How to Take the Fun Out of Practice, for Dummies

Category: Practice

At UCLA, I was a PE major. For the fall quarter of my senior year, I signed up for a pretty heavy load of required courses: Advanced Ping Pong, Billiards for Masters, and Sports Bar Darts. So that I would balance my load of difficult and challenging classes with easier ones, I chose Basket Weaving as one of my electives. That turned out not to be such a good idea.

I must admit; I had a head start on my required classes by voluntarily enrolling myself in related, extracurricular, activities. With little book knowledge about Ping Pong, Billiards, and Darts, I acquired extensive experience, in all three disciplines, in the Dykstra Hall dorm recreation room, when skipping classes my junior year.

But when I entered the Basket Weaving classroom my first day of school, I immediately realized there was good news and bad news. The good news was: Basket weaving wasn’t that difficult. The bad news was: The instructor graded on a curve and all the students, except me, were Hopi Indians. It didn’t take me long to realize that class wasn’t going to help keep my  grade-point average at 2.0. 

UCLA basketball practice began on October 15th. Up until that time, I tried my best competing with the Hopis, but it was “hopeless.” I felt like Mickey Rooney participating in the NBA All-Star Dunk Competition. But, from October 15th on, I lost interest in Basket Weaving and, during class, began daydreaming about being in practice. While the Hopis were making wicker baskets in the classroom, I was imagining making wicked baskets on the court.  UCLA practice was always fun.

The main reason (often the only reason) children participate in sports is to have fun. In fact, the number one reason kids drop out of youth sports is because “It wasn’t fun anymore.” Learning the skills necessary to compete and putting them into competition, is enjoyable. It’s us coaches that take the fun out of practice. Why? Because we lose focus on the essence of the sport (fun) and, narrow-mindedly, get consumed by winning. How? Well, that’s the reason I’m writing this. So following, here are eight ways to take the fun out of practice.

 Upon my solicitation the first four were given to me by Max, an Ohio twelve-year-old who has been involved in youth sports almost since he learned to walk. Unfortunately, some of Max’s ex-coaches were experts at pulling the pleasure out of practice.

1. Correct Mistakes by Yelling and Belittling
Imply a child is stupid by asking, “Why are you doing this?” Then watch his head drop forward as the confidence drains from him. But don’t worry about it; he’s going to be fine. You’re doing him a favor by testing his toughness. Next practice, he’ll morph from a lamb to a lion. Count on it.

2. Play Favorites
Praise the good players and don’t give any credit to the others. Darwin would fully agree with this. Youth sports is all about the survival of the fittest. Either cook or get out of the kitchen. 

3. Allow Players to make Fun of Each Other
Don’t let the pecking order be determined by performance, character, and leadership qualities. Allow the players to do it through popularity and peer pressure. This works really well.

4. Don’t Vary the Drills: Keep using the same drills all season. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. Players will say, “Oh, boy. We get to do imaginary shooting again. I can do this one in my sleep.”

5. Extend a Drill
If the players are not performing as you like, run the drill another ten minutes. The players will really like that. They are smart. They will probably say, “If it takes until midnight, we’ll get this right.” 

6. Extend Practice
If, toward the end of practice, you would like to go a little longer than scheduled, go for it. After all, those players are probably going to say, “This is so much fun, I wish coach would let us practice for another hour and get us so tired, we trip on our tongues.”

7. Drill ‘em to Death
Players love to scrimmage so don’t let them. After all, what does the practice of competing have to do with games? It is the drills that win games. And don’t ever forget you are a Marine Sergeant. Drilling is the only means of testing how much they can take. If you don’t let up, you’ll begin to see the separation between the men and the boys.  

8. Punish Players
When one player makes a mistake, make them all run. As they gather at the baseline, imagine them as a choir, smiling and singing in perfect harmony, “When one of us makes a mistake, the punishment we gladly will take.” 

These are eight, fool-proof, ways to get the fun right out of those practices. I’m sure you can think of more, based on your experience playing for coaches we call, “Pleasure Pullers.” Who knows? If you do a good job of making practice a chore, those players may start daydreaming about Basket Weaving.