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Coaching Youth Basketball (1 Viewer)

nirad3

Footballguy
Pardon my ignorance if there's already a host of threads on this topic, but no me gusta the search function here. :oldunsure:

Anyways, helping a buddy out with his 3rd and 4th grade basketball teams. From what I can tell thus far, the kids are all about the same in terms of skill... so thinking that the same drills, tips, tricks, etc. will apply to both teams.

Anyone have some experience coaching at this level? Any good drills, tips, tricks? Obviously the key is to have fun, but they all want to improve their skill level.

I've coached at the 7th/8th grade level and that was a different animal. Any input you may have would be appreciated. :)

 
Pardon my ignorance if there's already a host of threads on this topic, but no me gusta the search function here. :oldunsure:

Anyways, helping a buddy out with his 3rd and 4th grade basketball teams. From what I can tell thus far, the kids are all about the same in terms of skill... so thinking that the same drills, tips, tricks, etc. will apply to both teams.

Anyone have some experience coaching at this level? Any good drills, tips, tricks? Obviously the key is to have fun, but they all want to improve their skill level.

I've coached at the 7th/8th grade level and that was a different animal. Any input you may have would be appreciated. :)
75% of the practice doing skills from here:

https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/basketballfundamentals.html

25% of the practice conditioning.

 
larch said:
nirad3 said:
Pardon my ignorance if there's already a host of threads on this topic, but no me gusta the search function here. :oldunsure:

Anyways, helping a buddy out with his 3rd and 4th grade basketball teams. From what I can tell thus far, the kids are all about the same in terms of skill... so thinking that the same drills, tips, tricks, etc. will apply to both teams.

Anyone have some experience coaching at this level? Any good drills, tips, tricks? Obviously the key is to have fun, but they all want to improve their skill level.

I've coached at the 7th/8th grade level and that was a different animal. Any input you may have would be appreciated. :)
75% of the practice doing skills from here:

https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/basketballfundamentals.html

25% of the practice conditioning.
Yeah, no. 25% of your practice for conditioning is crazy talk at that age, both because you unlikely to have very long practices and because the kids will hate it. The lion's share of your conditioning should come FROM your drills. Any straight conditioning at that age should be in the form of competition, relay races and whatnot. ;)

 
larch said:
nirad3 said:
Pardon my ignorance if there's already a host of threads on this topic, but no me gusta the search function here. :oldunsure:

Anyways, helping a buddy out with his 3rd and 4th grade basketball teams. From what I can tell thus far, the kids are all about the same in terms of skill... so thinking that the same drills, tips, tricks, etc. will apply to both teams.

Anyone have some experience coaching at this level? Any good drills, tips, tricks? Obviously the key is to have fun, but they all want to improve their skill level.

I've coached at the 7th/8th grade level and that was a different animal. Any input you may have would be appreciated. :)
75% of the practice doing skills from here:

https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/basketballfundamentals.html

25% of the practice conditioning.
Yeah, no. 25% of your practice for conditioning is crazy talk at that age, both because you unlikely to have very long practices and because the kids will hate it. The lion's share of your conditioning should come FROM your drills. Any straight conditioning at that age should be in the form of competition, relay races and whatnot. ;)
Never early enough to start conditioning. If they are expected to play a lot of the game, they need to be in shape.

 
larch said:
nirad3 said:
Pardon my ignorance if there's already a host of threads on this topic, but no me gusta the search function here. :oldunsure:

Anyways, helping a buddy out with his 3rd and 4th grade basketball teams. From what I can tell thus far, the kids are all about the same in terms of skill... so thinking that the same drills, tips, tricks, etc. will apply to both teams.

Anyone have some experience coaching at this level? Any good drills, tips, tricks? Obviously the key is to have fun, but they all want to improve their skill level.

I've coached at the 7th/8th grade level and that was a different animal. Any input you may have would be appreciated. :)
75% of the practice doing skills from here:

https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/basketballfundamentals.html

25% of the practice conditioning.
Yeah, no. 25% of your practice for conditioning is crazy talk at that age, both because you unlikely to have very long practices and because the kids will hate it. The lion's share of your conditioning should come FROM your drills. Any straight conditioning at that age should be in the form of competition, relay races and whatnot. ;)
Never early enough to start conditioning. If they are expected to play a lot of the game, they need to be in shape.
Of course, and they need to be in shape in the context of playing basketball. This is why conditioning should come from your drills, particularly when you probably have limited gym time available to work on skills.

 
larch said:
nirad3 said:
Pardon my ignorance if there's already a host of threads on this topic, but no me gusta the search function here. :oldunsure:

Anyways, helping a buddy out with his 3rd and 4th grade basketball teams. From what I can tell thus far, the kids are all about the same in terms of skill... so thinking that the same drills, tips, tricks, etc. will apply to both teams.

Anyone have some experience coaching at this level? Any good drills, tips, tricks? Obviously the key is to have fun, but they all want to improve their skill level.

