My friend Jennifer Tiszai, who's new to Indiana this year, mentioned going to a basketball game on her blog today. It made me laugh thinking about my son Tanner's own little basketball catastrophe this week. He loves playing Upward Basketball for our church's team. It's such a positive environment for him to learn the game.Last year he had a coach that wasn't overly strong on the coaching part but he was kind and encouraging to the kids and for the age group I thought that was sufficient. This year Tan has a coach that loves the game of basketball. You can tell that this man was or is an athlete. He's still very trim and sporty and exhibits all the qualities of the most passionate "college" coach. Right down to making them do a push up if they miss the basket. Too bad he's teaching 1st and 2nd graders. Anyway, my son, who if you're new to my blog you may not know he has asperger tendencies, is very quirky. He's soooo modest it worries me what's going to happen when he gets older and has to shower in front of classmates in gym.
Anyway, he's on this team and the coach decides he's going to have the kids play shirts and skins. And guess who was on the skins team? Oh man! Tanner was soooo upset. He wanted to quit that night. I'm not a mother that lets her kid quit on a whim. He signed up for the team, he'll finish the season. My only concern is will this overly zealous coach ruin my son's love of the game or could it possibly help loosen him up a bit? Hmmm, I'll keep you posted. :)
2 comments:
I was laughing when I read your comment on my blog about that. And I'm with you; coaches can make a big impact on how kids view the game. I hope Tanner sticks it out.
My two are going to be taking up basketball soon, or so they tell me. Should be an adventure, but they need to do something to run off their energy in the winter.
I used to coach basketball (girls.) Only one of mine played basketball as an elementary kid. (Only 3 of them played Little League.) I played basketball and track. Anyway, there are many things to do once they hit high school, but in elementary there aren't too many things they can participate in. My kids were always into music and art and drama--and one of them is very close to going pro in music and another in art. None of them (nor any of their peers) are going pro in sports (grin.)
Maybe Tanner will like the more solitary sports--golf, track, cross country, tennis, swimming? (on a team but plays as one?)
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