What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

Welcome to Our Forums. Once you've registered and logged in, you're primed to talk football, among other topics, with the sharpest and most experienced fantasy players on the internet.

Youth Basketball Coaches Books - 10 Year olds (1 Viewer)

Kuz

Footballguy
Did a quick search but couldn't find anything.. I have been coaching my son for the last couple of years but now that he's 10 I thought I will need to do more than strictly basic stuff

Anybody have some good books that they would recommend for 10/11 year olds..

TIA

 
I'm coaching u12's right now (just finished 2 years of u10's)

Best advice I ever got for coaching kids....

You have to first realize that they all suck.

Second you have to realize that when the season is over, they are all going to suck.

Best thing you can do is make it fun, and the least fun thing in basketball is getting repeatedly ripped by your defender.

75% of my practices every kid has a ball. Ball handling, ball handling, ball handling, lay-ups, lay-ups, lay-ups.

The sooner they learn to shoot from the shooting pocket (between ear and shoulder) and not from the hip, knee, chest, chin, the better.

Good drills in this Mike Dunlap clinic.

More in this Kevin Boyle Short Man game the transition drills starting around 12:30 are great and I use them for my mens team as well.

No zone defense. Offense should be no more complicated than pass-cut-fill/back door

HMU if you have any questions. Been coaching hoop for 20+ years

 
I'm coaching u12's right now (just finished 2 years of u10's)

Best advice I ever got for coaching kids....

You have to first realize that they all suck.

Second you have to realize that when the season is over, they are all going to suck.

Best thing you can do is make it fun, and the least fun thing in basketball is getting repeatedly ripped by your defender.

75% of my practices every kid has a ball. Ball handling, ball handling, ball handling, lay-ups, lay-ups, lay-ups.

The sooner they learn to shoot from the shooting pocket (between ear and shoulder) and not from the hip, knee, chest, chin, the better.

Good drills in this Mike Dunlap clinic.

More in this Kevin Boyle Short Man game the transition drills starting around 12:30 are great and I use them for my mens team as well.

No zone defense. Offense should be no more complicated than pass-cut-fill/back door

HMU if you have any questions. Been coaching hoop for 20+ years
Thanks - I appreciate it..

 
Timely thread! That's good advice, SC. I'm going into my 6th year of coaching girls hoops, 7th grade this year. I agree, keep it simple and focus on the fundamentals. Also agree on the "every kid has a ball" - I'm supplied 4-5 each year but go out and buy enough so that every kid can have maximum reps and have the ball in their hand as much as possible. With just 2 practices a week, you have to maximize those two hours.

Based largely upon some of the stuff coming out of Steve Nash's Youth Basketball, I started incorporating a lot of 3-on-3 in practices last year. It's a great way for kids to just learn how to play - move without the ball, screen, play on-ball and help D, etc - without having to worry about running a play. And every kid touches the ball much more than in 5-of-5. A couple of generations ago this is how we all learned to play, 3-on-3 at lunch, recess, after school, but kids (especially girls) just don't seem to do that anymore. So I'll have my assistant run some drills with the other girls while 6 are playing, and then swap them out regularly. I'm planning to incorporate even more of that this year.

As for resources, I've found some good drills here: https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/youthbasketball.html

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm coaching u12's right now (just finished 2 years of u10's)

Best advice I ever got for coaching kids....

You have to first realize that they all suck.

Second you have to realize that when the season is over, they are all going to suck.

Best thing you can do is make it fun, and the least fun thing in basketball is getting repeatedly ripped by your defender.

75% of my practices every kid has a ball. Ball handling, ball handling, ball handling, lay-ups, lay-ups, lay-ups.

The sooner they learn to shoot from the shooting pocket (between ear and shoulder) and not from the hip, knee, chest, chin, the better.

Good drills in this Mike Dunlap clinic.

More in this Kevin Boyle Short Man game the transition drills starting around 12:30 are great and I use them for my mens team as well.

No zone defense. Offense should be no more complicated than pass-cut-fill/back door

HMU if you have any questions. Been coaching hoop for 20+ years
This.

I coach my oldest son's All-Net team (pseudo-club, 5th graders), my 3rd graders Rec team and will be coaching my 5 year olds clinic team.

The kids need work with a ball in their hand. As short corner said, 75+% of practice should be spent with a ball in their hand. My older kids we've worked with for a couple years now, so their ball handling is a bit more advanced, a lot of cross over work, between the leg crossover, behind the back cross over, spin moves, in-out dribbles and putting together combinations. Warm up is always done with a ball in hand, then we progress to handling the ball under pressure (that way can teach both ball handling and proper defense at the same time - I'm lucky to get 2 hours a week with my teams, so need to maximize time). Most drills end with a finish, ie crossovers down the court in a zig zag pattern, finish with a layup, repeat from other side of the court, keep them moving constantly.

Can also do a row of cones heading out from the wing, say 4-5 cones, about 4 feet apart - they make a move at each cone, say an in-out dribble, then on last cone explosive dribble to hoop and finish with layup.. next time through finish with a floater... next time pull up jumper.

For offense, I agree that a basic motion offense, pass and cut through or pass and screen away is best. Teaches the kids to move without the ball, to space the floor and gets the ball into everyone's hands. We do a lot of 5 out motion offense, pass, cut through and replace, but you can do a lot of the same with a 4out/1 in or even a 3 out /2in offense.