I've coached at the 7th/8th grade level and that was a different animal. Any input you may have would be appreciated. :)
75% of the practice doing skills from here:

https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/basketballfundamentals.html

25% of the practice conditioning.
Yeah, no. 25% of your practice for conditioning is crazy talk at that age, both because you unlikely to have very long practices and because the kids will hate it. The lion's share of your conditioning should come FROM your drills. Any straight conditioning at that age should be in the form of competition, relay races and whatnot. ;)
Never early enough to start conditioning. If they are expected to play a lot of the game, they need to be in shape.
Of course, and they need to be in shape in the context of playing basketball. This is why conditioning should come from your drills, particularly when you probably have limited gym time available to work on skills.
Agreed. Unless you are running with a team of 6 for a game, I don't think you'll ever see a 3rd or 4th grader too tired to play during a game. The exception would be an overweight, or otherwise un athletic kid. You're not going to dent their physical stamina with 2 practices a week, at least not without sacrificing what really needs to be taught at that age.

 
larch said:
nirad3 said:
Pardon my ignorance if there's already a host of threads on this topic, but no me gusta the search function here. :oldunsure:

Anyways, helping a buddy out with his 3rd and 4th grade basketball teams. From what I can tell thus far, the kids are all about the same in terms of skill... so thinking that the same drills, tips, tricks, etc. will apply to both teams.

Anyone have some experience coaching at this level? Any good drills, tips, tricks? Obviously the key is to have fun, but they all want to improve their skill level.

I've coached at the 7th/8th grade level and that was a different animal. Any input you may have would be appreciated. :)
75% of the practice doing skills from here:

https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/basketballfundamentals.html

25% of the practice conditioning.
Yeah, no. 25% of your practice for conditioning is crazy talk at that age, both because you unlikely to have very long practices and because the kids will hate it. The lion's share of your conditioning should come FROM your drills. Any straight conditioning at that age should be in the form of competition, relay races and whatnot. ;)
Never early enough to start conditioning. If they are expected to play a lot of the game, they need to be in shape.
Of course, and they need to be in shape in the context of playing basketball. This is why conditioning should come from your drills, particularly when you probably have limited gym time available to work on skills.
Agreed. Unless you are running with a team of 6 for a game, I don't think you'll ever see a 3rd or 4th grader too tired to play during a game. The exception would be an overweight, or otherwise un athletic kid. You're not going to dent their physical stamina with 2 practices a week, at least not without sacrificing what really needs to be taught at that age.
All kids should get almost equal playing time at this age. At this age they are either in shape or they sit on the couch and play video games. They were force to play by their parents and will not get anything out of your conditioning. Lots of dribbling is what we focus on.

 
Already discussed with you via text, but:

Check out www.breakthroughbasketball.com already linked above as well.

Ballhandling, ballhandling, ballhandling. Then some more ballhandling.

Any of your drills where you have them dribbling from one side of the court to the other etc, doing various dribble moves, have them end with a finish, whether it is a layup or a jump shot.

Lots of pass and move. Teach them to go to open space - one drill I like is to put X number of cones out on the court (let's say 4 in this case). Have 3 players each go to a cone, so you have one cone open. One ball. Kid passes then cuts to the open cone. Next kid passes, cuts to the cone that is now open. Rinse and repeat a lot. Work up to having 5 kids on the court with 6-7 cones in the spots you want them to focus on - If you figure most coaches this level are lazy and stick their kids in a 2-3 zone, focus on the spots that beat a 2-3 zone at this age, which are the point, the high post, the two wings and the two short corners. That's 6 spots. Once they get used to that, add in the moving without the ball. For this age, a simple pass, cut and replace 5 out mpotion offense is effective. So if the point passes to the wing on the right, the point cuts through looking for a pass back layup - the wing on the left fills the point, the short corner on the left fills to the wing and the point cutting through clear out to the short corner on the left. Basically pass cut anf fill opposite.

Man to man defense - just have them sagging a bit to help side. This age threes are not a threat, so sag off and let the other team shoot them to their hearts content, just have your help D there ready to pick up any drives.

That's it for now, about to head home to get ready for my 2nd/3rd grader teams practice and this is the basis of our practice plan.

 
Already discussed with you via text, but:

Check out www.breakthroughbasketball.com already linked above as well.

Ballhandling, ballhandling, ballhandling. Then some more ballhandling.

Any of your drills where you have them dribbling from one side of the court to the other etc, doing various dribble moves, have them end with a finish, whether it is a layup or a jump shot.

Lots of pass and move. Teach them to go to open space - one drill I like is to put X number of cones out on the court (let's say 4 in this case). Have 3 players each go to a cone, so you have one cone open. One ball. Kid passes then cuts to the open cone. Next kid passes, cuts to the cone that is now open. Rinse and repeat a lot. Work up to having 5 kids on the court with 6-7 cones in the spots you want them to focus on - If you figure most coaches this level are lazy and stick their kids in a 2-3 zone, focus on the spots that beat a 2-3 zone at this age, which are the point, the high post, the two wings and the two short corners. That's 6 spots. Once they get used to that, add in the moving without the ball. For this age, a simple pass, cut and replace 5 out mpotion offense is effective. So if the point passes to the wing on the right, the point cuts through looking for a pass back layup - the wing on the left fills the point, the short corner on the left fills to the wing and the point cutting through clear out to the short corner on the left. Basically pass cut anf fill opposite.

Man to man defense - just have them sagging a bit to help side. This age threes are not a threat, so sag off and let the other team shoot them to their hearts content, just have your help D there ready to pick up any drives.

