SportsLetter

Is the AAU ruining youth basketball?

                                              

The Wall Street Journal of June 25 has an article by Kevin Clark titled “American Kids Flunk Basketball 101.”  It argues that as “America’s basketball gems increasingly get their training from teams affiliated with the Amateur Athletic Union,” the result has been “a mixture of unrestrained offense and Harlem Globetrotter defense.”  Orlando Magic Coach Stan van Gundy calls it “a bad system for developing players.”  Clark compares the AAU system unfavorably with the European approach of emphasizing defensive training, structured play and ball handling skills.  Clark, to his credit, offers two sides to the story, pointing out that New Orleans Hornets guard Chris Paul credits AAU ball and its offense-oriented approach as the basis of his NBA success. 

This is all a bit confusing.  The Wise Men of American basketball characterize the poor coaching of fundamentals and too much razzle-dazzle as a problem, even though the U.S. men and women won basketball gold medals in the last Olympic Games.  Meanwhile, in soccer, a sport in which the national men’s team’s best World Cup result was a third-place finish in 1930, the common wisdom is that young American players are over-coached in an over-structured environment and therefore never develop creative flair.  Just this morning, in the New York Times George Vescey opined, “Not until American boys and girls play feral soccer on their own, for the love of the sport, will the nation develop its own Jordan, its own Pujols, its own Crosby or Malkin, its own Maradona.”

Clark’s WSJ article comes just a couple of days after Cliff Brunt in an AP piece wrote that fewer European players will be drafted this year by the NBA than in the past.  Brunt notes that many of the Euros haven’t lived up to NBA expectations: “Of those 21 international players drafted in 2003, eight never played a minute in the NBA, and just one, Leandro Barbosa, has a career average of more than 10 points per game.” 

Maybe the former (and fictitious) baseball great Kenny Powers had it right when he said, “Fundamentals are a crutch for the talentless.”   Ok, ok, that may be a sacrilege, but it’s still a great line.

Franchising youth sports

Recession-resistant franchise opportunities exist in youth sports, at least according to i9 Sports. Claiming 750 "communities" nationwide, i9 Sports says it is "the first and fastest growing franchise of youth sports leagues, camps, and programs in the United States. With over 100,000 participants since 2003 and 100 franchise locations in 25 states, i9 Sports offers the most popular team sports for kids with a focus on fun, safety, and good sportsmanship."  

For more information, check out their website:  http://www.i9sports.com

New White House Office for Youth Sport

Just in time for the Chicago 2016 Bid Committee's presentation to the International Olympic Committee, the Obama White House announced the creation of the White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport, the stated purpose of which is to "promote the values of the Olympic Movement and encourage increased youth participation in athletics.  The primary function of the Office will be to enhance awareness of the Olympic Movement through promotion of its fundamental principles at the federal level."  The press release can be found here, but is reprinted below.

 THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
__________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          June 16, 2009

President Obama Announces New White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced the formation of the White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport.

This permanent White House office will promote the values of the Olympic Movement and encourage increased youth participation in athletics.  The primary function of the Office will be to enhance awareness of the Olympic Movement through promotion of its fundamental principles at the federal level.

President Obama said, "It is an important goal of my administration to give our nation’s children every possible tool they need to grow, learn and succeed in life.  A key part of this is increasing access to healthy, constructive activities like sports for our nation’s children.  Too many American kids – particularly those in urban areas – have no access to organized sporting activities. Sports are an important way to instill values, judgment and teamwork in our nation’s kids, and this new office reflects our commitment to giving all our children a chance to thrive.  As the International Olympic Committee moves forward with their selection process we hope that this new office can serve as a model for youth involvement worldwide."

The White House Office of Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport will:

*Recommend federal policies and programs to the President to enhance opportunities and access for youth participation in sport, with particular focus on youth in urban areas

*Foster and encourage youth sporting, educational and cultural events involving Olympic values-based programs and the participation of U.S. Olympians and Paralympians

The Office will also work in coordination with appropriate executive departments and agencies, including the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, to:

*Engage in outreach to state and local government officials, nonprofit organizations and the private sector

*Coordinate federal resources, and act as liaison to, any organizing committee for an Olympic and Paralympic Games hosted in the United States

*And work closely with the United States Olympic Committee and national sport governing bodies to increase access and opportunities for youth to participate in sports.

