Archive for Basketball
An Outline for Passing on the Game
Posted by: | CommentsI promised an outline. So here we go. No doubt I might switch a few things around, but more or less, I have 20 things I would like to say. I know it won’t cover every detail, but I am confident that as we move through this outline, we should all be better equipped to serve our kids as we seek to pass on the joy of sports. I’ll begin with our first point tomorrow.
1 – Love your kids much more than the game. And make sure they know it.
2 – Love the game for itself, not for what you can get from it.
3 – Surround them with the game.
4 – Play first, teach second (or maybe teach 10th).
5 – Show more than tell. Then show some more.
7 – Emphasize the importance of practice.
8 – Make sure they have good coaching.
9 – Push without being pushy.
10 – Always be available to help.
11 – Fuel their dreams and keep a distance with your own.
12 – Keep the game in perspective.
13 – Teach the mental game.
14 – Watch out for the work beneath the work.
15 – Teach them how to win and lose.
16 – Always stay positive.
17 – Fuel Confidence.
18 – Make sure it stays fun.
19 – Use competition to teach life and character lessons.
20 – In all things, give them the big picture.
A Focus for Passing on the Game
Posted by: | CommentsI figure that in order for me to tackle this topic well, I need at least a two things: an outline and a focus.
The outline I will list in my next post. My focus I will explain right here.
Essentially, I have decided that in order to best address this topic, I will explain all I have to say through the grid of the game of basketball. Of course, sports in general are my focus, but I think I can serve everyone best if I use one particular game as one example through which we can make application to all other games (and hopefully, even other things in life). I have chosen to do this for a few reasons.
First, it is easily the game I know best and the one particular game that has always been preeminent in my family (and in my life). In fact, I don’t think it is exaggerating things to say that someone’s basketball season has been an important part of our family for something around the last 60 years. My Grandfather started it all with a College career and over 30 years of Coaching. My Dad continued to trend by playing and Coaching. My Uncles also did the same. My brother and I then moved things along by playing together at the collegiate level. My younger sisters are also still very involved in the game as well (my older sister coaches my younger sister with my Dad’s help). Not only that, but as far as I can tell, I will probably spend the rest of my life enjoying and imparting the game in some way, shape or form. For me, there is just no escaping the fact that I was created to spend my life in the world of basketball.
Of course, sports in general were always a big part of Crispin family life. We played (and my Grandfather and Dad and Uncle coached) baseball and football and soccer and others. But there was never any question which sport came first – basketball. In fact, when people ask me when I first started to play the game, I can answer honestly ‘From the time I could hold a baby-sized ball.’ In the Crispin family, it simply all came back (and still comes back) to hoops. Though we enjoyed other sports and often worked pretty hard at them, dinner conversations revolved around the game of basketball. The gym is where we headed first. Our backyard always had to have a basket. When my brother and I were kids, we thought the title ‘basketball ball boys’ was a badge of honor. There was just no escaping it. We grew up with the game. Though we were never forced to play, in hindsight, our decision to play seems somewhat inevitable. Basketball was simply the athletic air we breathed from our childhood on up.
There may have been times where our commitment to hoops was a bit out of balance, but in all seriousness, that was probably in large part due to me (more on that later). More or less, our love for the game has been a very healthy thing in our family, a uniting force as it were, and one for which I am very, very thankful. Indeed, I am thankful enough to want to pass it on.
Second, I think that by specifically addressing hoops, you will have an easier time making wise application to whatever your sport or ‘game’ may be. Of course, many principles are just plain obvious and timeless and applicable not only to sports, but to all of life. However, there are certain basketball practices that I will address in a very specific basketball way. I do so knowing that you know your ‘game’ better than I do. So I have to believe that you will be able to see how my basketball examples apply to your golf or baseball or whatever-your-game examples. If not, let me know, but I think you will see this to be the case. Not only that, but I think you will find such focus pretty helpful. I certainly hope I am right.
Passing on the Game – A Series
Posted by: | CommentsIf you are presently out of physical shape, you probably aren’t going to get back into shape without some sort of plan. And not just any plan, but a reasonable, semi-interesting one. I figure the same holds true for the blogger. And as I am so obviously a blogger that is currently out of good blogging condition, I have come up with what I think is a reasonable and very interesting plan.
My plan is a series of posts that I have chosen to title, Passing on the Game. I am not completely sold on the title, but when you are out of shape and need to get back to working out, you don’t get too worried about titles. Making the first few posts come first.
Anyhow, the focus of this series is one that I have wanted to write about for some time now. Essentially, I am planning on writing about 20 posts that focus on what it takes to healthily pass on the understanding and joy of sports to your children. I figure it is a topic that needs to be addressed for multiple reasons.
