I coach my third grade daughter's basketball team. I signed up in an effort to spark her interest in a sport I've played and loved for a long time. It's her first sports team (her prior run in a theatre troupe doesn't count. Sorry, theatre nerds!) and, other than a short foray into very non-competitive soccer, her only ball sport.
Having never taught a group of third graders much of anything I am clueless and very grateful to both YouTube and the other coaches in the league who have offered pointers.
In an effort to pander to the interests of my daughter and her teammates, I came up with what I thought was the brilliant idea of playing music while they practiced. Certain drills would get certain songs. For example, when we practice the weave (commonly and sexistly known as the "three-man weave"), I blast "All the Single Ladies." (I had originally chosen "Formation," but even the radio version was too explicit for our third-grade practice, imho.)
We also play lots of Taylor Swift.
As the kids roll into practice, I usually have 1989 playing. For the uninitiated, the first song is "Welcome to New York." One of my favorite lyrics from that song is, "Everybody here was someone else before." The hope and optimism and ambition and the everything of that lyric gets me every time.
I also, at times can't help but turn it into something of a dad joke. In the car, I'll insist on singing "Welcome to New-wark!" instead of TS's elegant formulation. For me, the joke is that for all of NYC's promise, after your questing there, you are pretty likely to land in a NJ suburb. Which, as a suburbanite myself, I have to admit is not so bad.
Explaining to my third grader the hilarity of my version of "Welcome to New York" is complicated. And playing loud music during our practice has proven to be too much of distraction. But I heartily endorse having hype music at the beginning of practice. And Taylor Swift and Beyonce are great starting points.
Welcome to New York
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