Belonging to the Team

My son had a baseball game yesterday and in that game his coach had to sit 4 of the 13 players that showed up to play for him.  He had no choice of course since you can only play 9 in the field at a time.  He decided to sit these 4 players for the first 2 innings of the game and he also had all 4 of these players batting at the bottom of the order.  In essence he had these players sit and watch for the first 30-45 minutes of the game.  In the pros that is not too unusual but we are talking about u10 baseball here.  It's tough enough to keep them engaged when you have them playing, let alone when they are sitting doing nothing.  I decided to pay attention to those 4 boys and see how they would do for the rest of the game.  In the end they all did poorly at the plate and many of them were not as engaged as they should have been in the field.  This got me thinking about basketball and keeping players engaged.  How can you make sure that all of your players feel like they are a contributing member of the team?  Kids have a sense of self worth just like grown ups do and if child feels like the coach does not trust him it can negatively affect the child.  How can we avoid that from happening especially to the kids who may not be the more talented ones of our group?

This is a very tough question to answer.  I think there is a combination of things you can do to make sure player 12 feels as engaged as player 1 at all times.

1. Spend time with them in practice.  Coaches have a bad habit of always drifting to their better players in practice.  I get it.  You need to make sure that the players who will spend the majority of the time on the floor get most of your attention but if you find 5-10 minutes each practice to spend with your bench players you will make them feel like they belong on the team and that you care for them.


2. Included them in all drills and scrimmages in practice.  Do not exclude any of your players!


3. Give them a simple but important task during games.  This could be starting team warm ups or distributing balls to the team.  Do not have them log names into the book.  They belong with the team.  Do not take them away from the team!


4. When you get the team together for a team cheer have one of the bench players start the cheer for you.


5. Find playing time for them.  Play them in every game when they are 12 and under and play them as much as possible in other games.  If your team is up big or down big do not hesitate to pull your regulars and play these boys as much as possible and when you do coach them the same way you would coach your regulars.


6. When they are in the game and the situation allows it, try to get shots for them.  Show that you care and want to see them do well.


7. Always encourage all of your players.  Don't embarrass them.  Even when you are frustrated with them try not to yell.  Teach them.

Kids don't just want to be on a team.  They want to feel like they belong to the team.  If you as a coach take the time to show all of your players that you care for them this goes a long way to creating great team chemistry.  To do this takes guts from a coach.  You need to sacrifice time in practice and minutes in games in order to build this chemistry but it usually pays off in the long run.