I wonder if any one out there has experience coaching Chinese players. The language is part of the problem but some of them speak very good English and can translate when needed. But I'm wondering if there are things about the culture that would help me to connect with and motivate them, The majority of them seem quite passive. If any one has some insight I'd love to hear from you.

Domerket: first of all please tel me where you are coaching that you come across Chinese playersI taught and coached several years in Mainland China and my experience has been not to follow stereo types. Of course there is going to be a language barrier and no matter how much you try to slow down your talk during time outs or practices, something WILL be missed in translation. While in China, I depended on my translator as well as my limited knowledge of Mandarin but I mostly I depended on my posy board a picture is worth a 1000 words.,
Chinese players show passivity because they simply dont understand you. Yes even with a translator, most of the dialogue can get lost. Why dont they say "I dont understand"?, because of "face" saying they dont understand, causes many Chinese to "lose face" and this is a big thing to the Chinese. I have found, that the Chinese player can be as aggressive as other players around the world, and as most players, they dont like to lose. However, I found the biggest problem was in coaching. Many Chinese coaches. have never been taught to coach the game and those that have, still dont seem to get it. I now operate a basketball academy in Hong Kong, and last week, I watched a coach working out some kids. This coach ran the same drill for over 30 minutes and this is not isolated it happens all the time. I was refereeing a game between two local women's teams and with about 5 minutes to go, and one team up by almost 40 points the coach who was leading, called a time out. following the time out, the leading team came with a full court press scoring at will. Following the game, I asked the winning coach why he called the time out to set up a press with such a huge lead, his answer, "oh that was a mistake" followed by: we also wanted to work on our press during game conditions. They just dont get it..Coach Mac

Coach Mac is the expert on this one...... he has spent several years working with Chinese players... and he certainly knows all the ups and downs while trying to deal with them. ( or at least thats what he tells me HA HA ) just kidding Mac...... I hope all is well. We need to talk again one of these days.

Hey Good morning coach S....just missed you by a hair this morning will contact you via messenger this week regards your friend ....Mac

Sorry we missed each other - looking forward to chatting with you again. :-)

Ken

Thanks Coach Mac,
I coach at a very small private school in Orange County, California. Our student population is about 50% domestic and 50% foreign. Of those foreign better than 90% are Chinese. For some reason very few of the domestic kids play basketball. Our team make up this year is 7 Chinese, one Japanese and two domestics. My two captains are Chinese and they also work as my translators. They have both been here for three years and their English is very good. Your advise on using the posy board is spot on. I have definitely underutilized that resource. Thanks again for your simple, straight-forward advice.

Coach: its my pleasure, by the way, the reason I stated not to follow stereotypes, is because they are misleading. when Yao first came to the NBA, one of his teammates said that it was not in the Chinese culture to dominate, at the time I had no idea what he meant. Well, that's a stereotype and certainly not a correct one. I was the assistant coach of the Hong Kong men's National team when we competed in the Asian games for the right to go onto the Olympics. that was the first year we made the medal rounds and played China in the first game. They humiliated us 137-41 and full court pressed from beginning to end with Yao Ming at 7'5" with the wing span of a Boeing 747 on the ball and 7 foot Wang zhi zhi protecting the paint...We could hardly inbound the ball and even with that huge lead, they never substituted. So much for the stereo types that the Chinese dont like to dominate. Good luck coach mac.. .