TUTORIALS

Commitment

The commitment implies that sometimes the player will have to give up certain personal wishes and make certain sacrifices for the group. He/she will have to think about others and not just about himself/herself. He/she will have to develop the appropriate discipline that will enable him/her to carry out his/her obligations.

For example:

An eleven-year-old player does not feel like going to training and she does not go. Another of her mates does not feel like going either but she respects her commitment to her team and goes to training. Which of the two obtains more benefits from mini-basketball as an educational experience?

Nowadays, one of the most widespread problems in some countries is that of young people not carrying out their obligations because they behave following their personal short-term wishes. In this way, when they do not like something, they give up even if it is unfinished; when something turns out to be uncomfortable for them, they give it up; if something is too complex or requires a continuous effort, they do not do it.

Withdrawal and lack of accomplishment of projects that imply difficulties are two of the most serious effects of the lack of commitment. Mini-basketball and basketball teams are an excellent educational opportunity for children and teenagers to learn to accept and carry out obligations. This education can be relevant for their future as adults.

Perseverance

In life, it is very important to be persistent and basketball can help develop this quality: to be persistent, making the maximum effort.

For example:

John is a 14-year-old boy who gets enthusiastic about many things but soon gives up his projects because he is not persistent. On the other hand, his friend Nick, once he has started something, does not give it up and he always exerts himself in order to achieve his goals. Even when he is feeling down because things do not turn out the way he expected, Nick is able to follow through till he achieves his goal. Nick has played basketball since he was 10 years old and has learned to accept his commitments and to persevere.

The development of perseverance is especially important when the players go through hard times: if they make mistakes, play poorly, try things and do not obtain the results they wanted, etc… In their lives outside of sports,they also encounter adverse situations in which it is hard to persevere but basketball players can be prepared if this important aspect, perseverance, has been developed.

Team Work

It is important for children and teenagers to learn to work as a team. Is there a better place to develop this quality than in a basketball team?

The coach of a mini-basketball team organizes a 2 on 2 drill. The offensive players cannot dribble, all they can do is pass the ball. They start at one of the base-lines and must cross to the other baseline controlling the ball. Logically, in order to do that, they must collaborate with each other.

This drill, like others of the same kind, teaches children about the importance of collaboration and team work. The games themselves are also very useful, because one player cannot win a game on his/her own

Respecting The Rules

Respecting the Rules Obviously, playing on a basketball team means having to respect several rules: internal duties, training rules and game rules. Thus, young people get used to not being able to do exactly what they want, but having to respect certain rules that foster their coexistence with others. This is one of the many valuable educational aspects of basketball as a competitive sport.

Respecting Others

Playing basketball is also a good way of learning to respect others: mates, opponents, coaches, directors, spectators and referees.

Young players must learn to respect individual differences within their own group, accepting and coexisting with teammates who, in some cases, may belong to a different social group, race, religion, ethnic group, country, city, etc… and who may have different ideas and ways. They will have to respect differences that come about while playing basketball, because some play better than others, some master certain skills better than others, some play longer than others, etc…

The everyday situations experienced by a basketball team, encourage players to become more respectful towards their teammates. They become more sociable. In fact, it is very common in basketball to bring together people that due to their differences may have been rivals in other contexts.

Personal Responsibility Within Group

It is very important that young people learn to take on personal responsibilities for the benefit of the group. Basketball is an excellent school for developing this aspect.

For example:

A player has to defend 1 on 1 against an opponent. He must take on his personal responsibility in order to carry out his task successfully. The whole team relies on him. If the attacker succeeds in scoring the whole team suffers; if he does not score, then everyone benefits

For this reason, players are assigned what they have to do and that is expected from them individually

Cognitive Development

First, mini-basketball (for the youngest) and basketball pose multiple situations that oblige young players to develop certain cognitive capacities.

Basketball players (mini-basketball players included) must learn to pay attention and to concentrate on different stimuli. Sometimes the stimulus is a single one, sometimes they have to focus on more than one stimuli at the same time, with more or less intensity, and for a longer or shorter amount of time. And depending on the situation, the players have to learn to change, increase, or decrease their attention at very precise moments. Not many activities provide children with this great opportunity of developing their attention-al skills.

