Funny comment from tryouts last night

[Mark Padgett]

We had 7th and 8th grade boys tryouts last night for our local kids rec league. Actually, "tryouts" is a misnomer, since every kid who signs up on time gets on a team. It's actually a skills drill so coaches can take notes for the team draft.

Anyway, I was running the free throw station. As I lined the first group up, I told them that if a kid makes a free throw, everybody was to yell "NICE SHOT", but on every miss, they were to yell "YOU SUCK". Quite a few of them laughed before I told them I was just kidding. However, one kid came over to me and said, "Actually, I really do suck, so if they yell it I won't mind". At first I thought he was putting me on, but the more I looked at his demeanor, the more I was convinced he was serious.

BTW - he got to shoot nine free throws during the drills and he did make one, however, it wouldn't have counted in a game because he went way over the line. I noticed him in the layup drill and he missed quite a few of those too. Fortunately, this is a purely recreational league and he'll still have a lot of fun and, I hope, improve his skills. That's the point.

Oh yeah, one kid who moved here from Europe over the summer brought a soccer ball instead of a basketball. He was sufficiently laughed at by the other kids. I made sure he attempted all his shots from the metric line.

[doubleringer]

So you made the team then? Congrats and have a great season!

[Y2Koach]

If you have a chance to work with this kid, really try to change is self-perception from "I really suck so it's okay to tell me" to "there's certain things I don't do well yet but if I work hard I will get better". A kid should always see him/her self as a "work in progress" rather than a "hopeless victim of sucking".

[CoachP]

Originally Posted by Y2Koach

If you have a chance to work with this kid, really try to change is self-perception from "I really suck so it's okay to tell me" to "there's certain things I don't do well yet but if I work hard I will get better". A kid should always see him/her self as a "work in progress" rather than a "hopeless victim of sucking".

Correctomundo....I watched one of our schools VB players as a freshman and asked her why she didn't try out for basketball.

She said "I suck at basketball"

Well, LSS, I talked her into it and taught her how to play defense and box out. She was starting by mid junior year and as a senior, she led the team in rebounds and held the 20 point scorers to under 10 well over half the time. I always told her that taking 10 points off the other team is like you scoring 10.
She accidentally scored 6 of her own in one game and had maybe 50 for her career.

Kids these days only think about what they can do with the ball, so if they cannot dribble or shoot, they "suck at basketball". This girl had more fun during games than my top scorer!!

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

This is a purely recreational league and he'll still have a lot of fun and, I hope, improve his skills. That's the point.

That's why I played, and coached, basketball for so many years. Winning is important, but not as important as having fun, improving, getting some exercise, and learning to be part of a team.

[JugglingReferee]

Originally Posted by CoachP

Correctomundo....I watched one of our schools VB players as a freshman and asked her why she didn't try out for basketball.

She said "I suck at basketball"

Well, LSS, I talked her into it and taught her how to play defense and box out. She was starting by mid junior year and as a senior, she led the team in rebounds and held the 20 point scorers to under 10 well over half the time. I always told her that taking 10 points off the other team is like you scoring 10.
She accidentally scored 6 of her own in one game and had maybe 50 for her career.

Kids these days only think about what they can do with the ball, so if they cannot dribble or shoot, they "suck at basketball". This girl had more fun during games than my top scorer!!

AMAZING story, Coach!

[26 Year Gap]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

We had 7th and 8th grade boys tryouts last night for our local kids rec league. Actually, "tryouts" is a misnomer, since every kid who signs up on time gets on a team. It's actually a skills drill so coaches can take notes for the team draft.

Anyway, I was running the free throw station. As I lined the first group up, I told them that if a kid makes a free throw, everybody was to yell "NICE SHOT", but on every miss, they were to yell "YOU SUCK". Quite a few of them laughed before I told them I was just kidding. However, one kid came over to me and said, "Actually, I really do suck, so if they yell it I won't mind". At first I thought he was putting me on, but the more I looked at his demeanor, the more I was convinced he was serious.

BTW - he got to shoot nine free throws during the drills and he did make one, however, it wouldn't have counted in a game because he went way over the line. I noticed him in the layup drill and he missed quite a few of those too. Fortunately, this is a purely recreational league and he'll still have a lot of fun and, I hope, improve his skills. That's the point.

Oh yeah, one kid who moved here from Europe over the summer brought a soccer ball instead of a basketball. He was sufficiently laughed at by the other kids. I made sure he attempted all his shots from the metric line.

Could be he was a Wilfred Hetzel fan.

[grunewar]

Boys 7/8 yr old sign ups and evaluations last night. The children are lining up with their parents at the table for registration. Some are very timid, so I try to engage them in a little snappy banter to loosen them up (Mark, you'd be perfect here).

"What's your name son?"
"Johnny."
"Are you ready for tryouts"
"I guess."
I see you've got a Redskins Jersey on, huh?"
"Yep"
"Whose Jersey is it?"
"Mine."

His dad smiled at me and put his arm around his son as they walked into the gym. He was wearing #21, Sean Taylor.

Let the season begin!

[BBall_Junkie]

Originally Posted by CoachP

Correctomundo....I watched one of our schools VB players as a freshman and asked her why she didn't try out for basketball.

She said "I suck at basketball"

Well, LSS, I talked her into it and taught her how to play defense and box out. She was starting by mid junior year and as a senior, she led the team in rebounds and held the 20 point scorers to under 10 well over half the time. I always told her that taking 10 points off the other team is like you scoring 10.
She accidentally scored 6 of her own in one game and had maybe 50 for her career.

Kids these days only think about what they can do with the ball, so if they cannot dribble or shoot, they "suck at basketball". This girl had more fun during games than my top scorer!!

I have never seen two consecutive posts by coaches that exuded so much intelligence in all my life. The world's implosion must be imminent!

Kidding Guys! These posts are exactly what coaching is about... teaching, encouraging and making kids better people. Thank You.

[Mark Padgett]

Last night we had evals for our HS boys. 9th & 10th grade started at 6:00 and 11th & 12th at 7:30. At about 6:40, this woman comes in with her freshman son. She tells me that it was "inconsiderate" of us to start the program at 6:00 since that is when her family eats dinner and we should take that into consideration. At first, I thought she was kidding, but she wasn't. You guys know me. I told her that she had at least a months notice, that her kid missed only a part of the evals but it didn't make any difference to his being selected on draft night, that her kid was the only one who was late, and that if she wanted to make any changes in anything having to do with the program, she could take the time to volunteer herself, just like all the others who were here did, including me for the past 17 years. Besides, making the boys who followed that night stay up later on a school night was really "inconsiderate". I finished with "If you don't like the way the program is run and you don't want to volunteer to change it, your other option is to grab your kid and go home. Of course, you might want to ask him how he would feel about not playing this year before you do that."

She opened here mouth to argue, but thought better of it. Gee - some people!

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Mark Padgett

She tells me that it was "inconsiderate" of us to start the program at 6:00 since that is when her family eats dinner and we should take that into consideration.

Make sure that he's drafted by a team that doesn't get any 6:00 games.

We used to have "Church Teams" for recreation soccer. These teams would only be scheduled to play on Sunday afternoon, never on Sunday morning, and parents could request that their child be assigned to one of these teams if they so wished. That was almost twenty years ago. I don't know if they still do it.