On his website, coach Daniel Beltramo published an interesting report after an investigation he carried out focusing on the opinion of boys between 14 and 17 years old.
By Daniel Beltramo (Your website)
INTRODUCTION
I consider myself a coach with more doubts than certainties, and those doubts generate questions for me. One of them was always: Am I giving the boys what they really come for?
I had been putting off this investigation for a long time but, after the experience of this pandemic and the stoppage of activities, I decided to get down to work once they were enabled. The purpose is to know intimately and from their own voice what the boys want and not what we think they want.
The incorporation of social networks to teaching is, together with the need to use videos of their own games as didactic tools, one of the most relevant points of this study. Added to this is the enormous desire to return to training, the choice of workouts that take into account the 5 vs 5 and the need for the gym to enhance the physical part.
For this job 475 boys from all over the country with ages ranging from 14 to 17 years were surveyed, that is, they participate in the Under 15 and Under 17 categories of basketball. They answered 14 questions that ranged from technical to social and digital. I want to deeply thank all the coaches who collaborated with this work by surveying their boys in a totally disinterested way.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO CONSIDER:
training
- The boys expressed a great desire to return to the club and what they like the most about that is Training (53%). They are followed by the preference for playing (25%) and in third place being with friends (16%)
- As for training itself, what young people overwhelmingly like the most is PLAYING GAMES (70%). This is above other points such as INDIVIDUAL FOUNDATIONS (20%) and playing DIVERSE GAMES (5%)
- To conclude with the technical aspects and what concerns playing matches during training, 63% prefer 5 vs 5, while 30% prefer 3 vs 3 and only 7% prefer 1 vs 1.
- When indicating which Individual Fundamentals they would like to train, 49% answered the SHOOT, 25% the BALL HANDLING, 18% DEFENSIVE FOUNDATIONS and 7% FINTS.
- The other point with the highest favorable percentage was the inclination for the gym. 96% voted to go.
Competition
- When asked if they would like to play the local tournament, the provincial one, both or weekend tournaments, a resounding 78% said they want to play both tournaments (both the local and the provincial)
Digital Aspect
- 95% of the boys responded that they want to add the use of social networks to the activity. That same percentage chose Instagram as the preferred social network.
- 90%, meanwhile, said they were interested in videos of their own games, the National League and the NBA.
- A fundamental fact: 97% of the boys say they want to watch their own matches to correct mistakes and better understand the game.
Social aspect
- When asked about the social and what kind of activities outside of basketball they would like to do, the barbecue was the most chosen (52%). Then followed the camps (26%) and in third place play tournaments and / or video games (15%).
PERSONAL CONCLUSIONS:
Trainings: They are the center
According to the data obtained, it is clear that the boys yearn and want to train, but the most relevant thing is to understand that it is necessary to add more activities played and less drills to training. Clearly young people want to explore through play and solve problems through decision making. Surely we use the direct command method too much, but because of the data collected, the boys look for an experience where the center is them and they achieve that through play.
Obviously it is important to incorporate 5 vs 5 as a central theme in the teaching / learning process because it is what they enjoy the most, The challenge as a coach is to do those 5 vs 5 by changing the parameters and the rules so that in addition to playing, they are incorporating valuable knowledge.
The Fundamental they want to learn the most is shooting and it is logical, everyone wants to score and for that we must teach them to shoot correctly.
The other great point to keep in mind is that It is unthinkable with these results, not sending the boys to the gym since it is an activity that they ask for and enjoyLet’s not forget that they are in a stage of great physical changes.
Competition: Training or playing games?
The boys want to compete, and what hurts them the most about these moments is the lack of tournaments and championships. They clearly want to play both tournaments and it is important to be able to participate in them. What is also important is to understand how much competence is necessary and what helps their growth. Finding the balance between training and games is central.
Digital Aspect: Seeing yourself play
In the Information Age, it is unthinkable not to incorporate the use of social networks as another tool in the process. We must think that they live with this new reality and we must transform it as a way to motivate them to practice sports.
What does not admit of doubts is that they want to see themselves play, they want to see their games to correct mistakes and understand the game. I believe that filming the games, watching them with them, making montages to show concepts is essential at this stage and as a second point, supporting those concepts by watching NBA or National League games that corroborate that they are on the right track.
Social Aspect: Avoid desertion
How could it be otherwise, in the social aspect, interpersonal relationships and the way to generate links is where there was more diversity of criteria. Social gatherings are something they are waiting for, but in their way and not as we are used to.
Sharing roasts is the most chosen and I think that this is a moment of socialization and the creation of very important bonds that will serve as support so that more and more boys go to the club, that there is less and less desertion and so that -truly- the focus sport is global, rather than tied exclusively to basketball.
CONCLUSIONS
It is important to clarify that there is nothing of what we coaches have been doing that we have to stop doing or anything that we have to make disappear from our work on the court. Just interpret these data and continue with our work but with a help of this nature.
The mistake would be to think that, because the boys choose to play 5 vs 5, we don’t have to do the 1 vs 1 anymore, or because they want to play in training, we should stop doing the exercises that we know are important and also effective. Or because the boys like the activity of the barbecue, let’s do barbecue instead of training.
As trainers / teachers, we have to know how to interpret what adolescents demand and take advantage of new tools to generate a more comprehensive approach to the activity.
