In my few years of coaching 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade boys AAU basketball and varsity girls high school basketball, there have been quite a few things that standout to me as constants more than other things, one being the influence of the parents mindset on the player and the coach/player interaction and relationship. Its unbelievable how parents bring there child to your program, that you do planning, preparation, giving lots of time and hard work to see out but then turn right around and want to go against you as a coach in many ways, as if you are insufficient. What's funny is, mot of the parents are TOTALLY delusional about the game of basketball as a whole and there child's own game. The problem stems from a selfish mindset of the parent from the outset (which is like poison to a young player), where in the parents agenda is for their child to be highly praised, glorified and touted. Every parent prematurely views their"baby" as a superstar. They come in feeling as if their child is the "next big thing". A very self centered mindset that is all about their child, giving very little emphasis to TEAM! This gets the young player comfortable withbucking against their coach and ok with challenging authority.That's the foundation for all the other problems that follow; they're not getting enough minutes, they should be used in a different capacity, they shouldn't be coming off of the bench, accusations of the coach having favorites or just not liking their child, on and on and on! Its embedded in the child's mind so then the child's scope of the game becomes self centered and based upon only the most flashy, hyped parts of the game like the shots, fancy dribble moves, and dunks. The new "YOU TUBE" highlight movement doesn't help at all either in which they glorify dunks and one on one moves. Those things in combination with selfish minded parents make a coaches job tuff. That players issues can rub off on or offend his or her fellow teammates. Player listens less to instruction and more to the parent which makes it less possible for a player's performance to be good and forces the coach to shortened the players minutes which further fuels the source of what caused the problem in the first place!!!!! Its just messy. I mean can you tell me Lebron's stats from grade school AAU season's??Uh no, I didn't think so. That's the time for them to develop the bball IQ and their individual skills. Its sad for some players. As if they're not up against enough with millions of other up and coming players that want to achieve the same goals with the game of basketball, the parents could be the biggest stumbling block of all. So parents lets check ourselves by getting a good scope of the game, teaching our kids to focus on the values that should be learned through the game, teach selfishness and respect for the coach!!
