it comes to player development? Do the needs of the individual player come first, or the needs of the team? For example, let’s say we have a high school sophomore who is 6’3” and wants to play college basketball. In high school, that player may be a post player that the coach wants to play inside. That is where the player is most comfortable at this stage of their career and is also where they can help their high school team win right now. However, if we project that player to the next level it is highly unlikely that he will be a post player in college. The player will have to develop perimeter skills in order to reach his goal of playing college basketball. What role does the high school coach play in this player’s development into a college player? Should the coach maximize the player’s current skill set (post skills) which helps the team most or should the coach try to develop the perimeter skills of the player to the potential detriment of the high school team? (The player may turn the ball over frequently if he is handling it a lot.)

The younger the players the more the coach should tilt in the direction of player development over team success. Youth league coaches should be focused on developing well rounded players that can play anywhere on the court. Winning should be far down the list of goals for recreation, travel, and youth AAU coaches. Especially in practice, everyone should be given opportunities to handle the ball, make decisions, and play multiple positions. Young players want to have fun playing and practicing. Giving all players a chance to have the ball increases the likelihood of kids having fun. No one wants to be a “screener” or “rebounder” who never sees the ball when they are 9 years old! By developing versatile players the team will most likely improve over the course of the season. Coaches should always remember that in general the team with better, more skilled players will win more games. Youth coaches have a responsibility to develop skilled, all-around players.

In high school or college the balance between player development and winning becomes less clear. Is it the job of a successful (in terms of wins and losses) high school or college coach to let players stretch themselves to prepare them for the next level? Should a coach help fix the shooting mechanics of a player that may not be able to get their shot off at the next level if that player is currently shooting 50% from 3 point range? Chances are that player’s shooting percentage would drop initially which could cost the team a win or two. What should a coach do in this situation? Or what if a player who has played with their back to the basket for their entire career wants to develop a face-up game in order to attract more college recruiters? Should the coach allow the player that freedom in games or keep them with their back to the basket?

I believe coaches at the high school and college level have a mandate to win games. Ultimately that is how they are judged. If a high school or college coach doesn’t win they don’t have a job for very long. That being said, all coaches should be attempting to maximize their players’ potential. Even if the coach makes clear what role the player currently fills on the team, good coaches are preparing players to expand their role by helping them develop new skills and improve as a player. This can be done before, during, or after practice and not sacrifice the immediate success of the team. The greatest gains for most players happens in the off-season anyway as coaches tend to focus more on team development during the season. The best coaches are developing players at the same time they are developing a winning team.

Leave us a comment about this post headstartbasketball@usa.net

Sign up now to get a “Head Start” on your competition with our free basketball tip of the day delivered straight to your inbox. Click below, enter your email and we’ll also send you our E-Book, “Mental Toughness, Improve Your Brain – Improve Your Game”.

Free Tip of the Day!

Posted in Blog Post, Coaching Youth Basketball, Skill Development

Basketball on the Edge – 10 strategies to help coaches and athletes defeat adversity by Juan Pablo Favero

Published February 27, 2016 | By Mike Klinzing

When things aren’t going well for a player or a team it is easy to get down and feel defeated. These ten strategies give players and coaches some methods they can use to succeed in the face of adversity. By overcoming adversity once we realize that it can be done and we enhance our chances of success in the future.

Click here to read the article by Juan Pablo Favero

Leave us a comment about this post headstartbasketball@usa.net

Sign up now to get a “Head Start” on your competition with our free basketball tip of the day delivered straight to your inbox. Click below, enter your email and we’ll also send you our E-Book, “Mental Toughness, Improve Your Brain – Improve Your Game”.

Free Tip of the Day!

Posted in Blog Post, Coaching Youth Basketball, Mental Toughness

Basketball on the Edge – Player Development (Stop Comparing!)

