Perhaps it is just me but I thought I had been speaking the English language since birth. Afterall I was born in the United States (if Texas is still considered one of the fifty) and I have lived exclusively as a U.S. citizen for my entire life. So it is surprising to me when my players cannot discern what language I am speaking. Of course there are a few generations between us, but I was not aware of a new language being taught in our school systems.
There are some definite words which seem to change from my lips to their ears. For example, I tell them that we don't want to shoot the first shot but the first best shot. I think that language is fairly straight forward. The language barrier seems to be on the word "best". Apparently the defintion of best has changed since I was in school. When I was doing my spelling words back in elementary school, best meant the most desirable, favorable, or profitable. In their elementary spelling books, best apparently meant first opportunity.
Then, there is the misconception about who gets to shoot. I absolutely beg some of them to shoot the ball, telling them over and over again that I want them to shoot. These individuals do not want to shoot. We have one young player, Ali Tobias, who we recruited because she knew how to find a shot in high school even when her opponents knew she would be shooting the ball. She was so smart that she oftentimes had opponents doing donuts on the court as she changed speed and direction going down the floor. For a year, I have been begging her to do more on offense. Then the other night, she began playing just as I had always hoped she would. When I asked her what had changed, she responded that I had finally given her the green light. Apparently, I had been using the wrong vocabulary words again.
If I could just get the vocabulary words right, I'm certain we could begin playing better. Perhaps we need to publish a Golden Eagle dictionary with my words and definitions. If we could all agree on the meanings of words, life on the court would be much easier.
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2 comments:
Perhaps she doesn't want to shoot because last year she shot 29% from 3 point line and 30% from the floor. What do you think?.
Pilas,
So many people make this same mistake you have. The truth is, statistics and percentages are not a basis for a players belief system, they are a reflection of it!
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