Georgia Knockouts

By Panda Smith

Team Information• Organization: AAU basketball team (Amateur Athletic Union) • Members: David Shippey, Coach, Wade Mason, Captain, Daulton

Pope, Capain, Sean Shippey, Brent Mason, Ethan Powers, Colton Pollard, Nick Walker, Kelton Hunt, Lavonte Morring, Rashaun Dobbs, Tyreke Dobbs

• I observed, on a sporadic schedule, Coach Shippey teach and motivate a boys’ basketball team. I have done observation with this coach previously, and assumed he had a baseball team this spring and I would be an assistant. However, he has a basketball team and I know nothing about it, so I became an interested observer in his methods of instruction.

• They usually practice at the Bremen High School gym, but occasionally workout at the recreation department. The team is comprised of boys that are fourteen and fifteen years old. They vary in height from under five feet to just over six feet.

Is Coaching teaching?

• At the start of the season, Coach Shippey had a cookout to promote team unity among both parents and players

• Plays that are a huge success in one practice or game may be a disaster with the next one, so adaptations must be made on the fly

• Differentiated Instruction: The players differ from one another in many ways ( intelligence, learning style, ethnicity, & social class

• Coach expectancy is high for all players

• Physical: Some have reached physical maturity and attained puberty

• Social: Peers influence immediate status• Cognitive: Capable of formal thought, but not always use this

capability

Age Level Characteristics

Typical for Age Level

• Their age would place them within in Erikson’s “Identity versus role confusion age.”

• Most exhibit several characteristics of 3 of James Marcia’s identity statuses: Identity diffusion, foreclosure, and moratorium.

• Behaviors exhibited: disorganized, impulsive, difficulty with problems under stress, feeling superior to peers, depending on approval from authority figures, daydreams, dissatisfied with school, etc

Diverse Group of players

• They vary in psychosocial and cognitive development, mental ability, thinking style, achievement, ethnic background and social class

• They come from Carrollton, Ranburne, Bremen, & Villa Rica, so no have no automatic team loyalty.

• In fact, several have played against each other in rec and school ball

Applying Erickson’s Theory of Psychosocial

Development• Coach Shippey

presents tasks that they can successfully complete and

• Gives recognition and praises accomplishments

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development• They are in the formal operational stage, so are able to deal with

abstractions, form hypotheses, solve problems systematically, and engage in mental manipulations

• Most of these guys have played ball before, so they have learned adaptation. As it happens slowly, a good deal of time is spent practicing.

• They assimilate the new plays into their existing schemes• Sometimes they must accommodate new concepts that the

coach puts forward• Unlike Piaget, Coach Shippey does not overestimate their

capabilities

Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development

• Scientific concept: allow students to manipulate their environment consciously and systematically

• Well-designed instruction is like a magnet. If it is aimed slightly ahead of what children know and can do at the present time, it will pull them along and help them to master new skills

Scaffolding / Mark Tappan

• Model desired behavior. Children imitate behaviors

• Create a dialogue with the student. An exchange of questions, explanations, and feedback between coach and child

• Practice. • Confirmation. To confirm

others is to bring out the best in them by focusing on what they can do

Operant Conditioning / B F Skinner• Positive

Reinforcement: Praise, recognition, and playing time

• Negative Reinforcement: Remove an unpleasant stimulus (sitting on the bench)

• Punishment: Scolding, time-out, extinction (rarely)

• Variable schedule of reinforcement

Character Education• Be a “Team” player• Be respectful• No verbal abuse toward

team mates or other team, however “trash-talking” does come from a couple of players

• No cursing• Win or lose, shake

hands at the conclusion of the game

Conclusion:• Although not typical

classroom subjects, learning on many levels is happening

• Therefore, coaching is teaching