Coaching my under 12 team has been very eye opening. At home basketball, even at that age, basketball is so competitive. You hear parents talking about playing basketball at the college level and getting scholarships. Parents will throw money at personal trainers and club teams and even more money if a club has "Elite" in its name. There is so much pressure on kids at such a young age to succeed in sports. If you have never seen the Netflix documentary called "Trophy Kids" I suggest taking a look at some of the pressures parents put on their kids to succeed in sport at all ages.
What I enjoy most about coaching my under 12 team is that they don't even know what any of that means. They play basketball because it's fun, their friends do it and because they love their coach (of course). They all show up excited and ready to play and learn. I love when the girls come into practice and they have improved on something that they couldn’t do the week before. I reassures me that I am helping them get better. One of my favorite times in practice so far was that one of the girls was struggling with her footwork on her layups. She was dribbling to the basket and threw the ball off the backboard and the ball went as far as the three-point line and she was jumping for joy because she got the footwork right. I couldn’t help but laugh. Coaching these girls help me remember why I love basketball so much.
