Encourage vs Discipline

The only thing I ask from every one of our players is that they leave everything they have on the court. We let them know that if we have 5 on the court, we have 5 or more sitting next to us on the sidelines that would love to be IN the game, not watching. The other thing that we want every player to feel is encouragement. If they make a great play on defense, get a big rebound or make a great pass – they are going to hear it from our bench. Positive re-enforcing our kids allows them to have more fun and feel appreciation and even the love that we as coaches have in them.

With positive re-enforcement, younger players feel more a sense of freedom and confidence. Just about every practice we tell our players, if you feel good about the shot and you have your feet set, fire away. Time and score also play somewhat of a factor in this. A shot for one player, may not be a good shot for another. Again, depending on time and score. One thing is for sure, we want our players to play aggressive, give their all and have fun.

We have played teams in the past that seem to almost use discipline as a scare tactic. I can hear one coach in particular in my mind and him screaming at the top of his lungs at one of their players. I cringe just thinking about that. Hopefully we are the beginning of a long, fun basketball career. Youth basketball is intended to teach players the right way to play a sport that nearly anyone throughout the world can do. There is no language barrier in the game of basketball, at least not in my opinion.

The Bobby Knights of the world probably don’t belong coaching youth. I do understand, at times, it is good to have a “good cop, bad cop” combo.