If you have been reading the reports on Kobe Bryant and about the possibility that he will play in Italy this season, you undoubtedly have seen several quotes from him. The one that is most interesting and revealing is: “This is where I learned the fundamentals, learned to shoot, to pass and to (move) without the ball, all things that when I came back to America the players my age didn’t know how to do because they were only thinking about jumping and dunking.” (My emphasis in bold)
We should not skim over this comment. It tells a lot and is quite revealing. In fact, I firmly believe that this comment should be required reading for all coaches and especially youth coaches. Why? Because the major function of the youth coach should be to teach skills. The youth level is where skill teaching should be taking place. In the ideal world athletic skills should also be taught in the elementary and middle schools. But it doesn’t look like this will happen anytime soon — at least in the next 5 to 10 years if not more.
His comment shows that most youngsters today are more interested in the flashy or major components of the sport rather than all of the elements that make up for the best playing of the sport. In other words, youngsters, in order to excel in any particular sport must develop the skills and physical abilities that allow him or her to develop their sports performance to his or her full potential. This is the key to true player development.
Having the athlete play more, run more, throw more, or jump more (as is commonly done on sports teams) is a poor way –really the slowest way – to improve performance. It is necessary to understand that these and other basic sports skills are very complex. Everyone may be born with the rudiments of such basic skills, but not the ability to perform them on the highest levels. For this a strong background in the science of skill analysis is needed by the coach.
Parents, sportswriters, sports commentators and so-called sports experts continue to perpetuate the belief that all it takes to be an expert is to have played the sport. Thus former athletes are considered experts but it can easily be proven that they know little if anything about the execution of sports skills. If you look closely at their teachings, you’ll see that they most often demonstrate what to do but they are unable to explain how to make the corrections for what should be done. This may be fine for five and six year old children but not teenagers and pre-teens.
Only in sports do people take it for granted that you are an expert once you have played the sport. Simply talk to a sportswriter or parent who has played a particular sport. He will be very definite in what you do in execution of a sports skill. It is analogous to someone getting sick and then getting over the sickness and then becoming an expert on what it takes to treat the sickness. You may laugh at this proposition but it is exactly what takes place in sports. Is it any wonder that collegiate and professional teams travel the world over looking for talent?
For a youngster to truly enjoy the game he must feed his inner self and get satisfaction from his performance. Not being able to execute the basic skills prevents him for receiving this satisfaction and enjoyment. If he does not experience good play he will not want to continue. As a result, it is not uncommon to see many youngsters drop out after one or more years of playing.
Coaches say that they teach the players how to execute the basic skills of the game. Why then, is there so much failure? Skills are not learned in a few days or only one or two weeks, which is the usual amount of time most coaches devote to the teaching of skills. Even physical education teachers fail in this category as their skill teaching time is usually the same or even less. For example, it is not uncommon to find the following tennis course outline. Monday is devoted to the forehand, Tuesday to the backhand, Wednesday to the serve, Thursday to the volley, Friday to the rules, and Monday they begin a tournament to determine the best player and often the best grade.
When you consider the number of youngsters on a team and the amount of time that the coach has before beginning competitive play, it’s obvious that it is impossible to devote sufficient time to each youngster to make sure that he or she learns the basic skills of the game. Thus, it is impossible for them to effectively teach because of the time restraints, as well as not knowing how and what to teach youngsters so that they truly learn the skills. Telling the youngster what to do and having the youngster master it entails two distinct entities.
Another problem that impedes the learning of skills is that most coaches do not have the necessary background to teach the skills and in most cases they do not understand what constitutes effective skill. In most cases it is not their fault. Most coaches are moms or dads who may or may not have played the game previously but who have a desire to help the youngsters in their playing. But, simply playing a game or reading about it does not qualify one to be an effective teacher. Most often excellent players do not understand what they do in execution of a skill. How can they then impart the skill basics to the youngsters?
But yet youth leagues are supposedly devoted to the development of players. Thus, it appears that the players who make it to the adult ranks are those who persevere and become better, not necessarily because of the coach, but in many cases, in spite of the coach. Is this the most effective way to develop players? It certainly is not.
The main obstacle to the learning of skills is playing games to determine league winners. If less emphasis was put on playing games and more attention was devoted to basic skills, at least in the very early youth years, we would be able to develop many more good players. This would benefit not only high schools and colleges but also the pro teams.
Skill learning can be made to be fun and enjoyable and without playing competitive games, although some of this can be done in the very early years. Competition can take many forms and not always playing games. There can be competition in hitting, running, throwing, etc.
To show that there is interest such competition first look at the success of major competitions to see who can kick the ball the furthest, the most accurately, throw the furthest, run the fastest, and so on. Youngsters train for many, many months to qualify and to excel in these tournaments. Why can’t this concept be brought into the youth leagues? Isn’t it time to spend more time developing the talent of the youngsters rather than satisfying adult desires? If we did, we would see many more youngsters playing the game for longer periods of time and most importantly, enjoying it much more than they do today.