APPENDIX SOLUTIONS
AND COMMENTS TO PRACTICAL EXERCISES TEST
EXERCISE - 1 QUESTION
COMMENTS 1
In general, practising sports is a healthy activity, but
not necessarily. Sports can be harmful if practised incorrectly. For
this reason, the coach´s role is essential in making the
practise of sports beneficial. 2
There will always be injuries, but the coach can reduce
this risk if he/she programmes and directs his/her players´
sports activities correctly. 3
Basketball provides young players with the opportunity to
develop healthy habits; for example, good eating habits, hygiene
habits and self-care habits. 4
The acquisition of a reasonable commitment is essential
for sports to have educational value. 5
Basketball provides an excellent opportunity for young
players to learn to work as a team and accept their individual
responsibilities within the context of the group. The coach should
take advantage of this opportunity by strengthening both aspects:
team work and individual responsibility. 6
Basketball should help young players to learn to respect
their opponents. The coach should never allow his/her players to
develop feelings of dislike or hostility towards rivals. 7
Young players should learn to respect referees and the
coach should be their role model. Therefore, it is not appropriate
for the coach to protest the referee´s decisions. 8
Competition is an educational tool that should be used
accordingly. The players should learn to compete, win and lose. If a
competition cannot be won and the coach decides to withdraw, he/she
is throwing away an excellent educational opportunity. 9
The coach is a highly significant model for his/her young
players; therefore, he/she should behave accordingly. The coach
should show respect and solidarity towards all of his/her players,
their opponents, and the referees, because this sets an excellent
example for his/her players. 10
Without doubt, basketball can be a very valuable
educational experience for young players but in order to be so, it is
essential that managers and coaches behave appropriately. TEST
EXERCISE - 2 QUESTION
COMMENTS 1
The coach can significantly improve his/her players´
psychological resources if he/she keeps this in mind when organising
and directing his/her team´s activity. 2
Young players´ cognitive development will benefit
from an appropriate presentation of basketball training drills. 3
In general, monotonous training sessions do not provide
sufficient stimulation to develop the attentional capacity of young
players. For this reason, the coach should avoid this type of
training. 4
The perception of control is essential in the formative
process of young players. Among other measures, the coach can develop
the perception of control related to the results that his/her players
achieve by their behaviour. This way, the players perceive that they
can control the results of their own behaviour. 5
Experiences of «controlled success» are
produced when positive results are attributed by the players to their
own controllable behaviour, instead of to external factors or to
behaviour over which they have little control. Such experiences are
especially important in strengthening self-confidence. 6
Experiences of «controlled failure» are
produced when the results obtained are not favourable but the players
perceive that, with their behaviour, they have controlled the process
of attempting to achieve the desired results; besides, they have
learned something valuable for the future. Combined with experiences
of «controlled success», experiences of «controlled
failure» can be very valuable in strengthening young players´
self-confidence. 7
Understanding what has to be done enhances the perception
of control. Therefore, by explaining exactly what the task is, the
coach will help his/her players to increase their perception of
control. 8
Posing challenges that the players consider attainable
helps build enough self-confidence to attempt to achieve these
challenges. By meeting challenges, the players strengthen their
self-confidence for the future. Therefore, it is very important for
the coach to pose challenges that the players can achieve in order to
strengthen their
self-confidence. 9
When a young player´s perception of himself/herself
(self-concept) and self-esteem depend, to a large degree, on his/her
success in sports, he/she will be extremely vulnerable emotionally.
