Basketball is a fast-paced and exciting sport that requires skill, strategy, and teamwork. A creative youth basketball coach can make a significant impact on young players, helping them to develop their skills, build their confidence, and instill a lifelong love of the game. At Club Estudiantes, my mind was blown by the creativity of the coaches and how they inspire their players to achieve their full potential. Here are some of the key ingredients I observed of the most creative basketball coach at club Estu:
Passion and Enthusiasm
One of the most important qualities of a creative coaches at Estu was passion and enthusiasm for the game. I’m 100% sure that because you are reading this blog you are passionate and enthusiastic about the sport, your coaching, and the players you work with, however, not all coaches are. This is just a well done to you and keep up the good work, you deserve credit for your passion and enthusiasm. A coach who loves basketball and is excited to share their knowledge and experience with their players is more likely to inspire and motivate their team. When a coach is passionate about what they do, it shows in their coaching style, and their players will respond positively. I definitely saw this on a daily basis as the players really loved to be at training and play their role during games.
Knowledge and Experience
This is an odd one. Knowledge and experience comes in many different forms. Of course a coach should have a good understanding of the game of basketball, including rules, techniques, and strategies, and coaches who have experience playing the sport at a high level or have coached for many years will have a wealth of knowledge to draw upon when coaching their team. However, during my experience at Estu some of the most creative coaches in my experience were the younger ones, the problem solvers, the coaches with less talented teams who needed to find a way. This experience helped them identify areas where their players need improvement and design drills and exercises that will help them develop their skills. Therefore, it is a mistake to think knowledge and experience comes with age and games coached only, it can also refer to the coaches thrown in at the deep end.
Communication Skills
Effective communication is essential for a youth basketball coach. I found at Estu, not only were coaches able to clearly and concisely communicate instructions, strategies, and feedback to their players. They could also LISTEN to their players. Communication is a two way street. They should also be able to listen to their players and provide constructive feedback and support. The creativity of communication helped the coaches put across complex concepts. We have all been there saying things like “we have been over this, why are we not doing xyz?”, this rarely happened at Estu, coaches just saw mistakes/problems with the team as a challenge, an opportunity to create a new way to communicate the problem/solution.
Creativity and Innovation
A creative youth basketball coach should be willing to try new things and be open to different approaches to coaching. I watched on a daily basis coaches using innovative ways to motivate their players and keep them engaged in practice and games. This involved developing new drills, using different equipment, or other elements to make practice more fun and exciting. For example, I saw a great coach who won a national title at U14 have themed days based around a top player like “Lebron James Day” or “Jason Williams Day” where players would be inspired by signature moves, shots, passes, and put in a position to try them out in carefully designed games. Or a coach who say “did anyone see the lakers last night, let’s run this play out of bounds to see how we could defend it” or “Kobe did this move let’s work on it”. It was clear that this was all new content and a great way to connect the players to the modern game.
Another example of creativity in relation to drills, is that coaches rarely used the same drill twice. I found this fascinating!!! I, like many, had a drill book and looked up drills to solve solutions. Coaches at Estu designed their own drills to suit the players and solve the specific problem. If the drill went well, great, but it was ditched never to be seen again. If a drill went wrong, finish it early and move on from it. Either way the players never knew what was coming and this kept sessions fresh. I must add that the players worked on the same skills every session more or less but they were brought out in different drills.
Patience and Flexibility
At Estu the coaches were super patient and willing to work with players at all skill levels. They understood that not every player learns at the same pace and that it may take time to see progress. They showed flexibility and adaptability to alter their coaching style to the needs of each player. An example of this might be adding extra details for the better players and stripping skills back for those still developing. An example may have been a player the club picked up who was tall, but still new to the game.
Focus on Fundamentals
A creative youth basketball coach should prioritize the fundamentals of the game, such as passing, dribbling, shooting, and defence. What I saw at Estu was that the list of fundamentals seems to be a lot longer than what I saw in coaching books. For example, chest passes and bounce passes were rarely taught but hook passes, behind the back passes, tennis ball passes, no look passes, passes off the dribble were taught a lot and it all began at U10 level. These passes in my earlier experiences of basketball were considered advanced, but what I saw at Estu opened my eyes to what young players are capable of when an environment is created with zero pressure to execute, at Estu games and training were a playground where players were free to try and experiment with new skills. In order to do that, the coaches used a positive attitude to help the players feel comfortable.
Positive Attitude and Support
In order to promote an environment where players feel comfortable to explore new skills, the coaches needed a positive supportive attitude. Coaches focused on the effort and improvement of their team rather than just the outcome of the game or the attempted skill. Coaches were able to provide constructive feedback and encouragement to help their players build confidence and improve their skills. An example of this might be, if a player was 2v1 and attempted a behind the back pass that went for a turnover, the coach would praise the decision/read and talk later about how to work on the pass in training. I saw bowling passes thrown that looked a mess and bounced twice but was on time and target, so the coaches praised it. If a player made a poor decision, a discussion would be had after the game about how the team/club plays. I must be clear, this would not be a telling off, just a conversation. A nice example was a player who was wide open and shot a right hand lay up on the left side. No big deal but we thought it would be better for the player to shoot a left and miss than shoot a right and score so from then on we encouraged the players to be brave and shoot the left and we praised even if they missed.
A creative youth basketball coach should possess a combination of qualities that can help them inspire their players and develop their skills. With the qualities mentioned in this post, a coach can help their players achieve their full potential, due to a calm and supportive environment. This in turn can help them develop a lifelong love of the game of basketball.