I love sport, playing, watching (on TV or live) and now with three kids, coaching.
I don’t mind what sports my kids play, I just want them to have fun and enjoy playing. I’ve been trying and exploring new sports all my life from tennis and basketball growing up to trying kitesurfing, petanque and sailing in recent years and watching everything from curling (that favourite winter olympic sport) to Gaelic football (well what wouldn’t appeal in a mix of Australian Rules football and soccer/football). I’d like to think my kids will enjoy trying new things, working out new sports, making team mates and having fun.
My 7 year old daughter, the oldest of my kids, has recently decided she wanted to try basketball. Besides swimming she has not shown a lot of interest in sport and I think the interest now is because some of her friends play at school. Unfortunately the current teams were full so a couple of the parents (including me) have organised a new team to see if some other girls from her grade wanted to join in.
A few weeks in we have a team of eight, ready to start practicing at 8am every Tuesday (starting this week) at the school court (come rain or shine) for the rest of the term to see if they like it. Before they then start playing games on Friday afternoons.
The early morning start is a bit of a problem for most parents getting off to work so I’m the designated coach with some fill ins available if I can’t make it. My wife is default manager of the team, and will coordinate parent contact details and
handle questions. My five year old son who started school this year will be my assistant coach since I’ll be bring him to school and he can join in on the practice. I know organising anything takes some time, but both my wife and I have been surprised about what is required, from checking with the school, to getting balls for practice (we had to buy some new ones), to organising how practice will run all requires some focus.
Having played basketball when I was young I vaguely remember some drills so I have been scouring the internet for some resources. I’ve found some free and comprehensive guides to drills and play from Breakthrough Basketball on one hand as well as a multitude of guides that come at a cost (clearly I never realised how big business coaching 7 year old girls basketball could be, particularly in the USA).
Hopefully I’ll get the girls having fun, develop some basic skills and play as a team before I’ll worry about playbooks. I also hope my daughter will join in, enjoy being coached and have fun playing sport with her friends. To start the following each week seems to make sense to me:
- 10 minutes of warmup
- 20 mins of skills development
- 15 minutes of playing
If you’ve got some tips on coaching kids sports teams (particularly 7 year old girls basketball) let me know? I ’ll let you know how I get on and what I learn. Since this is the first of my kids where I’ll coach a team I know I have plenty to learn and improve on. I think it will be fun!
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