[mplagrow]

Kids are not learning the fundamentals at the grade school level because the focus has been shifted from LEARNING the game to WINNING the game. Coaches think they can best win by teaching their kids all the defenses, offenses, inbound plays, etc. Every grade school coach should be required to watch the movie HOOSIERS three times before their first practice. Drilling fundamentals will not win you a lot of games early on because it requires HARD WORK and PRACTICE, which are topics quickly becoming more foreign to the XBox generation. Kids are not at home playing pick-up games in driveways and alleys like they used to.

Example: I coached girls' volleyball two years ago. The first game we played, our opponent just hit the ball over the net on the first hit. I told my girls we were going to play for three hits every single time. I taped the game (which we lost). Then I had the girls watch the game and count how many times we had three hits and how many times their opponent did. It was something like 26-1. At the end of the season, we faced the same team in the tournament. We killed them, because they were still just passing the ball over the net. We were killing it.

FUNDAMENTALS NEED TO BE TAUGHT BY COACHES AT A YOUNG AGE REGARDLESS OF WINNING OR LOSING!