Team Chemistry

When I think about our power soccer team, I realize that what we really need to work on is our communication, but there are definite signs of improvement. Last night, I was very encouraged as we were actually calling out when a defender was in the box rather than tripping into a three in the box call and giving up a free kick. For those of you who don't know, there can only be one defender and goalkeeper in the goal box at once. The offense does not have a limit though, so it is important for someone to be in the box to support the goalkeeper. However, I think that communication goes both ways, on offense as well as defense. Communication does not necessarily need to be verbal because often times verbalization well give away a wide open weak side cut. However, sometimes something as simple as eye contact can be enough if the team chemistry is there. I do realize that some of us, like myself, have some issues physically rotating our bodies, but we all have cues that we as teammates will learn to read and react accordingly. I am hoping to be able to pick these up from my teammates better so that we all can function as a better team.

Try to Get Published!

Hey everyone, before I write on Fiction Friday, I hope that some of you are speed writers. I just found out about this today, and luckily I already had a story written to enter. ESPN the Magazine is running a contest until June 1 requesting entries of sports fiction for potential publication in either ESPN the Magazine or Stymie, a journal of sports and literature. Here's the link to the flyer, and happy writing if you want to enter it with me! Now, on to my own writing today.

Joe Oken stood on the top step of the dugout watching his pitcher warm-up and infield take some grounders. He thought they looked pretty good, but it was hard to tell with baseball. Baseball is by far the most fickle sport. Some days you could throw a no-hitter, and some days you couldn't get anybody out. That was part of the reason he loved it, but there was more than that. How many other jobs give you an excuse to sit outside in the warm Georgia spring and watch a game being played that you were too old to play but still loved. He was 65 and recently retired from his job at the plant, but he could not retire from baseball. He had been coaching this team for 40 years at St. John's High School, he was now coaching kids of the kids he had started coaching in the 70s. That was kind of weird, he thought, but he really didn't worry too much about it. If you have something you love and the relationship is mutually beneficial, why bother leaving? He had taken the team to the state tournament 15 times and even had two state championships from the late 80s and early 90s. He would never forget that team; they could do everything well. Now, at the start of a new season, he was hoping to rekindle this magic that he hadn't felt on the field for a long time.
Photo by jdn on Flickr

Youth Coaching

Think about all that you need to learn when you enter kindergarten. Everything is new, and everything is probably different than it was at your home. You need to learn how to do math, write basic letters and read them, and do it all within a schedule that you probably never had before; no one cares when you want to stop building with blocks and watch TV at home. In a somewhat similar way, this is similar to beginning to play any sport. There are now rules and different skills you need to learn in order to be successful. Also, like basic letterwriting or 1+1, the fundamentals are incredibly basic, but if you do not have them, you will not be able to succeed a higher level. Think about trying to do algebra without 1+1; it is the same as trying to play football without proper tackling form or hockey without any puck control. This is why youth coaching is so important; if the fundamentals are not in place at an early age, they will still need to be developed when other kids at the same age are advancing to much more technical and usually more effective skills. Youth coaches are usually parent volunteers, but they deserve so much more credit than they get; without them, our youth sports programs and consequently our higher-level programs would all fall apart.
Photo by Chase N on Flickr

Development

Yesterday I told you that at those websites I listed would help you learn something. So, now it's my turn to prove that these websites helped me learn something.

Of course, we all know that the fundamentals are the most important thing to nail first. Why bother with any sophisticated strategy if your team doesn't even have the skills to execute it? However, once you develop this relatively basic area, there are a few ways you can take your team and each player individually. One way to develop athletes is to specialize whereas other coaches prefer to develop more well-rounded athletes who will not excel in any area but be proficient in all of them.

Both systems have their benefits, and that's what I'm going to look at right now. Specializing is what I feel needs to be done eventually. However, if you do it at a young age, what happens if the players develop differently as they get older? Some kids might be really short until high school, but they could hit a growth spurt and all of a sudden be better suited for the post. What do you do then? This is a pitfall of early specialization. It is not bad to have tall people who have skills like a guard, but it is a problem when a guy stops growing at five foot eight and all he knows is how to play the post. So, I think you eventually need to specialize, but make sure you're absolutely sure about what position that player will be best suited for in the long run, not just right now.

Photo by Ed Yourdon on Flickr

No Break for Athletes

There is no off-season. I never used to think about it when I was younger and watching various high school teams. However, as I went to high school and now see some athletes at UVM, I realized that playing a sport at a competitive level, even just a Vermont high school, requires off-season training. I don't mean to belittle Vermont high schools; but there are fewer kids competing for roster spots, so you have a higher percentage chance of being on the team. Since right now is the off-season for basketball players, I thought that I would compile a list of links to some of my favorite basketball websites for any players who need to improve, coaches who want them to improve, or fans like myself who just like to learn about basketball.
• http://www.guidetocoachingbasketball.com/
This one is especially good for younger teams as some of the information is pretty simple. However, there is a ton of information on it.
• http://www.coachesclipboard.net/
I love all of the play diagrams on this website. Also, the animation is a major plus. You can pay for more features, but the free version is good for me.
• http://www.hoopsu.com/
Another one of my favorites, but I think that whatever they lack in amount of content they make up in quality.
• http://www.coachlikeapro.com/
Slightly older website just by looking at it, but they do have some decent stuff about strength training and plyometrics.
• http://www.akcoach.com/
Sort of a differently formatted website, but there are plenty of ideas here for everyone.

