Six Year Olds and Basketball

Kindergarten Basketball.

If you aren't already feeling your blood pressure rise with just the mere mention of this phrase then you have not had the joy of true Kindergarten Basketball. In our town it is a rec league that runs from December to March. Each team has 10-12 five and six year old children with about 90% boys. Each Saturday for 1 1/2 hours chaos reigns over gymnasiums throughout the town. The poor coaches do their best to teach basketball skills to these beautiful sons and daughters of ours. But it is impossible to teach the intricacies of "man on man defense" when 99% of the kids don't even know what defense means and 100% have the attention span of a gnat.

Most of the kids run from baseline to baseline and crash into the wall, slide around on their knees or play chase games. The "lucky duck" with the ball dribbles at a snails pace then either walks over and hands it to another kid (this is the kindergarten pass in all its glory) or picks up the ball and walks to the net where he'll shoot like 10 times before it goes in (with parents thanking the heavens) or worse yet some kid from the other team gets the rebound. Thus becoming the new "lucky duck" and the snail crawl goes the other way.

And so it is every Saturday. It's loud. It's chaotic. And it's stressful. Stressful to the parents. Who try to let the coaches coach but need to step in for behavior control from time to time. And who watch as their kid shoots and shoots and shoots; yet misses every time. Stressful to the coaches. Who are barely keeping the kids engaged. Who have designed what should be fun activities if only the kids would listen and try. And stressful to the kids as they try to grasp completely foreign concepts and do what is expected of them. But somehow amidst all this craziness progress is being made.

Basic rules are becoming second nature. One team shoots one way one team the other way. You should dribble (that means bounce with one hand) to move the ball. You can give it (oops pass) it to a kid on your team if you get stuck. Get back to defend your net if the other team gets the ball. Don't hit to get the ball. Don't cry if you lose it.

Come join us one Saturday. You never know who you might see playing. For sliding across the floor on his or her knees screaming the tune to Sponge Bob might be the next Kevin Garnett or Marcus Camby or Candice Dupree. Skill has to start somewhere and I've decided to view Kindergarten Basketball as a pool of hidden potential - a HUGE pool of very well hidden potential.