I finished practice tonight wondering what it is that today’s youth want out of basketball. Over the last week or so I have made it known about the possible spots available in the Hawks team for the coming season. In a continuation of my last article I am a little dumbfounded by the lack ambition by some of the young players around the Hawkes Bay area. When you ask players what it is they would like out of basketball you get all the right answers. Examples are: I want to play in the NBA, I want to be a Tall Black, and I want to play in Europe etc. Are these young players just paying lip service or do they truly want what they have stated?

The example I use tonight is the fact that a couple of young players chose to play in a social grade competition instead of attend our training session. These same players have said to me they would like to be a Hawks player yet they chose to play in a social grade basketball with their mates instead of striving to achieve against much better players. Now I will say perhaps my training sessions do not offer enough of a challenge but I find this hard to believe. Is it that the young players of today would rather be a big fish in a small pond than be challenged to grow after starting out as a small fish in a big pond.

I always have remembered a talk that Australian Rules Football great Leigh Matthews gave when I was twelve years old. While I know most of you may not who he is, an example would be like Richard Hadlee or any other great of a given sport giving a speech. I never forgot those words that he said, “Don’t be satisfied to be a big fish in a small pond, get in the big pond and grow into a big fish.” Now that is probably how he said it, but that is how I remember it. The lesson I learnt was to constantly challenge yourself to be better, to go against people better than yourself so you can grow and improve.

Why is it today that people become defensive when being challenged, rather looking at the situation to become better. We had a situation a training where one player started to talk to another player about a particular scenario that unfolded and rather than listening to what was being said the player became defensive because he thought he was being criticised. When there was a great learning opportunity. What has happened to looking at a bigger picture and where a player wants to go rather than being happy with where they are?

As a coach I get frustrated with the lack of focus by players. I am very fortunate to coach some very talented young players and they are looking at me to help them to help them rise to stardom. Yet I sometime feel what I talking about goes in one ear and out the other. I am lucky that most of the young players I currently coach will do what ever I put in front of then but I have trouble getting them to have more intrinsic motivation. As I said I am extremely lucky with the players I have but I still have trouble getting the message across of just how hard it is to reach the top of your game to achieve those dreams you have. Then when I bring in the even younger ones and they have very little idea of what they really want then it become an even greater challenge. For example I had one player say that because he is not coming to Gisborne this weekend then he didn’t need to come to training tonight, instead he would come next week when we go to Wellington and he would be involved.

Scary stuff but I do acknowledge that is my job to find the right buttons to push as a coach to help these young players grow and learn. That is what I love about coaching the constant challenges that are put in front of you.

With energy

Shawn Dennis