Guelph's premier Basketball Development Service
Philosophy
Be the best player you can be.
Do not fail anything that takes no skill.
The Shake True Hoops logo represents a joining of ideas that relate to people, basketball, community, and culture. Basketball is an international game, it is one that does not require a lot of equipment and one that creates stong bonds because of team dynamics. Shake True Hoops views its' logo this way: yellow for novices, orange for intermediate players not yet at the high school level, red for playing at the competitive level ,be it high school or club, blue is for those competing at the post-secondary level, be it college or university, green represents the climb to the truly elite competing levels of national and professional prominence which requires extensive travel, hence the green in the tree of the world which the sphere symbolizes. The colors signify the great variety of people on the globe.
The tree represents growth, stability, and unity while the green of the leaves spread across the continents, signals the importance of nature, ecology, cohesion, compassion, and sharing. It is hoped that as the participant winds his/her way through the different stages of development he/she can find comfort and guidance from those who have already negotiated the hurdles and are now in a mentoring position to offer insights and support.
STH is a small,tight, and growing family.The idea that STH is a comprehensive program which attempts to prepare young athletes for competition at high levels entails that they have an appreciation for differing cultures. Professional leagues exist all over the world and therefore STH encourages an interest in the arts and world culture in the pursuit of broadening horizons.
It is important to understand that being a great athlete does not mean you are a good person. At STH, there is an emphasis on empathy and philanthropy as athletic skills tend to erode more quickly than does character.
Note to Parents:
Over the course of my time as a basketball trainer & coach, I have been able to evaluate the impact of parents on an athlete’s performance.
It is a rare situation indeed when there is no impact either positive or negative by parents, but when it does occur I have only witnessed positive outcomes for the athlete.
It is my opinion that parents who lend a supportive but somewhat removed role in their children’s endeavors, seem to garner the best results.
By supportive, I mean that these parents provide the opportunities for their children to play without judgment on performance. The game is one that combines many athletic combinations of movements often performed simultaneously with a collective purpose which depends entirely on the placement and possession of the ball which is in constant movement. During all of this, opposition is actively trying to thwart the adversary’s goals. This can be an overwhelming situation at times, to say nothing of external pressures such as coaches, teammates, and referees.
Professional athletes who train at the highest levels, with state of the art facilities and elite coaching techniques still find themselves under duress and can perform poorly. I do not think that kids from 6 to 18 benefit from judgmental evaluation from more than one source.
Positive reinforcement no matter what level of play a child reaches will more often than not, be the most effective means for lasting enjoyment of the game.
Some General Rules for Parents to Follow to Optimize Learning
1. Be on time. Punctuality demonstrates awareness and preparation, key components to success in sports.
2. Be courteous and respectful. Many people are involved in the various venues your children will be participating in. They all have responsibilities which may be greater than just catering to one person’s needs. Most people involved in basketball do it on a volunteer basis.
3. Be vocally positive but not overbearing. 5 minutes of positive stuff and then allow the coaches to do their jobs.
4. While at Shake True Hoops sessions, it would be appreciated by the staff, considering you pay for it, that you let staff do the coaching, the correcting, the praising and the admonishments. That is, after all, what they are there for.
5. Be understanding. While the immediate aftermath of games or practices may seem to be a great coaching moment, it is so only in the eyes of the coach, the parent or the winning child. The players from the losing team are rarely in a frame of mind that is receptive to criticism of any sort. If judgmental criticism in a confined space becomes the norm immediately following losses, it is hard to imagine the detrimental effects that could develop. In my opinion the procuring of food after games and practices is the most effective means of allowing self-evaluation. If there is no self-evaluation then perhaps the outcome of the games means more to the parent than to the child.
6. Find out what your child’s goals toward the game are. They may very well differ from yours. If that turns out to be the case, perhaps examination of whose goals are in question would be a recommendable action.
7. Be consistent. To Shake True Hoops participants it is virtually impossible to improve at a skill sufficiently enough to implement it in game situations if there is no consistent repetition. In other words, if you want your child to be good, show up regularly. Shaker has been educating aspiring youth & teens in Guelph for over 2 decades. Those who have attended regularly feel they have gained a valuable education in not only sports but life itself. Some have even called it Shake's School of Hard Knocks.
8. Allow your child space & time. All kids do not progress at exactly the same pace. Several different factors such as weight, conditioning, eye hand coordination, athletic ability, determination, and self-esteem all combine to make each individual improve at their own rate. It is not a process that should be fraught with expectation.
9. Don’t overstay your welcome. There have been parents in the past that I felt I should have paid as employees because they did so much sideline coaching. I am always on the look-out for extra good coaching. If you are vocal and know what you are talking about and are able to visibly demonstrate then please come work for me. Otherwise you are welcome to stay and watch but please do not coach from the sidelines! Too much information from too many sources only serves to confuse your child. Let Shake True Hoops do what you pay them to do!
10. Be compassionate. The most trying moments of your child’s basketball will be moments of failure. Most kids understand that not all situations are fair but it is still difficult to process these things emotionally. Time and compassion are the best healers.
11. Have the Big Picture in mind frequently. Your child is not likely to make his/her living as a paid athlete. If this is your goal as a parent I hope that you have done so yourself and can therefore pass on some of the genetic coding usually necessary to make a professional level athlete. While good genes, great skill, unbelievable determination, serious exposure, the ability to overcome adversity and sustain a high level of performance under duress in front of thousands may be the makeup of your child, we probably wouldn’t err greatly if we accepted that striving for those goals but not achieving all of them may be a worthy endeavor in itself.
12. Provide loving, insightful, positive, caring, patient and firm support for your child in every endeavor and your child will flourish.
I would be misguided and probably out of a job if I didn’t believe parents care about their children’s performance. 99% of the parents who employ my services take a keen interest in their children’s lives and so, also, in their success.
Perhaps success is the word to be addressed. Without getting into an essay on societal ills in the world, I will say that success is a loaded word. Oxford defines it as: “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose”.
I would venture my definition of success in a sports context as “through challenge, determination, and sweat, overcoming adversity while enjoying the pursuit of physical activity which leaves us with a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment”.
Life is hard. Basketball, while not easy, should be fun and rewarding. Excelling at anything is rewarding. It builds positive feeling towards oneself. Self-confidence is certainly something which most parents would wish for their offspring.
Sports can be an avenue where kids can develop self-confidence as well as many other important character traits. However, because of the competitive nature of sports, there is the equal potential for negative results and habits to manifest themselves.
I believe it is imperative for the sound development of the participant that parents be positive throughout the developmental stages from 6 to at least 13 years of age. As was suggested earlier, there are a lot of pressures for a child on an every day basis let alone in the sports world. The wisest course it would appear would be that of providing opportunity for learning the game, its fundamentals, strategies, and an arena to practice and play while allowing for growth at each child’s individual pace. Positive reinforcement would be praise for effort, concentration, and good behavior.
I have noticed that the parents who execute this style are invariably the ones to see a marked improvement in the areas of their child’s life that really count. Are they happy, functional, confident, and able to make good decisions?
In the answers to those questions lie, I believe, the building blocks to a successful and fulfilling life. Anything that helps your child along that path would then be a positive pursuit.
Stephen “Shaker” Cuevas