Published February 26, 2016 | By Mike Klinzing

Comparisons are death when it comes to player development. If you are a parent stop comparing your child to other kids. Just because your child is much better, or much worse, than other players at a given point in time doesn’t matter in terms of their long term development. If you are a coach, stop comparing players to each other or to players that played for you in the past. Coach your players at the level they are now within your team setting.

As parents, we need to remember that every player develops at their own pace. Just because one of your son’s teammates is the star of the team at age 10 doesn’t mean that will be the case on the high school varsity. Maybe the kid doesn’t grow or doesn’t put in the time. Just because an eight year old can’t make a layup consistently doesn’t mean their chances of playing basketball in high school or college are out the window. That can be overcome with hard work over time.

Comparisons are dangerous because they can kill a promising career in more ways than one. If a parent tells their child they are the best player out there at age eleven, what motivation does the child have to work hard and improve? We know it takes hard work and grit to succeed. If I’m already the best (Dad told me!) why do I need to work at my game? Conversely, if a parent keeps telling their child how much better other kids are, that can destroy a child’s motivation as well. If your young player loves (or even likes) the game, let them work hard and progress at their own pace even if their current skill level is pretty low.

Have you ever said, or maybe heard someone else say, “Why can’t you shoot like Tommy?” or “Sheldon is a much better ball handler than you.” These types of comparison statements are irrelevant and hurtful to player development. So what if Tommy is a better shooter or Sheldon is a better ballhandler? Will knowing that make a young player better? No. The only valid comparison that can be made is with the player themselves. Each player is different and comparisons with other players are not relevant. The goal of player development should be to maximize the talent of that particular player, not to turn the player into a lesser version of someone else. Comparisons make a young player feel that the work they put in was for nothing. “I’ve gotten better, but Dad still thinks I’m not as good as Sheldon.” We can always find someone better than our child, chasing that goal is never ending. How discouraging for a young player to hear their parent or coach telling them others are better.

The best way to track development is to keep records of where the player is (stats, narratives) and then look back at those records to see the progress the player has made over time. Success is measured by improvement which comes as a result of practice. The more purposeful and intense the practice the better the results. The only comparison to make is with “You Yesterday”. A concept created by Dick DeVenzio. Judge the player based on their improvement from a beginning benchmark. For example, a player used to be able to make 20 free throws out of 50. Three months later the player can consistently make 25 free throws out of 50. There is improvement that should be recognized. Are there players out there that can make more than 25 out of 50? Of course, and compared to those players this player is a “poor shooter”, but compared to themselves just three months ago their shooting percentage has gone up 10%. Should a parent or coach label this player a “poor shooter” or focus on the gains and the potential for even more improvement in the future?

Parents and coaches, please stop comparing kids to other kids. All players develop at different rates, both physically and in terms of their basketball skills. Put your focus on growth over time. Encourage and reward the hard work and grit it takes to get better. Don’t tell players, “If only you could be like…” Nothing turns a young player off faster and our goal is to turn kids on to the game not off!

Leave us a comment about this post headstartbasketball@usa.net

Sign up now to get a “Head Start” on your competition with our free basketball tip of the day delivered straight to your inbox. Click below, enter your email and we’ll also send you our E-Book, “Mental Toughness, Improve Your Brain – Improve Your Game”.

Free Tip of the Day!

Posted in Basketball Parenting, Blog Post, Coaching Youth Basketball

Basketball on the Edge – The Rocky Road to Excellence by John O’Sullivan

Published February 21, 2016 | By Mike Klinzing

This recent article by John O’Sullivan from Changing the Game Project is one of my favorites. Read this article yourself and then have your kids read it. It is well worth the effort and will change the way you view excellence! We ask kids all the time,”What do you want to do in your life?” How many of our kids tell us they want to play basketball in high school, or get a college basketball scholarship, or even play in the NBA? Maybe they want to be a doctor, or a zookeeper, or a musician? Whatever they want to do, I can guarantee there are thousands, if not millions, of other people that want the same thing. O’Sullivan tells us to ask our kids (or ourselves) a different question.

