Last week my son, a 7th grader, played a great game and scored 18 points against one of the best teams year in and year out in our area. He was thrilled. He shot well, played great defense, made a couple of shots that he probably should not have taken at all, and was 4 for 4 from the free throw line.
We go up to the gym after the rec games finish each Sunday evening and shoot for about an hour to get the kinks out of his shot. We turn up the music on the speaker system so he can get loose and have a little fun. During the season the good shooters need to keep up their shooting reps or they will pick up bad habits because they start to get a little tired and alter their shooting form to compensate for weaker legs. I know lots of good shooters who went into a slump and could not find an open gym to go shoot through it – you just do not get enough shooting practice every day practicing 90 minutes with the team. That really is not my story however…
On Wednesday he had another game against a much worse team. After listening to his glowing comments about Monday’s game and almost needing to widen the doorway on the house to let his head in the front door I was a little worried about a downturn. His team was 5-0 going into the game on Wednesday. True to form, it was like another boy was playing in his place. A couple of early fouls got him out of the game for the first quarter, he forced some shots trying to score some points, and we looked up at the end of the game and had lost by 5 to a team we would beat 8 or 9 out of ten times we played them.
Unless it is really positive, I like to let the games die after they are played and re-visit them a day or so afterwards. I heard a great speaker say that the number one things kids do not like about sports is the ride home right after the game - when they get all the wise and free advice from their parents about what they could have done better. When I was in 7th grade I was a bench guy so I pretty much keep quiet about his game unless it involves sportsmanship. He has a lot more talent than I did at that age and I turned out to be good enough to play and love the game in high school so I give him a lot of slack. The points that I brought up to him were two fold: 1) It is difficult to do, but great players are content to let the game come to them and not be the top scorer each time out. Sometimes it just does not happen. They don’t resort to forcing shots up to get their share of the points. They figure out a way to help the team without needing to score. 2) When the jump shot is not falling, great players do something to drive to the basket and get fouled, make some free throws and get a rhythm going. Doing so will make you become part of the game and help the team at the same time.
I told him about the law of averages and that it is designed to take in the good and the bad games. He listened for a moment and went up to his room. Good thing they have another game on Monday.
Coach Chuck
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Saturday, December 8, 2007
Saturday, December 1, 2007
You Don't Scout the JV Game!
My brother is an assistant varsity basketball coach at a school in my son’s league. They are always good and he is very loyal to them. He has been with them for 8 years and they have won the league championship in 5 of those years. He carries out all the duties of an assistant very well, including scouting as many teams as he can during the course of a season.
My son is a freshman and was moved up from the freshman team to the JV team for his school, which is a big honor. I was a little concerned at first about playing time and how he would be received by the other players but he has quickly become acclimated to the group and is the starting 2 guard, playing almost the entire game. I will write an entry on what helped him most to make this team and when it occurred – the answer will surprise you. Anyway, my whole family was very excited about him moving up and playing JV ball this season. It is fun because the games are at night and many times I get to watch a triple header (freshman/JV/Varsity) in one evening. My brother’s team was not scheduled to play our school until the 5th game of the season and my brother came to 3 of the early games to watch my son play and then to scout our varsity team.
My son had a couple of great games early in the season where he made most of his jump shots and scored 19 and 17 respectively. He also had a 7 point effort in one of the games but I am sure he has forgotten about that one by now. I watched my brother take some notes on some offensive and defensive sets, some out of bounds plays and some general shot charting during a couple of quarters of my son’s game – I did not think much about it. Then we played his team…
My brother had given a full scouting report to his JV team on all of the items above including telling them to not have the person guarding my son play any help defense so he would be left open during the game. Everywhere my son went on the floor the defenders all pointed at him and yelled “SHOOTER!” so they would always be aware of where he was and to not let him catch the ball in a position to shoot. It was a big challenge to even get the ball in bounds against his team. Needless to say, my son had a 4 point night and we lost by more than 20 points.
So now I pose the question – would any of you have done this to your own nephew? I was not bothered by it at the time but then I got home and thought about a couple of things…first off – no one scouts JV games…nobody. If my brother had just come to scout the varsity team he would have showed up before the varsity game, watched it and gone home, paying no attention to the JV game. He took advantage of the fact that he was there to enjoy watching my son play to tell his guys all of our plays and who our leading scorer is. They would have figured that out but would likely not have gone the whole game (from the tip-off) yelling and pointing at my son wherever he went. Secondly, he should have kept his info to himself to allow his nephew to enjoy a more fair contest. He could have seen how my son performed in a straight up contest and enjoyed the outcome. That would have been the better play for my brother to have made.
Oh yeah, my brother’s team also won the varsity game.
Gotta go now…I am going to scout the freshman team at my brother’s school...I heard he may have to coach them a few games this year and I want to be sure the opposing team has a good write up. (Ted, you know I am kidding!).
Yours in Hoops,
Coach Chuck
Check out the latest in Coaching Aids at the following link:Basketball Coaching Aids
My son is a freshman and was moved up from the freshman team to the JV team for his school, which is a big honor. I was a little concerned at first about playing time and how he would be received by the other players but he has quickly become acclimated to the group and is the starting 2 guard, playing almost the entire game. I will write an entry on what helped him most to make this team and when it occurred – the answer will surprise you. Anyway, my whole family was very excited about him moving up and playing JV ball this season. It is fun because the games are at night and many times I get to watch a triple header (freshman/JV/Varsity) in one evening. My brother’s team was not scheduled to play our school until the 5th game of the season and my brother came to 3 of the early games to watch my son play and then to scout our varsity team.
My son had a couple of great games early in the season where he made most of his jump shots and scored 19 and 17 respectively. He also had a 7 point effort in one of the games but I am sure he has forgotten about that one by now. I watched my brother take some notes on some offensive and defensive sets, some out of bounds plays and some general shot charting during a couple of quarters of my son’s game – I did not think much about it. Then we played his team…
My brother had given a full scouting report to his JV team on all of the items above including telling them to not have the person guarding my son play any help defense so he would be left open during the game. Everywhere my son went on the floor the defenders all pointed at him and yelled “SHOOTER!” so they would always be aware of where he was and to not let him catch the ball in a position to shoot. It was a big challenge to even get the ball in bounds against his team. Needless to say, my son had a 4 point night and we lost by more than 20 points.
So now I pose the question – would any of you have done this to your own nephew? I was not bothered by it at the time but then I got home and thought about a couple of things…first off – no one scouts JV games…nobody. If my brother had just come to scout the varsity team he would have showed up before the varsity game, watched it and gone home, paying no attention to the JV game. He took advantage of the fact that he was there to enjoy watching my son play to tell his guys all of our plays and who our leading scorer is. They would have figured that out but would likely not have gone the whole game (from the tip-off) yelling and pointing at my son wherever he went. Secondly, he should have kept his info to himself to allow his nephew to enjoy a more fair contest. He could have seen how my son performed in a straight up contest and enjoyed the outcome. That would have been the better play for my brother to have made.
Oh yeah, my brother’s team also won the varsity game.
Gotta go now…I am going to scout the freshman team at my brother’s school...I heard he may have to coach them a few games this year and I want to be sure the opposing team has a good write up. (Ted, you know I am kidding!).
Yours in Hoops,
Coach Chuck
Check out the latest in Coaching Aids at the following link:Basketball Coaching Aids
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