For defense, man to man. Teach them to help when their man is two passes away, to deny when one pass away (if you want to be more aggressive, some coaches prefer to play a more sagging man to man - my 5th grade team is very athletic so we go more aggressive, with my rec team, I will teach them to sag a bit more to be in better help defense position). At this age I prefer to teach them to front the post.

One of my favorite drills to teach the kids to pass and to move without the ball is to play 3 on 3 or 4 on 4, with the catch that the offense can't dribble. Most of my players tell me that this is one of their favorite drills because it makes it hard on the offense, so when we go live and they can dribble, the game is much easier for them. Once the offense gets that down, add in that they have to pass 5 (or more) times before shooting.

 
I'm coaching u12's right now (just finished 2 years of u10's)

Best advice I ever got for coaching kids....

You have to first realize that they all suck.

Second you have to realize that when the season is over, they are all going to suck.

Best thing you can do is make it fun, and the least fun thing in basketball is getting repeatedly ripped by your defender.

75% of my practices every kid has a ball. Ball handling, ball handling, ball handling, lay-ups, lay-ups, lay-ups.

The sooner they learn to shoot from the shooting pocket (between ear and shoulder) and not from the hip, knee, chest, chin, the better.

Good drills in this Mike Dunlap clinic.

More in this Kevin Boyle Short Man game the transition drills starting around 12:30 are great and I use them for my mens team as well.

No zone defense. Offense should be no more complicated than pass-cut-fill/back door

HMU if you have any questions. Been coaching hoop for 20+ years
This.

I coach my oldest son's All-Net team (pseudo-club, 5th graders), my 3rd graders Rec team and will be coaching my 5 year olds clinic team.

The kids need work with a ball in their hand. As short corner said, 75+% of practice should be spent with a ball in their hand. My older kids we've worked with for a couple years now, so their ball handling is a bit more advanced, a lot of cross over work, between the leg crossover, behind the back cross over, spin moves, in-out dribbles and putting together combinations. Warm up is always done with a ball in hand, then we progress to handling the ball under pressure (that way can teach both ball handling and proper defense at the same time - I'm lucky to get 2 hours a week with my teams, so need to maximize time). Most drills end with a finish, ie crossovers down the court in a zig zag pattern, finish with a layup, repeat from other side of the court, keep them moving constantly.

Can also do a row of cones heading out from the wing, say 4-5 cones, about 4 feet apart - they make a move at each cone, say an in-out dribble, then on last cone explosive dribble to hoop and finish with layup.. next time through finish with a floater... next time pull up jumper.

For offense, I agree that a basic motion offense, pass and cut through or pass and screen away is best. Teaches the kids to move without the ball, to space the floor and gets the ball into everyone's hands. We do a lot of 5 out motion offense, pass, cut through and replace, but you can do a lot of the same with a 4out/1 in or even a 3 out /2in offense.

For defense, man to man. Teach them to help when their man is two passes away, to deny when one pass away (if you want to be more aggressive, some coaches prefer to play a more sagging man to man - my 5th grade team is very athletic so we go more aggressive, with my rec team, I will teach them to sag a bit more to be in better help defense position). At this age I prefer to teach them to front the post.

One of my favorite drills to teach the kids to pass and to move without the ball is to play 3 on 3 or 4 on 4, with the catch that the offense can't dribble. Most of my players tell me that this is one of their favorite drills because it makes it hard on the offense, so when we go live and they can dribble, the game is much easier for them. Once the offense gets that down, add in that they have to pass 5 (or more) times before shooting.
Thanks!

 
I'm coaching u12's right now (just finished 2 years of u10's)

Best advice I ever got for coaching kids....

You have to first realize that they all suck.

Second you have to realize that when the season is over, they are all going to suck.

Best thing you can do is make it fun, and the least fun thing in basketball is getting repeatedly ripped by your defender.

75% of my practices every kid has a ball. Ball handling, ball handling, ball handling, lay-ups, lay-ups, lay-ups.

The sooner they learn to shoot from the shooting pocket (between ear and shoulder) and not from the hip, knee, chest, chin, the better.

Good drills in this Mike Dunlap clinic.

More in this Kevin Boyle Short Man game the transition drills starting around 12:30 are great and I use them for my mens team as well.

No zone defense. Offense should be no more complicated than pass-cut-fill/back door

HMU if you have any questions. Been coaching hoop for 20+ years
This.

I coach my oldest son's All-Net team (pseudo-club, 5th graders), my 3rd graders Rec team and will be coaching my 5 year olds clinic team.

The kids need work with a ball in their hand. As short corner said, 75+% of practice should be spent with a ball in their hand. My older kids we've worked with for a couple years now, so their ball handling is a bit more advanced, a lot of cross over work, between the leg crossover, behind the back cross over, spin moves, in-out dribbles and putting together combinations. Warm up is always done with a ball in hand, then we progress to handling the ball under pressure (that way can teach both ball handling and proper defense at the same time - I'm lucky to get 2 hours a week with my teams, so need to maximize time). Most drills end with a finish, ie crossovers down the court in a zig zag pattern, finish with a layup, repeat from other side of the court, keep them moving constantly.

Can also do a row of cones heading out from the wing, say 4-5 cones, about 4 feet apart - they make a move at each cone, say an in-out dribble, then on last cone explosive dribble to hoop and finish with layup.. next time through finish with a floater... next time pull up jumper.

