Stan Van Gundy on Youth Basketball
Winning vs. Skill Development
The youth basketball system has become flawed, because some coaches and parents judge whether they've had a successful season based on wins and losses rather than if the players have improved and actually enjoy the game. Without skill development and enjoyment of playing the game, players will never succeed at the higher levels of basketball because they won't be good enough and/or they won't want to practice.You could almost grab any group of kids with average athleticism, play a 1-3-1 half court trap, work on lay ups and offensive rebounding, and you'll win a high percentage of your games against similar competition. I can guarantee that. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out and it doesn't take a good coach to do that. I can also guarantee that they won't develop the necessary basketball skills to be successful at the higher levels. I can't count the number of players that I've coached at the high school level that lacked the necessary basketball fundamentals and struggled to pivot, dribble, pass, and shoot. Not to mention, all of the terrible defensive habits players learned by using poor defensive fundamentals (swarming the ball, constantly lunging out of position) that allowed them to force turnovers, but won't work at the higher levels.
Stan also mentions an important concept of having different ball handlers. Many coaches don't realize it, but to improve a player's ball skills, all players need to be touching and handling the ball during games. If the player stands under the hoop and never touches the ball, he's never going to improve the necessary skills to become a good player. As Stan says, that's why we don't have more 6'8 guys who can shoot, pass, and dribble.
Since strength and coordination restricts the amount of development you can do with shooting for kids generally under the age of 12, you should spend a high percentage of your time improving ballhandling, footwork, passing (passing is even somewhat restricted), and coordination.
These are some reasons, along with many others, that I believe that players under the age of 11 (6th grade) should be playing 3v3 basketball along with plenty of 1v1 and 2v2. It allows for more touches to improve ball skills such as pivoting, ball handling and dribbling, passing, and shooting. It is simple math, you are not going to get as many touches with 5v5 compared to 3v3.
24 minutes divided by 10 (5 players each team) = 2.4 minutes for each player.
24 minutes divided by 6 (3 players each team) = 4 minutes for each player.
The Most Important Aspect of Youth Sports
Something not mentioned in the video, but it is probably the most important aspect of youth sports, are the kids having fun?!? If the kids are not having fun, why would they ever want to participate in the sport as they get older?According to the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports by Michigan State, the top two reasons that kids quit sports is because it's not fun anymore and they are no longer interested.
Top 10 Reasons For Boys:
- I was no longer interested.
- It was no longer fun.
- The sport took too much time.
- The coach played favorites.
- The coach was a poor teacher.
- I was tired of playing.
- There was too much emphasis on winning.
- I wanted to participate in other non-sport activities.
- I needed more time to study.
- There was too much pressure.
- I was no longer interested.
- It was no longer fun.
- I needed more time to study.
- There was too much pressure.
- The coach was a poor teacher.
- I wanted to participate in other non-sport activities.
- The sport took too much time.
- The coach played favorites.
- I was tired of playing.
- Games and practices were scheduled when I could not attend.
Please meet with your league administrators and youth coaches to try to help them understand the glaring need for a revamped youth basketball system. If you have the opportunity, start your own league.
What do you think? What are your experiences? Do you have any thoughts, ideas, and suggestions?
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