Under such conditions, it is likely that sports activities will be
very stressful for the players, increasing the risk of low
performance, injury and occasionally, other negative effects on their
health and psychological development. For this reason, the coach
working with young players should do whatever he/she can so that
his/her young players´ self-concept and self-esteem do not
depend on their success in the field of sports. 10
The coach´s comments can influence his/her young
players´ selfconcept and self-esteem; therefore, he/she should
be very careful in this respect, avoiding comments that weaken the
players´ selfconcept and self-esteem, and using others that
strengthen them. TEST
EXERCISE - 3 QUESTION CORRECT ANSWER
COMMENTS 1
True Meeting attractive challenges is one of the most
rewarding experiences for young players. Therefore, this should be
used quite frequently in their sports activities. 2
False Some players have more self-control than others, but
all of them can improve this capacity if the coach takes advantage of
opportunities that arise during training sessions and games. The
coach should try to bring about an improvement in his/her players´
self-control instead of assuming that they will improve by
themselves. 3
False Having fun is a very positive experience for any
basketball team, not just for mini-basketball teams. 4
False Early specialization does not increase a player´s
chances of making top-class professional teams in the future. In
fact, in most cases it limits the players ´ possibilities. 5
False Coaches working with young players should not
imitate top-class coaches but adopt their own working style, bearing
in mind the formative aims these teams should have. 6
True Control experiences are very important for any player
but especially for young players. Therefore, a coach who works with
young players should provoke many control experiences for his/her
players. 7
True A coach working with young players should treat all
of his/her players with dignity and respect, never insulting them,
underrating them or making fun of them. 8
False A coach is a basketball expert, but when working
with young players he/she should assume his/her educational
responsibilities, which are complementary to those of teachers and
parents. TEST
EXERCISE - 4 QUESTION
CORRECT ANSWER 1
Intra-group Outcome Goal. 2
Intra-subject Outcome Goal if for one player or
Intra-group Outcome Goal if for the whole team. 3
Performance Goal. 4
Performance Goal. 5
Performance Goal. 6
Inter-subject Outcome Goal. 7
Performance Goal. 8
Intra-subject Outcome Goal if for one player or
Intra-group Outcome Goal if for the whole team. 9
Performance Goal. 10
Performance Goal. TEST
EXERCISE - 5 QUESTION CORRECT ANSWER
COMMENTS 1
True If the coach and the players jointly decide on the
players´ obligations, players learn to accept responsibility
and their commitment is stronger. 2
False Working rules should be established from the outset
because they favour the proper working of the team and avoid many
problems. 3
True The season´s macrocycle should be divided into
various periods called mesocycles. These, in turn, should be divided
into one-or two-week periods called microcycles. 4
False Outcome goals and performance goals should be
correctly combined in order to maximize the benefits that can be
achieved by establishing goals, so both are important. However,
performance goals are more useful because they refer to
the
behaviour of the players themselves, and therefore, are more easily
controlled. Besides which, performance goals are the only way for the
players to influence outcome goals. 5
True Goals should be attractive so that the players are
motivated to achieve them, but at the same time they should be
realistic so that the players perceive that they can achieve them
and, in fact, they do. 6
True When planning the training session, the coach should
take into account the most appropriate physical load for that. 7
False In general, volume should predominate over intensity
during the first weeks of the season. 8
False The coach should control the psychological load of
the training session, just as he/she controls the physical workload
or the technical and tactical contents. 9
True Short drills prevent young players´ attentional
fatigue. 10
False For teams made up of young players (mini-basketball
and 13/14 year-olds), the coach should not adapt his/her training
programme to preparing for an upcoming game, nor is this appropriate
for teams of 15/18-year-olds for many games of the season. TEST
EXERCISE - 6 QUESTION CORRECT ANSWER
COMMENTS 1
False Before the training session, the coach should decide
on the goals for that session as well as the contents and drills that
are appropriate for achieving those goals. 2
False Having a good time and following rules while doing
drills is not incompatible. In fact, the use of appropriate rules
helps a drill to be enjoyable. 3
False The antecedent stimuli of a drill are those which
are present in the drill. They are present before players’
behaviours appear. 4
False When working with young players, both the goals and
the structure of drills should be varied. 5
True In general, related drills help make better use of
practice time. 6
True During training sessions, competitive drills can be
set up between players or groups of players as well as between a
player or a group against himself/ herself or themselves. 7
False Competitive drills should not be done aimlessly; it
is important to control the goals and contents of the drill. 8
False Learning drills should predominate in
mini-basketball teams; specific game preparation is inappropriate in
mini-basketball training. 9
False Attentional intensity should not be high during all
of the drills done during a practise session. The coach should
combine drills of greater and lesser intensity throughout the
session. 10
False Working in small simultaneous groups is a good
strategy because the players participate more and they can assume
greater individual responsibility. 11
True Among other procedures that can be used to control
the training process, comparing work done in the recent session with
work previously programmed is simple and efficient. 12
