"My emphasis is not on running an offense...it is on teaching my team offense. We want players who can play offense, not run an offense." (Mike Krzyyzewski)
Honestly, one of my favorite basketball quotes. I've been preaching for awhile that not enough girls enjoy freelance or pick-up ball. Women are great with structure, usually more than men. They are great at listening and doing exactly what you tell them, almost too much. It is very easy to coach or teach the 'play' out of a young lady. They will follow so much instruction to the 't' that they rarely learn or feel the game for themselves, and therefore can lack creativity, or play-ability. I also believe because young ladies listen so well that many young coaches get caught up in over teaching them set plays and things of that nature which stifle their games own maturation.
What actually prompted me to write this was when I was in the gym with my 13yr old daughter last week. We were doing some individual stuff on one side of the court, and on the other half were some grown men playing 'pick up ball'. With out any prompting, she said to me, "Dad, you know why I think us girls are hesitant to play using our crossover dribbles, spins, behind the back, are not aggressive all the time, things of that nature? Because we don't play enough pick up ball, 1/1, things like that."
How do we fix this problem? "Pick up ball", encourage your young ladies to get in the gym and just play some 1/1, 2/2, 3/3,/4/4,/5/5 where there is little obligation to run plays. Teach them the fundamentals of spacing, cutting, use of the dribble, passing, transition, positions, and defense. Then, let them play! If there is not many opportunities where your at for them to find pick up games, then provide the atmosphere for them. Break them into stations of 1/1, 2/2, &3/3, then finish off the day with some 5/5. Provide them some instruction, like the above mentioned fundamentals, but let them play. You can film if you like, and show them later where the fundamentals where performed well or not performed well, but try not to interrupt the games that much.
LET THEM PLAY!
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