How Do We Change This

[RockyMTblue2]

"That is the way the game is going because kids are coming out of high school with less and less and less of an understanding of what they are seeing and it just takes longer."

Geno in Fuller piece today. So frustrating but Geno has been consistently beating this drum in recent years and he should know. What is going on at the JV and HS/AAU level to produce this? I suspect it has to do with rapid ID of young talent coupled with too many games and too little work. So, we throw away a lot of kids who just don't get attention and the ones that do just get their best stuff reinforced, with no attention to the broad base of stuff that can make them so much better.

And it ain't a girlie thing. Same thing for the boys. Clueless athletes.

 

[UcMiami]

"That is the way the game is going because kids are coming out of high school with less and less and less of an understanding of what they are seeing and it just takes longer."

Geno in Fuller piece today. So frustrating but Geno has been consistently beating this drum in recent years and he should know. What is going on at the JV and HS/AAU level to produce this? I suspect it has to do with rapid ID of young talent coupled with too many games and too little work. So, we throw away a lot of kids who just don't get attention and the ones that do just get their best stuff reinforced, with no attention to the broad base of stuff that can make them so much better.

And it ain't a girlie thing. Same thing for the boys. Clueless athletes.

I think the basic issue is games - kids play so many games during a year because it is a 'chance to showcase' their talent and end up practicing a lot less. The main culprit is the super AAU teams where the best talent is recruited to play in national tournaments for teams that have limited local base but are drawing players on a regional or even national basis - the kids show up for tournaments and meet their teammates for the first time in a month, maybe warm up a little and then go out and 'showcase'. They may get in a few hours of actual practice each year.

But it isn't just limited to that - I am not sure how the actual season game count may have changed in HS, but the number of teams that travel to tournaments and the number of tournaments has certainly increased - again 'exposure' and 'showcasing' are the operative words - but those tournaments again take away from team practice. You get 4 or 6 games instead of eight hours of practice.

And I get the feeling there are fewer high level basketball camps being run and fewer of the better players doing a camp instead of playing games - don't have any data to back that up, just fewer comments in reports on recruits that mention camps. Camps are a chance to work not just on individual skills but on team concepts because you have the bodies available to work 5 on 5. Individual trainers can teach individual skills and the footwork involved in post moves or pick and roles, but they cannot teach players how to read either their teammates or the defense, because neither exist in those environments generally. (By the way, I haven't heard anything lately about 'Point Guard U' where a number of Uconn players spent a bit of time - does it exist any longer?)

 

[Oldbones]

I'm reminded of Eleanor "Teach" Tenant, a tennis player and coach who, in the 1978 TV Movie, "Little Mo," took on the coaching of Maureen Connolly on the condition that Mo, while being instructed by "Teach," would not indulge in any competitive tennis. In the movie, when Tennant finds Connolly playing in a pick-up game, she immediately sends her home, ending the instruction.