For offense, I agree that a basic motion offense, pass and cut through or pass and screen away is best. Teaches the kids to move without the ball, to space the floor and gets the ball into everyone's hands. We do a lot of 5 out motion offense, pass, cut through and replace, but you can do a lot of the same with a 4out/1 in or even a 3 out /2in offense.

For defense, man to man. Teach them to help when their man is two passes away, to deny when one pass away (if you want to be more aggressive, some coaches prefer to play a more sagging man to man - my 5th grade team is very athletic so we go more aggressive, with my rec team, I will teach them to sag a bit more to be in better help defense position). At this age I prefer to teach them to front the post.

One of my favorite drills to teach the kids to pass and to move without the ball is to play 3 on 3 or 4 on 4, with the catch that the offense can't dribble. Most of my players tell me that this is one of their favorite drills because it makes it hard on the offense, so when we go live and they can dribble, the game is much easier for them. Once the offense gets that down, add in that they have to pass 5 (or more) times before shooting.
Forgot to add that. No dribble, or limited dribble, games are great. Kids, especially at the younger age will tend to dribble the hell out of the ball while everyone else watches.

 
Great suggestions so far. I coached 4 seasons a year for nearly 5 years and developed a book of pages (in Excel) w/ diagrams & practice plans. A lot of my extra efforts were spent in the first 2 or 3 weeks trying to get "everyone" on the same page.

1 - One of things that I practiced the heck out of early on was a "choreographed" inbound play. This play was always the same with 4 set options of where the ball could go. I would show the diagram to my players on the floor and then throw the ball out of bounds and yell "Lineup! Lineup!". They all knew where to go (along the lane) and then based on if they were 1st in line or 4th in line....they knew which way & when to break. You'd be surprised if you practice this correctly how many times the ball goes out of bounds and can create a scoring opportunity under the basket. Make sure you practice this on both sides under the basket and with the "newer" players to the team if you have some w/ less experience. For those kids, sometimes it was the 1 opportunity to contribute. or score

2 - Depending on the age / rules, I would schedule an early practice at an outdoor court when I could use the full court. We would spend 1/2 of that practice on generating a rebound, outlet pass, and a fast break. The other 1/2 was full court press coverage (and when to fall back) as well as what to do when someone else pressed us. We would practice with a 2 man, 3 man, or 5 man press. Since the diagram had numbers it was easy to assign numbers to players in a time out telling them what part of the press that they would be assigned to. Again, if you practice it correctly and execute it correctly, you can really create havoc and disrupt the opponent or at least cause them to burn time outs.

3 - Invariably, each season I would have a couple of kids that were "afraid" to commit fouls..........acting like it was a major sin. I would have to tell them time and time again that there are "good fouls" and it's ok in some situations. I found this especially more common w/ girls (I coached both).

4 - Since gym time with an actual basket is sometimes very limited, I would require my players to show up OUTSIDE the gyms 30 mins beforehand and we would run dribbling or passing drills or box out drills. For those, you don't need a basket.

Anyway, lmk if want that file.

 
Timely thread. I need a check on whether this coach is a putz or is this good coaching?

Background: Coaching 10-11 year old girls. The girls are on the "rep" team, but we are in a small town so making the team means you come out for practice. Even then the instruction is "if you know any girls that play other sports, get them to come play basketball"

A professional coach was brought in for a 10 week program once a week at a hefty cost.

This was the 5th week. He stops the practice and tells the kids that they arent improving enough. They still dont have nailed down what he showed them in week 1. Footwork and form on shots and layups.

He tells them that if they dont have it nailed down by next week he will tell the parents that they are wasting their money and kick the kids out of the program.

He then singles out one kid who has improved and one who hasnt and says that the latter kid has just lost 35 days. "those are 35 days you are never going to get back, and you will always be behind her because she is going to keep getting better."

My kid was neither. Am I off base or is this guy a giant richard? I am all for being tough....but isnt there a middle ground between soft and telling 10 year olds you will throw them out (of a program their parents paid for)?

 
Timely thread. I need a check on whether this coach is a putz or is this good coaching?

Background: Coaching 10-11 year old girls. The girls are on the "rep" team, but we are in a small town so making the team means you come out for practice. Even then the instruction is "if you know any girls that play other sports, get them to come play basketball"

A professional coach was brought in for a 10 week program once a week at a hefty cost.

This was the 5th week. He stops the practice and tells the kids that they arent improving enough. They still dont have nailed down what he showed them in week 1. Footwork and form on shots and layups.

He tells them that if they dont have it nailed down by next week he will tell the parents that they are wasting their money and kick the kids out of the program.

He then singles out one kid who has improved and one who hasnt and says that the latter kid has just lost 35 days. "those are 35 days you are never going to get back, and you will always be behind her because she is going to keep getting better."

My kid was neither. Am I off base or is this guy a giant richard? I am all for being tough....but isnt there a middle ground between soft and telling 10 year olds you will throw them out (of a program their parents paid for)?
He is a ##### and shouldn't be anywhere near a youth team.

 
Timely thread. I need a check on whether this coach is a putz or is this good coaching?

Background: Coaching 10-11 year old girls. The girls are on the "rep" team, but we are in a small town so making the team means you come out for practice. Even then the instruction is "if you know any girls that play other sports, get them to come play basketball"

A professional coach was brought in for a 10 week program once a week at a hefty cost.