I hope you like these sites, but just reading them alone won't help. Get out there, play, and get ready to dominate next year!

Photo by laffy4k on Flickr

Tryouts

How do I choose?

Standing on the sidelines, Coach Rick Williams was caught between the proverbial rock and hard place. He had nailed down nine spots on his select travel basketball team, but that one remaining spot was giving him more trouble than the previous nine combined. On one hand, he could take Luke, a kid who was clearly not at the level of all of the other players on that team but in terms of basketball IQ and potential "player-coach" material, he was unmatched. Rick could totally see him turning into a big-time coach someday; he just knew what to say to fire up his teammates and explain what had to be done. However, as a basketball player, he could not translate all that knowledge into on court performance.

On the other side, he could take Jake. As much as Luke knew the right thing to say, Jake knew what to say to turn off his teammates. His high school coach had told Rick that the one day that Jake missed practice all year was the most relaxing and positive practice of the year. If this team was about personality, there was no way he would have a place on it. However, basketball involves talent, and boy did Jake ever have that. At a very lean six foot five and 36 inch vertical, physical talent alone could get Jake on to anything he had ever tried out for. He had never played football before his freshman year of high school, but when he walked onto the field to try out, he made varsity.

So, how do you choose? Does it really matter how "coachable" a kid is? Maybe he just needs the right type of coach. Rick wanted to think that he was the right type of coach for everyone, but he knew that wasn't true. Now the choice was his; how could he ever decide?
Photo by DRB62

Help!

I love man-to-man defense as a general rule as long as you are just as athletic as your opponent. If your opponent can outrun you, man-to-man defense especially of the full-court variety will most likely fail. Therefore, an athletic team will be able to lock down their opponent with man-to-man most of the time simply because they will not get burned. However, just as the old proverb says, there will always be someone out there who is better than you are, or at least more athletic than you are. How then would a team who has played man-to-man defense all season defend this one team who is able to outrun you? The simple answer is through help defense. I know this sounds ridiculously obvious because every coach preaches the emphasis of help defense. Nevertheless, very few teams do it correctly. Why do very few teams do it correctly? I think the problem often lies with the players who are not aware of what is going on. Help defense needs to be a team effort, if one player fails to help, the whole system will fall apart. If someone gets burned on defense, somebody needs to step in to stop penetration. This will mean abandoning their assignments somewhat, but you need to force the offense to make that one more pass or take the contested layup. In either of these two results, there is a greater potential for error than that of the wide-open layup. Taking advantage of the help coverage and therefore open shooter most likely on the perimeter requires an awareness of a player that the opening is even there. In driving to the hoop from the right side, if help comes from the right side, the attacker will have his or her back to the wide-open player. Obviously then, the defender will be able to "cheat" over onto the open man without sacrificing a wide-open shot potentially. Even if players are getting consistently burned by a more athletic opponents, I think that with a solid man to man defense that can execute proper help, even the unathletic teams will be able to keep up and shut down their opponent.

Coaching and Clarification

Part two: how on earth to find the right coaches to coach in this system? First though, let me clarify a main point. The six teams would not be the only six in Vermont. If I were in charge running an AAU club, this is how I would develop it to create what I believe would be a system that would hopefully help players develop into the best they're capable of becoming. There would definitely be other teams operating because there is no regional "boss" who can regulate who creates a team and who does not. Therefore, while I still do believe that there are too many teams that talent out too far, I also realize that just creating the system I am proposing would not change the whole scenario in Vermont. My goal would be to create a system where the best players to play together on a wider scale to hopefully stimulate the development of Vermont basketball. This might sound somewhat elitist simply because I was one the best players to play for my organization. However, how is this different than any other AAU team? No matter how much I have said that there are too many teams in Vermont, I would do nothing concerning these teams other than trying to concentrate the best players within this new system. Why then would I be confident that the best players would want to play in the system? Well, one major reason would be the coaches. They would need to be focused on development, not so much on the final record. While this may seem odd coming from me, stay with me. If you take the approach of winning first, you might overlook faults in players because if they are winning right now, you'd be doing your job. However, if the focus is on development, you would see continual ways to improve because, as we all know, there is no perfect basketball player or team. In fact, I believe that if the focus is on the development of the player the wins will follow because the team will continue to improve and always be searching for ways to improve. Self-evaluation is never a bad thing, so I believe that one of the most important jobs of the coach is to develop this attitude in his or her players so that they will not become overly satisfied once the wins start coming. Tomorrow, I had to evaluate the best talent to put on an AAU team.