Finding ways to challenge your team is always difficult. In a typical AAU season, you might coach 40 or 50 games and the players get tired of hearing the same thing over and over.
In reality, if they give maximum effort, are prepared and take care of all of the things that are in their control, then it doesn’t matter. The outcome takes care of itself. I have coached many “B” and “C” level teams during my AAU career. I always insisted that we never give anyone a reason to think we were anything other than an “A” level team. The way the players “look” as a basketball team has always been the challenge that I put out for my teams.
Several seasons ago, we took a Dayton Lady Hoopstars “B” team to a tournament out of state. We played two state champions and two state runner-ups from the previous season. We finished 0-4 and lost all four games by a total of 23 points. Believe it or not, we were ecstatic. Two of the opposing coaches asked about a particular player (Alison Bales) and why she wasn’t with us. Because of our effort, attitude and performance, they had assumed we were the “A” team. Our goal was to be competitive with the best teams we could find and we achieved that.
Here are some of my favorite motivational tricks.
Try to find situations and statistics that you can use as a new standard. For instance, if you have a game where your team only has three unforced turnovers, use that as the new acceptable level.
Other statistics to use are the number of uncontested shots, deflected passes or five-second calls.
Also, I like to learn the tradition of the program I am coaching and pass that information along to the players. They love to hear about former players, teams and their successes. On an individual basis, I give out gift certificates ($1 or $0.50 from a popular fast food restaurant) for various achievements. Any time a player takes a charge, defends to receive a five-second call or gets a “tip from behind,” they get a gift certificate.
Motivate and be great!
Motivating players during the AAU season versus a typical school team season can be two totally different things. For school teams, playing time serves to be the main driver if used effectively. In AAU , where you play most of, if not all of your kids - then I agree you need to me alot more creative. While PT itself might not be enough, just the privilidge of starting and/or finishing games (close games) might be a good carrot. Another idea might be rewarding kids for things like \’hustle plays\’ by holding them out of some conditioning work at practice. You will find that not every thing works for everyone, so experiment. Find whats works best for you and your kids and run with it!
Comment by Mike Freshwater — April 22, 2009 @ 6:54 am
Great Point. Bo Ryan said at the UD coaches clinic years ago \"Reware those players that do the things that don\’t take extraordinary talent\" such as hustle plays etc.
Comment by Bill Salyers — April 22, 2009 @ 1:23 pm