Is Your Child's Youth Coach a Good Teacher?

PARENT

  The quality of a child’s experience in organized youth sports is highly dependent on his or her coach. Good coaches both understand their sport and how to communicate this knowledge.

Consider your own education for a moment and how these two teaching attributes impacted the instruction you received. Most of us can recall a teacher who was very knowledgeable—but unable to express information in a clear, concise way. We sometimes were left confused, unable to connect the dots to achieve a solution. Likewise, we may have been exposed to the personable, good communicator who we sensed lacked an in-depth knowledge of the subject taught.

Knowledge and communicative ability—each by itself is insufficient.

Although coaches may use different instructional techniques and emphasize different aspects of the game, they must be knowledgeable teachers with an ability to communicate.

Teaching the game’s values

Besides being a good teacher of a sport’s individual and team skills, the exceptional coach also teaches his or her players how to enjoy the game. This enjoyment comes from many sources, not the least of which is an appreciation for the values of the game—those intrinsic qualities that keep drawing a child back to playing a sport.

An exceptional coach both creates and recognizes moments to highlight these values. He or she may purposefully set up a competitive situation in practice, enabling players to meet and surpass some challenge—and in the process, to help evoke within them important character traits such as perseverance, selflessness, self-control, integrity, fairness, self-confidence and leadership. Practice drills can be more than simply a lesson on skill development. Fun drills and contests can also spark a child’s mind toward a richer experience in sports—one that is filled with passion, self-expression, creativity, and excellence.

Likewise, during a close, exciting contest, a coach may briefly pause and remind his or her players of the moment’s meaning. Or possibly the coach asks a question—like the one Marv Levy, former head coach of the Buffalo Bills famously posed to his football players, “Where would you rather be than right here, right now?” This type of coach invites his or her players to look deeper, beyond winning and external rewards—to also appreciate the intrinsic joy of playing the game.

Throughout practices and games in team sports, the exceptional coach also recognizes opportunities to create bonds of responsibility and caring between players as they pursue a shared team goal. Moments of team success and failure can strengthen these ties. Respect for the game (and all of its participants) is another essential lesson that must be conveyed.

And through all of the above, the exceptional coach inspires his or her players to be the best they can be. Under this coach's tutelage, each player begins to see a possible path to success. Each player sees how he or she can contribute and be part of the team. Each player wants to learn more, both in organized activities and on his or her own.

Finding The Right Coach

As a parent, your goal is to try to find coaches who demonstrate the traits described above. Word-of-mouth recommendations from other parents, direct observation, and feedback from the kids themselves can help you determine the coaches who are the best fit for your child.

“Tough” coaches may be appropriate for your more competitive and confident child while coaches who employ a softer, more supportive style may help your younger beginner find his or her way. But whatever the style, the coach must first be a good teacher—one who can communicate his or her expertise and the values of the game.

Copyright © 2012 Jeffrey S. Rhoads. All Rights Reserved

If you enjoyed this article, you may like my book:
The Joy of Youth Sports: Creating the best youth sports experience for your child (Amazon $8.95)

(Kindle Edition $2.99)

Read more...

To Succeed in Team Sports, Keep Your Head Up!

PLAYER

  Have you ever watched a beginning soccer or basketball player dribble a ball? Typically, this young player is constantly looking down at the ball—especially when closely defended. This behavior is understandable as the player has not yet developed the skills and confidence necessary to dribble the ball without looking at it.

Unfortunately, more advanced players often demonstrate the same behavior. When under pressure (or trying to score) they turn their head downward, exerting all of their concentration and effort on advancing the ball or puck past their defenders.

The problem with this behavior is that success in sports depends on knowing where teammates and opponents are located, where advantage and disadvantage situations exist, and how best to get the ball or puck to, and into, the goal.

To recognize opportunities and play your best, you must be able to see the entire playing field, court, or ice—and that means keeping your head up whenever possible. The ability to do so, especially when trying to control a ball or puck against defensive pressure, depends on your skill level and confidence. You must become comfortable performing these skills while focusing most of your attention on the action around you and elsewhere.

