100-0 Basketball Score? What That Means to Those of You Coaching Youth Football

100-0 I Kid you Not

One of the biggest basketball sports stories this month comes from of all places, girls basketball. If you haven't heard basketball this one, you really need to get out more, the story has gone viral. While I would prefer watching paint dry or having splinters of wood driven under my fingernails before I would attend a blowout girls basketball game, there may be a lesson here for us youth football coaches. A small Dallas, Texas High School for ADD and ADHD kids with just 20 female students, lost 100-0 last week. That's right sports fans, Covenant Christian ONE HUNDRED , Dallas Academy ZERO, that is not a typo.

The halftime score was 59-0 and the score at the end of three was 88-0. What was so interesting about this story is that the winning team Covenant Christian, pressed for pretty much the entire game. Dallas Academy rarely got the ball past half court, turning the game into what observers called a "layup drill". Dallas Academy had not won a single game in the last four seasons, not one, so it wasn't like Covenant was up 98-0 and feared Dallas Academy was going to go on a 100 point run of its own. In fact as Covenant approached the century mark, the Covenant head coach and a number of their fans were cheering wildly. I have one word for that, WOW. I'm blown away by the score and more so by the attitude and actions of the head coach and their "fans".

No Apology Required

When Covenant administrative officials apologized for the actions of their coach, the Covenant head coach bulled his neck and said that he did nothing wrong at all. He claimed that his kids were playing the game the way it was intended to be played. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those Stuart Smalley guys, you know the "let's not keep score, play every player the same amount, drink juice boxes and sing Kumbaya together after the game coaches". Remember my teams have gone 97-13, we play to win, we aren't playing Intramurals.

The Value of Competitive Sports

Competitive sports are a great learning environment for most kids, but this coach went over the top in my opinion. When you are ahead there is nothing wrong with insuring the win, working on some skills and tactics your team needs work on to improve, and getting your backups reps at executing the base offense and defense. But when it's obvious you have the upper hand and the other team has no chance at a comeback, why keep pressing? One would think after being able to execute the press to a 88-0 third quarter lead, it would be obvious your kids know how to execute the press against a hapless team of beginners. But what about working on the half court game or ANYTHING other than the press?

What did Covenants kids get out of crushing the spirit of the Dallas Academy team? Maybe the girls learned that when you have someone down and out, kick them some more right in the face, then rub their faces in concrete for good measure.

What Then?

Why not let off because you can? When you are up 88-0 it is obvious to every player, coach, and parent who the best team is, there is no doubt. Heck even the disinterested janitor or the little dog in mommy's purse is going to know that one team was vastly superior to the other team. What harm would have come from not pressing in the last quarter or maybe playing a couple of kids out of position? Instead, Dallas Academy has now canceled the remainder of its games. Was Dallas Academy inept? Sure. Poorly coached, probably. Were any of these girls going to go on to play college basketball? No. But the Academy kids will now be deprived of the chance to grow as human beings and develop the deep relationships that most kids get from playing competitive team sports. I hope the Covenant coach is proud of that. maybe he can put that on his resume when he applies for the Duke or Kentucky job.

Coach Gets His Due

In the end the Covenant Coach was fired a week later for basically disagreeing with the schools decision to apologize to Dallas Academy. Academy may be having the last laugh, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is going to host the Academy team in his Suite at a Maverick game. Hopefully this story will teach those of us coaching youth football a valuable lesson in what not to do.While we didn't have any video of this fiasco, Coach Phantom suggested this video clip as a pretty close rendering of how the match probably went. I'm sure the coaches and fans were as giddy as those in this video about their "HUGE" victory.

Dave Cisar-

With over 15 years of hands-on experience as a youth coach, Dave has developed a detailed systematic approach to developing youth players and teams. His personal teams to using this system to date have won 97% of their games in 5 Different Leagues.

For 400 Free Coaching Tips: Football Plays

Plyometrics Training - How it Increases Your Vertical Jump

With the correct plyometric training you can increase your vertical jump by up to 12 inches! That basketball a really significant change, I will explain how.

I will list one way in this article on how to increase your vertical jump using plyometrics, but basketball there are several!

Increase your Vertical jump with traditional weight training

This is one branch of the plyometric vertical jump training, this method uses exercises such as squats, lunges, leg presses and toe raises. This is a heavy load program but there is little repetition, you do each exercise about 4-6 times.

Many would ask. Why is this method an effective way to increase your vertical jump ability? The answer is that in vertical jumping you need to use a lot of power from your body and power is a combination of strength and speed.

Therefore a weight training program that improves your strength can improve your power and increase your vertical jump ability.

However as you become stronger and get on more strength your speed decreases as well and so does your power since your speed is a branch of power as well. So if you're an expert/experienced person in weight lifting this method will not benefit you as much as the other methods might.

This method is more beneficial for beginners to gain more strength, the plyometric traditional weight training is safe, easy and highly effective way to increase your power at the beginning. You run at a very low risk of injury of spraining when using these simple methods.

As I stated earlier, this is just one of the many methods with which you can increase your vertical jump.

Wait! If you wish to find out more about vertical jump training take a look at http://www.verticaljumphelp.com You will find a sneak peak of an extensive vertical jump program that you can buy for a low price. Anyone can take advantage of this program, if you're just a high school student, or a business executive. Don't hesitate!

5 Secrets to Effective Basketball Plays

Coaching basketball requires you to teach your team at least a few basketball plays. There is no shortage of plays to choose from, but you still have to be careful about which ones to choose. Plays vary in their potential for being effective in general and plays vary in their suitability to your personnel. Study these 5 great secrets to help you in your efforts to run effective basketball plays.

Secret #1 - Precise Execution.

No matter how well conceived a basketball play may be, it will not work if your team runs it sloppily. Timing, good spacing, and high energy are necessary for any play to be effective. You need to instill this simple awareness in your players. Even a mediocre play can be highly effective if executed to perfection. Insist on precise execution in practice, and practice your plays enough so that you can depend on them in the heat of the moment. You can structure some of your practice reps so that the defense doesn't cheat to stop a known pattern, but you should definitely include plenty of 'live' reps with no defensive restrictions so that your team faces realistic pressure.

Secret #2 - Good Options.

A play that breaks down if the defense anticipates the pattern and cheats out on a pass or otherwise disturbs the sequence is not going to be effective for long. It might work once or twice, and then the defense will simply shut it down. You want to teach basketball plays that have built-in options to counter defensive adjustments. The best plays have an answer for every defensive adjustment. You should practice these options in controlled settings, and then you should go 'live' so that your team learns to read the defense and attack appropriately.

Secret #3 - Teaching Patience.

When teaching basketball plays, it is very important to emphasize 'no forces.' Effective plays position players so that the defense has to worry about and react to several areas of the court. The ball moves quickly from player to player or is being driven hard toward the basket. As the plays evolve, the defense has to react and adjust to ball reversals, unexpected screens, and sudden cuts. Sooner or later, the defense will tire, lose track of an area, and end up a step late; allowing the offense a good shot opportunity. Being patient until that time is a major key in the play ending up being effective. The most effective plays feature prolonged or even continuous sequences rather than short sequences that need to be completely reset.

Secret #4 - Match the Play to Your Personnel.

Some basketball plays work only if you have several quick and clever ball handlers, while other plays depend on you having a dominant post presence. Trying to run a basketball play that depends on such particular factors without having the proper personnel is not going to be effective. Choose plays that allow your players to function from their strengths. Just because the play worked last year does not automatically mean that it will work this year if you have a different team profile.

Secret #5 - Put Your Players in Different Play Positions.

A good way to get more mileage out of a given play is to put your players in different positions. In other words, have someone else throw the ball in or initiate the play, and have your other players take up different positions in the play. That way, the defenders will be seeing the play from new angles and will not be as effective in anticipating the action. You will want to be strategic in the way that you make these changes so that you still end up with players getting the ball where they can be effective. Be sure that you train a least two or three of your players to be good inbounders or play initiators so that you can survive an injury or foul trouble to your best one.

If you're looking for more great ideas about running basketball plays or any other aspect of coaching, be sure to check out the great resources available at http://www.winningbasketballplays.com

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