First, because healthy is usually not the first word that comes to mind when you look at American sports in general, and much of children’s sports in particular. A careful look through the sports pages each week will probably support that point. Or I suppose a more discerning look at your son’s next practice or game may do the trick.
Second, it seems to me that passing on anything worthwhile to your children is inevitably fraught with difficulty, particularly if you really want to do it in a healthy, life-giving way. I don’t care if you love Math and want to pass on the love of Math…or the love of God for that matter. It’s just not easy to thoroughly enjoy something and pass it on in a healthy way. After all, our tendency here and now is to desire good things too much. And can anyone disagree that this is often obviously the case when we want to pass on good things to our kids? We want them to enjoy what we enjoy so much that we might ram it down their throats and in turn, make it all the more difficult for them to enjoy it. This seems to be true especially with sports.
Third, this needs to be addressed by me right here and now because this is something I desperately want to do well. Very well. And this is true for me not simply because I want my children to enjoy sports (and yes, certain sports more than others I confess!), but because I myself received this gift from my fathers. Weird as it may sound, from my vantage point, the joy of sports (basketball in particular) is a generational gift that has been given and in some sense, entrusted to me. Not perfectly of course. Or in some sort of formal, serious way. But it has been passed on nonetheless. And I want to keep things going. Even more, I want to take all that is good and improve upon it for the next generation.
Fourth and probably most important, (this I am adding as an update to this post), I think we will find out that the principles or practices I set forth in my upcoming posts apply to much more than sports. No matter what it is you love and want to pass on, the principles are probably the same. And certain practices probably have their parallels. So although I will be addressing sports in particular, it is my belief that you will find much to apply to whatever it is you want your children to love.
So with those things in mind, I am going to write. I am going to follow (and yes, probably alter) the plan and hopefully learn a great deal as we focus on how we can best pass on the joy of the game. Is it easy? No way, but I am convinced that because of the unique nature of sports, it is well worth the effort. Not only that, but if you are a parent who to any degree enjoys sports, it is your plain old duty to do this well.
Professional Basketball Overseas
Posted by: | CommentsThis is the best documentary I have ever seen on professional basketball. Real professional basketball from a global perspective, particularly as it relates to the American player and how difficult it is to make money playing ball. I cannot recommend it enough to anyone aspiring to play professionally. And even if you aren’t aspiring, but simply want to have a better understanding of the professional basketball world, this documentary is easily the best place to turn.
Below is part 1 of 9.
(HT: to my beautiful wife, Married to a Baller)
Still Voting?
Posted by: | CommentsThere has to be some legitimacy to the notion that various media outlets make up stories in order to justify their existence. Though I have followed college basketball for years, I never realized that there was a final poll taken to rank the various teams. Apparently, one coach out of 31 didn’t vote for UCONN for the top spot. And though you might not think this is a big deal, it is a headline on ESPN.com and interviews were necessary.
Is this for real? If it had come out on April 1st, I would have thought is was an April Fool’s joke or something. But no, it is completely legitimate. Which led me to thinking…
1) The Coaches who voted for UCONN were not really thinking through the matter, but are just marking them down, so that they would not have to do any ridiculous interviews with ESPN in order to justify voting for a more worthy team. For if the vote is really for the best team in the nation, did every single coach who voted really believed that UCONN proved themselves to be the best team this season? No way. They were just marking a real formality, which leads me to wonder why there is a vote at all (except that it serves as a news story).?
2) Is it not obvious to everyone that the NCAA tournament does not determine the best team in the nation?
The NBA playoff system usually does lead to determining the year’s best team. Or at least is usually quite close. For when you play best of 5 or best of 7 series, more times than not, you will find out who is really the best team. Opportunities for adjustments are made and the stronger team usually wins out.
But in a ‘one and done’ format like the NCAA tournament, that is by no means the case. Winning the championship does not by any means prove you were the best team in the nation. For oftentimes, in order to win the championship, you don’t even have to beat the best teams in the nation (as I would argue UCONN proved this year). A thousand variables are outside your control. The best team in the nation might get the worse match-up possible for the way they like to play. Or they may have an injury. Or they may just have an off night against an up-start squad that makes 50% of their threes. And they lose without a chance to make an adjustment and prove themselves the stronger team over the course of an extended series.
That is not to take away from UCONN’s accomplishment. To win the National Championship is no easy task and you have to play great to do so. But winning it doesn’t even come close to proving you were the year’s best team. The entire season must be considered in making that decision.
Of course, maybe that is why they have the final vote. Or maybe not. Maybe it is just to make a headline, because they know it will stir up attention and lead knuckleheads like me to blog about it. That being said, I am done commenting on such a non-story…at least for now.
