[bbcoach7]

I personally agree with almost everything in this article, one exception being, "tatoos make you look like a punk," which is really just a meaningless personal opinion.

It's a fact that more High School 3 sport athletes get full rides than athletes who specialize in one sport early. I haven't seen the numbers for 2 sport vs 3 sport athletes. I don't have the statistical reference handy, but I've seen it at iyca.org among other athletic training oriented web sites. The research that has been done is on preadolecents and adolecents, and it's specific to non individual, team based sports.

Coaches who want to keep a kid year-round for their AAU, or other traveling teams will often convince a parent that it's in the kids best interest to play one sport year-round if they want to get a "chip." This simply isn't true. This is either a coach who just doesn't know any better, from an athletic movement development perspective; or the coach just wants to win games. Either way, this coach is placing the child/athletes needs secondary to his own. The fact is, most basketball coaches are not the expert on athletic development, athletic trainers are.

I strongly disagree with this- "If your coach instructs you to cheapshot an opponent, quit the team immediately." I disagree because this coach needs to be called out and disciplined. There's no place in youth, or HS sports for encouraging cheap shots. I'd advise a kid to refuse to do it, and have the guts to report it to a parent at the least, and better yet to a school administrator. Besides, the game can be played aggressively, with speed and power, but without cheap shots and the opponent can feel your presence, if you get my meaning.

It's true that "times" will always change. What's "in," or "now." or currently fashionable with the youth of today has nothing to do with what's right and what's wrong. Morals and ethics and good choices will always transcend superficial ever-changing themes of youth culture. I realize that there are examples of top level coaches who admit they have had to make adjustments in their style over the years. That's inevitable. Dean Smith wrote about it in one of his books. But coaching style is a whole other category from using the games to look for opportunities to teach kids life lessons.

I doesn't matter how much kids change, somone still needs to hold kids accountable when they break rules. Someone still needs to model appropriate behavior. Someone still needs to do what's right because it's the right thing to do. I may change my style as kids change theirs, but this article isn't about style, it's about personal ethics and morals. The day I compromize what I believe in is the day I need to get out of coaching.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want my own kid to play for a coach who thought this list of suggestions and observations was unreasonable, or out of date.