All times are UTC - 6 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 5 posts ] 
  Print view Previous topic | Next topic 
Author Message
PostPosted: 17 Nov 2014, 10:28 

Posts: 56
In another thread, I mentioned that my son (6th grader) made into select team but doesn't get play a lot. He is getting more play time and I think his coach sees lots of good things in terms of individual skills. I got some evaluation from his coach. Basically his coach said that my son has all the individual skills but is not aggressive enough. My son doesn't like body contact. It's just that he hasn't played against rough teams before. These AAU teams play rough and no one even calls fouls.

Here are some things I observed:
1) He can shoot very well during practice. But in the game, his automatic thinking is to pass even he has open shot. Coach even yelled him to shoot.
2) He can run fast. (he is 2nd fastest on the team if your just compare running) But when he defends, he doesn't close out fast enough or run close enough to the ball. Then he keeps backing off.
3) He is one of the two best ball handlers on the team. But he rarely use it to advance himself to a better position. He can pass most players easily.
4) When he receives a pass, he rarely moves his feet to 'meet' the ball.

Here is what I can summarize why he doesn't get enough play tie.
He is one of three best shooters on the team (one of them is PG so rarely has chance to shoot)
He is one of the two best ball handlers on the team (other than PG, he is the best ball handler)
He is one of the four best defenders on the team
He is tall (tallest among guards) and can do rebound

Yet he is not THE best of any of above categories. That's why he is not starter or gets significant play time. For example, one of other guys. He is the best defender and that's all he does. He is a starter.


So his coach lets him play all kinds of positions. I think my son is confused. It's been hard on him in my opinion. When he played PG, he was trapped for 5 seconds and got a violation (closely guarded without passing) once. Last game when playing position 3, he received a ball right under basket which he could have turned around and score. But he automatically made a pass and caused a turnover. After the game, I asked why he did that and he said he was afraid of 5 second violation. I clarified with him and told him forget about 5 second closely guarded violation which is rarely called. they don't even have shot clock.

He is one of the new three players added to the team. The other two new players just play their position only (they can only do that). But for my son, he can shoot, dribble and defend. Basically, he has played positions 1, 2 and 3 so far. Every game is different position for him. I think it's good for him long term. But now he is confused.

I don't want to work on all his shortcomings at once. I'm thinking of start with a couple of things
1) defense (faster close out and closer to defender)
2) perhaps, try to do some body contact like letting him push or by pass me close range when dribbling during practice.

can you guys provide some suggestions?


 Profile  
 
PostPosted: 17 Nov 2014, 14:08 

Posts: 900
I think you're dealing with two things here: 1) increasing his self-confidence and 2) teaching him how to play with contact. My son was a taller player and hadn't really experienced real contact up to 6th grade, which was the year we moved from rec ball to competitive. You could definitely see the kids who'd been playing competitive (or football).

To increase his confidence, we hooked him up with an experienced coach for one hour lessons every other week. Made a dramatic difference in his self confidence as far as taking shots and feeling more confident on the court. As his coach/dad, I still worked with him on the side, but it helped tremendously to have another coach giving him private instruction. Made a huge difference and lit a fire inside him to work on his own. I also told that coach I wanted him to be more aggressive, so he worked with him mentally and on some positioning tricks. He also slapped his arms doing lay-ups or bumped him around during the lessons and made him play through it.

The aggressiveness was a different animal, I struggled with that one. I took him out and would push him around during one on one games with me and explain how he needed to be more aggressive on the court. He wasn't the only kid on the team that needed to learn how to play through things, all the kids had to learn how to play through the "fouls". The leap from rec to competitive can be a big one as it seems like all of a sudden the refs aren't calling the games as tight. That continues as you move up each level.

We used football pads in practice when the kids were doing lay-ups. We slapped their wrists or arms as they were going up and the goal was to make the lay-up anyway. It was something we did every practice with variations on the theme. Had several drills that helped with aggressiveness and we basically preached that the refs weren't going to rescue them, they had to play through it.

Every kid is different on the aggression level in terms of how aggressive they are and when it kicks in. I kept waiting for my son to get angry when some kid pushed him and it wasn't happening. I didn't want to see him get in a fight, just hold is ground and push back. It's a tough deal, especially when a kid is a good kid by default. The aggressiveness seemed to come for my son through doing all of the things above, plus playing more games in more intense situations. There's no substitute for playing in games and gaining that experience.

We played up a level from 7th on, so the competition was intense. It kind of worked itself out because you had no choice but to play more aggressive or sit out. It was wild to finally be that team that coaches would complain about playing rough in a tournament, when all it was is their team just hadn't experienced it yet. We didn't play dirty, just had been banged around (and lost games by a lot because we weren't aggressive) enough to know the drill after a few seasons.

Last piece of advice, make sure no matter what happens, you tell your son after every game, "I enjoyed seeing you play" and save the instruction for a few days later. Easy to get in the trap of critiquing things right after a game or practice.

_________________
CRob


 Profile  
 
PostPosted: 17 Nov 2014, 21:42 

Posts: 900
Talked with my son about this tonight (he's soon to turn 16 - sophomore now) and he reminded me that his desire to become more aggressive on the court kind of just happened for him at the end of 6th/beginning of 7th. He started talking about playing tackle football and more about beating certain teams. We had a rivalry with a team that always seemed to beat us (they were more aggressive) and at one point, he'd had enough of the losing to them.

I'd love to take credit for that transition, but honestly, I think it just happens at various times for each player. A lot probably has to do with puberty. The 6th/7th graders we played against that already had facial hair were bringing it on the court.

I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over it.

_________________
CRob


 Profile  
 
PostPosted: 18 Nov 2014, 08:18 

Posts: 56
Thanks Coach Rob for your tips.

His individual skills well rounded. It's just that his battle spirit is not at the level to match his individual skills.

I started different drills with him at the gym. I try to steal the ball or just be around to create distraction so that he won't just shoot or do layups alone uncontested. Also let him push me through when dribbling.


 Profile  
 
PostPosted: 19 Nov 2014, 06:52 
User avatar

Posts: 3139
Great tips Rob, not much to add there...... most kids will become more aggressive in their own time.


 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 5 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 6 hours


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: