Skills improvement, fun big factors for kids, parents

Now that summer is here – gosh, it took a while – thoughts today turn to activities which enhance athletic participation for the next school year.

Believe it or not, most athletes shy away from working on elements of their games that need the most work. A good friend of mine, Bob Bigelow from Massachusetts, has devoted his life to promoting what is right and what is wrong about youth participation in athletics during both the regular season and the offseason.

Bob comes to the task highly qualified. He was an All-American basketball player at the University of Pennsylvania. He parlayed those skills to the NBA, and today, he runs camps for college and pro players who need a brushing up of their fundamental skills.

Bob is the author of a couple of books on the teaching of individual skills, and he has traveled nationwide to promote his theories on mistakes that occur with kids, including those which occur in the offseason.

Parents these days are often in a quandary about what to do with their offspring in terms of skill development in the summer. Granted, there are many options for kids to enhance their games in the summer. A quick check of Friday’s On Deck column of our sports section will show a growing list of activities for kids in the summer.

Camps are often expensive, but if you listen to a guy like Bigelow, he’ll direct you to keep the fun element at a maximum for the younger set. As kids get to be 14 or older, it’s time to give consideration to individual skills, especially those that help improve those areas of a youngster’s game that may need work.

I’d have to say that I agree with Bob in terms of the time frame for such work.

My own philosophy of all this stuff is to steer kids in the direction that will provide fun and skill improvement. If we adults can truly accept the notion that young people don’t really like the thought of working on what they’re the least good at, then the family is well on its way to involving their athletes in activities that will be worth the money spent.

There are really two ways to accomplish skill improvement in the offseason.

First and foremost, parents should know that young people can practice alone or with a friend to improve an area of their game that they are the weakest. A good example of this might be high school players who are not strong dribbling the basketball with their left hand, if they are righthanded.

As a coach, I’ve often told players to spend the entire summer when they’re alone not dribbling a ball with their stronger, more accomplished hand.

Today, specialty camps are on the rise. Dave Gonyea, the athletic director and men’s basketball coach at Central Maine Community College in Auburn, offers a nifty range of specialty and skills camps at the Auburn campus that are reasonably priced. He may be reached at dgonyea@cmcc.edu.

When I think of summer activities, I think of my friend Bob Bigelow. Skill improvement and the associated activities available involve prudent thinking.

In my world, there’s nothing better than individual work to recharge the batteries. Unfortunately, the days of sandlot baseball and pickup basketball are a thing of the past. That stuff never cost my dad a dime.

30-Second Time Out

Still basking in the glow of title 17 for the Boston Celtics? You are not alone. Thoughts today, however, turn to the future and last week’s annual NBA draft. This time out, C’s GM Danny Ainge selected with his first-round 30th pick the often-troubled ex-Kansas guard J.R. Giddens, who finished his college career at New Mexico.

The operative question here is this: Can this kid play right away? If I were in Ainge’s shoes, I’d be spending more time working on re-signing forward James Posey and guard Eddie House. As my mother would say, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” or “One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch,” referring to Giddens. Yes, she would have been a good GM.

bdnsports@bangordailynews.net