Girls sports in urban schools

The New York Times published a two-part article by reporter Katie Thomas on the relatively small participation in youth sports by girls in urban schools. 

The first article focused on the struggles faced by girls' sports teams in general and a girl's middle school basketball team in Brooklyn in particular:

"The Cougars have few of the basics that suburban public school girls have come to expect, including free transportation, uniforms and full seasons of regularly scheduled games. At M.S. 61 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, each road game is a logistical puzzle for Mr. Mariner, 46, who is dean of students and coach of the school’s girls’ and boys’ basketball teams. Even when the Cougars arrive ready to play, games are sometimes canceled because the opponents — facing the same obstacles — cannot field a team. Parents rarely show up to watch."

Today's piece discussed the larger issue of getting more girls to participate in sports, and helping their families understand the value of such participation:

"But despite the heightened level of awareness and the extra effort, girls’ participation lags behind boys’. A 2007 survey by the Centers for Disease Control found that in New York City, 35 percent of girls played sports, compared with 51 percent of boys. And in 2006, New York City’s public advocate criticized the Public Schools Athletic League, which coordinates high school sports, for not doing more to increase participation for girls, whose teams made up 44 percent of the city’s squads."

The articles draw heavily upon research done by Dr. Don Sabo, Director of the Center for Research on Physical Activity, Sport & Health at D'Youville College in Buffalo, and Phil Veliz.  Their comprehensive youth sports study, "Go Out and Play: Youth Sports in America," published in 2008 by the Women's Sports Foundation (WSF), can be found here on the WSF website.

This video, also released in 2008, highlights some of the points made in the study.

Go Out and Play from Womens Sports on Vimeo.

There she goes again

Last year at this time Rochelle High School (Texas) athlete Bonnie Richardson caused a stir when she won the Class 1A state team title by herself.  Guess what?  She did it again this year.

This century's Texas Tornado won four individual medals in five events, taking gold in the long jump and high jump, silver in the discus and bronze in the 200 meters.  She nearly added to her medal count in the 100 meters, but placed fourth.

The secret to her success?  Well, it isn't the track on which she trains.  From NBC Sports: 

"Rochelle is a small, unincorporated farming town about 140 miles northeast of Austin. The high school doesn’t even have a proper track for Richardson to train. She runs on a circular path of hard, rutted caliche — a type of soil — that the McCulloch County commissioner smooths out about a once a year.

So eager were other coaches to groom their own one-athlete team that they called Rochelle’s school wondering about this track surface they never heard of.

'They read in the paper that she runs on caliche, and they call saying, ’How do we get one of those caliche tracks?’ said Steve Butler, superintendent of the Rochelle school district. 'They think it’s something fancy. They can have this one.' ”

Using pedometers to get kids moving

Recent studies have shown that physical activity in children and teens increases when pedometers are used.  Dr. David Lubans from the University of Newcastle's School of Education reports "our research found that in 12 of the 14 studies, pedometers were successful in increasing physical activity among youth. Studies recorded increases of 500-2,500 steps per day and were most successful in increasing physical activity among pre-teens and teenagers with initially low levels of activity."   Apparently the immediate feedback offered by pedometers provides motivation as well as information. 

Hip injuries in sports

The New York Times reports today that some trainers and physicians believe that increased training for leg strength to reduce knee injuries has resulted in an increase in hip injuries.  The story, by Michael S. Schmidt, states that some experts believe “the increasing number of children playing sports at younger ages has led to more instances of improper bone development.”    Dr. Bryan T. Kelly, a surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, is quoted saying, “I get 40 hockey players in a six-week period at the end of the season all coming into my office with the same-looking bone structure in their hips, all saying that they have been skating since they were 3 years old … I believe we are seeing some consequences from having our kids over the past few decades playing sports more at younger ages.”   Schmidt acknowledges that only anecdotal evidence exists at this point regarding the increased number of hip injuries.  He also quotes Christopher Powers, a biokinesiologist at the University of Southern California, who is skeptical of the claim that new training regimens have caused more hip injuries: “It’s not like workouts have changed all of a sudden; it doesn’t explain it … People and doctors are just more aware of it diagnostically. We’ve always had hip problems; now we are just finding it better.”