Decline of Skills
I am here in Gambier Ohio, at Kenyon College for the opening of their spectacular Athletic Center. Nothing like this in the US. This will not be a long post but I could not help but comment on the headlines in today’s USA Today Sports page regarding the influx of skilled European player. Well da! If you work on skills and coach skills and you have good athletes then you will have skilled players. That is pretty profound. The more basketball gets away from the school and coaches who are teachers the worse skills will be. More games, is more exposure. It is also less practice and work on fundamentals.
posted by Vern Gambetta @ 4/20/2006 09:05:00 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I can't speak for other states, but in N.J. the local governing board dictates a coach cannot practice in any manner with his team out of season, conditioning included. This has created a profitable market for personal trainers, private clubs, and the AAU coach. I'm told this rule is in effect to prevent one team from having an advantage on another because of incrased practice time. Also, to keep coaches from preventing their athletes from going out for other sports. To me, the rule has only served to give an advantage to the more affluent school districts where parents can afford to outsource their athletes to these private coaches. I'd like to hear the opinion of others on this topic.
I can't speak to the situation in NJ but here in MN I have similar concerns even though our rules are different. School coaches are allowed contact with athletes, even organized practice outside of the season and it becomes a problem as well. As both a former school teacher and someone who is currently one of those "private coaches" I have a concern that very few people are putting the athlete first. The goals, health, fitness and long term development of the athlete don't appear to be the primary drivers of the sports system that has evolved here in the US. It has more to do with notariety, exposure and the percieved short term benefits of finishing on top right now. The rise in chronic overuse injuries, the psychological burnout and the nuber of kids who decide to "chuck it" at an early age is tragic. Along with rule changes and better practices, those of us in the field would do better by our athletes to begin asking the question "What's most important and what do you really want?" We need to ask it of our athletes, our colleagues, coaches, administrators, parents and of ourselves. As Vern likes to remind us - What's the goal? Untill we get that one straight I am afraid we'll continue to be caught in this loop and find it hard to get out of our own way.
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