yes, another kids coaching story (Update: 2016-17 edition)

Starman, I'm imagining the '72 Dolphins cracking open the Champagne after that story. My condolences but 5'2 and 120 is crazy.

 

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

The thing for most young players, especially girls, is it is such an unnatural response when somebody (much bigger) turns their back to you and starts backing right up to you with their butt in your chest, to "stand your ground" rather than simply sliding backwards.

They'll learn that in another year or so, but then you get to the point when you're being backed down/bulldozed by somebody 30% bigger than you (height and weight). When you "plant your feet," they are going to just bowl you straight over.

(As noted, about three offensive fouls have been called in the entire recorded history of kids basketball, which frequently features players driving down court with a stiff-arm modeled from the Heisman Trophy, so the idea of planting your feet hoping to draw opponents into scads of charging fouls looks like a complete loser anyway.)

At a certain point, you can't teach size. Hopefully the two post players currently on the roster shoot up in height the way their family patterns seem to indicate they probably should. (Although neither is likely to bulk up very much -- their families run to the tall and slim.)

Sis admitted she has probably skimped on practicing on playing physical because they have so much speed they haven't needed -- or been forced into -- doing a lot of bumping under the basket.


UPDATE: Sis texted me Sunday night with the message that "Rudette" had emailed with news they had won their league finale Saturday, so the showdown game was a 'go' from their standpoint.

Sis replied the Pandas would call go/no go by 7 p.m. Monday.

A possible option would be just to have a "shootaround/open gym" instead of an actual game, if the Panda parents seem too iffy on the idea. All will be revealed Monday.

 

And ... it's on.

Sis said the vote ended up unanimous to play.

 

Heh. We will see. Maybe the "Rudettes" will be bitten by the overconfidence bug too.

In the meantime, Sis made it a condition of agreeing to the game, for players/parents to agree to two practices this week (normally they only have one). Everyone signed on (apparently) enthusiastically.

With all that settled, Sis has a pretty interesting challenge in front of her:

1) She has absolutely no idea what the 'prevailing level of play' is in the Rudyville Rec League. They could be way over, or way under, their class no matter what she does.

2) She has no idea of the makeup of the "Rudies", except she knows her counterpart coach has two daughters on the team, like herself, and they also play guard, so just as a wild guess Sis thinks they're probably a fast guard-oriented team, too.

3) It's obvious from Saturday's game the Pandas were hugely vulnerable to getting killed by a powerful center, so they probably better make some contingency plans to at least partially address that weakness.

 

Sweep the leg!

 

Maybe instead of practices they'll just watch three hours of videos from the 1980s:



Or maybe this:

Although they'd probably say the fight was well worth it to see the mascot dance for two minutes.

 

My favorite player from the 80's (a statement which once caused another member of this board to cus me out.) But his lesson of strong on D, challenge every shot, go all out for every board and hit a few 3s on the other end, is still valuable to this day.

 

Well, I am sure Sis will cover the stuff about playing hard on D and going hard to the boards. She'll probably go easy on the stuff about tomahawking any player who comes in the lane in the head and throwing a stiff-arm across their throat.

 

Our commish decides yesterday that he wants an all star game after the last game on Saturday. Tells everyone to have their girls vote on 3 players. There is zero appetite from the other coaches to do this and the commish is out of town.

I don't want to have my girls vote because I don't want there to be jealousy right before the finals. But because I've been pretty snarky about him, I don't want to be seen as disagreeable. So I picked 3 players, sent their parents a bcc e-mail and hope that the other coaches don't want a game.

 

This dude sounds like a real piece of work. He wimps out of decisions and screws the whole league over as a result (completely screwing over the whole playoff bracket, TWICE), now he makes an abrupt arbitrary command decision to stage the all-star game?

Since Commishy Boy will be out of town anyway, screw him. Tell the other coaches, "screw the all-star game, let's just order pizza for everybody and play HORSE."

(I presume after his "performance" the past several weeks, Commishy Boy ain't too likely to be back as commissioner next year. From your accounts of events, I can't imagine 4-5 of the coaches in the league don't want his ass gone ASAP. So I wouldnt worry too much about "seeming disagreeable.")

 

Sis called with a report on practice tonight. Normally they had one two-hour practice every Wednesday; this week Sis pulled some strings to get 90-minute slots tonight and Thursday, and a 60-minute slot Friday afternoon.

First off tonight, Sis wanted to make sure there was no hangover/ demoralization problem after the stunning loss Saturday.

She needn't have worried; she said the first 15-20 minutes was a lot of goofing-screwing around. Then she had a brief pep talk/ focus talk to the effect, "this game is for real, we're keeping score."

Thing is, up until now, Sis really hadn't talked about "winning" at all. It seemed a little excessive when they weren't really supposed to be keeping score in the first place, and had been winning every game (until last week) by huge scores anyway.

Once things settled down, they went to work on putting in the concept of weak side help and doubling down on a big center in the lane. (It's been specifically spelled out as legal in their rules agreement, as opposed to Starrville Youth League in which defensive help or doubling is strictly verboten.)

Sis says, "we can't win if the opposing center gets 27-20, but we can if she gets 17-12."