That's it for now, about to head home to get ready for my 2nd/3rd grader teams practice and this is the basis of our practice plan.
For passing and cutting, put 5 cones on the perimeter and one under the rim. Anytime they pass they have to touch the cone under the rim. Fill the cones from the bottom up, cutter empties to the corner. You don't want the cutter thinking under the basket. If he goes to the wrong corner (ie one that is occupied, he screens that player to the basket and pops to the corner. Make sure they are comfortable passing with one hand off the dribble.

Defensively, use pack line concepts. Play 4v4 shell (2 guards/2 wings) and put ropes between the offensive spots. One pass away - 2 steps to the ball, two steps to the basket - we say 2 meters, 2 meters - feet parallel to the passing lane. More than one pass away - pistol position

 
Coaching my sons 4th grade team for his school (Catholic School). They have three teams for our school and this grade plays in two leagues which are from other area and then we can enter in tourneys as they are available. The first one is on the school and any more is up to us to pay.

So far, including tonight's game, we are 7-1. The loss was a team we can beat and likely if we play again will beat as they really had one player that was really good and the boys really were not understanding help defense much as it was our second game. They boys have got much better at help defense since then.

We have a very good point guard. The typical small guy with very good ball handling skills for his age, best on the team, and speed/quickness is on the high end and is our best shooter and plays good defense. From that description, it shouldn't' t be surprising that he is our top scorer. Call him #1

Our starting shooting guard is our second best scorer. He is our second best ball handler/shooter. He has good height and if not for him being the better ball handler/shooter would ideally be a forward. We will call him #2

My son and another kid are very similar. All three are about the same height as #2 which puts them on the high end of their grade. I play these boys interchangeable at the F and C positions. My son and his double are both athletic, high energy, good defender/rebounders with some scoring ability with not as good ball handling skills as my 1 and 2 boys. Call them my son and #3

I have a shorter, a bit roundish guy that plays with a smile. In short range he is by far the best shooter. He quickly loses accuracy as he tries to launch the ball rather than shoot as he gets further out and he severely lacks confidence which impacts his play. #4

Another shorter guy with tons of energy (he runs down on offense.... runs from one side, back through by the baseline and back to the other side each time... not something I ask in specific but I have put an emphasis on moving without the ball so I will take it). He launches the ball when he gets it and is at 6% FG right now but I love that he isn't shy about shooting when he gets it... where he is on the court when he does is something we are working on. #6

My big guy... well, slighty taller than my son and the two other boys who are all about the same height and well above average for their grade... is still trying to learn how to control his body. He is all over the place when he runs where I swear his legs are trying to run in different directions. He is still learning the game and gets lost often on defense but he tries hard. #5

And then I have two... well, projects. The are both smaller boys with not much athleticism and struggle to focus and pay attention at practice and at games. As a bonus, they don't like each other so there is constant bickering and fighting at practice with them. On the positive side, both are getting good practice in for the track team as I have no clue how many laps they have ran but it isn't a small number. #7 and #8 Good hearted kids though.

Last night we played a public school team. I was a little worried going in because my point guard came down with something and was not playing. I tell my normal #2 that he would run the point basically the whole game or most of it and it is very important to not foul. He promptly gets himself 3 fouls not even before the 1st Q (5 minute quarters) ends. Of course, I would have pulled him after 2 normally but the drop off on ball handling from him to my son is significant so I rolled the dice and told him not to foul mid 1st and then 30 second later he picked up his 3rd. I pull him and have my son at PG.

My son struggled a bit making several mistakes but he kept at it and did a decent job considering it isn't a good fit for him. Then #3 went off. He got a hot hand and pretty much everything he put up went in including an and 1 foul and his other two free throws. He ended the game with 19 points. We win 19-12. It was unexpected but awesome to see.

Fun stuff with this team.
 
There are alot of simple ball handling, passing, shooting drills that should be easy to find.

A personal favorite for that age that incorporates all that and makes them think / anticipate is to set up a 3v2, 2v1, consecutive break.

Under one basket you have three lines and one spot has the ball (and will be the lone defender coming back)
Under the other basket you have two lines.

The first three in the three lines dribble down the court on a break, the first two from the two lines on the other side defend.
When either: A. The group of 3 score or B. The group of 3 fail to score (TO, OB, etc) then...
The two that were on defense immediately switch to offense going the other way and your designated defender from the original 3 has to get back and stop them.

Sometimes I'd just start off practice with this going full court because it gets the kids moving and warmed up.
It gets the kids used to dribbling the full court and looking to push the ball on a break in games.
It also makes them get their heads out of their butts and anticipate TO's and changing the direction of play quickly.

An added bonus, it's fun for the kids too.
 
These are decent drills for that age group. Gets them in the habit of passing the ball up the floor. I have my inbounder responsible for any put back in this drill. Keeps them from loafing after the pass and, for your age group in particular, kids are going to miss a lot of wide open layups. The kids that hunt those rebounds will score.
https://youtu.be/n82JAF56Ppg?start=741&end=993
 
I remember a lot of jump balls coaching those ages, so spend more time than you would think you need to working on baseline inbounds plays that result in good looks.
 
I remember a lot of jump balls coaching those ages, so spend more time than you would think you need to working on baseline inbounds plays that result in good looks.
Yes, a lot more jump balls than at higher levels.

