Author: host1help1

Doug DeVries has been working in youth basketball for over 25 years. He has a passion to see sports in balance in life, for kids to thrive in sports, and for parents to enjoy the entire process.
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We Can’t Have Long Term Athlete Development without Short Term Athlete Engagement

Dr. Jean Cote said this:

“If sport was only about skill development…and was not practiced by people who have emotion, and care and are human beings, if they were robots, then you would say yes, just do skill, just do deliberate practice…but the problem is that sport is not only about skill development…and sport specific skill. Sport is about motivation, interest, drive, grit, persistence, and resilience, and those types of subjective skills are very important aspects of elite athletes and long-term sport participation and that is the problem… these thing are harder to measure… so we default to skill, and practicing repetition of backhands…But people are not robots, we have to teach the other qualities that combine motivation and interest. That is what play and diversity of sport will do.”

Did you catch that? All sports are human endeavors. And development is not just about skills. Development of our young athletes MUST include “soft” skills of persistence, performance under pressure, drive, motivation, etc. And without these core abilities, athletes won’t be ultimately successful on the court or field.

The best part of this entire discussion is most parents initially want their kids to do sports to develop the skills of team-work, discipline, persistence, etc.

Read the full article from John O’Sullivan on ChangingtheGameProject.com

 

Check out the book on Amazon:

 

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Play too many games? Is it possible?

I found an article today from Changing the Game Project and felt it highlighted an important reminder for everyone involved in youth sports. 5 warnings that your child may be in a program that focuses on short term success and not long term excellence development.

  1. Your team emphasis games over practice.
  2. Coaches select & focus on “talent” for short term gain rather than developing all athletes.
  3. Coaches make cuts & create all-star teams make youth sports elitist.
  4. Your team requires year round participation.
  5. Your coach implements strategies for short term success rather than long term skill development.

“Our obsession with winning is the enemy of excellence in youth sports!”

Take a look at the full article at http://changingthegameproject.com/the-enemy-of-excellence-in-youth-sports – sometimes a few tweaks in a program and being involved as parents can go a long way!

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Player Cards on TourneyBuddy

Now you can Create Player Cards for all the players on your Team Roster. Its quick and simple. And a great way to promote your club program and teams.

These Team Rosters and Player Cards help provide greater exposure for your players. Coaches use Google to search on player names. These simple cards help improve your player’s searchability.

And TourneyBuddy also has full PlayerSites to extend your player’s exposure. See CamStordahl.com or Andrew DeVries as examples. Contact us to get your custom site up and running.

 

 

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Understanding the 4-Out & 1-In Offense

The 4-out 1-in motion offense (also known as ’41’) has become a very common play used by youth teams. Check out the article by Basketball for Coaches to get a better understanding of what is happening and why.

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Choosing Teammates over Winning

We love seeing stories like this. A team that loves to win, but knows what is more important.

A short documentary based on a brotherhood through sports.

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AAU Provides Roadmap to Help Parents Navigate the Ever-Changing Youth Basketball Landscape

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (Nov. 21, 2017) – The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) has rolled out an online tool to provide content and resourceful information aimed to help parents navigate their youth …