Developing Your "Head Up" Ability

How do you develop this ability? Even without watching a moving object, your mind has an amazing capacity to know where the object will be. Absent visual information, your mind turns to other senses. A kinesthetic sense of body position and visuospatial perception of spatial relationships take over. They create within your your mind's eye an awareness of an object's location in time and space. Using these senses, your mind can accurately predict where an object is and where it will be.

Although the ability to use these senses is challenging at first, you can develop it over time. You just need to repetitively practice your skills, reducing visual input as you become more proficient. Initially, try to use your peripheral vision instead of looking directly at the object you are controlling. Then extend the time you perform the skill with your head up and vision focused elsewhere. (For instance, while dribbling a ball, talk to someone and look directly at their face.)

Head Up to Preempt Defensive Pressure

But what if you don't yet have the ability to perform certain skills well without looking at the ball? How can you still succeed when you have difficulty controlling the ball or puck against aggressive defenders?

Well, keeping your head up gives you another advantage. It enables you to recognize defensive pressure before it’s applied. And by doing so, you can often avoid more difficult situations. By keeping your head up, knowing who is open, and passing the ball or puck to a teammate before your defenders arrive, you preempt the pressure. You avoid the potential turnover. And even lacking outstanding ball or puck handling skills, you still succeed.

Head Up to Maximize Scoring Opportunities

Keeping your head up can also lead to better scoring opportunities for both yourself and your teammates. Passing to an open player closer to the goal (possibly a long pass) is almost always the easiest way to score. But if your head is down, you waste these opportunities.

Closer to the goal, the same principle applies. As you drive toward the goal, you will likely draw defenders toward you. If your head is up and eyes forward, you can recognize opportunities to make a pass to an open teammate for an easy goal. And should you see the defender retreating to cover your teammate, you can instead attempt to score the goal yourself.

Also, by keeping your head up you see all of the little clues that can provide you or your team with an opportunity to gain advantage. For example, you may see that a teammate's defender is overplaying the passing lane and is susceptible to a backdoor cut. At the same time, your teammate may move his eyes or make some other subtle gesture to let you know that he also recognizes the same opportunity and wants you to be ready to make the pass.

Head Up to Avoid Injury

Finally, you must keep your head up to avoid injury. In contact sports such as hockey or football, collisions between players (intentional and unintentional) are part of the game. To lessen their impact and to avoid hurtful hits, you must be aware of player movements and recognize potentially dangerous situations before they occur. Likewise, you also need to be aware of balls, pucks, or other fast moving objects that can cause injury.

So if you want to play your best, and not be sidelined by injury, keep your head up!

Copyright © 2012 Jeffrey S. Rhoads. All Rights Reserved

If you enjoyed this article, you may like my book:
The Joy of Youth Sports: Creating the best youth sports experience for your child (Amazon $8.95)

(Kindle Edition $2.99)

Read more...

The Debate Over Youth Coed Sports

PARENTS

  The March issue of Sports Events Magazine included an article on girls and boys playing sports together. Along with Nancy Hogshead-Makar (Women's Sports Foundation) and Nicole Lavoi, I was asked to contribute my thoughts on this issue.

Some of my quotes reflect ideas that I've already discussed here. Others came from my answers to followup questions posed to me by Marcia Bradford, the article's author.

For anyone interested, here's my full response to Marcia's questions. (It provides some additional context to my statements regarding girls playing sports with boys.)

Copyright © 2012 Jeffrey S. Rhoads. All Rights Reserved

If you enjoyed this article, you may like my book:
The Joy of Youth Sports: Creating the best youth sports experience for your child (Amazon $8.95)

(Kindle Edition $2.99)

Read more...

Girls and Boys Playing Sports Together—A Few More Thoughts

PARENT  

I received a number of interesting comments on an earlier post titled Another Reason Why Competitive Girls Should Play Sports with Boys. Some reflected strong opinions for and against girls "Playing Up" with boys. The last two people to comment didn't waffle in the least. One said, "Boys and girls playing together in competitive sports after adolescence is rubbish." while the other stated, "You are absolutely wrong...you are setting the interests of competitive female athletes back 20 years with this philosophy."