We spent a good amount of time on one inbound play. Half my boys know exactly what each position is supposed to do and could plug and play on any of them, the other half has no clue what they are supposed to do no matter where they are. It is a stack play and a couple of them don't know enough to line up in the line. :lmao:
 
My approach on offense and defense at this level is not about winning but about trying to get them to understand the game.

Zone works better to win now but zone is useless as you get older so my team plays man to man defense. We focus on picking up your man and then understanding help defense.

On offense, we don't have any plays. We play a 3-2 spread with no post. We work on screens, give and go and pick and roll and the only play we have is to call out one of these. Getting them to understand spacing and moving without the ball with good passing. We also do a lot of work on fast breaks.

Sometimes it isn't pretty but they are making progress and I believe in the long term focusing on concepts rather than plays will be the best for their development.

Last year, in the 3rd grade, we approached it the same. The boys made great progress over the season. The first team we played beat us 6-2 and then we played them again at the end and we beat them 16-8. We lost in the tournament we played by a team that clearly worked a lot on their offensive plays. They had them down and it was hard to stop when they executed them but I am fine losing to a team like that now because I really do think that it doesn't do much development to remember and execute a particular play in 3rd, 4th, 5th grade versus learning concepts that are used in all offenses and defenses on teams at later stages.
 
I remember a lot of jump balls coaching those ages, so spend more time than you would think you need to working on baseline inbounds plays that result in good looks.
Yes, a lot more jump balls than at higher levels.

We spent a good amount of time on one inbound play. Half my boys know exactly what each position is supposed to do and could plug and play on any of them, the other half has no clue what they are supposed to do no matter where they are. It is a stack play and a couple of them don't know enough to line up in the line. :lmao:

I coached girls the whole time, where at those early ages most of them would just look at each other if they were both holding the ball instead of trying to take it away. I even had one girl say "here" and give it to the opponent!

I ran that stack play early, then added a couple variations of a play where the four players line up at the blocks and the elbows and either screen across or screen up. The key to all of it was having two girls that were always the inbounders who knew what to do and how to pass (sort of).

As for offense, I decided instead of teaching them set plays to just use a Read and React system. There are like 10 rules to that, I coached from 2nd all the way through 8th grade (B team) and they never got beyond rule 3 (of course I didn't bother introducing it until 4th)! But basically a 4-out system with pass and cut, fill the open space, and if someone dribbles toward you cut to the hoop. Very few screens since I found they just couldn't execute them very well, or the defense was sagging so far it didn't help.

The other thing I found impactful for the point guards was to focus a lot on changing direction and changing pace. At that age so many of them just dribble straight ahead at the same speed and never get by the defender running next to them. A simple crossover or hesitation dribble made a big difference.

Other thing I did was to get enough balls for everyone to have one during practice for certain drills. So much of it is just getting comfortable dribbling, passing, hell even catching. And all of our conditioning involved full court drills, didn't see the point at that age of just having them run. Getting tired wasn't usually the issue, it was poor ball handling.

My kid is in college now....I miss all this!
 
My approach on offense and defense at this level is not about winning but about trying to get them to understand the game.

Zone works better to win now but zone is useless as you get older so my team plays man to man defense. We focus on picking up your man and then understanding help defense.

On offense, we don't have any plays. We play a 3-2 spread with no post. We work on screens, give and go and pick and roll and the only play we have is to call out one of these. Getting them to understand spacing and moving without the ball with good passing. We also do a lot of work on fast breaks.

Sometimes it isn't pretty but they are making progress and I believe in the long term focusing on concepts rather than plays will be the best for their development.

Last year, in the 3rd grade, we approached it the same. The boys made great progress over the season. The first team we played beat us 6-2 and then we played them again at the end and we beat them 16-8. We lost in the tournament we played by a team that clearly worked a lot on their offensive plays. They had them down and it was hard to stop when they executed them but I am fine losing to a team like that now because I really do think that it doesn't do much development to remember and execute a particular play in 3rd, 4th, 5th grade versus learning concepts that are used in all offenses and defenses on teams at later stages.
At that age I just like read and react, ie pass-cut-fill with back doors and dribble at back doors. The main question is how you move off dribble penetrant. Circle cuts are probably better for five out, but I have been teaching the DDM automatics this year as that is what they will run when they are older.

Not a fan of true motion, especially at that age. Dedicating time to teaching proper pin downs and reads is probably going to bear more fruit working on skills.

The first actual set we teach (u14) is the five out Gonzaga continuity. It is really simple and gives you a way to hide your weaker players as screeners so their defenders can't just sit one-in-one-out on you
 
I remember a lot of jump balls coaching those ages, so spend more time than you would think you need to working on baseline inbounds plays that result in good looks.
Yes, a lot more jump balls than at higher levels.

We spent a good amount of time on one inbound play. Half my boys know exactly what each position is supposed to do and could plug and play on any of them, the other half has no clue what they are supposed to do no matter where they are. It is a stack play and a couple of them don't know enough to line up in the line. :lmao:

I coached girls the whole time, where at those early ages most of them would just look at each other if they were both holding the ball instead of trying to take it away. I even had one girl say "here" and give it to the opponent!

I ran that stack play early, then added a couple variations of a play where the four players line up at the blocks and the elbows and either screen across or screen up. The key to all of it was having two girls that were always the inbounders who knew what to do and how to pass (sort of).

As for offense, I decided instead of teaching them set plays to just use a Read and React system. There are like 10 rules to that, I coached from 2nd all the way through 8th grade (B team) and they never got beyond rule 3 (of course I didn't bother introducing it until 4th)! But basically a 4-out system with pass and cut, fill the open space, and if someone dribbles toward you cut to the hoop. Very few screens since I found they just couldn't execute them very well, or the defense was sagging so far it didn't help.

The other thing I found impactful for the point guards was to focus a lot on changing direction and changing pace. At that age so many of them just dribble straight ahead at the same speed and never get by the defender running next to them. A simple crossover or hesitation dribble made a big difference.

Other thing I did was to get enough balls for everyone to have one during practice for certain drills. So much of it is just getting comfortable dribbling, passing, hell even catching. And all of our conditioning involved full court drills, didn't see the point at that age of just having them run. Getting tired wasn't usually the issue, it was poor ball handling.

My kid is in college now....I miss all this!
My daughter is in 6th grade and did bball last year and this year... this year before the season I asked if she wanted me to coach and both my wife and her basically yelled NO! I guess I am too intimidating and mean for girls. :shrug:

Last year we did a similar read and react with passing, filling and cutting. We ended up having to simplify it because they were not filling. We ended up simplifying it to focus on give and go then encourage the other boys to 'move' (in the direction of filling but I gave up hope that they actually would). It ended up being effective. This year, I decided just to really focus on the screen, give and go and pick and roll at least for now.

I have been trying to get them to understand change of pace but the bigger focus has been on breaking them of this habit of going away from the basket. The thing that kills me is that my #2 can beat most kids on a one and one and he does... he has them beat but because they are next to him even though there is an open lane, he pulls up for a 10 footer when he could have had a layup even if contested- which he will most likely score and if not chances of being fouled are high.

Instilling basketball IQ, confidence and aggressiveness is hard to do at this age. Knowing when to attack and when to not force it is something that they struggle with.

I have them all bring their own ball and then we can run drills with all balls if needed or not and then I don't have to worry about policing the schools balls.

Yea, I am enjoying this a lot. It would be better if not such a hard time for the family right now but it is also a good outlet for me to pour into. I will have to figure out what to do when my youngest hits 3rd grade. He already is asking me to coach and my older will want me to continue- I have a feeling that the school will want me to coach the A team when we get to 6th grade and they start having A and B teams based on tryouts too. What I am thinking is that I will HC the 6th and then be an assistant for the 3rd but that is two years out so we shall see.
 
I remember a lot of jump balls coaching those ages, so spend more time than you would think you need to working on baseline inbounds plays that result in good looks.
This is a great tip. We scored probably half our points at that age with just a couple of basic baseline inbounds plays. One simple play against man. Line up your 4 players not inbounding the ball across the baseline - corner, block, block, corner. Block player facing in-bounder falls back to free throw line with hand up like wanting a lob. Opposite block sets a screen for them at the elbow and they cut to the opposite side of the basket off the screen. This player is wide open half the time. Screener then comes back down the lane to the in-bounder. If the original cutter wasn't open this one probably is. Corners just fall back to free throw line extended while this action takes place, then cut to the basket if neither of the first two cutters are open. It's simple enough for even really young players and gets them a lot of open looks. We actually had a stupid amount of success with this play even in high school.
 
I remember a lot of jump balls coaching those ages, so spend more time than you would think you need to working on baseline inbounds plays that result in good looks.
This is a great tip. We scored probably half our points at that age with just a couple of basic baseline inbounds plays. One simple play against man. Line up your 4 players not inbounding the ball across the baseline - corner, block, block, corner. Block player facing in-bounder falls back to free throw line with hand up like wanting a lob. Opposite block sets a screen for them at the elbow and they cut to the opposite side of the basket off the screen. This player is wide open half the time. Screener then comes back down the lane to the in-bounder. If the original cutter wasn't open this one probably is. Corners just fall back to free throw line extended while this action takes place, then cut to the basket if neither of the first two cutters are open. It's simple enough for even really young players and gets them a lot of open looks. We actually had a stupid amount of success with this play even in high school.
We run several variations out of this alignment. Take your best rebounder and put them in the ball-side-corner. Then have them STS to the ball side wing/corner depending on how the defender plays it. A lot of teams will try and switch both screens leaving the second screener wide open slipping to the ball. We also will start by backscreening the weak block to the weak corner to start for a corner three, then the screener continues to set the screen for the post at the elbow.
 
Funny this thread should get a bump, as now I'm coaching my own son's 4th grade team. Skill level here is MUCH more beginner than when I coached my buddy's team 7 years ago. And on a somber note, my buddy actually passed away a couple of years ago from cancer. 😢
 
Funny this thread should get a bump, as now I'm coaching my own son's 4th grade team. Skill level here is MUCH more beginner than when I coached my buddy's team 7 years ago. And on a somber note, my buddy actually passed away a couple of years ago from cancer. 😢
Cancer fing sucks. Sorry.

This is an age group that had a lot of intro time taken away from them with COVID. I have noticed that the kids in this age group that tend to be better are younger brothers so when COVIID happened they got some practice/development from their older brothers.

