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How to motivate girl basketball players


Coaching Tips To Motivate Your Basketball Team

There are many different ways to motivate your basketball team. While some methods may work better than others, finding the best way to motivate your unique team may take some time. Every team is different, there are some tried-and-true methods that seem to be effective for almost every team. Here are a few of our favorite motivational methods which can be used as a starting point, but feel free to adjust and adapt them to your unique team and vision.

Peaks and Valleys

Every basketball team goes through peaks and valleys—it's a part of the game, but those moments of high and low can also cause a rift in team motivation. During a peak, a team will likely fuel their own motivation by feeding off of success plays and crowd enthusiasm, but during a valley, a team lacks the energy needed to fuel their own motivation.

While it can be challenging and frustrating for both you and your team, it’s important to encourage your players to continue giving their all, even during a valley, as it will serve as good practice and experience for your next game.

Rewarding Your Basketball team

One way to motivate your team during these rough patches can be to use some kind of reward system. For example, you could set benchmark tasks to be completed throughout the peaks and valleys of the game, and if those benchmarks are met, then players are rewarded with an early shower, a water break or even a shortened practice. If the marks aren’t met, the team has to clean up after practice, get to practice early or do extra reps or drills.

During valleys, benchmark tasks can be anything from making a certain number or percentage of free throws, three-point shots and drives for layups, or during peaks, suggest more difficult tasks such as half-court shots, one-on-two offensive shots or precision passing techniques. Feel free to encourage your players to work together to set goals for the team to promote ownership and challenge each team member to play their best every game. While these drills should be a fun challenge for your team, keep in mind that you need to follow-through with the reward system.

Productive Discipline

According to the Positive Coaching Alliance, the best way for basketball coaches to enforce good discipline is to remain calm, create consequences and be consistent. This doesn’t include negative feedback or becoming visibly angry with your players; rather, productive discipline focuses attention on establishing a strong coaching philosophy and culture with your team members and parents at the beginning of the season. By doing so, you are setting your expectations and the tone for the rest of the season.

Motivating The Team To Behave

While this may be enough for some players, there are times you may still have to address undesirable behavior. The Positive Coaching Alliance suggests a three-pronged approach: reinforcing good behavior, ignoring the behavior you don’t want and, when you’re left with no choice, intervening with a ‘least attention’ manner. The first two steps are fairly straightforward. Acknowledge and reinforce the behavior you want to see from your athletes based on the guidelines and culture you established at the beginning of the season. For players who are misbehaving, sometimes the most effective strategy is to disregard the player and their actions completely. Oftentimes, after taking away their attention completely, children will typically want to regain the attention of their coach and will start to comply with the previously established rules.

In some cases, ignoring misbehavior is not an option, especially if the athlete is putting herself or other teammates at risk. When you have to intervene, it’s best to do so with the ‘least-attention’ possible. We suggest calmly calling the player to the side and asking him or her to sit out until they are ready to obey the rules. You may have to repeat this step if the player continues to disregard team rules. When it comes time to check in with the player, encourage him or her to verbally acknowledge why they were asked to sit out and to commit to following the rules from now on.

Although following this approach can prove to be challenging—especially when you’re trying to remain calm in the midst of a big game—you’re setting a positive example for your players and their parents, teaching them to learn from their mistakes and keep moving forward.

Praise Drives Team Motivation

Positive reinforcement, more commonly known as praise, is generally welcomed by all players. Praise your players, both in times of success and defeat. Offering simple words of encouragement and praise can give your players the boost they need to finish the game strong.

Praise doesn’t have to just come from coaches. Encourage parents and even team members to praise each other for good work on and off the court. Coming together as a team to create a positive environment for each and every one of your players is the best way to motivate your team to play their best.  

Motivation the SquadLocker Way

SquadLocker motivates your entire basketball team by offering sports apparel and gear that they can feel proud to wear on and off the court, featuring brands such as Under Armor, Adidas, Nike and more. Set up a Team Store to purchase quality sports gear, customized with your team’s logo. SquadLocker is ready to motivate your basketball team by making them look and feel good!

6 Ways Coaches Can Motivate and Excite Female Athletes – Rookie Mentor

Why do some female athletes suddenly clam up, experience huge amounts of self-doubt and question their role within the team right before game time? Motivating your female athletes is a continual challenge for the coaching staff, but it’s a fight that can be won and this post will show you how.

Sports coaches can motivate female athletes by first creating an environment focusing on team chemistry and camaraderie. Provide clear, direct, individual feedback in a calm manner where you provide solutions instead of reminding them of their mistakes.

Now interacting with male and female athletes is a little different. The same strategies successfully used to win games and get boys “pumped up” will likely fail dismally for females. But instead of listing the difference between male and female athletes, this post dives into 6 ways coaches can motivate and excite their female athletes to reach the type of success you know they are capable of.

#1 – Focus on Team Chemistry and Camaraderie

Positive team culture and camaraderie is a non-negotiable in female sport.

Female athletes need to feel like they get along with each and every member of their team. While they may not necessarily “like” a member of their team, there needs to be a level of respect for everyone before you will see success on the scoreboard.

The team needs to feel like a team, almost “family-like” for your message as coach to hit home.

How do you do that? Here are some ideas:

  • When doing partner work, make sure they pair with a new person each session.
  • Allow for player input. For example, let them develop their own warm-up and cool-down where they can try different drills whilst listening to music.
  • Support “catch up time.” Girls like to talk, catch up and discuss what’s been happening. During stretching or even for a period before practice allow for 10 minutes of chatter for a better session.

Girls must bond to battle, but guys must battle to bond

Team USA
  • Alternate practice activities such as running around the local lake or swimming instead of x5 days of practice solely inside the gym. There could be issues here with elementary school-aged children so read this post to be reminded of your responsibilities as a youth coach.
  • Regular team bonding exercises such as an Escape Room, High Rope course, cooking class (great for older athletes to boost their nutritional intake of healthy foods), 12-foot wall climb or a local fun run charity event.

These experiences are an incredible opportunity for you witness who is a natural leader. Who picks up their teammate and supports somebody else’s good idea? Who recognizes teamwork in others and who is selfless in achieving team success?

While these activities listed above can be effective, promoting a healthy, positive, motivational culture really does start with the coach.

You need to abide by your own high standards throughout the entire season, even if you’re going through a losing streak, which encourages the team to follow suit. Discipline, promptness, attitude and work ethic need to remain consistent across the entire team.

Girls will find motivation in a coach who doesn’t waver and “take the easier way out” by lowering standards. Reinforcing that you are in this together tightens bonds, gives them confidence and proves they belong.

#2 – Give Female Athletes the “Why”

Female athletes want to know the reasons behind your behavior and the choices you make as a coach. They want to know…

Why are you asking them to play this role in the team instead of another player which played in previous seasons?

Why are you changing the warmup when the old one seemed effective?

Why are we needing to practice passing for this extended length of time?

While not every athlete will agree with your reasoning, explaining the “method behind your madness” allows them to better understand the reasons behind your request. If it seems logical, you’ll get buy-in.

“This is “respect” to a female: to acknowledge their emotional standpoint, explain your own and help them understand the situation as a whole”.

USA Hockey

Success tip:
If you bench a player, tell them why. Use your assistant coaches to provide real-time feedback to any player who leaves the court.

#3 – Provide Clear Feedback, Calmly

Most people, both on and off the sports field like to know how they are progressing, right? We like to know if we are doing a good job and if our hard work is making an impact.

Interestingly, some like negative but constructive feedback whilst others hang their head, slumping shoulders unable to move on as feelings have been hurt.

When coaching female athletes providing, consistent constructive criticism is huge. Don’t assume they will resemble the person I just described with slumped shoulders and bad attitude.

Here are some tips to make your feedback impactful:

  • When providing feedback in a group setting ensure you are focusing on team improvements rather than how an individual may have messed up. Addressing a particular girls mistakes in front of their teammates can make her feel inadequate, demotivating her well beyond just simply that game/practice.
  • Make your pre and post-game “chats” short and sweet. As a female, don’t give us too much to think about as our brains are already busy. Allow us to focus on 2-3 main points of execution or take away thoughts.
  • When giving feedback, look at your female team/individual player in the eye. It shows you’re listening and that you have a genuine, serious interest in wanting to make them better. If you need to use a “soundboard” before giving important feedback to an individual player or parent, talk to your spouse/partner or a close friend who respects your confidentiality. Practicing your speech is okay.
  • Give written feedback. 3-4 short written dot points is an effective method for girls to be reminded of areas they can improve instead of dramatizing it (as we can do!) when we forget what the coach actually said. Using an app such as the ones we talk about here may be an effective, safe and transparent way to communicate.

“Women have to have a sense that you care for them above and beyond their (athletic) abilities.

Anson Dorrance (source)
  • Let them talk. During feedback sessions both as a team and individually allow them to tell you what they think is working and what isn’t. This allows them to take ownership of their game without simply being told.
  • Use the sandwich approach when giving feedback. If you haven’t heard this before, let me explain. The two pieces of bread are the positive things they are doing well and the meat focuses on what they can improve on. The female will focus on the meat (we are quick to see our mistakes first), but the bread ensures your message doesn’t feel like a personal attack.
  • Use examples both verbally, physically or through film, how players could perform the skill better next time. Don’t repeat their mistakes as they already know and instead give them tools for success they can use in the future. Here is a guide to the best video editing software and apps.

#4 – Have A Female Coach On Staff

Can a male-only coaching staff still see success in female teams? You bet.

But if you’re knocking your head against the wall looking for a different solution to help motivate your team, adding a female to your coaching staff may be effective.

In my experience, female coaches are tough operators. They don’t take any trash, like bad attitudes, and have serious consequences for athletes not respecting team rules.

Having a female coach is by no means a method to add “fluffiness” and “softness” to the coaching staff, but it can change the dynamic and spark ideas that can motivate the team others may not have considered.

Teams have a number of roles that require filling. There is no reason to not have at least one female on staff when needing to fill assistant coaches, specialist coaches for one particular area of the game, a team manager or even a team physiotherapist. Simply having an experienced, knowledgable female presence may help motivate your team in different ways.

On the flip side of the same coin, I should mention that some people believe that women can intimidate other women, even young girls, which demotivates them and impacts performance. (source)

To help explain this point, I refer to a post I saw on the Hockey USA website which discussed female coaches. It said that male coaches are automatically seen as being legitimate to both male and female players whereas female players and coaches alike need to “prove themselves” they are capable.

#5 – Create a Levelheaded Environment

Some female athletes have a hard time separating a loud voice (ie. when getting yelled at) from the actual message.

It gets lost among the noise and the negative body language, shifting the athlete’s focus towards, they are angry at me, and not about, how I can do it better next time.

As coaches of female athletes, we need to create a calm environment. Constantly yelling in a big booming voice to relay your seemingly important message will do more harm than good.

“A more Zen-like environment seems to be a more productive environment for females”

(source)

If you are frustrated and almost at the point of breathing fire, substitute the player, give constructive feedback, let them think about it for a minute or so and put them back on if appropriate. Ask your assistant coach to take note of this event, remembering to talk about it during the week at practice.

Standing with your head down, shoulders slumped or worse sitting silently, makes some female athletes feel like you don’t believe in them. You don’t have faith they can hit the ball or shoot the basket.

Think about your body language as girls care a lot more about your appearance than males do.

#6 – Set Achievable Goals

According to Team USA, “Female athletes have a hard time separating their private, emotional lives from athletic competition.” Some may view this as a lack of prioritization to win and compete but this may not be the case at all.

I once heard a great metaphor to help describe this.

A man’s brain is divided into neat boxes, one for sports, one for relationships, one for work, etc. They also have a “nothing box” where they can actually think about nothing.

Women, on the other hand, don’t have these boxes. Their brains look similar to your headphone cord wrapped in a big, intertwined knot. They also don’t have a box where they think about nothing.

This makes it pretty difficult for young women preparing for a big game or even midweek practice to separate themselves from a bad day, fight with a friend or an issue with mom and dad.

Setting achievable goals as a team is an effective way for coaches to help separate these emotions to keep their players focused.

Goals can be a simple as we lost that quarter, so let’s do X, Y and Z to win this one and let’s make 70% of free throws this season. To a little more involved such as:

  • Team goals set at the start of the season
  • Individual goals set by the player themselves in consultation with the coach

Coaches need to constantly revisit these goals. Have them written in the locker room to keep your girls focused with direction.

[VIDEO] – Though aimed at rowing coaches, this video gives a quick 4-5 minute on coaching female athletes.

Keep Reading:

  • Why Do Coaches Get Fired?
  • Why It Is Important to Respect the Sports Official
  • Why Do Baseball Coaches Have Numbers?

