Basketball coaching- season 1

Date this was actually completed: February-May 2013

 

I have performed service to the wider community by coaching the Tuggeranong Vikings under 12’s girls division 2 team for both the summer and winter seasons of 2013. First and foremost, my service obviously helped to teach the team of girls more about the game of basketball and help improve their skills. However my service did a lot more than just that. I was able to teach the girls about good sportsmanship and the importance of working as a team, which whilst are important in basketball, they are important life skills as well. I was also able to work with the parents of each player and teach them about good sportsmanship and respect (in terms of the game officials).

As well as using my service to each other’s new and important things, I also learnt a whole lot myself. Coaching basketball was a totally foreign thing for me, who had only ever been a player of basketball. I learnt about planning and initiation, working collaboratively with others, perseverance and commitment and was even challenged with many ethical implications throughout the seasons.

 Before the first season had even begun, I already had a lot of work to do. I had to attend a number of board meetings with the Tuggeranong Vikings club to discuss my goals for the team and how I was going to approach them. The goals I decided to set for my new team were

1.       To always be a good sport no matter what the circumstance. This was to be achieved by showing the up most level of respect to other players and game officials

2.       To always preserver no matter what the circumstance- winning isn’t everything. I planned to tackle this by always encourage the girls and to always have them encouraging each other with a positive mindset

I also had to attend a level 0 coached course which helped inspire ideas for training sessions and different ways of teaching the players new skills. The next step was for me to choose an assistant coach and manager whom I thought would best help me achieve my 2 goals for the team. I ended up choosing my dad to be assistant coach and my mum to be manager, the reason being that I knew the three of us have an honest relationship and would collaborate well together. Once I had the roles of assistant coach and manager filled, I was able to book times and venues for training sessions. During the final weeks leading up to the season I sent out an email to the parents of all the players just to introduce myself, to let them know all the details about game times and training times and to outline my two goals for the seasons. Whilst my 2 goals are heavily focused on the players, they are just as important for the parent’s as well.

 With only days to go, it was time to start preparing training sessions. I had to be well prepared in order to maximise these sessions- which were essential to both the player’s individual and team development. For the first few training sessions I included a lot of ice-breaker type games and less skill-developing drills because I really wanted the girls to get to know and become friends with each other and to build a relationship with myself also, one where they respect and will listen to me and one where I can listen and respect them as well. After such relationships were formed then the trainings became more drill based, with a focus on teaching and developing the girl’s basic basketball skills such as dribbling, passing and shooting.

Training sessions were a lot of fun and I ended up building some really close friendships with the girls. But as expected, there were some really hard sessions. Getting them to remain focused when they were tired or in silly moods proved quite a challenge. Having to persevere during these kinds of sessions took a lot of work. Sometimes I had to just be a little stricter and discipline them if they weren’t listening, other times I would just switch drills.

On a few occasions some of the girls would cry during training. I think it was a combination of them being really tired and me running really hard, demanding drills. I found this really hard to deal with, especially if they had their parents on the sideline watching the training session. It made me a little uncomfortable almost, because I wasn’t sure how the parents would react to the situation. I didn’t want them thinking I was a mean coach, but I certainly didn’t want the players to start thinking that it was okay for them to cry and if they did they wouldn’t have to participate in the harder drills.

During the first season we lost all but one game. This was really hard on myself, the parents and the girls especially. We had been training really hard and giving it everything we had in the games but were still losing by lots. Whilst I didn’t want the girls to start developing the mindset that winning was the most important thing, I felt that they deserved to be getting better results for all their hard work. I had a meeting with the club president to discuss the predicament and he suggested perhaps moving the girls to a lower division for the winter season. By the end of the meeting no decision was made and the president left me a week to make the decision. The factors I had to take into consideration were

1.       I didn’t want the girls to develop the mindset that winning was the most important thing

2.       If they remained in their current division, they wouldn’t get the opportunities both individually and as a team to practice the skills I had taught them at training

3.       A few wins would give them a bit more confidence in themselves

After talking it through with my dad (the assistant coach) I decided to move the girls down a division to an easier league for the following season. I wanted them to get a chance to really practice and showcase their skills in an actual game and also for them to get a couple of wins.

Here's a photo of me and some of the girls