My youngest (1st grade) is as or more developed than about half of my kids on my older sons team (4th grade), I let him run through some of the drills at practice when he is with me, He keeps up better than some of the boys on the team and has better form and fundamentals than many of them. Unlike his older brother and the boys of his class, my younger son has done several different camps, clinics, etc starting last year. These 4th graders missed out on all of that,
 
8-1

We won the last two games without our normal point guard and one of our best players but it has really opened up one of the boys to step up and flourish as a scorer on top of being in the past one of our better defenders and rebounders.

Jan is a busy month of league games (two leagues), an extra non-league game and a tournament.
 
9-2
We lost last night... I think it was the best possible loss we could have had. It was a non-league or tournament game against a team that we should have easily beat. I think my boys got too cocky and then when things were not rolling our way (the ball would just not drop for us last night) and when our normal aggressive defense was picking up fouls it caused them to get more frustrated which meant more fouls . Then the refs were clearly slanted towards calling fouls on us where giving the other team more leeway. At break between 3rd and 4th Q's, I brought it up and had a discussion with the refs which of course was them saying they were being fair and me disagreeing. However, one of them said "your guys are bigger and faster...." and that also, I think, was coloring their calls. Regardless, we didn't and never lose because of ref calls but I think at times the coach needs to speak up (not like a jerk yelling or whatever but advocating for the team). So, today is going to be a lot about how to learn from a loss and learning from failure in life... also keeping composure when playing so we are mentally right to come back (two of my better players were tearing up because of their frustration). We may end up seeing this team again in a couple of weeks in a tourny if they win their first game and we win ours- I am confident we will win. If I do my job, this is a great opportunity for the boys to learn from losing or in life, learning from faillure... not being afraid of it and when it happens, not wasting it and learning from it.
 
We are set for our first game this Saturday. It's just a "practice" game to get our feet wet. I am terribly nervous, mainly for my own son who's never part-taken in team sports before. In fact, at last night's practice he ended having a crying episode because another kid fussed at him for going out of turn in a drill. I had to sit him on the wall and let him cry it out, but we discussed how to deal with those types of frustrations on the way home. He is 10 and has been in "special" programs at school to deal with social issues. But the kid needs an athletic outlet; he's' getting chunky AF. :(

These are kids with very basic skills, completely unlike my situation 5-6 years ago when I was coaching high-level 3rd and 4th graders.

We're having trouble running a pretty basic offense. Their zone defense is solid, but I fear they are going to be completely lost on offense come Saturday.
 
We are set for our first game this Saturday. It's just a "practice" game to get our feet wet. I am terribly nervous, mainly for my own son who's never part-taken in team sports before. In fact, at last night's practice he ended having a crying episode because another kid fussed at him for going out of turn in a drill. I had to sit him on the wall and let him cry it out, but we discussed how to deal with those types of frustrations on the way home. He is 10 and has been in "special" programs at school to deal with social issues. But the kid needs an athletic outlet; he's' getting chunky AF. :(

These are kids with very basic skills, completely unlike my situation 5-6 years ago when I was coaching high-level 3rd and 4th graders.

We're having trouble running a pretty basic offense. Their zone defense is solid, but I fear they are going to be completely lost on offense come Saturday.
Skills sets can range greatly. I have 4 kids who play at a high level. 2 more than are boderline... they do some things well and do something things poorly, each have scored 2 points on a couple of games... 1 that is similar to the second level kids but is so very uncoordinated so he struggles more than them... then 1 kid who last year was a total trainwreck but has improved, he still struggles but can actually catch the ball now, can get the ball up to the basket, isn't a 100% chance to travel with the ball, will actually guard someone rather than stand around looking lost, etc. My last is a total trainwreck. I feel bad for him but he has ADHD or something and is very unathletic. Everything I described above of the boy who improved from being a trainwreck is now this kid. He can be the last to do a simple drill that we have done several practices and still get lost. He struggles with the simplest instruction like "hold the ball" though I will say that he has improved on things like that because he has run a LOT of laps. He is clearly the worst player out of all the teams we have played so far. I keep trying to figure out ways to help him but it is a struggle. Anyways... the skill level can vary greatly and the hard thing about that on the same team is where the kids who are move advanced get frustrated with the kids not at their level and then kids not at their level get frustrated because they are struggling and then others don't pass them the ball often etc.
Good luck Sat. We have another game Friday and then Sat, and then we start a tourney next weekend.
 
We are set for our first game this Saturday. It's just a "practice" game to get our feet wet. I am terribly nervous, mainly for my own son who's never part-taken in team sports before. In fact, at last night's practice he ended having a crying episode because another kid fussed at him for going out of turn in a drill. I had to sit him on the wall and let him cry it out, but we discussed how to deal with those types of frustrations on the way home. He is 10 and has been in "special" programs at school to deal with social issues. But the kid needs an athletic outlet; he's' getting chunky AF. :(

These are kids with very basic skills, completely unlike my situation 5-6 years ago when I was coaching high-level 3rd and 4th graders.