This was the 5th week. He stops the practice and tells the kids that they arent improving enough. They still dont have nailed down what he showed them in week 1. Footwork and form on shots and layups.

He tells them that if they dont have it nailed down by next week he will tell the parents that they are wasting their money and kick the kids out of the program.

He then singles out one kid who has improved and one who hasnt and says that the latter kid has just lost 35 days. "those are 35 days you are never going to get back, and you will always be behind her because she is going to keep getting better."

My kid was neither. Am I off base or is this guy a giant richard? I am all for being tough....but isnt there a middle ground between soft and telling 10 year olds you will throw them out (of a program their parents paid for)?
Sounds like an idiot if you ask me.. Not sure why you would act like that for 10 year olds..

 
:blackdot:

Helping out with the 5th grade boys team this year. Really didn't want to...I'm more of a baseball coach guy...but our school has 3 teams in my son's grade and this coach had no help last year. It's not easy to manage a game properly without an assistant on the bench. I figure I can be valuable simply by talking to the kids when they are on the bench...what the other team is doing, what we need to do, point certain things out, etc.

 
Bobcat10 said:
:blackdot:

Helping out with the 5th grade boys team this year. Really didn't want to...I'm more of a baseball coach guy...but our school has 3 teams in my son's grade and this coach had no help last year. It's not easy to manage a game properly without an assistant on the bench. I figure I can be valuable simply by talking to the kids when they are on the bench...what the other team is doing, what we need to do, point certain things out, etc.
This has been my role for most of my basketball teaching days. One tip I learned too late (as my boys are almost done so my coaching is coming to an end) is to teach kids this age how to watch the game and figure these things out themselves. Most of the kids this age, when they aren't in the game, they are talking to each other about video games, or school, or whatever. I starting giving them tasks on the bench. I asked them to identify who the best scorer is on the other team, who the best rebounder is, who the best defender is, etc. Then have them tell me how they are trying to score, what (if other than vanilla m2m) they are doing on defense, etc. They aren't always going to figure stuff out, but the idea is for them to stay engaged in the game while on the bench, so when they go in they don't have to play catch up. They should already know what's going on.

 
Bobcat10 said:
:blackdot:

Helping out with the 5th grade boys team this year. Really didn't want to...I'm more of a baseball coach guy...but our school has 3 teams in my son's grade and this coach had no help last year. It's not easy to manage a game properly without an assistant on the bench. I figure I can be valuable simply by talking to the kids when they are on the bench...what the other team is doing, what we need to do, point certain things out, etc.
This has been my role for most of my basketball teaching days. One tip I learned too late (as my boys are almost done so my coaching is coming to an end) is to teach kids this age how to watch the game and figure these things out themselves. Most of the kids this age, when they aren't in the game, they are talking to each other about video games, or school, or whatever. I starting giving them tasks on the bench. I asked them to identify who the best scorer is on the other team, who the best rebounder is, who the best defender is, etc. Then have them tell me how they are trying to score, what (if other than vanilla m2m) they are doing on defense, etc. They aren't always going to figure stuff out, but the idea is for them to stay engaged in the game while on the bench, so when they go in they don't have to play catch up. They should already know what's going on.
This is good stuff. Definitely helps keep them focused and engaged in the game.

One thing I do with my younger teams (2nd/3rd grade) but it can work with older teams as well, is try get the mto figure things out on their own. For example, I know that most teams we will face are going to run a 2-3 zone, so I lay out cones in a basic 2-3 formation and I ask each kid to go to an open spot. It helps them visualize what I mean and I find it sticks better than me just placing them somewhere on the court... they actually think about where the defense is and where they can go to be open.

Can definitely do similar stuff from the bench. And I must say a good assistant coach to help manage the bench is huge.

 
Bobcat10 said:
:blackdot:

Helping out with the 5th grade boys team this year. Really didn't want to...I'm more of a baseball coach guy...but our school has 3 teams in my son's grade and this coach had no help last year. It's not easy to manage a game properly without an assistant on the bench. I figure I can be valuable simply by talking to the kids when they are on the bench...what the other team is doing, what we need to do, point certain things out, etc.
This has been my role for most of my basketball teaching days. One tip I learned too late (as my boys are almost done so my coaching is coming to an end) is to teach kids this age how to watch the game and figure these things out themselves. Most of the kids this age, when they aren't in the game, they are talking to each other about video games, or school, or whatever. I starting giving them tasks on the bench. I asked them to identify who the best scorer is on the other team, who the best rebounder is, who the best defender is, etc. Then have them tell me how they are trying to score, what (if other than vanilla m2m) they are doing on defense, etc. They aren't always going to figure stuff out, but the idea is for them to stay engaged in the game while on the bench, so when they go in they don't have to play catch up. They should already know what's going on.
This is good stuff. Definitely helps keep them focused and engaged in the game.

One thing I do with my younger teams (2nd/3rd grade) but it can work with older teams as well, is try get the mto figure things out on their own. For example, I know that most teams we will face are going to run a 2-3 zone, so I lay out cones in a basic 2-3 formation and I ask each kid to go to an open spot. It helps them visualize what I mean and I find it sticks better than me just placing them somewhere on the court... they actually think about where the defense is and where they can go to be open.

Can definitely do similar stuff from the bench. And I must say a good assistant coach to help manage the bench is huge.
Any coach that plays zone at that age is a tool. It's illegal here until u16. Point, FT, and possession.

