The Current State of Hoop

The current approach to basketball development in the United States squeezes recreational and developmental athletes, while failing to transition developmental and competitive athletes into elite performers. At every participation level, four athlete categories exist and all athletes possess characteristics of each: Recreational, Developmental, Competitive and Elite.

Recreational athletes dominate either end of the age spectrum, either novice players or weekend warriors. Fun and exercise motivate recreational athletes; training is not extensive, as play is most important.

Developmental athletes are common throughout the four stages. Skill acquisition, learning and improvement motivate developmental athletes, and they use competition to measure their progress, not determine their rank.

Competitive athletes take the game seriously, train on and off the court and compete to win and continue their career. Most athletes transition naturally from Developmental to Competitive around 14 to 16-years-old. However, if an athlete is too competitive too early, he peaks, stunts his basketball development, hinders his athletic enjoyment and loses motivation.

Elite athletes arise toward the end of high school, though some players blossom early; elite athletes possess college and professional potential and ability. They manifest similar characteristics to the competitive athlete, but their talent exceeds their peers. Elite athletes require special nurturing to maximize their ability.

The current basketball development system overemphasizes competitive play and ignores developmental and recreational periods. The lack of preparation and gradual development hinders elite player development. Children are not miniature adults; however, the current youth system imposes adult training protocols, ignoring important psychological and physiological development stages that each child passes through during childhood.

Typically, a child joins a sports team or league because he demonstrates an affinity and an aptitude for the sport in an informal environment, whether shooting in his front yard or playing at recess. Play, activity, fun and friends motivate the child. However, on a formal team, these motivations disappear, as coaches concentrate on hard work, not fun; work and fun are viewed as incompatible. Organized, competitive teams introduce an outcome orientation which runs counter to the fun and discovery of informal play.

When players move to formal teams, whether school teams, recreation leagues or club teams, two problems occur: (1) The game changes from a player-directed, informal, fun environment to an adult-centered, competition-based atmosphere centered on game preparation; and (2) Basketball-specific activities replace general games like tag, chasing the dog and riding bikes.

The shift from play to competition and general to sport-specific hinders athletic development on two levels:

(1) At the recreation level – players interested in fun and exercise – play is lost and the fun disappears; practice is work. In games, some kids do not play and one star dominates the ball. Coaches implore players to run the play, a euphemism for “do exactly what I say with no deviation or thinking on your part or you are going to sit on the bench.” For many children, the experience differs from the joy of playing on the playground or in their neighborhood, and they quit organized basketball. 12-years-old is the peak age for sports participation (Coakley) and by 13-years-old, 70% of kids quit organized sports (Thompson).

(2) The immediate competitive play emphasis, termed Peak by Friday by Dr. Istvan Balyi, ignores important preparation and development stages which lead to better performance and overall ability. The early competition and emphasis on winning inhibits well-rounded skill development because it focuses on the result, rather than a learning orientation. An athlete with poorly developed general athletic ability never reaches his peak because sport-specific skills build on general athletic skills, whether manipulative (throwing), loco motor (running), non-loco motor (balancing) or movement awareness (visual awareness).

Players achieve maximum results in high school; many talented girls peak around their sophomore year of high school, while many boys peak before they matriculate to college. I followed a talented girl’s AAU team from 8th to 12th grade: all but one player peaked in 8th or 9th grade. Training to win at a premature age leads to the early peak as players rush the developmental process.

“This is the narrow approach applied to children’s sports, in which the only scope of training is achieving quick results, irrespective of what may happen in the future of the young athlete. In their attempt to achieve the fast results, coaches expose children to highly specific and intensive training without taking the time to build a good base. This is like trying to build a high rise building on a poor foundation. Obviously, such a construction error will result in the collapse of the building. Likewise, encouraging athletes to narrowly focus on their development in one sport before they are ready physically and psychologically often leads to problems,” (Bompa).

According to NCAA statistics, 1% to 3% of high school basketball players play NCAA basketball. Parents, players and coaches see these facts, and the competitive nature of youth sports, and believe the best opportunity to secure a coveted scholarship is to start before other kids, to specialize before other kids, to use a personal trainer more often, to go to more camps.

The irony of the United States youth basketball player is so many players and parents exist in an atmosphere with one eye fixed on the future, yet few people plan or organize long term athlete development (LTAD). Playing basketball is no longer an end; it is merely a vehicle to a college scholarship. No longer is the journey the destination; now, one must reach a tangible destination (worth six figures) to justify play. While other countries organize and embrace LTAD plans, United States basketball exists in a vacuum, with players going season to season, team to team and coach to coach with eyes fixed on the prize, but no plan to get there. Nowhere is the future so omnipresent in players’ minds, yet nowhere is less emphasis given to the path to the desired destination. The entire American basketball system epitomizes John Wooden’s refrain: “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”

Rather than embark on a single-minded mission to get a college scholarship, parents, coaches and players should embrace the fun and life lessons of sports and appreciate the opportunity to play. In the process of focusing on the fun and learning inherent in the activity’s challenge, athletes develop better and broader skills. If the player has a happy confluence of work ethic, genetics, opportunity and skills, he or she may conquer the scholarship quest; however, if not, the athlete will lead a happier childhood with a greater appreciation for sports and more well-rounded athletic skills.