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IN THE FRONT ROW!

As you know, I have 10 years experience coaching girls in basketball, from the age of Kindergarten to High School.  I have learned a lot during those 10 years what makes these girls tick, what motivates them, but that would only be the girls who live in our little pricey community by the beach, so it may not apply to all girls.  Some of what I have learned is because of what I went through growing up, some from being a parent, some from trial and error, and other influences.  I most often had an assistant coach who was a dad, so we would have a good balance, and the dad's were so great, they followed my lead, and they were frankly shocked that my approach worked. To this day, one of my assistant coaches quotes me to his friends, and credits me and reminds me that I taught him how girls tick, he had changed his mind about how to coach girls.

What I have learned is that what works is to figure out how each team member ticks, how each player gets motivated, what matters to each player, how they play with their parents watching, how they get along with their teammates, how they take direction, how they learn (show them, tell them, practice it or all of the above).  After I figure that out, I make sure they spend non-basketball time together, that they hang out and get to know each other.  At practice, I would let them spend 5-10 minutes gabbing and shooting to get it out of their system, then I had to keep practice interesting and fun.  I found the girls learn a lot from just playing, skills and drills are important, but correcting their play while they are playing, that made the most difference.  I made it a rule for not player or coach to ever put down a player, I made it a rule for coaches to not yell at the players, I made sure the girls knew they could make mistakes and I would not get mad, but they would get some instruction to improve.

I learned to hone in on what each player was good at, maybe they were fast, maybe they were great at defense, as I subbed them in, i would make sure that they had at least one thing they needed to do for focusing.   Parents were happy most of the time, the parents that weren't usually were the ones used to their daughters playing 90% of each game, but their daughters actually played better when they got to watch the game dynamics, it motivated them to watch for awhile.

I always believed in my teams, even if we were missing our "best" player, I told them they could win if they wanted to win, they knew I had confidence in them, and they wanted to win for themselves, not from fear of getting yelled at, they wanted to improve because their teammates counted on them and they wanted to play more.  The girls enjoyed the game of basketball.   Oh, one more thing, I always played all the girls, as equally as possible, this way the whole team got better, not just a few players, if they all put in the work, then there should be equal play, now if we had to come from behind in the 4th quarter or it was a close game, then we had to play the stronger players, but the other players totally understood that and were very supportive of their teammates.  Of course this was Recreation basketball...

In High School, the entire focus for parents and players is "How do I get more play time", no matter if you are on the Frosh, JV or Varsity team.  The coaches are the sole decider who gets to play or not for each game, the parents beg their bosses to be able to get off of work mid afternoon to go see their daughter play, the daughter wants all the practice and workouts to use, the whole thing is very frustrating.  If I volunteer, maybe my kid will get play time, if I pay the coach for lessons, maybe they will get closer to the coach and get more play time.  There are 32 minutes in a game, you can't get 12 players into a 32 minute game somehow? On a FROSH Team? 

I also find it very interesting that some of these high school players learned things in rec ball and Jr. High school basketball that they aren't even utilizing in High School.  I am talking offensive plays, press, double teaming, man-to-man defense, etc.  Shocking really that in rec ball all these facets of basketball were taught and learned, but in High School the girls are told "you won't be able to learn the plays", frankly shocking.

All in all, I have been through this will my oldest child, and it is better this time around, she is enjoying herself, the Varsity coach is inclusive and the girls feel important, but there is a ton of drama with the boosters and the parents.  Again, expected all this...what makes me feel better is that the game my child was able to play the most in was the one we won, and the 2 games I was allowed to coach with a fellow rec coach dad, we won both games, games were supposed to lose, so that is the saving grace for me.

God help me through this season, and let there be offensive plays, and various defensive strategies, and more substitutions, and more positive encouraging coaching...AMEN!