CrossFit Athletic Group

Since 2016 I've been a coach at the Warren Rec Basketball camp for 1st-3rd graders, helping Matt Fecht horde the hooligans. Matt was coaching at Mott this winter, so he handed the camp over to me for the first time.  It was really out of my comfort zone at first, and I'd like to highlight some points I think are worth sharing. Some have relevance to you and some not so much.

Purpose. Since Day 1, the reason I've done this camp is to recruit kids for the Babies session. If we didn't have a Babies session, I would not be doing the camp. I've never taken money from it, but what we have taken is Conamora and Zeena, whom you may have heard of. That was, again, the main purpose behind doing this year's version of the camp. But when I found out I was HNIC (Head kNucklehead In Charge), I wanted to build on that purpose by picking coaches.

This camp had 60 kids registered, so Matt recommended I get 7 coaches along with myself. The first priority was picking two people who could actually, you know, coach. So Aaron and Cecilia were my first two recruits. Then I wanted to bring on Chase, Dillon, and Josh Van to work on their assertiveness; all 3 have a great knowledge of their sports but don't share it often enough. Then I wanted someone who I could count on being there every week, which was Evan. And finally I wanted a kid who didn't currently train here but I wanted to keep connected for when the time was right. Saporito was my first choice, but he declined due to tax season, so Nick Krstich was the final addition. Of the group, only Chase played high school basketball on Varsity (he came in late from practices), Aaron and Cecilia both played for one year, Nick and Josh played in grade school, and Dillon and Evan thought travelling was the dumbest rule ever when I explained it to them 5 minutes before the first day.

Notes. My lesson plans were very organized, indeed.

On the back of a random tax document I wrote the lesson plans, however they weren't for the group, they were for the coaches. Every week they had an assignment for that session, ranging from tricking a kid into getting PUMPED about defense, to talking to a parent after camp, to the jump ball drill, to making a weak kid believe they're strong. It was fun to watch the group perform their assignments. Cecilia and Aaron drew some tough ones and, save for Cecilia's last week, they followed through every time. I am really impressed with both of them and I think they'll both make a major impact coaching once their playing days are done if their work ethic matches up to their natural ability. Actually, I'm gonna do a quick cliffnotes of how I think everyone did.

• Me - struggled when trying to force things, really good when going off what I see in front of me... which is the story of my basketball career, oddly enough
• Cecilia - daughter of two great coaches, looks to be following in their footsteps
• Aaron - best presence in the gym, kids wanted to take a picture with him after the last day
• Nick - surprise of the group! Really engaged well with the kids, and encouraged taunting and excessive celebration, which is fine with me
• Evan - most consistent energy, literally never seemed tired or disengaged. Also scared the kids a bit.
• Dillon - second to Nick for surprise of the group. Excellent in a one-on-one setting, comfortable enough in a group setting, and engaged with kids and parents. Coaching is in her future.
• Chase - took a particular liking to his "block 10 shots" assignment, as he volleyball-spiked about 30 shot attempts from those poor 7 year-olds.
• Josh - almost fell victim to stampede in week 4 during his "jump ball drill" assignment, most consistent in getting every kid on his team involved.

Teaching basketball stuff. At that age whatever team attempts the most shots is the team that usually wins. And the kids who attempt the most shots are the ones who dribble the best. So if a kid can dribble, they'll always have a place on a youth basketball court. The main issue we had during the first week was we didn't have enough basketballs for every kid to get the time dribbling they needed, but Mrs. Becky came though and by the grace of cheap rubber we had 60 basketballs for week 2.

The dribbling thing is a non-debatable part of basketball development, and took top priority; my personal bias came in the form of fouls. I have a tough time tolerating soft people (in general, but especially on a basketball court), so I wanted to encourage some contact early and often, and discourage any kind of whining when you fell down. At this level of basketball, anything else would be a bonus.

Scoring points. Didn't happen. Next bullet.

Recruits. This was part of the "forcing it" thing I had to check myself on. In January our Babies session was basically Cameron Bewick, with El and Johnny J on the side, so I was a bit desperate to get kids in ASAP. This led to me jumping the gun on asking some parents whom, as time would reveal, might not fit well in the Champions Club. To be fair, Matt did most of the recruiting for me when I worked it with him, so this was my first time being the sales person. After about 2 weeks I got the hang of it and had a list of kids I was looking at based on a few criteria - mainly 7 yrs. old or younger with at least one younger sibling. From there I tried to get a feel for "alignment" - meaning the both the kid and the parent(s) have to be fits for our environment.

In the end it worked out well: London is a lock for sure at the Babies, plus cousins Zaria, Kay'den, and Eric, as well as a few other good families are on the fence. I'd be fine with just London if it came to it, though, she's gonna be a good one!

Parents. Man. I have a new appreciation both for the parents we have in our Champions Club environment, and our lack of parents in our Champions Club environment.

One of the reasons our parents are awesome is because none of them act like parents at the sessions. Mrs. Burton is a technically a parent who works out at the Champions Club, but when she is inside our walls she flips the parenting switch off; Kendall and Kyron are just two monkeys running around the gym. This gym cannot operate any other way because we put a major value on athlete independence. In order for an athlete to be confident in their independence, they have to be allowed to disconnect from their parent as often as needed.

A lack of independence is a theme I see in all of the basketball settings I'm currently coaching in, which includes 9 different teams ranging from 8-17u. This was no different at the camp; during the games my role was to keep the parents off the court and in the stands so the coaches could focus on carrying out their assignments and the kids could gain confidence in their independence.

I can list by name the parents who were the most helicoptery at the camp, and all of their kids showed zero improvement from week 1-week 8. As in, their basketball ability looks the exact same now as it did when they came in. This does not suggest that helicoptering makes a kid worse - my coaching surely had to do with the lack of improvement - it just suggests that it doesn't have the desired effect.

Aside from London, this is the main thing I'm bringing from the Warren Rec Basketball Camp back to the Champions Club: there is a blind spot in our gym right now. Our parents' relationship with their kids coupled with my obsession with athlete independence has the potential to cause a lasting tension if the perfect storm scenario comes. I'm probably going to piss off every parent in the gym at some point or another with how I manage their relationship with their kid. I've probably done it already. The way to work past it when it does, inevitably, come up is through honest and open communication.

The Champions Club relies on a family environment to thrive, and these complications are small in comparison to the positivity it brings. I think doing the Warren Rec Camp this year will prove to strengthen that connection at all levels of the gym. I'm grateful Matt let me run the show this time around, and grateful to the coaches who helped me out.