Likewise, basketball may help players to develop their skills of selecting and processing external information. From all the stimuli that they receive from their environment, they must select only those that are relevant and that can be associated with what they have already stored in their memory. And they must learn to make quick decisions too.

These cognitive processes: selection, association, storage, use of stored data, and decision-making can be developed with proper guidance in the practice of Basketball as a sport

Perception Of Control

People need to feel like they are in control of the things that concern them: that is, that they can work on them. This notion of control is the foundation of our self-confidence which constitutes a decisive aspect of our psychological strength.

On the opposite side of control is helplessness. A helpless person feels like he/she cannot work on the things that concern him/her, and as a result he/she comes to the conclusion that whatever he/she does, nothing comes as a result of his/her actions.

Cases of helplessness can be found in many children and teenagers. Helplessness prevents them from believing in themselves, making them suffer and discouraged.

Children and teenagers need to experience situations of control to believe in themselves and become psychologically stronger. Basketball provides many opportunities for this kind of situations.

Self Confidence

Self-confidence is closely related to the perception of control. Self-confidence is the trust that the players have in their own resources to be able to achieve a certain goal.

Being confident is an inner process that implies having a real sense of both the difficulties of the result we want to achieve, and of our own resources to achieve it. Keeping all this in mind, one should base his/her confidence on the real chances that exist of obtaining the desired results.

Therefore, a player with self- confidence, in contrast to one that does not have it, knows approximately what his/her chances are, and what actions he/she must perform to make those possibilities come true. He/she also knows the difficulties that could prevent him/her from achieving the desired objective, and the actions that, in such cases, he/she should perform in order to neutralize those difficulties.

Self-confidence grows if the player feels that he/she is efficient when controlling the demands of practices and games.

A person’s self-confidence is not the same in every aspect of his/her life;for example, a boy may have more confidence while playing basketball than while studying mathematics. However, by reinforcing one’s self-confidence in a relevant aspect of one’s life (for example, basketball) this self-confidence may spread to other areas through the development of an objective way of functioning.

Self Control

For a basketball player it is very important to develop self-control: being able to control his/her impulsiveness and in general his/her actions in order to be prepared and give the best performance.

Basketball provides many situations in which the players must learn to control themselves. Let us think for instance about the adverse decision taken by a referee, about a mistake that must be corrected promptly, about the wrong actions of a teammate, or when a player goes to the bench.

For example:

Helena is 11 years old and she loves mini-basketball. She is on one of her school’s teams. She trains two days during the week and plays on Saturdays. Helena is very involved and tries to do her best. That is why she wants her teammates to take it as seriously as she does. On several occasions, when a teammate has made a mistake she has got mad at her and has scolded her aggressively.

Her coach has explained to her that she should not behave in that way, and Helena has made an effort to control herself. Now,every time one of her mates makes a mistake, instead of scolding them she either cheers them up or simply ignores them. She concentrates more on what she has to do. Her mother has said that she also seems less impulsive in other ways.

For example:

Mario also plays mini-basketball. One day he complained to a referee because he had pointed out a personal foul that, according to Mario, did not exist. His coach did not allow him to play on the next game, explaining to Mario that his lack of self-control was the reason for this punishment. Since then Mario is capable of controlling him-self.

These examples show the opportunities that mini-basketball and basket-ball provide to young players to learn to control themselves.

Self Concept And Self Esteem

Self-concept refers to the opinion that a person has of themselves while self-esteem shows the extent to which a person likes that opinion about himself.

Basketball Coaches reinforce these qualities by encouraging the players perception of control so as to strengthen their self confidence preventing them from perceiving uncontrolled failure that could provoke a serious crisis to their self-concept and self-esteem. Other aspects of life will not affect how the kids perceive themselves

Health is one of the aspects in the growth of children that may be enhanced through the practice of mini-basketball and basketball.

• Proper practice of mini-basketball and basketball contributes to the physical development of the players.

• It can also contribute to developing the healthy habit of practicing sports.

• It provides the opportunity of developing healthy habits related to the practice of sports, which are basically: nutrition habits, hygiene habits and self-care habits

Credits

BASKETBALL FOR YOUNG PLAYERS.

GUIDELINES FOR COACHES (BY FIBA in collaboration with EABC)