The thought occurred to me the other night while watching the NBA playoffs that there is an inherent danger for high school coaches, who are getting geared up for their summer basketball programs, that their kids are watching all this stuff and preparing to imitate what they see.
Here are a couple of hints to help avoid a rough carryover from TV watching to summer play.
First of all, take into account that in a lot of summer-league hoop play, and AAU or YBOA play, that the game officials may be new to officiating. In many cases, officials this time of the year are inexperienced. This does not, in and of itself, make them bad officials.
Inexperienced refs often go one of two ways. They may over-officiate and call every tiny little thing, in great hopes of getting everything correct. On the other hand, they may let stuff go, in hopes of keeping all things and parties happy.
I was a young official many years ago, and I felt it was my job to get everything right.
For coaches and their players, the only common denominator is looking — hopefully — for the correct formula which will aid what goes on come fall.
Coaches, teach your players to treat the games as an aid for what goes on in the fall.
There are several ways in which coaches can gain value for the fall and winter months from what transpires in the summer.
Avoiding bad habits can be broken down into several parts. The consummate hoop boss must always be on guard for sloppy defensive habits such as hacking on defense.
How does a high school coach monitor such things, you’re asking? Simple. You, as coach, can keep a discipline journal of all your players’ activities.
Attend an AAU game and take note of all defensive errors, committed by your kids.
Too time consuming, you’re saying. Fine, then address these problems with the coach or talk to your players themselves.
Remember to always respect the decisions made by officials, then try to clean up what you see in your own summer practice. The fallacy is that you, as coach, can clean all this up when you have the players under your watch.
Unfortunately, my friends, by the time these kids get back to you, it may be too late.
A second mechanism may be tape.
Taping someone else’s games may be a burden, but visible truth about showing players what they did wrong is often the best tool to use to re-inform the message you are attempting to deliver.
Rough play is often repeated in the setting you have no control over. By pushing the rules you have established for your own program, you may take a giant step in keeping all of your kids on the same page — defensively — and that goes a along way in improving all aspects of your program.
