February 12th, 2013 | Uncategorized
Even though this experience as a coach didn’t personally happen to me, I still believe it’s worth blogging about because its just awesome to hear about stories like these. Earlier in the week, myself and another coach (who will have their real name spared, name Peter in this blog) were talking about coaching in general and about how some of our teams have been playing in games and training sessions lately. Peter was extremely excited to tell me about one of his players (Kyle-not real name) that he has been putting an little extra work in with because of the potential he has to become a great player as he gets older.
Peter went on to tell me that because Kyle is significantly taller than his peers at 13 years old, he wanted to teach him a move, that he could use whenever he had the basketball in the post (near the basket). The move that Peter taught Kyle was a simple drop-step dribble move.
Later in the week, Kyle had a game and it was time to see if the move that Peter had shown him earlier in the week was going to be added to Kyle’s arsenal of basketball movies. To Peters surprise, Kyle used the drop step dribble move a handful of times and converted nearly all of them into points. As you would imagine, Peter was extremely proud of Kyle!
After the game, Peter, knowing that Kyle did not have a basketball hoop at his house, asks Kyle how did he work on the drop step move, outside of our one practice during the week? Kyle’s response was that he just work on it by picking a target on his wall outside his house, and kept doing the drop step dribble move then shooting at the target over and over again!
As a coach, it doesn’t get any better than that! Having a player going home and practicing what you teach them! On top of that, the ones who can improvise without actually having a basketball hoop but still be able to work on their skills! I was truly proud of Kyle as well and was even more grateful that Peter was able to share such a great experience with me. It was a no brainer that I would want to share it with all of you guys as well!
As a message to all the players who want to get better, you have ability to work on your skills anywhere! It doesn’t have to be just on a basketball court or with a basketball hoop. If your truly dedicated, you’ll improvise with what you got to work with.
Thank you and check out my blog next week! Take care!