We're having trouble running a pretty basic offense. Their zone defense is solid, but I fear they are going to be completely lost on offense come Saturday.
Skills sets can range greatly. I have 4 kids who play at a high level. 2 more than are boderline... they do some things well and do something things poorly, each have scored 2 points on a couple of games... 1 that is similar to the second level kids but is so very uncoordinated so he struggles more than them... then 1 kid who last year was a total trainwreck but has improved, he still struggles but can actually catch the ball now, can get the ball up to the basket, isn't a 100% chance to travel with the ball, will actually guard someone rather than stand around looking lost, etc. My last is a total trainwreck. I feel bad for him but he has ADHD or something and is very unathletic. Everything I described above of the boy who improved from being a trainwreck is now this kid. He can be the last to do a simple drill that we have done several practices and still get lost. He struggles with the simplest instruction like "hold the ball" though I will say that he has improved on things like that because he has run a LOT of laps. He is clearly the worst player out of all the teams we have played so far. I keep trying to figure out ways to help him but it is a struggle. Anyways... the skill level can vary greatly and the hard thing about that on the same team is where the kids who are move advanced get frustrated with the kids not at their level and then kids not at their level get frustrated because they are struggling and then others don't pass them the ball often etc.
Good luck Sat. We have another game Friday and then Sat, and then we start a tourney next weekend.
Yeah, for the most part my kids can certainly catch, dribble and shoot. My son is probably the least experienced, so I have him in a spot on the offense where he's just setting picks (he's probably the 3rd-tallest on the team and definitely built like a tank). I have two guards who are my best shooters, so I'm trying to get them running off picks to get layups.

It's an incredibly different experience with a team of beginners versus what I coached way back when. Most of those kids were elite talents.
 
We are set for our first game this Saturday. It's just a "practice" game to get our feet wet. I am terribly nervous, mainly for my own son who's never part-taken in team sports before. In fact, at last night's practice he ended having a crying episode because another kid fussed at him for going out of turn in a drill. I had to sit him on the wall and let him cry it out, but we discussed how to deal with those types of frustrations on the way home. He is 10 and has been in "special" programs at school to deal with social issues. But the kid needs an athletic outlet; he's' getting chunky AF. :(

These are kids with very basic skills, completely unlike my situation 5-6 years ago when I was coaching high-level 3rd and 4th graders.

We're having trouble running a pretty basic offense. Their zone defense is solid, but I fear they are going to be completely lost on offense come Saturday.
Skills sets can range greatly. I have 4 kids who play at a high level. 2 more than are boderline... they do some things well and do something things poorly, each have scored 2 points on a couple of games... 1 that is similar to the second level kids but is so very uncoordinated so he struggles more than them... then 1 kid who last year was a total trainwreck but has improved, he still struggles but can actually catch the ball now, can get the ball up to the basket, isn't a 100% chance to travel with the ball, will actually guard someone rather than stand around looking lost, etc. My last is a total trainwreck. I feel bad for him but he has ADHD or something and is very unathletic. Everything I described above of the boy who improved from being a trainwreck is now this kid. He can be the last to do a simple drill that we have done several practices and still get lost. He struggles with the simplest instruction like "hold the ball" though I will say that he has improved on things like that because he has run a LOT of laps. He is clearly the worst player out of all the teams we have played so far. I keep trying to figure out ways to help him but it is a struggle. Anyways... the skill level can vary greatly and the hard thing about that on the same team is where the kids who are move advanced get frustrated with the kids not at their level and then kids not at their level get frustrated because they are struggling and then others don't pass them the ball often etc.
Good luck Sat. We have another game Friday and then Sat, and then we start a tourney next weekend.
Yeah, for the most part my kids can certainly catch, dribble and shoot. My son is probably the least experienced, so I have him in a spot on the offense where he's just setting picks (he's probably the 3rd-tallest on the team and definitely built like a tank). I have two guards who are my best shooters, so I'm trying to get them running off picks to get layups.

It's an incredibly different experience with a team of beginners versus what I coached way back when. Most of those kids were elite talents.
Yea, this one kid... 9 out of 10 times if anyone passes the ball to him, he will not catch it. It's rough... I have no idea how to help him. On top of having nearly no athletic ability- smallest, slowest, least agility, least balance, can't jump, least hand eye coordination, etc he has struggles to pay attention. I can be in mid sentence and he will start staring off at something else. He can't do the most simple drills that we have done many times over and every player goes and does it right before him. Does not follow instructions, etc. One of many examples from last practice. "Ok boys, put your balls down on the side and line up single file at baseline." All 7 other boys immediately, drop their balls and hustle into line.... my little struggling guy..... slowly walks holding the ball to the end of the line. (picture me defeated, not even yelling, just exhausted.... "Buddy... what are you doing?")

One of my border line guys... who is a little on the pudgy side but shorter.... much like the 'tank' description physically but he is such a good hearted kid that plays smiling the whole time it is hard to use that word to describe him lol, has excelled in setting screens. He might be the best one on the team as setting them.
 
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We are now 13-2 through two leagues worth of games, a couple of non-league games and the tournament we are in. Today we played on of the teams that previously beat us in the tournament. I am happy to say that we beat them. We move on to the next round Sat and then if we win that game (against a team we beat before) we are in the Championship game.

Today, in the game, my boys were getting lazy on defense and using their hands not their feet. The other team was not very strong in shooting and only scored when they drove. At half time we were tied 6-6 after being 6-2 in the first quarter, I go into this big speech about how if we play defense like they way they can and rebound the way we can then they won't score again. I kept emphasizing that they needed to play defense with their feet.