 
Bobcat10 said:
:blackdot:

Helping out with the 5th grade boys team this year. Really didn't want to...I'm more of a baseball coach guy...but our school has 3 teams in my son's grade and this coach had no help last year. It's not easy to manage a game properly without an assistant on the bench. I figure I can be valuable simply by talking to the kids when they are on the bench...what the other team is doing, what we need to do, point certain things out, etc.
This has been my role for most of my basketball teaching days. One tip I learned too late (as my boys are almost done so my coaching is coming to an end) is to teach kids this age how to watch the game and figure these things out themselves. Most of the kids this age, when they aren't in the game, they are talking to each other about video games, or school, or whatever. I starting giving them tasks on the bench. I asked them to identify who the best scorer is on the other team, who the best rebounder is, who the best defender is, etc. Then have them tell me how they are trying to score, what (if other than vanilla m2m) they are doing on defense, etc. They aren't always going to figure stuff out, but the idea is for them to stay engaged in the game while on the bench, so when they go in they don't have to play catch up. They should already know what's going on.
This is good stuff. Definitely helps keep them focused and engaged in the game.

One thing I do with my younger teams (2nd/3rd grade) but it can work with older teams as well, is try get the mto figure things out on their own. For example, I know that most teams we will face are going to run a 2-3 zone, so I lay out cones in a basic 2-3 formation and I ask each kid to go to an open spot. It helps them visualize what I mean and I find it sticks better than me just placing them somewhere on the court... they actually think about where the defense is and where they can go to be open.

Can definitely do similar stuff from the bench. And I must say a good assistant coach to help manage the bench is huge.
Any coach that plays zone at that age is a tool. It's illegal here until u16. Point, FT, and possession.
I agree.But what I will say is, from my time in the stands the past 2 years, the refs rarely enforced double/triple teaming outside of the paint (supposed to not be allowed) and teams (coaches) stretching the limits of man to man when zone is illegal. This was especially true on inbounds plays in the front court and those should have been the easiest to notice and start warning. It was to the point that I'd possibly not care too much if teams were allowed to zone. If the coaches want to win that bad, they are just doing injustice to their kids (and mostly their elite players who won't develop good defensive skills).

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Bobcat10 said:
:blackdot:

Helping out with the 5th grade boys team this year. Really didn't want to...I'm more of a baseball coach guy...but our school has 3 teams in my son's grade and this coach had no help last year. It's not easy to manage a game properly without an assistant on the bench. I figure I can be valuable simply by talking to the kids when they are on the bench...what the other team is doing, what we need to do, point certain things out, etc.
This has been my role for most of my basketball teaching days. One tip I learned too late (as my boys are almost done so my coaching is coming to an end) is to teach kids this age how to watch the game and figure these things out themselves. Most of the kids this age, when they aren't in the game, they are talking to each other about video games, or school, or whatever. I starting giving them tasks on the bench. I asked them to identify who the best scorer is on the other team, who the best rebounder is, who the best defender is, etc. Then have them tell me how they are trying to score, what (if other than vanilla m2m) they are doing on defense, etc. They aren't always going to figure stuff out, but the idea is for them to stay engaged in the game while on the bench, so when they go in they don't have to play catch up. They should already know what's going on.
This is good stuff. Definitely helps keep them focused and engaged in the game.

One thing I do with my younger teams (2nd/3rd grade) but it can work with older teams as well, is try get the mto figure things out on their own. For example, I know that most teams we will face are going to run a 2-3 zone, so I lay out cones in a basic 2-3 formation and I ask each kid to go to an open spot. It helps them visualize what I mean and I find it sticks better than me just placing them somewhere on the court... they actually think about where the defense is and where they can go to be open.

Can definitely do similar stuff from the bench. And I must say a good assistant coach to help manage the bench is huge.
Any coach that plays zone at that age is a tool. It's illegal here until u16. Point, FT, and possession.
I wish it was mandated. In one of the local leagues here, zone is allowed at any time for 4th grade and under. For 5th grade through 8th grade, you must play man to man in the first half (defined as a player within 6 feet of the player with the ball, other players can be in a help position) but then anything you want in the second half.

Me personally, I've done nothing but man to man with my teams when I'm the head coach (push for it when assistant, but defer to head coach after stating my piece), though I don't mind sitting in a 2-3 type defense (basically just packing the middle) for inbounds under my own basket to help prevent the super easy layups.

Problem is with the rec leagues, most of the volunteer coaches are dad's with little to no coaching experience, so the league wants to make it easier for them. As said above, it does their kid's an injustice. Even at our coaches clinic, we have the local varsity high school coach who has one several sectional titles and is pretty well respected telling the coaches to do man to man for the betterment of the kids, but I know I am unlikelyto face much of that with my 2nd/3rd graders.

 
My 3rd grader needs a coach for his team....played HS hoops, but haven't coached hoops yet, but know most of the kids from coaching baseball.

Thank you you all for the great tips.

 
Had the coaches meeting last night. They want to do a hybrid drafting method where before the draft all the players are ranked from the best to the worst and then if it is a ten team league, the first round is only allowed to pick from the top ten and then the second round from the next ten.

Yuck.

 
Had the coaches meeting last night. They want to do a hybrid drafting method where before the draft all the players are ranked from the best to the worst and then if it is a ten team league, the first round is only allowed to pick from the top ten and then the second round from the next ten.