Summary: 6 Ways Coaches Can Motivate and Excite Female Athletes

Some coaches get a kick out of coaching men whilst others find the challenge of coaching women and young female athletes much more rewarding.

If you’re currently frustrated and feeling lost about how to motivate your female sports team, I hope you found this post helpful.

Female athletes may seem like an emotional mystery, but once you create the ideal culture and “crack the code”, you will see the success you’ve been working for.

Have you got any further advice for coaching a female sports team?

Cheers,

Emma

Only girls in the game: Women's basketball in Kazakhstan as it is

If you go to the gym of a typical high school in a typical American town in the midst of a varsity (main) team basketball game, the stands will most likely be packed.

If the women's team plays, then the stands will be less than half full.

If they play in Kazakhstan, the spectators in the stands can be counted on the fingers. Well, if both hands.

A bit of history

Women's basketball appeared in KazSSR in 1976, six years later than men's basketball. After that, the girls regularly took part in the championships of the USSR. In the same year, by the way, women's basketball first appeared at the Olympic Games: the USSR national team then took first place. After the collapse of the Union, the women's basketball team of Kazakhstan was organized - just a year later than the men's.

Looking at these historical references, it is fair to say that women's and men's basketball developed almost simultaneously. And yet, here it is - a basketball group for children under fifteen, where there will be only three girls for fifteen people.

Or the announcement of a new Almaty site about a 3x3 tournament, where there is not a word about the participation of women's teams. The question arises by itself: why, if men's and women's basketball developed in the same way, do they look completely different in our country today?

One of the reasons is the general underdevelopment of sports in Kazakhstan, and especially basketball.

This is not about the presence of professional teams or the construction of large stadiums in the capital, but the presence of sports in the life of an average Kazakhstani since childhood.

Take America as an example. Of the 15 million teenagers attending high school in 2020, more than half—8 million—are involved in sports. Almost 1 million of them are basketball.

The reason for such large numbers lies in the fact that the opportunity to play basketball is provided in almost every school. Children start in elementary school and continue through senior year.

Women basketball players in the States have many more opportunities: sports league competitions, basketball halls, sports scholarships at the university with a high playing skill at the time of graduation.

Basketball's ubiquity in American life and the opportunities it provides motivate girls to take to the floor.

How about us?

At a certain level, basketball is developed in all major cities. In cities with a million population (Nur-Sultan and Almaty) there are several basketball sections and academies, but in smaller cities this practice is less common.

Nevertheless, there are coaches who inspire schoolchildren to play basketball, unofficial competitions between schools are held, yard boys almost every summer evening throw a worn ball into the only surviving basket in the city. But they are almost always boys.

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The Academy under the Presidential Basketball Club "Astana" has been operating since 2016. Vladimir Formazonov, one of the head coaches, admits that boys mostly train with him.

“Of course, there are girls at the academy too. There may be several reasons for this. First, the lack of coaches and sections. When boys and girls train together, they begin to feel awkward and shy. But every basketball player who comes to us is supported and given the opportunity to learn how to play basketball.”

In addition to the Academy, there are several large basketball schools in the capital.

Relatively new, but already actively participating in the sports development of the residents of the capital, the school. Its coach and founder, Ilya Guzikevich, trains everyone: in addition to the guys from his school, he trains with the women's basketball team of Nazarbayev University.

« There are many reasons for such a difference in the statistics of girls and guys in basketball. Contact sports involve a lot of injuries. This is not suitable for everyone, so someone prefers individual sports. Many girls are shy of boys who do not always behave nicely. Guys and girls are as different as it can be: they are polar opposites ".

T. Roosevelt May passed. During this month, we have held more than 40 open training sessions to get basketball players back in shape and protect them from injuries after a long break. Everyone learned something new and looked at the game from a different angle, including us. About 80 people visited the main site of the city, improving their skills. We thank everyone who participated and supported us throughout this month. I wonder what will happen next? Then stay tuned!

Posted by Basketball For Everyone (@allbasket.ball)

No matter how difficult basketball is, it's just a game. If you master it to perfection, it becomes much more graceful and interesting.

We came to the basketball practice of a group of children. The oldest athlete here is no more than thirteen. Nine boys and three girls, and even then only two of them were on the playground.

I go up to the third one, who is sitting on the bench and fiddling with her phone, and ask what's the matter: “I don't know how to play correctly. And they still won't give the ball." Indicates boys running nearby.

