Middle School Athletics - Preparing Players

In the last post I explained the first objective for middle school athletics: introducing players to this world. Now I want to talk a bit about the second and more obvious objective for middle school sports: preparing players for the next level.

Preparing players for the next level of interscholastic athletics means developing the necessary fundamentals of the game so they can succeed in JV and varsity athletics. I think this aspect of middle school athletics is more evident and pursued than introducing players. While middle school athletics should not be as competitive as varsity, middle school sports still is competitive. An increasing amount of players in middle school have experience playing on club teams. The average skill level in middle school is increasing. Many players and parents understandably expect more knowledgeable coaches to train them in the fundamentals. These fundamentals include knowledge of game (i.e. rules), skills and techniques, tactics and strategies, as well as the physical conditioning to meet the demands of the sport. In this way I think we can think of middle school programs like a feeder program for varsity. I also think varsity head coaches can have a role in designing middle school programs (more about this later, though).