Yuck.
Im all in favor of having draft. They way they are forcing you to draft is stupid IMO. Who is ranking the players?

 
Had the coaches meeting last night. They want to do a hybrid drafting method where before the draft all the players are ranked from the best to the worst and then if it is a ten team league, the first round is only allowed to pick from the top ten and then the second round from the next ten.

Yuck.
Im all in favor of having draft. They way they are forcing you to draft is stupid IMO. Who is ranking the players?
Before the draft all of the coaches in the age group is supposed to rank them and agree upon them. I told them last night that not all coaches look for the same thing so I obviously would not be agreeing with their assessments. They want parity because there were teams that were awful and others that were too good.

Luckily it isn't set in stone and it is up to each individual age group to decide the format. I will be pushing very hard against this method.

 
larch said:
Cjw_55106 said:
larch said:
Had the coaches meeting last night. They want to do a hybrid drafting method where before the draft all the players are ranked from the best to the worst and then if it is a ten team league, the first round is only allowed to pick from the top ten and then the second round from the next ten.

Yuck.
Im all in favor of having draft. They way they are forcing you to draft is stupid IMO. Who is ranking the players?
Before the draft all of the coaches in the age group is supposed to rank them and agree upon them. I told them last night that not all coaches look for the same thing so I obviously would not be agreeing with their assessments. They want parity because there were teams that were awful and others that were too good.

Luckily it isn't set in stone and it is up to each individual age group to decide the format. I will be pushing very hard against this method.
Is it a serpentine draft or auction? :D

If the other coaches won't budge, then I'd be more in favor of assigning Grades (A, B, C, D) to kids but having a bigger amount of kids than 10 in each "bucket". That way, you encourage parity by each team having 2 A players, 2 B players, etc...

 
Last edited by a moderator:
larch said:
Cjw_55106 said:
larch said:
Had the coaches meeting last night. They want to do a hybrid drafting method where before the draft all the players are ranked from the best to the worst and then if it is a ten team league, the first round is only allowed to pick from the top ten and then the second round from the next ten.

Yuck.
Im all in favor of having draft. They way they are forcing you to draft is stupid IMO. Who is ranking the players?
Before the draft all of the coaches in the age group is supposed to rank them and agree upon them. I told them last night that not all coaches look for the same thing so I obviously would not be agreeing with their assessments. They want parity because there were teams that were awful and others that were too good.

Luckily it isn't set in stone and it is up to each individual age group to decide the format. I will be pushing very hard against this method.
Is it a serpentine draft or auction? :D

If the other coaches won't budge, then I'd be more in favor of assigning Grades (A, B, C, D) to kids but having a bigger amount of kids than 10 in each "bucket". That way, you encourage parity by each team having 2 A players, 2 B players, etc...
This has worked very well in our baseball league.

 
larch said:
Had the coaches meeting last night. They want to do a hybrid drafting method where before the draft all the players are ranked from the best to the worst and then if it is a ten team league, the first round is only allowed to pick from the top ten and then the second round from the next ten.

Yuck.
That sucks. Our league does rate all of the players, but that is really only used to slot the coaches kids into a round (to help with parity) and to help out the coaches that are either new or could not attend the player assessment (which is very basic anyway). But, you can draft any player you want at any time. When the "board rankings" are based off of the combined score of two people that don't know the kids that well and only get to see them dribble, take a layup, take two shots and play a quick possession of one on one as offense and then defense, they have to be taken with a grain of salt.

Plus, some coaches prefer to build teams of friends rather than target the "best" player. It's what I have done in the past and even though we were never the best team out there, we probably had more fun than most of the teams because the kids were friends.

 
Had the coaches meeting last night. They want to do a hybrid drafting method where before the draft all the players are ranked from the best to the worst and then if it is a ten team league, the first round is only allowed to pick from the top ten and then the second round from the next ten.

Yuck.
This protects idiots from themselves. There is nothing worse then a team or two in your league that can't draft. It means there will be a super team or two and it suxors for all. You can usually get your kids no talent friends at the bottom end or trade for them. Everybteam needs 2-3 good players at that age for good games where all the kids actually learn. If all you care about is winning, I could see why you might not understand.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Had the coaches meeting last night. They want to do a hybrid drafting method where before the draft all the players are ranked from the best to the worst and then if it is a ten team league, the first round is only allowed to pick from the top ten and then the second round from the next ten.

Yuck.
I know this is late. But was it a rolling window? Like if you have a pick of 1 -10 then the 11th girl moves into the next coaches selection window? That at least makes sense. But it sounds like if you puck 10th you get the last girl left which is dumb.And what's funny reading on here is our rec league mandated only zone defense for 4th grade under.

Only man the last 2 minutes of each half.

Eta: this year was the first year they allowed man for almost all age groups

 
Last edited by a moderator:
How do kids that young understand zone? Most of our 1st through 4th graders still struggle with man to man and watching more than just their man.