Click here to read the article by John O’Sullivan

Leave us a comment about this post headstartbasketball@usa.net

Sign up now to get a “Head Start” on your competition with our free basketball tip of the day delivered straight to your inbox. Click below, enter your email and we’ll also send you our E-Book, “Mental Toughness, Improve Your Brain – Improve Your Game”.

Free Tip of the Day!

Posted in Basketball Parenting, Blog Post, Coaching Youth Basketball, Mental Toughness, Motivation

Basketball on the Edge – Player Development (How to Deal with a Lack of Skill)

Published February 19, 2016 | By Mike Klinzing

Last week I wrote about how allowing players to play through their mistakes can help build more confidence and aid in player development. In today’s article I’ll put forth another a second player development idea that coaches at all levels can implement immediately.

Coaches at all levels of basketball frequently use some form of “punishment” when players don’t execute a particular skill correctly. For example, players are practicing their free throws and they have to run a sprint for every missed shot. Is the player trying to miss their free throws? I’m pretty sure the answer is no. Their misses were not from a lack of effort. Maybe at older ages it could be lack of concentration, but mostly it is a lack of skill that prevents players from making free throws.

When a coach has players run in a situation like this what is really happening? Players are being punished for their lack of skill. Players who need more practice shooting free throws get less time because they are running instead of shooting. Coaches should strive to get players more reps, not less, with weaker skills or new skills they are just learning. Players may get more nervous knowing that a miss means they have to run. They may concentrate more on the potential punishment rather than on the free throw itself. Doing one thing to try and avoid something else is not a formula for success.

There was a free throw shooting drill we did in college where you had to swish five free throws before you could leave practice. If you didn’t make 5 swishes within the time limit you had to get up early the next day and shoot 100 free throws. I would try so hard to be perfect (a swish) that my shot mechanics suffered as did my mental approach to free throws. This drill caused me to become a worse, less confident free throw shooter for about half a season. I never understood why a swish was better than any other made shot. The need to be “perfect” (a swish) rather than just successful (a made shot) never made sense to me. By trying to swish every free throw in order to avoid the punishment I started aiming the ball rather than letting my muscle memory take over as it had for so long. I became discouraged even when I made a shot and it wasn’t a swish. My mistakes (misses or made shots that weren’t swishes) made it hard for me to perform at my best because I was worried about the punishment. Whatever my coach was trying to accomplish in that drill backfired with me.

Does having players run because they cannot make a layup suddenly transform their ability to make layups? Wouldn’t it be better for the coach to offer players more opportunity to practice layups or more instruction on how to shoot a layup correctly? More instruction and more reps seems like a better formula for improving the skill than some “punishment.”

It is especially important at the youth level to remember not to punish players for a lack of skill. As I have written about before, making mistakes is critical to the learning process. In order to learn a new skill, players must be given the opportunity to try the skill without fear that there will be a punishment for failure. On my fourth grade boys basketball team we are constantly encouraging our players to shoot their layups with their weak hand. We do it in practice, we do it in warm-ups, we do it in games. We say, “Great job shooting that one with your left hand,” even if the ball doesn’t go in the basket. How else are the players ever going to develop their weak hand layup? In three years they will all be so much better off for having missed a ton of layups in fourth grade practices. Those mistakes will eventually lead to an improved ability to make weak hand layups as the players get older.

What coaches should hold players accountable for is a lack of effort. If a player doesn’t run the floor hard in a game or is loafing through a drill by all means there should be a consequence for that. As I wrote last week, that doesn’t mean coaches should have a quick hook for every mistake, but it does mean players should know that lack of skill is ok (as long as they are working to get better), but a lack of effort is not acceptable.

Leave us a comment about this post headstartbasketball@usa.net

Sign up now to get a “Head Start” on your competition with our free basketball tip of the day delivered straight to your inbox. Click below, enter your email and we’ll also send you our E-Book, “Mental Toughness, Improve Your Brain – Improve Your Game”.

Free Tip of the Day!

Posted in Blog Post, Coaching Youth Basketball