Check out the picture above. It’s the varsity players (from top left - Sydney, Kayla, Caroline, Jenna, Bella, Katie, Colby and Lily) at practice on Halloween – in costume. Play has changed for them. Their play is constantly evaluated – they evaluate themselves, their teammates evaluate them, parents and fans evaluate them. As coaches we are continually evaluating them. You can see that, at heart, they just want to play.

So why do you play basketball? Do you know why? Do you remember why you got into it in the first place? Does it remain a choice and not an obligation? Do you do it for yourselves or for others?

From their earliest years kids follow their instincts and play – with anything. I remember when my son, Rob, asked for some kind of robot for Christmas. On Christmas morning he opened, it up played with it for about 3 minutes and then spent the next 3 hours playing in the box that it came in. Kids will play with boxes, rocks, sticks, balls – whatever is around. It’s all about fun and imagination. And that’s the way it should be - forever. Of course that’s not how it is.

Our younger players still play for the fun of it. As they get older they will find that play serves a different purpose. Through play kids learn how to compromise, share, and develop motor skills. They learn the rules of social interaction and get better at it. Over time the games they play become more sophisticated with rules and structure. The motor skills needed are more specific to the game being played.

As their skills improve they want to test them out. Competition is introduced. The “fun” in play is never the same. One definition of competition is “to try to be more successful than someone else.” Another is “to strive to outdo another for acknowledgement, a prize, or supremacy.” Doesn’t sound like fun to me. Certainly competing still includes some elements of play but the stakes are higher. We attach status to the victors – we make it so there are winners and losers. Status is not a bad thing – we all look to achieve, to be accepted and acknowledged. But without guidance from coaches and parents the desire to be acknowledged and to achieve can become a solo act. That works in WWF cage matches and billiards but it doesn’t work for basketball.

While it might be less “fun” competitive sports can be gratifying and meaningful. Competition can push us to test our perceived limits and push us to learn new and useful skills. Basketball at the high school and college level is about combining our individual efforts for the benefit of the team. It takes cooperation, self-sacrifice and commitment. The commitment part calls for us to be willing to give everything we have so that others can benefit. Committed players show both talent and toughness – physical and mental toughness. 

Sometimes the challenges are within. Do we see ourselves as capable? Do we have the confidence and mental toughness to fully compete, risking failure? Do we believe in our abilities – both individual abilities and the collective abilities of our team? Our mindset or our beliefs contribute to the outcomes we get.

Benjamin Barber, a sociologist, said “I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong, the successes or the failures… I divide the world into the learners and the non-learners.” “We are all born with an intense drive to learn. Infants stretch their skills every day. Not just ordinary skills but some of the most difficult tasks of our lifetime, like learning to walk and talk. They never decide it’s too hard or not worth the effort. Babies don’t worry about making mistakes or humiliating themselves. They walk, they fall, and they get up. They just keep moving forward.”

In her book Mindset, Carol Dweck talks about growth mindsets (“This will be tough, and I might not succeed, but I can learn from this and improve”) and fixed mindsets (“They are really good, better than me (us), and there’s nothing I (we) can do about it”). These mindsets are just beliefs that we hold in our minds and although powerful, we can change our minds. As we grow older play takes on new meaning. Our behavior is driven by the need for competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Self Determination Theory). When we meet those needs we can enjoy the activities even more. But the pursuit of competence exposes us to constant evaluation. We self-evaluate and we are evaluated by others. We become more aware of our performance. This evaluation can impact our performance in a positive way or a negative way. It impacts our confidence one way or the other. Some start to believe that the world is divided into winners and losers with nothing in between. That’s the fixed mindset. It can be changed. As basketball players we are never complete. We are always learning. Nobody walks out on the court and knocks down jump shots without learning how to shoot and practicing - a lot. A growth mindset recognizes that we are all works in progress, in basketball and in life. The growth mindset is up for the challenge.

The beauty of sports play is found, not necessarily the final score but, in the moment and all the moments that occur in the game. Duke University’s Coach K. calls it “next play”. Jay Bilas played for Coach K. and says, “Coach taught us that basketball is a fast paced, continuous game in which there are no built-in breaks like in baseball and football. In basketball, players must convert from offense to defense at any moment, and convert with speed and alertness. Next play is really a prompt to focus players on the present, rather than dwelling upon what just happened.” The concept applies to positive plays as well as mistakes.

Coach K. says, “Next play is the absence of fear of failure. You have moved on.” Next play is a growth mindset.

When Allie Best was a sophomore the Lady Vikes played a team late in the season. Her team was just starting to come into its own – lots of offensive talent but they hadn’t yet learned how to win consistently. They would go on to play in 3 consecutive state sectional finals, winning one. But this was before that team came together and in this particular game they were trailing to a team they should have been beating. With under 2 minutes to play they were down 12. You could see “defeated” in the faces of some of the other players on the court. Of course they were still trying but it was the kind of obligatory effort players put in because they know they are not supposed to “quit”. It was not a confident effort, one that comes from believing that there is still a chance, however slight, that a win is possible. Allie was the exception. She stripped the point guard and made a layup, intercepted the inbounds pass at midcourt, scored and was fouled. Voorhees grabbed a defensive rebound and pushed it up court. Allie hit a three. Down 4 with 20 seconds to go Voorhees inbounded following a timeout. Allie drove to the baseline where she was met by three defenders. She passed out of the trap, finding a teammate open in the short corner. The shot rimmed out. The opposing team rebounded and called time out. Down by four with four seconds left the game was essentially over. With little or no chance of winning the game Allie still pressured the inbounds pass, deflecting it towards the sideline. The ball was heading out of bounds on the sideline, near the Voorhees bench. With time winding down Allie dove towards the bleachers and slapped the ball back in bounds off an opponent’s leg – as the clock expired.

As you were reading this you might have been thinking that somehow Voorhees would win the game. They didn’t. But that was not the point of the story. For Allie, winning was important, but it wasn’t just about winning the game. It was about winning the moment, competing on every play – regardless of the score or the time on the clock. If they were down 10 with four seconds to play Allie would still be diving for that ball as it went out of bounds. Next play.

The joy Allie gets from playing comes from that spirit. While she certainly wanted to win, for Allie it was really more about playing every play, every second to the best of her ability. That’s why you play!

As they grow older kids prepare for the competitive world that awaits them - and they should. The competitive metaphors found in sports participation can be useful – plenty of opportunities to learn - about ourselves and the world we live in. We can choose the lessons we want our kids to learn through sports. We can emphasize playing for others, cooperation, commitment, self-confidence, trust in others, hard work, fair play and doing your best. Or we can tell our kids - it’s all about you – take care of you – get your stats - everyone else is the enemy - the only one you can trust is yourself. Which message relates to true play? Which message will serve them best in the future, when they no longer play basketball?

This group of high school players is more talented than they know. When they realize it their play will reflect it. Remember, our mindsets contribute to the outcomes we get. When they compete as if every play may be their last, challenging the fear of failure, they will win some games that they would have lost in the past. If our message is about team play and support for each other they’ll be successful regardless of their record. Here’s hoping our high school players can find the joy in each and every play or, if not, in the next play. 

Bob Peterman