Tweet
My 7 year old son plays in a basketball league and our first game was yesterday. The head coach did not show up, so I was drafted to coach the game. We started with a 20 minute practice, and then play a 24 minute game.
Initially we practiced chest/bounce passing, dribbling, rudimentary shooting, and then a few minutes practicing basic defense. We figured out that 5 of 8 players had experience from the previous season, and split up the group so that the experienced/inexperienced players would be balanced when the game started. (In this league, teams are formed completely at random, so there is no stacking of teams.)
It turns out that the other team was completely inexperienced, none had played before. Our team got out to a fast lead. We put a great emphasis on allowing all of our players to bring the ball down the court, pass, shoot, etc. We made every effort to allow all of our players a chance to handle the ball so that they could get a feel for the game and improve.
The referee started calling our team for absolutely ridiculous violations, in a blatant attempt to keep the game close. (Yes, this is a 7 year old league.) Even still, we said nothing. We didn't call out the ref, complain about the other teams violations, or complain that the other team had two coaches on the floor (only allowed one).
Our team wins 20-0. Throughout the entire game we encouraged our kids to pass, use teamwork, etc. At the end of the game, the league director grabs myself and the other dad helping. He says that should we ever get up like that again, we should make our kids pass 5 times before shooting. He also suggested that we not play defense (as it was, our kids didn't pick up the other team until the made it to the free throw line). He kept going on and on about trying to keep the scores competitively even, and I stood there agreeing with him. But after a while I pointed out that we in fact were encouraging passing, weren't trying to RUTS, etc. I also pointed out that we do have the obligation to allow our lesser experienced players the chance to learn the game.
The league official became a bit upset at that, and told us that we needed to do it, or else. At this point I backed off, and he apologized but explained that they have a ton of parents complaining about the results of games. He said that oversees a league that has over 600 players, and he regularly spends his Mondays responding to "dozens" of various complaints about the officiating, scoring, other teams, etc.
Anyways, this certainly wasn't the most egregious example of youth-sports-gone-wild. But it opened my eyes a lot. Basically, a bunch of loudmouths with access to email can completely demasculinize a basketball league to the point that you can't actually play basketball. Instead, it's like soccer with hoops.
Initially we practiced chest/bounce passing, dribbling, rudimentary shooting, and then a few minutes practicing basic defense. We figured out that 5 of 8 players had experience from the previous season, and split up the group so that the experienced/inexperienced players would be balanced when the game started. (In this league, teams are formed completely at random, so there is no stacking of teams.)
It turns out that the other team was completely inexperienced, none had played before. Our team got out to a fast lead. We put a great emphasis on allowing all of our players to bring the ball down the court, pass, shoot, etc. We made every effort to allow all of our players a chance to handle the ball so that they could get a feel for the game and improve.
The referee started calling our team for absolutely ridiculous violations, in a blatant attempt to keep the game close. (Yes, this is a 7 year old league.) Even still, we said nothing. We didn't call out the ref, complain about the other teams violations, or complain that the other team had two coaches on the floor (only allowed one).
Our team wins 20-0. Throughout the entire game we encouraged our kids to pass, use teamwork, etc. At the end of the game, the league director grabs myself and the other dad helping. He says that should we ever get up like that again, we should make our kids pass 5 times before shooting. He also suggested that we not play defense (as it was, our kids didn't pick up the other team until the made it to the free throw line). He kept going on and on about trying to keep the scores competitively even, and I stood there agreeing with him. But after a while I pointed out that we in fact were encouraging passing, weren't trying to RUTS, etc. I also pointed out that we do have the obligation to allow our lesser experienced players the chance to learn the game.
The league official became a bit upset at that, and told us that we needed to do it, or else. At this point I backed off, and he apologized but explained that they have a ton of parents complaining about the results of games. He said that oversees a league that has over 600 players, and he regularly spends his Mondays responding to "dozens" of various complaints about the officiating, scoring, other teams, etc.
Anyways, this certainly wasn't the most egregious example of youth-sports-gone-wild. But it opened my eyes a lot. Basically, a bunch of loudmouths with access to email can completely demasculinize a basketball league to the point that you can't actually play basketball. Instead, it's like soccer with hoops.
Essentially, he's asking us to do the equivalent of taking a knee, every down, starting early in the 3rd quarter.
Comment