Compete

Kids need to compete. Kids want to compete. The issue is what they and we as the adults in charge define as competing.

The dictionary definition of compete, has it as a verb meaning: to strive to outdo another for acknowledgment, a prize, supremacy, profit, etc.; engage in a contest; vie: to compete in a race; to compete in business.

Our kids tend to think of competeing as engaging in a contest. They "compete" when there is a score or prize or an opponent. The issue is that to become a high performing basketball player you need skills created through muscle memory and repetition on your own. Kids associate competion, and the accorded effort, to game like situations. In reality the competition should be striving to be the supreme basketball player, person and part of the best team they can be. The competition and drive should be internal not external.

Solutions that we as coaches can offer:

1) For kids who can't grasp the concept of internal vs external drive you can cheat a little. You can turn drills, and skills work in practice in games, with scores, winners, etc. Kids enjoy this and tend to work ahrder. They are going to struggle on their own and miss out on a lot of development since without the external factors they won't want to drill hard or at all individually.

2) Demand high performance all the time. There are no break drills, or drills where we don't go hard. Require that everything be done all the time at game speed and intensity. The drawback to this philosophy is that developing skills for young athletes often requires to walk before you run. On teams with varied skill levels someone is going to be bored or overwhelmed. It also requires kids that are committed to being better, kids that play for fun or to be part of something may not responsd well to constant demands and pressure.

3) Spend the time reminding, praising, punishing, talking, . . . whatever your kids need to create that internal voice that pushes them. I don't buy that there are driven kids and lazy kids. No one pops out of the womb ready to take on the world, or indifferent to their surrondings. Competing and demanding excellence of yourself is a trained skill and learned behaviour. You have to keep putting people who need to learn it in situations where they develop the proper attitudes and structures. The draw back is you are talking about personality, values and attitude which are shaped by all the influences in their lives. You get them after they've spent 6-16 years with other adults and peers shaping their values, changes may not happen over night or at all. If your message deviates or contradicts their prior programming there is no sure bet they'll ever buy in.

The most a player can do is compete every second they have available. The most we can do as coaches is everything we can to try to help them do that.