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Being a High school coach I love reading this forum. I have gain much technical knowledge about the rules that have allowed me to improve my focus on issues that need to be addressed to my players. In my years of coaching I have noticed that the value of fundamentals have greatly decreased at all levels. Many, not all, but many coaches spend very little time on footwork and things of that nature.
So this brought me to a conversation that I had with a long time CIF referee. I asked him which was more prevalent a coach complaining about a call that was made or a call that was missed, because I wanted to know what he saw. He told me it was about calls that weren't made. I asked well then do you thin kcoaches are asking you to call more fouls? He said maybe, but that would slow the game down greatly.
Now I would say 60 percent of those calls that Referee's supposidly miss aren't really calls at all, this person agreed with me. But he brought up a good point, that sometimes you let teams play a little more because making lots of calls slows the game down. And I understood that comment, but is it a good thing or a bad thing? I bounce back and forth on that issue.
Has fewer calls shifted focus from the value of fundamentals giving coaches less reason to work on them if they can get away with it? Do you think if more fouls were called in a game that coaches would have to adjust how they teach the game to focus on teaching the players the game the right way?
I went to an AAU practice the other day, 8th graders, these kids had terrible dribbling skills and footwork, and an 1.5 hour practice consisted of two trick out of bounds plays, and alley oop play, and back door plays, and a trapping defense, 3 on 2, 2 on 1 drills, then a scrimmage. It was dissappointing to say the least.
Don't think I'm trying to pass the buck onto referee's saying that the downward spiral of fundamentals of the game that our youth currently experience is their fault. I do ultimately think that it is the coaches responsibility to transmit the values of the game to the players in a way that honors it. But currently at areas like the AAU the emphasis is on the showcase of players, being flashy, and not necessarily teaching the game. Now with these AAU coaches moving into high school coaching positions they have continued to transmit this philosophy to their players and ignore fundamentals and seemingly can get away with it. The prodcut of glam and entertainment, not education of the game.
Do you think a coach would change his philosophy and what he taught in practice if his team turned the ball over say 22 times because of traveling calls on his players? I know I would re-evaluate things if that happened to my team. But do you think there are too many external pressure to allow for officials to make more calls?
Coaches are the most hypocritical around, because they would complain of lack of calls but if you called to many they'd blame officials for slowing down the game. Officials and coaches need a better avenue of communication, these two groups should spend more time working together and transmitting the important values of the game.
Such are the reasons why I enjoy reading this site, I get insight into making my team better within the rules, educate them in the game, and honor both the letter and intent of those rules.
Any thoughts?
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