Coaching can be a wonderful way to demonstrate leadership and to get the kids to be leaders themselves.
I coached instructional league soccer for little kids but one of my most rewarding experiences was to coach some 10 year olds in basketball. I got to coach a few games because the regular coach was out of town.
The team was composed of a very wide variety of skills. The regular coach relied on the skilled kids for most of the scoring and the other kids got some playing time but just because the league required every kid to play.
I decided to flip the strategy on it’s head.
I told the kids with better ball handling skills to play out away from the basket and the other kids to play down low near the basket. I explained that the job of the ball handlers was to pass back and forth to “tease” the other team and get their best guards to come out and cover them away from the basket but to not shoot. I explained their job was to make the shooters better players and be able to score.
When they saw an opening they were to get the ball to one of the other kids under the basket. As expected the other teams did jump out away from the basket and follow who they knew to be good players. It was cool to watch the better ball handlers use their skills and look for openings. It was also cool to watch the other kids shoot with less pressure and make a few shots.
The kids seemed to really like this new found strategy. The better ball handlers learned some new skills and how to share. The shooters got to do something that they normally did not get to do in real games.
When the regular coach returned the kids wanted to try out their “new trick” but the he returned to the “hot dog” theory to let the better players do most of the ball handling and shooting. A few kids thanked me for the opportunity to try something new.
My hope was they learned some leadership themselves. And maybe they even recognized the difference when the regular coach returned.
Alicia, thanks for demonstrating leadership and helping some kids believe in themselves. Hopefully they will “pass it on” some day with fond memories of you and running around chasing a soccer ball. The world clearly needs to develop more leaders with critical thinking skills.