Well, the last thing that I meant to do with my original post was to diminish the opportunity for female athletes to enjoy competitive sports!

In some of these blog comments and a few related tweets mentioning @InsideYouthSprt, there was some confusion regarding a couple of points I originally made. So let me clarify the message I was trying to communicate.

"Strong and Competitive"

First, my support for girls Playing Up with boys was directed primarily at strong, competitive girls who want to improve their play. These are the girls who have the physical ability, sports skills, confidence, and desire to compete against the best competition—regardless of whether its boys or girls, young or old. There is little doubt that these girls (and for that matter, any athletes with these qualities) benefit from this type of play.

In a recent twitter conversation on this subject, an interview with Katie Smith (the WNBA star basketball player) was mentioned. In that GameChangers interview (about 16 minutes in), Katie talked about always playing with boys when she was young. Katie recognized early on that boys provided her with the best competition to improve her already formidable skills.

But as one person later tweeted, "Not a whole lot of Katie Smiths out there." My response: "True...but they're out there! Get the best comp, wherever."

I had the opportunity this last summer to meet and briefly talk with Brianne O'Rourke, a former Big Ten honorable mention point guard who played at Penn State. She was working on her outside shot with another friend of mine. Watching her, it was obvious that she was both physically strong and possessed skills that were better than those of many (most?) high school boys basketball players. As we talked, Briane also struck me as both confident and tough minded. In other words, she possessed all of the traits need to compete against males, and get better in the process.

Still another example is my local high school's point guard. Although not tall, she is extremely athletic. She regularly competes against boys in pickup games to improve her play. (One of the tips I included in my original article came from a discussion with her.)

Self-Directed Play vs. Organized Sports

The second point I want to reiterate is that the recommendations in my original article were mainly directed toward participation in self-directed play (pick-up games). Although my response to some of the article's comments made this point clear, the wording in the initial post unfortunately did not do so. So here again is the point I was trying to make: For strong, competitive girls there are few drawbacks, if any, of Playing Up against boys in pickup games. It's simply one more opportunity to find better competition.

Playing Up in organized sports is another matter—especially when it supplants play with other girls. Whether its boys or girls, Playing Up at higher/older levels has its risks. One of these is that the young athlete ends up playing team roles that possibly stunt the player's development. Also, young players may find themselves in a social environment that is more challenging (and less fun).

In Mars & Venus Have Nothing To Do With It, the blog's author discusses in detail his real world experience with both coed soccer programs and ones that were separated by sex. He makes a number of good points why, for most girls, play with other girls is more beneficial. Even though many of the girls were physically able to compete with the boys, the drawbacks mentioned above came into play. Girls played less aggressively, focusing their play on team roles ("passer") that were not necessarily in their best long term developmental interest.

A similar experience occurred at my local YMCA several years ago. Although the Youth Basketball League was coed (ages 6-11) at the time, the Y's new director decided to establish a separate girls program. Girls participation substantially increased beyond what it was in prior years. For most girls it seemed, the "girls only" approach was the better one—at least in terms of joining in on the play. Interestingly, there were no girls who decided to participate in the "boys" league (which was still coed and available to the better girls who wanted to Play Up.) I can't help but wonder if the strong pull of "community" was in the best athletic interest of the more talented girls.

Summary

So to sum up, here's my recommendation: Physically strong, confident, and skilled girls should always seek opportunities to Play Up in pickup games. To find convenient competition, this will most likely mean playing with boys. Regarding Playing Up with boys in organized sports, parents should think carefully about the benefits and drawbacks of doing so. The right choice is likely one that is particular to each girl and each opportunity.

Do you have any further thoughts on girls competing with boys?

Copyright © 2012 Jeffrey S. Rhoads. All Rights Reserved

If you enjoyed this article, you may like my book:
The Joy of Youth Sports: Creating the best youth sports experience for your child (Amazon $8.95)

(Kindle Edition $2.99)

Read more...