True In general, it is a good idea to combine offense and
defense goals in order to make the most of the training session. TEST
EXERCISE - 7 QUESTION
CAONRSRWEECRT COMMENTS 1
False A player should never be ridiculed in front of
his/her teammates. Besides, this is not a good strategy for
motivating the players. 2
False In many cases, it is not enough to explain to the
players what they have to do for them to do it. It is necessary to
show them for them to understand better, and to develop a training
programme so that the players learn to do what they should. 3
True The coach should assess and highlight players´
behaviour more than results obtained. 4
True Élite players can be good role models for
young players if the specific behaviour that they should observe and
try to imitate is emphasised. 5
False During training drills, the coach should concentrate
only on the goals of that drill; therefore, he/she should correct
only those mistakes that correspond to those goals and ignore the
rest. 6
False Players do not learn more quickly (or better)because
the coach tells them constantly what theyhave to do. The coach should
use appropriatestrategies so that the players become mentallyinvolved
in the drills. 7
True Performance recording is a very useful tool tohelp
the players concentrate on their behaviour. 8
True Feedback is a very valuable strategy in the
learningprocess. Among other things, it allows players,including very
young ones, to control their own progress 9
False Reinforcement, both positive and negative, servesto
acquire behaviour. Negative reinforcement isnot to be confused with
punishment. 10
True Reinforcement should be applied as soon as possible
after the behaviour that the coach wants to reinforce is produced. 11
True Social reinforcement is a very powerful tool when
working with young players. The coach should take advantage of every
opportunity to use it generously. 12
False Token economy is a highly efficient and appropriate
strategy for teams of any age. 13
False The aim of punishment strategies is to eliminate
inappropriate behaviour such as, for example, protesting the
referee´s decisions or recriminating a teammate. 14
True When applying punishment to eliminate certain
behaviour, reinforcement to strengthen alternative behaviour should
be applied at the same time. TEST
EXERCISE - 8 QUESTION
COMMENTS 1
It is a good idea for the players to move quickly to the
sideline on the bench. 2
It is a good idea for the players to have a few seconds to
drink water and relax a bit before the coach starts to talk. 3
In general, the coach should be the only person to talk
during time-outs. 4
In general, telling the players off for mistakes made in
previous plays is not productive. Time-outs should be used
constructively to prepare the future of the game. 5
Reinforcing effective actions that the coach wants the
players to repeat is a good strategy. 6
It is not a good idea to speak quickly in order to say a
lot. The coach should accept that he/she cannot say everything.
Therefore, he/she should select the most important messages and
transmit them without rushing. 7
The coach should try to centre the players´
attention on the most important behaviour for the upcoming period of
active participation. 8
In general, it is not recommended that the coach remind
the players to think of winning; rather, he/she should distract their
attention from the score and centre it on behaviours that they can
control. 9
It is not a good strategy to make fun of a player in order
to provoke a reaction and get him/her to play better. Besides, the
effects of this measure, beyond the game, can be very negative. 10
If the coach finds that he/she does not have enough time
to say everything he/she wants to the players, it is because he/she
wants to say too much and has not selected the most important things. 11
It is advisable that the coach end the time-out with a few
words of encouragement to his/her players. TEST
EXERCISE - 9 QUESTION
COMMENTS 1
The coach should have an objective, positive and
constructive attitude during the game. If he/she tends to notice
negative aspects more than positive ones, it would be a good idea for
him/her to think about this and change his/her attitude. 2
A coach who tends to get angry when his/her players make
mistakes should think about this. Mistakes are part of the game and
the coach must learn to tolerate them and handle them with the
objective, positive and constructive attitude that should predominate
when he/she directs a game. 3
The coach should reinforce the players when they attempt
correct behaviour, even if they are not successful. This way, they
will keep on trying. 4
During a game, the coach should encourage players when
they make mistakes and get them to centre their attention quickly on
the task at hand. 5
A coach cannot asses his/her players´ performance
based on the final score. 6
The coach should let his/her players play without
continuously telling them what to do. 7
The coach should not insult or
make fun of the players. 8
For reasons of strategy, the coach must take the score
into account, but he/she should also be capable of directing the game
objectively, regardless whether the score is favourable or
unfavourable to his/her team. 9
The coach who insults or protests to referees is a bad
example for young players. 10
It is a very good idea for the coach to transmit positive
messages to his/her players when directing a game. 11
Half-time should not be used to recriminate players for
mistakes made during the first half but to help them improve their
performance in the second half. 12
The coach should avoid making disapproving comments and
gestures to his/her players while coaching a game. 13
The coach should set an example to his/her young players
by congratulating the coach of the opposing team at the end of the
game, and he/she should teach them to do the same with their
opponents.
14
At the end of the game, the players are not prepared to assimilate
the coach´s comments. Therefore, it is not a good idea to
organise talks right after a game. Two or three days later, when
everyone is more relaxed, would be a better moment to explain
whatever he/she feels is important.