Guzikevich and Formazonov agree: women's basketball needs to be developed. Create basketball sections only for girls and preferably from an early age, and coaches try their hand at working with them.

Stop being shy, hold camps, competitions, raise the level of student basketball, and generally change the attitude towards physical education as a subject for checkboxes in schools. Invest more effort, time and money in projects that are created by people with fire in their eyes.

Despite everything, women's basketball lives in its unhurried rhythm and is present at all levels. There are 14 women's university teams, 8 women's professional teams and, of course, the national team successfully operating in the country.

What about the students?

Chances are you haven't heard of the National Collegiate Basketball League unless you're a student or a basketball player. In season
There were 14 women's teams in 2019-2020. For each athlete, this was an opportunity to show the result of daily training and receive a worthy reward for it.

Some, like students, play because they are studying. However, many players have the opportunity to receive a diploma due to exceptional results in the hall. This is not surprising, because the coach of any university team will want to see masters and candidates for master of sports in their ranks.

Silver medalists of the last held championship is the team of KazNU. Al-Farabi in the city of Almaty. Rizat Ibrayeva, who is a member of this team, ranks sixth in the ranking of all NBSL girls, and there are more than a hundred of them.

Rizat has been playing basketball for eleven years. In the fifth grade, a classmate invited her to train with her, and since then she has remained in the sport. During the republican championships, the girl played for the Kyzylorda region. Then there were trips abroad to the Asian Championships.

This is an obvious truth: women's basketball is far from being developed in the same way as men's basketball - less attention is paid to it. There are not enough women's teams, not all girls can (and want) to withstand the pressure and discipline, and few people want to train girls.

According to Rizat Ibrayeva, girls are more emotional than boys. They show character, so none of the coaches wants to take on training with girls.

Her teammate Altynshash Zinabdin ranks third in the country in the same league. She says that she got into basketball by accident: she was forced to go to training, and then she simply did not want to leave.

« Participated in regional competitions and the championship of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In the ninth grade, they called me to a sports school in the capital: my mother was worried and did not let go. And after graduating from school, I didn’t know where to go, the best thing I could do was play sports. Entered KazGosZhenPU. There is a strong team and hard training. The game was delivered to me exactly there ".

According to the Student League players, women's basketball has just started to get noticed, but we are far from the level of Russia or Europe, let alone the USA. But the very fact of the presence of some kind of development stimulates the girls to start training .

We have few women's teams, unlike men's, respectively, less attention. In addition, it is important for the guys to show themselves as individuals, speaking in basketball terms, they “unity”. The girls have a desire to play, but many of them beat it off and most of them quit. There is nowhere to go further, there are no opportunities, it makes sense to stay in the sport too.

And then what?

In Kazakhstan, there are 8 professional women's teams (male, for comparison, twelve). The capital's Astana Tigers is rightfully considered the most successful: the girls won almost all the meetings that took place this season. In addition, 9 out of 12 of its players appear in the national team.

Zalina Kurazova, master of sports, Astana Tigers and national team player, says:

« The intensity of training depends on whether it is training or competition. The interest of sports clubs and offers with good contracts and conditions appear when you show a real and high-quality game. It depends on each player how he uses knowledge in action. E then work on your own image ".

Zalina has been playing basketball for twenty years: from the very first training she realized that she had found herself in sports. Girls, according to her, have a hard time: tough training and competition. Fifteen years ago, many girls came to basketball who could have been professionals, but who remained in professional sports, it would be enough to count the fingers of one hand.

« The development of basketball does not happen in one decade. In the States, this sport is more popular, spectacular, and represents a way of earning money for both players and clubs. They went to this for a long time. In our country, the peak of the popularity of this sport took place in the 2000s, I remember this moment well. Full stands, chic tournaments for students! Today the Basketball Federation is trying to return this love » .

Despite this fact, women's basketball in the country is fading away: there is less funding, key players are leaving the sport, the regions demand prize-winning places from each team - there are only three of them, and there are many more regions. And basketball veterans in Kazakhstan are very sad to watch all this.

The development of women's basketball is an opportunity. The opportunity for girls to show that they are no worse and no weaker than men. An opportunity to be bolder and more confident, which can be given to the next generations. The opportunity to let the girl do what she does best: tie her shoelaces, go out on the court and do what she wants most - shoot the ball into the basket. Opportunity to win!

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