HI, AGAIN COACHES..
I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS.

i coach 13 years old boys for 4 months now, and here is my current problem...
the best player started to practice poor(30 % of max), and after some 2 weeks i benched him, and now he play, but from bench, and he don:t mind. but he still practice poorly. after that i praise my second player, whoo become my first scorer, and now he is acting strange...
what can i do to prevent that?
my oppinon is that they can:t stand pressure of beeing leader, so they sabotage themselves.
they know that i can:t let them play much if they don:t practice and act corectly.

do i expect too much of them, and they feel burden?

That's a tough question to answer. Have you talked to these players? Ask them what they think? Have you gotten to know them outside of basketball? Find out what makes them tick? Every player is motivated by different things. If you read this report closely and study it, I think you'll find that building relationships with your players is pretty important.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/mental/motivate-players.html

If you talk with them and try to get them to open up, you might find out what is happening. Maybe they lack confidence. Maybe they are having trouble at home. Maybe they don't understand what you want from them.

Tough deal coach.... remember,. they are 13 and need a lot of guidance... they can be goofy sometimes if you don't keep them busy.

Don't take this wrong, but take a look at your practice plans... are you keeping them moving? Do you keep the segments short... 5-10 minutes tops...... are the drills competitive? Are they having FUN?

Here is a couple of things we did at our practices.... when we shot free throws.... it was a contest... you make your own rule... but the losers ran up and back while everyone else clapped.

One rule we had was NO one run alone... regardless of the reason... we didn't say WHO should run with that single person... but SOMEONE had to run... sometimes a couple of guys would run with them... builds camaraderie.

Another thing we did was to play games to 6 and everyone had to score before any player could hit the winning basket.... builds team work.... NO dribble games help too.... forces them to play like a team... all these things are fun.

We always ended practice with what we called "situations" ... these are mini games... you make up the rules. One example is... 45 seconds on the clock... team A is up by two point, team B has the ball 84' from the basket, 1 or NO timeouts left... and both teams are in the bonus.... so how are you going to play it.... we always ran those twice... first time the kids did what they thought was right... then we talked a bit about options and how I would like to see it happen and then we did it again.... a great teaching tool... and its FUN. Makes them want to come back to practice the next day.

Thats a great article Jeff.... that should help a lot also..... your advice about getting to know them OFF the court is important... kids need to know you care ..... IF they know that, they will run through a wall for you.

Very tough situation to answer or help with, especially not knowing all the facts. Many circumstances could be at play in this. What are the boy's home life like? Speaking from experience, that plays a big part in how you can motivate kids. If a child is verbally abused or chastised a lot at home, that type of coaching does not usually work well with them. Some kids that you challenge verbally to be leaders just don't respond well to that type of challenge. And, like I said, I don't know enough about the situation to know what is going on. My suggestion would be to try a new tactic with them. Obviously what your using now is not working. Explain to them the importance of leading by example. Praise, praise, and more praise is the key. As coaches/teachers we are quick to find and point out what someone is doing wrong. But many times, we are terribly slow at pointing out what they are doing right!

There is an old saying.... " Ten attaboys for one Oh darn "

Changed the word to protect the innocent. :-)

That specific boy have nice family, i think... father is old(57), and maybe he has no much energy to educate 13 years old boy.. they have money, and kid gets everything he wishes. i think that is big problem, because i am only person in his world who don:t allow him to do everything he wishes...
i change tactic about him every ween, we will see what happens. thank you for advices

I would say that he probably respects you for NOT allowing him to do anything he wants... kids want limits, regardless of what they say... you are spending quality time with him as his coach... thats a lot better than just buying him/them everything they want.
Be firm, fair and consistent with all your kids... that way they will know what to expect and will act accordingly.....
Let us know how things are going.

i will coach...thank you

coaches, one more observation...i noticed that player, that we discus ,
, he play games with great enthusiasm, and he is one of the best players on court , buy when is time to practice he is not giving his best. he is practicing with 20% of his maximum!!
. he tell me that he watches highlights of MJ and Kobe every day.
could it be that he thinks that basketball is just highlights???
it seems that practice is booring him, and he don:t see any goal in good practice, because highlights are more amusing......
when i say to him that MJ and Kobe are the best players on practice, that why they are the best, i don:t thing he believe me.....
too bad there are no highlights of practice :D:D

any thoughts?