It's the old chicken and the egg question. Or in basketball terms, what comes first? The talent to play a real motion? Or do you run real motion to develop talent?
If you've followed this blog at all you know my answer. If your goal is to win enough games to be over .500 then it doesn't really matter what you do. Some years you will have the talent to do that and some years you won't. But if you teach your pattern really well, you will probably win more games than you lose.
But if your goal is to develop your players and to develop your program into that team that everyone hates to play, you will change your thinking. You will see that teaching your kids how to play the game, rather than how to run a pattern or a list of entries, will develop your team into a perennial winner.
Give your players the freedom to do things on the floor. To make mistakes. They will throw up crazy shots that land in the parking lot. But when they do this, they are exploring what their bodies can do at this stage in their lives. They are seeing what skills they have and don't have. I'm sure you've heard other coaches say something like, "practice what you're not good at, not what you already know how to do." That's what I mean. Let them play.
What brought out this comment from me? I happened by another team's practice the other day and they must have spend an hour memorizing their pattern. I thought: "Wow! Is there any way we could play that team every game?"
If you've followed this blog at all you know my answer. If your goal is to win enough games to be over .500 then it doesn't really matter what you do. Some years you will have the talent to do that and some years you won't. But if you teach your pattern really well, you will probably win more games than you lose.
But if your goal is to develop your players and to develop your program into that team that everyone hates to play, you will change your thinking. You will see that teaching your kids how to play the game, rather than how to run a pattern or a list of entries, will develop your team into a perennial winner.
Give your players the freedom to do things on the floor. To make mistakes. They will throw up crazy shots that land in the parking lot. But when they do this, they are exploring what their bodies can do at this stage in their lives. They are seeing what skills they have and don't have. I'm sure you've heard other coaches say something like, "practice what you're not good at, not what you already know how to do." That's what I mean. Let them play.
What brought out this comment from me? I happened by another team's practice the other day and they must have spend an hour memorizing their pattern. I thought: "Wow! Is there any way we could play that team every game?"
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