Basketball Trends
The Effect on Teaching Youth
Parent Coaches - Is this what you were taught while growing up learning the game of basketball?
Basketball Trends -
- Force the ball to the baseline and corner
- Cross your feet and run while playing defense
- Dribble Drive the ball to the basket as the first option
Basketball is such an exciting game and for the past over 100 years, since Dr. Naismith invented this game, many trends and fashions have found their way into a simple game.
Not to say that basketball trends are a bad thing, but much like clothing and fashion and hairstyles, the game of basketball has had it's share of changes only to find that it always comes back to the simple act of putting the ball in the hoop more times than your opponent.
Most parents coaching basketball today, probably would have found a quick seat on the pine for letting the player they were guarding drive to the baseline. Today, it is common for coaches to emphasize forcing the player to the corner and baseline on defense. WOW, what a change. I can still hear my Dad yelling - "don't give up the BASELINE!". Now it is common for coaches to yell "no middle, get up high and push baseline". This trend/change in philosophy, I predict, will again change in the future. We don't all have a 7 footer rotating to help on that baseline drive.
How about this one, guard the ball by running with the player you are guarding. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This is a real method of defense being taught today. What happened to a good defensive stance with your broom stick between your knees and a step/slide action???
Another basketball trend is the recent Dribble Drive Offense that has taken basketball offense and turned it upside down in the last few years. This offense emphasizes the DRIBBLE and DRIVE to the basket (premise is that this is the hardest thing to guard) with little or no attention or emphasis on ball screens, screen aways, or passing until a dribble drive is attempted. I can tell you the kids like to play this way, but from a youth basketball instructional level, this is exactly opposite of what we try to teach. We teach the kids to catch and establish triple threat position, look to shoot first, then pass or drive. We encourage ball screens and want the kids to screen away to get other players open. We want them to make the first easy pass to the first open player, and cut to the basket after the pass.
I wear 3 and 4 button suit coats to work every day, but I had a leisure suit back in the day. But the game, like the suit coats, always seem to come back to the traditional 2 button.
As we teach the youth to play basketball, let's keep in mind the new trends and fashion of the game, but let's focus on the sound fundamentals of shooting, passing, and ball handling - the 2 button suit coat - and prepare the kids to be able to dress in any fashion in the future.
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