There is a dilemma among us that is destroying the fabric of our basketball history across the nation. Our history was woven together by coaches teaching kids the fundamentals of the game and the kids going home to that one goal driveway and wearing that new basketball out.
Well how have things changed for our youth of today? Are they still playing basketball? You bet! However it is exactly that, playing! Let me explain. It is called competition. Competition is not a bad thing when used in the right context. I believe that the right context is at the age at which children know how to respond to the pressure of competition. By responding to pressure I mean that a child can accept the mistakes they may have made resulting in a win or loss and not take it to heart to the point of break down. I have seen this take place a number of times at the 6th grade through 10th grade realm of athletics. A break down means to give up the sport as a result of burnout or to continue to play with out a heart felt willingness to improve and give 100%. The player comes to the realization that the sport is just not worth the effort anymore.
The mentality that we have developed in our society of youth sports is how many games can we get in this season? The more games the better. Even better than more games, let’s move our team up a division and play against older kids. Then we will really get better. This is a concept that develops fundamental deficient disorder. This is a disorder that I came up with to describe what happens to these types of kids. If a player has trouble handling the basketball with his or her left hand and now that player is playing against someone who is stronger and faster, then they will not use that weak hand. This goes for all aspects of the game, not just ball handling. So if a player is not learning to develop their weaknesses in the games then when are they learning to develop these weaknesses? In practice? Not hardly. Coaches are faced with many problems when it comes to practices.
The concept of too much playing and not enough fundamental practice is nothing new however it is getting worse. The number of youth teams is growing each year. This does not mean that there are no good players. There are many great athletes and there are some coaches that take the time to teach fundamentals even at the cost of practice time, but for the most part we are loosing the battle. High school coaches are trying to compete with the idea that they need to get the best athletes available and do what they can with them because that don’t have time to develop a fundamental team in the time they get from first practice to first game. So the players that are coming up are not fundamental and yet they have played hundreds more games than some of the most fundamental players in the history of basketball, i.e. Larry Byrd, Magic Johnson, Jerry West, and Michael Jordan, at the same point in their high school careers.
So what is the answer? If you have a flat tire you don’t just get out and talk about the tire and it fixes itself. This is the same kind of problem we are facing in basketball. It is time to fix the problem.