 
How do kids that young understand zone? Most of our 1st through 4th graders still struggle with man to man and watching more than just their man.
I don't remember 4th grade, but by 5th grade my school played man, 2-3, 1-2-1-1 press and a half court trap, motion offense. There were a few other good Catholic League teams that could hang, but the public school teams were a joke. Most of them didn't even know how to break a press. Teach the kids basketball, don't just assume they are too young to learn. They won't ever get better that way.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
How do kids that young understand zone? Most of our 1st through 4th graders still struggle with man to man and watching more than just their man.
I don't remember 4th grade, but by 5th grade my school played man, 2-3, 1-2-1-1 press and a half court trap, motion offense. There were a few other good Catholic League teams that could hang, but the public school teams were a joke. Most of them didn't even know how to break a press.Teach the kids basketball, don't just assume they are too young to learn. They won't ever get better that way.
At that age they need to be learning skills, not tactics.

 
I've been coaching the same group of kids for several years now, since 3rd grade (6th grade now.) In fourth grade, I moved to the 5 out motion offense. Very simple rules, and it gets kids to understand they need to be moving without the ball.

https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/offense/cutters.html

I was really surprised by how fast they picked it up. By mid-season of 4th grade, we were progressing the offense to include cuts on the over play/passing lane, etc. I'm a big fan.

I have an issue with anyone playing zone defense at this level. Play man to man so that kids understand the game, and work hard on backside help. In addition, no one is making perimeter shots at this age group, all zone does is jam the lane so teams can't run offense.

At this level, your focus should be solid basketball skill development, not wins.

A few things I stress to my parents are covered by these:

The Enemy of Excellence in Youth Sports

http://changingthegameproject.com/the-enemy-of-excellence-in-youth-sports/

Stan Van Gundy on the Problem with Youth Sports

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4ezlS8Z_cY

"Do you want to build basketball players or tell everyone you won your youth league?"

Nothing bothers me more than seeing zone defense at this level. OK, done ranting.

 
How do kids that young understand zone? Most of our 1st through 4th graders still struggle with man to man and watching more than just their man.
I don't remember 4th grade, but by 5th grade my school played man, 2-3, 1-2-1-1 press and a half court trap, motion offense. There were a few other good Catholic League teams that could hang, but the public school teams were a joke. Most of them didn't even know how to break a press.Teach the kids basketball, don't just assume they are too young to learn. They won't ever get better that way.
At that age they need to be learning skills, not tactics.
A) people can learn both

B) I wouldn't wait much past 10 to teach tactics

C) all of this depends on the experience of the kids being coached

Just saying if you keep focusing on individual skills over team tactics for much past the age of 10-11, be prepared for your kids to get massacred by any team that has a basic conception of team basketball.

 
I need to send that link to my softball board.

I've been arguing with other members for years we don't have enough practices. Cut out a game or 2 add practice. 8 games is just as good as 10.

I always get but the kids love games. No they dont

 
Thoughts on the box and 1 defense for 11 and 12 year old girls team
Should only play man at that age level. Anyone who plays a box should be barred from coaching ANY youth sports
You have a lot more experience in coaching than I do or ever will. Why should 5th/6th/7th grade kids only man? Growing up, we pressed teams to death, we changed defenses throughout the game, etc. Why is that bad?

 
I've been coaching the same group of kids for several years now, since 3rd grade (6th grade now.) In fourth grade, I moved to the 5 out motion offense. Very simple rules, and it gets kids to understand they need to be moving without the ball.

https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/offense/cutters.html

I was really surprised by how fast they picked it up. By mid-season of 4th grade, we were progressing the offense to include cuts on the over play/passing lane, etc. I'm a big fan.

I have an issue with anyone playing zone defense at this level. Play man to man so that kids understand the game, and work hard on backside help. In addition, no one is making perimeter shots at this age group, all zone does is jam the lane so teams can't run offense.

At this level, your focus should be solid basketball skill development, not wins.

A few things I stress to my parents are covered by these:

The Enemy of Excellence in Youth Sports

http://changingthegameproject.com/the-enemy-of-excellence-in-youth-sports/

Stan Van Gundy on the Problem with Youth Sports

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4ezlS8Z_cY

"Do you want to build basketball players or tell everyone you won your youth league?"

Nothing bothers me more than seeing zone defense at this level. OK, done ranting.
Your offense is essentially the first level of the Read and React offense. I'd suggest using that to contonue to develop and improve your offense.

What I love about the R&R is you can run it out of a 5 out set, 4 out 1 in, or 3 out 2 in. After running it for a couple of years, my kids can adjust seamlessly to 4 out to five out depending on the other teams' personnel, and wether or not we have an advantage in the post or not (I never run 3 out because i think it clogs the lane too much).

R&R works against man to man as well as zone. Big fan.

 
Timely thread. I need a check on whether this coach is a putz or is this good coaching?

Background: Coaching 10-11 year old girls. The girls are on the "rep" team, but we are in a small town so making the team means you come out for practice. Even then the instruction is "if you know any girls that play other sports, get them to come play basketball"

A professional coach was brought in for a 10 week program once a week at a hefty cost.

This was the 5th week. He stops the practice and tells the kids that they arent improving enough. They still dont have nailed down what he showed them in week 1. Footwork and form on shots and layups.

He tells them that if they dont have it nailed down by next week he will tell the parents that they are wasting their money and kick the kids out of the program.

He then singles out one kid who has improved and one who hasnt and says that the latter kid has just lost 35 days. "those are 35 days you are never going to get back, and you will always be behind her because she is going to keep getting better."

My kid was neither. Am I off base or is this guy a giant richard? I am all for being tough....but isnt there a middle ground between soft and telling 10 year olds you will throw them out (of a program their parents paid for)?
for some reason, I picture the coach as Jon Taffer.

