I recently helped a friend of mines run a basketball class. Most kids who truly liked the sport were participating in the activities and having fun, but there was a child or two always trying to get out of participating or doing anything that had to deal with basketball. At times he will draw others who to join him in not participating and doing his own thing. My question to the forum is what are some things that my partner could do to engage this kid to fully enjoy the class for the whole time without messing up the development of the others in the class?

Brian

How old are the kids?

Age does have a lot to do with this.. It sounds like they are pretty young and maybe they don't want to be there??

.Keep the kids moving, keep drills short and try to make them compettive.... and fun.

I help shooting camps for kids of all ages, boys & girls... typically the kids were 6th grade and up. One year this mother brought her son in, he was maybe 8? After llooking at the older kids she said that maybe this isn't the right camp for him. I told her to keep her money, let him stay today and see if he likes it. He was back the next day, mom said he insisted on it. We adjusted a lot of the things we did for him so he would have some success.

It wasn't all shooting, ball handling, passing, dribbling, pivoting etc.

Can you tell us exactly what they are doing and what your class involves?

The kids ages are between 5-12 in the class. The kid in question is about 8 or 9 I want to say. The instructor does the dribbling drills and nice shooting games and passing and pivot stuff but the kid seems more in tune with video games rather than basketball. It seems like it a parent pushing the child to be active and hes just not into it He would make excuses to go to the bathroom or get breaks just to get out of doing activities. I want to get him to like the sport but how is it possible when he comes in like hes not interested and just doing it for mom and dad?

Sounds like you are right..... he really doesn't want to be there. Why don't you try talking to him and ask him which activities he really likes to do. That might give you a hint to him wanting to be there or not. IF you find something he likes to do, that might peak his interest a little bit.

Do you play any team games?? You might add 3 on 3.... you can play 4 on 4 with the game to 5 and EVERYBODY has to score before anyone can make the game winner?? Just a thought.

Good luck.

If he's truly there because mom or dad forced him, that's a tough situation. A lot of times kids like that feel inadequate doing something outside of their comfort zone. I'm guessing he's probably not that good at sports? Maybe finding a few things he's good at and catch him doing those. A lot of encouragement during the class. Catching him after class and pumping him up with a few simple honest kudos about what he did in class.