making my child more aggressive in bball

Question
how can i make my child to be more aggressive in basketball. she is very talented but is afraid to show how talented she is when she in on the court. help please. i think she has no self confindence. any advice. thanks!


Answer
Hi Whitney,

It' hard to answer without knowing how old your daughter is and how much basketball expierence she has. The main thing is remember basketball is supposed to be fun, don't stop making it fun for her. If that happens she will loose interest and never play with passion and desire.

To be aggresive on the court she needs to feel good about her game and talents. To develop this she needs to practice and prepare for games. You wrote she is talented so have her practice game like situations that make her feel uncomfortable. I coached a Woman's team for four years and to make them more aggressive I used to have them practice against the men. If your daughter has brothers or cousins she can play against that might help. Tell the boy's to go hard but not to where they would break her spirit. I am not trying to discorage you but I have had players that were talented but not aggressive and no matter what I did they would not change. It was there personality, there make up and I had to figure out how to use them within our system.

Another thing you can do is have her watch some Women's college games on ESPN or Fox Sports...Show her how hard the girls go and point out hustle plays(diving on loose balls, saving the ball from going out of bounds, sprinting back on defense, working hard on defense, etc.....

I hope this helps a little bit. The one thing I can't stress enough is keep it fun. Basketball is my life and I have learned a lot of hard lessons along the way. One of those lessons is there are a thousand different games in life but I only have one daughter. I pushed my daughter to hard and made it a choir to play...She quit and never played again. I am a very patient man but when it came to my daughter I wasn't. Keep it fun and don't expect drastic changes as if they come they will come slowly. Good luck and I wish you best!