 
I've been coaching the same group of kids for several years now, since 3rd grade (6th grade now.) In fourth grade, I moved to the 5 out motion offense. Very simple rules, and it gets kids to understand they need to be moving without the ball.

https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/offense/cutters.html

I was really surprised by how fast they picked it up. By mid-season of 4th grade, we were progressing the offense to include cuts on the over play/passing lane, etc. I'm a big fan.

I have an issue with anyone playing zone defense at this level. Play man to man so that kids understand the game, and work hard on backside help. In addition, no one is making perimeter shots at this age group, all zone does is jam the lane so teams can't run offense.

At this level, your focus should be solid basketball skill development, not wins.

A few things I stress to my parents are covered by these:

The Enemy of Excellence in Youth Sports

http://changingthegameproject.com/the-enemy-of-excellence-in-youth-sports/

Stan Van Gundy on the Problem with Youth Sports

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4ezlS8Z_cY

"Do you want to build basketball players or tell everyone you won your youth league?"

Nothing bothers me more than seeing zone defense at this level. OK, done ranting.
So the HC I am helping out for our 5th grade team has been trying to teach them the read and react offense. Our grade has enough kids for 3 teams, and they are essentially distributed evenly (there is not an A team, B team, etc until 7th grade).

So of our 8 kids, we have one very skilled kid, one kid very well rounded just doesn't shoot well, one very tall kid for 5th grade who has improved a bunch the past couple years, 3 kids who are just ok and get lost a lot, and 2 kids who have no business lacing up. Really only the first two listed are cerebral players.

With these kids so far apart, it seems like chaos at times. I will say practice time is a joke with all 3 teams at once (will be my loudest complaint to the school after the season). Only for 15 minutes over the hour do we get a half court setting. HALF court. The other two 15 minute segments are on side hoops on the other half of the court.

With your experience do you think these bottom 5 kids are gonna get it at some point? Am I expecting too much after a few weeks? We want to go 4 out soon with our tall kid using his height in the paint. The HC is optimistic on everything so far, but we got railroaded the first two games.

 
Thoughts on the box and 1 defense for 11 and 12 year old girls team
Should only play man at that age level. Anyone who plays a box should be barred from coaching ANY youth sports
You have a lot more experience in coaching than I do or ever will. Why should 5th/6th/7th grade kids only man? Growing up, we pressed teams to death, we changed defenses throughout the game, etc. Why is that bad?
Are you getting better by pressing teams to death at that age? You are probably physically superior, turning them over and running a full court lay up drill on them. Congrats. Zones at that age are effective because kids aren't physically mature enough to knock down jumpers and make cross court passes. Neither team benefits. They are better suitedin the long run if they learn solid man defensive fundamentals and stick to the basics on offense, ie pass-cut-fill-back door and space the floor. Playing gimmick defenses stifles the developement of all parties involved. For the most part those defenses get gashed with one read. Once you face a team that is physically mature enough to make that play you wish that you would have spent more time building a base defensive skill set to fall back on.

 
How would you go about teaching man to man defense to a kid who has never played basketball before?
You play 80% of the game off the ball. I like to play 2v2 with two coaches out top. The offense just cuts to get open and the defenders only responsibility is to maintain pistol position, ie see their man and the coach with the ball.

For on the ball defense we teach them to square up and "stay left". Getting them to move their feet can be difficult. We play a game "the farmer and the mother hen". Line 4 kids up, with each holding the waist of the one in front of him. The one in back is the chick, the one in front is the mother hen. A fifth player is the farmer. You start with the farmer and the hen facing eachother about 3 feet apart and the farmers object is to tag the chick on the other end. The mother hen (and the other players) try to stay between the farmer and the chick. Seems pretty silly but it is great for kids that have never played to get a sense of moving their feet laterally to prevent an opponent to getting to where they want to go.

 
How do kids that young understand zone? Most of our 1st through 4th graders still struggle with man to man and watching more than just their man.
I don't remember 4th grade, but by 5th grade my school played man, 2-3, 1-2-1-1 press and a half court trap, motion offense. There were a few other good Catholic League teams that could hang, but the public school teams were a joke. Most of them didn't even know how to break a press.Teach the kids basketball, don't just assume they are too young to learn. They won't ever get better that way.
At that age they need to be learning skills, not tactics.
A) people can learn both

B) I wouldn't wait much past 10 to teach tactics

C) all of this depends on the experience of the kids being coached

Just saying if you keep focusing on individual skills over team tactics for much past the age of 10-11, be prepared for your kids to get massacred by any team that has a basic conception of team basketball.
My sons teams got massacred for 2 years while teams ran isolation, ball watched and stole weak passes, etc. OTOH we stayed with pass cut fill, are stronger than anyone else protecting the dribble, ie can go to and finish with the weak hand and have superior spacing on both ends. We were placed in the lowest league to start the season. Ran the table and getting bumped up next month. Just played a tournament with all the teams in the higher league and won that as well. Team basketball, especially at that age, doesn't need to go much further than read and react. Watching 10 year olds execute back doors and finishing with the weak hand is a thing of beauty. And five of those 10 year olds are going to start double dipping and playing with the u14's next month - where they can begin to double team but still not play zone. IME the teams that pull that crap do the massacring and stack up grammar school titles but end up playing rec league by the time they get to HS.

 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top