Coaching at Basketball Camp

Location – ISK

            For the first two weeks of this summer (summer 2011), I was one of four coaches at the basketball Future Stars Camp hosted at ISK. In this camp, it was possible for kids to either take part in basketball, soccer, or tennis. I was a basketball coach. Qualifications for this were fairly minimal; I’m good with kids, and I was on Varsity basketball.

            The camp lasted for two weeks (business days only). The sports were only in the mornings and there was a day camp for younger kids so they didn’t have to be at home all day while their parents were at work. The basketball sessions started at seven forty-five a.m., and ended at one p.m.. There were two weeks of the camp and each week was for a different age group. To make it possible for kids of both age groups to participate in both weeks the age groups differed between each sport available.

            The first week I was coaching kids ages 6-9. I found that this was both easy and difficult. After the first day and half we, the coaches, found that, with this age group, it was more about keeping them interested. To do that they just needed to keep having fun. So we played lots of un-basketball related games and activities such as dodgeball, and scooters. Also, most of the kids were 6 or 7 and therefore their muscles, and coordination was very undeveloped, so many of the attempts at basketball drills were considered, in my mind, a strong introductory learning experience for the kids. However, despite that week of camp not being very basketball oriented, all the parents gave positive feedback, and all the kids had fun, so I still consider it a success.

            The second week of camp was ages 10-13. This group of kids were much more developed in basketball, however, they still contained many very weak areas and a lack of the fundamental side of the game (as apposed to the physical side of the game). This was the week when I felt my coaching actually made an impact on the kids. We still played dodgeball a few times because it’s a fun game. However, at the end of the week, a clear improvement was very visible in the kids basketball skill. Whether it was an improvement on passing, or shooting form, or dribbling, each kid had improved in something and it was fairly easy to see and overall improvement in all the kids.

            In conclusion, this experience was a good eye-opener. Personally, I found that I don’t like to expend the amount of energy that little kids require on entertaining little kids, I would rather use that energy to work out or play a real basketball game, so I know not to coach little kids (unless its part of package coaching deal, meaning I would definitely like to be a coach at this camp next summer as well). However, I did enjoy coaching the slightly older kids because I actually got to focus on the game. Also, at the end of the week, when I actually saw everyone’s improvements it felt good to know that, the other coaches and, I helped these kids improve. It was hard to see their improvement over the week because we were never trying to look for it, but at the end of the week, when the time came to step back (mentally), and try to see if they’d improved, everyone had. And I felt accomplished to know that I had been a part of that improvement.