In my career as a youth football/basketball coach I have had many parents ask me during the playing season, "How can I get my child to play better and show real improvement?" Well, I try to answer that question by first trying to educate the parent in a few areas concerning player skill development and long term athletic development. Here are a couple of things that a parent should keep in mind when considering their child's athletic skill development.
First, an athlete develops in stages and those stages vary over the course of the athletes life.
Take for example a 7 year old basketball player that really likes basketball but has a hard time keeping himself from committing a traveling violation. Though this may be frustrating for the parent, coach, or even the child. This should be expected as the child is learning to develop muscle control and coordination along with timing. The 4-7 year old range for a child is in what youth fitness specialists term the "guided discovery" development stage.
The child needs to be taught how to perform fundamental movement patterns such as running and coming to a quick stop prior, to being asked to do the same action while dribbling the basketball. He needs to be shown how to do these things in a way that is fun but also challenges the child to concentrate and at the same time helps them to learn the skill.
There is not enough practice time in a youth players basketball season to be able focus on all the details of the developmental stage. That can be frustrating for the child and the parent as they may expect the child to be able to perform these functions and not understand that he is just physically unable to do those things at this stage. The basketball season will introduce the 7 year old to the learning of the rules of the sport, team concepts, and how to play as a unit.
There is just not enough time during the season for players to really develop and master the certain levels of skill required to play the game at a skilled level. This is where a personal sports coach comes in to play. Many parents think that the season will dramatically increase the players ability but do not realize that the season will focus more on team oriented goals rather than personal one on one skill development.
A player's skill development should be focused and systematically guided to achieve age appropriate skill levels. This can be achieved with an adequate amount of quality training time, repetitions, and a proper skill development progression plan.
Secondly, there is a drastic difference between play and practice.
A child can go out to play on his own but that will not improve his skill level. Many often say that "practice makes perfect" but that is simply not true, it is not practice that makes perfect. It is "perfect practice that makes perfect", a child can practice it the wrong way without proper guidance and they will only perfect doing it the wrong way. What I mean by that is that a child must be shown proper training methods, and be taught skill progression in parts that eventually lead to the whole.
For instance, a player trying to improve their shooting must take hundreds of shots with the proper shooting mechanics to become a consistent shooter. The player should practice taking shots from different areas of the court and at different tempos to help the athlete develop the muscle memory and endurance to make shots even while tired. This is more of a game time experience. A player must be taught how to practice and will not do this without a coach guiding them.
This type of skill development is effective but it takes time and can only be achieved in the off season. There is just not enough time in the regular season to accomplish this.
Off season personal skill development training is necessary to help the athlete learn, progress, and build the confidence needed to become a very skilled athlete.
Last, I want to point out that there is a certain level of confidence needed for athletes to go out and perform at a high level. I often tell my players that hard work equals success and success breeds confidence. As a player starts to see his hard work paying off in making more shots consistently, then that child will be more aggressive in their shot taking. The player will also have a more focused mentality in his training as he sees it is paying off in the games.
Check out GRID IRON Youth Sports Training for more info on its training programs and packages.
GRID IRON Youth Sports Training, "We are Building Character and Champions".
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