Winning is secondary in youth sports. Primarily it’s about learning basic skills. They’ll come in handy at opportune times.
Think of standing on the free throw line with practically no time left in a game. Your team is losing by two points, and you have three free throws. How do you handle the pressure? What do you call upon at a time like that?
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A relative told me the story of a young boy who joined a tee-ball team. Each time the boy hit the ball he would run to third base instead of first. There was a good reason why coaches had a difficult time getting the boy to run to first base: he had been coached that way. His father, a professor at the local college, knew his academic subject, but not much about baseball.
After some work–and more struggle–the boy finally began running to first after hitting the ball.
Some years ago, I was an administrator in a school. The middle school (6-8 grades) girls’ lacrosse coach required her players to use wooden sticks. Heavier than sticks with human-made materials, the wooden stick needed more work to control and use. In my mind, that coach did her players a favor.
Anyone ever involved in youth sports (say, from the ages of 10-14) knows there are vast differences in the physical maturity of children in that age group. I believe girls are often more physically mature at that age than boys. Look at cross country, some wrestlers, and other sports. But often, whether boy or girl, ‘might’ rules. And that presents a problem.
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For three seasons I coached a middle school girls’ basketball team. The first year, as 6th graders, we were pounded and didn’t win a game. The 7th-grade team had a better season. We won some and lost a lot. The 8th-grade year–the year of the players’ physical maturity–was much, much better. We won a lot and lost only a few. Yes, they became better players of the game, but they had also grown up and used their stronger selves as assets.
Teaching correct skills in youth sports is, in my opinion, the big thing. That involves learning the correct way to execute. In basketball, that means how to play a triangle defense and shoot a free throw when you’re tired. Getting a tackle in football without getting a concussion is more important than winning.
The use of physical power will not serve any athlete well when–later in high school or college–other athletes reach physical maturity. A youth coach should teach the importance of skills, and that includes teaching players how to ‘lose right,’ which is better than ‘winning wrong.’
Courtesy The Norman Transcript
In my favorite sport, wrestling, there is a move I wish was illegal in youth matches—the headlock. Now, our headlock is not the same as we know ell in “pro” wrestling where just the head can be encircled. An arm must be included for safety’s sake. Done correctly, it is an exciting move with the offensive wrestler’s hips being used to carry the defensive one across the back and onto the mat in a crash.
It’s exciting, for sure, but it works because of the wrestlers’ comparative inequality and inexperience, especially for young wrestlers. But it is a high-risk move, too, one that should be used most often in desperation to prevent a defeat. Its allure is much like another move in youth sports which I think should be illegal—basketball’s three-point shot.
Any high school coach will testify to the difficulty of “re-teaching” an athlete a bad habit, such as cradling the ball in your lacrosse stick using one hand or the young boy who ran to third base instead of first. The truth is that only sound habits will bring success against better players in any sport. That means skills learned by those middle school lax players (using heavy wooden sticks) will last over time.
For those watching the NCAA D-1 semi-final basketball games last weekend, I ask what Kyle Guy drew on to sink those three free throws? There was less than a second remaining on the clock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiw6yp9OUgY
I guess that somewhere along the way he had a coach who made him shoot and make dozens of free throws before he could leave the gym. That unknown and perhaps mythical coach may not have emphasized the glory of making a three-point shot, but I’ll bet he or she talked about the grace of making a free throw when you are tired.
That’s a coach.