I think I got through to them and have them ready.... then one of my boys asks "Coach... if we kick them, isn't that a foul?"
 
We are now 13-2 through two leagues worth of games, a couple of non-league games and the tournament we are in. Today we played on of the teams that previously beat us in the tournament. I am happy to say that we beat them. We move on to the next round Sat and then if we win that game (against a team we beat before) we are in the Championship game.

Today, in the game, my boys were getting lazy on defense and using their hands not their feet. The other team was not very strong in shooting and only scored when they drove. At half time we were tied 6-6 after being 6-2 in the first quarter, I go into this big speech about how if we play defense like they way they can and rebound the way we can then they won't score again. I kept emphasizing that they needed to play defense with their feet.

I think I got through to them and have them ready.... then one of my boys asks "Coach... if we kick them, isn't that a foul?"
About half the time we'll do our FC 1v1's with all the had contact the defender wants. I've found it really helps us, on both sides, when you get those refs who let more go than they should.
 
We are now 13-2 through two leagues worth of games, a couple of non-league games and the tournament we are in. Today we played on of the teams that previously beat us in the tournament. I am happy to say that we beat them. We move on to the next round Sat and then if we win that game (against a team we beat before) we are in the Championship game.

Today, in the game, my boys were getting lazy on defense and using their hands not their feet. The other team was not very strong in shooting and only scored when they drove. At half time we were tied 6-6 after being 6-2 in the first quarter, I go into this big speech about how if we play defense like they way they can and rebound the way we can then they won't score again. I kept emphasizing that they needed to play defense with their feet.

I think I got through to them and have them ready.... then one of my boys asks "Coach... if we kick them, isn't that a foul?"
About half the time we'll do our FC 1v1's with all the had contact the defender wants. I've found it really helps us, on both sides, when you get those refs who let more go than they should.
That is not a bad idea at all... I think I am going to run with for tonight's practice.

We are pretty aggressive on defense and our strength is running and gunning (just got to finish more) off of the pressure we can put on these teams. Our second loss we took which was against this team we played yesterday the refs were calling it tight, then my boys got frustrated and started hacking which then it seemed like made the refs more preferential to the other team on 'ticky tack' fouls that they were calling against us and then not giving us when they did very similar. At the break on the 3rd to 4th Q, I approached the refs and pointed out what I was seeing (calm, respectful, etc) and we went back and forth. As we were talking about it they ref said "Coach, you are biased". One of the parents teased me about that this weekend "Well... you ARE biased" lol I didn't realize they could hear the conversation but it shouldn't have suprised me because the other thing that worked against us that first game was the gym was super small. Too small to even have a three point line. Compressing their defense so when we set our offense we weren't as effective as usual and then it stunted our run and run style off our defense.

Two of our three 4th grade teams from our school entered this tournament. This team we just beat has a counterpart team from the same school district which we played both previously in non-league games. Our other private school team played their other district team and barely lost. So, we move on to play that district team and our other private school team will play the district team we just beat. Hopefully they will win and we win as well and then it will be a championship game with two teams from our school. That would be fun.
 
We are now 13-2 through two leagues worth of games, a couple of non-league games and the tournament we are in. Today we played on of the teams that previously beat us in the tournament. I am happy to say that we beat them. We move on to the next round Sat and then if we win that game (against a team we beat before) we are in the Championship game.

Today, in the game, my boys were getting lazy on defense and using their hands not their feet. The other team was not very strong in shooting and only scored when they drove. At half time we were tied 6-6 after being 6-2 in the first quarter, I go into this big speech about how if we play defense like they way they can and rebound the way we can then they won't score again. I kept emphasizing that they needed to play defense with their feet.

I think I got through to them and have them ready.... then one of my boys asks "Coach... if we kick them, isn't that a foul?"
About half the time we'll do our FC 1v1's with all the had contact the defender wants. I've found it really helps us, on both sides, when you get those refs who let more go than they should.
That is not a bad idea at all... I think I am going to run with for tonight's practice.
Just don't let them over do it. It will help your offense in getting acclimated to physical pressure but you still want your defense to not make it so obvious. Try and and get them to use their hands to help stay in front, not stop the attacker.
 
Well all I can say is the City guys who run the league did a pretty crappy job in terms of disbursing talent and especially height.

The team we played two Saturdays ago was GIANT. Like their guards were bigger than my bigs. So we got blasted. My kids were not spaced out on offense and looked lost on defense most of the time. But I did learn that my team, especially the guards, has a ton of quickness. So gonna use that to our advantage.

Played another team this past Saturday, not quite as giant but did have two or three real tall kids. My kids are all tiny. One of their kids was INCREDIBLY talented. Like pulling up and hitting 3s and he's supposedly 11 or 12? No way. So when he was in the game I had two of my quick kids harassing the hell out of him as best we could.

We were actually tied at halftime, and one of my bigs had to leave because it was his birthday and had to get to his party. Went downhill from there and lost by 9. But my kids were actualy spacing out on offense and moving the ball.

Next step is to implement a press using my two guards up front in the zone and having three back just in case they get by my quick little guards.

We'll get a win here hopefully! :lol:
 
We are now 13-2 through two leagues worth of games, a couple of non-league games and the tournament we are in. Today we played on of the teams that previously beat us in the tournament. I am happy to say that we beat them. We move on to the next round Sat and then if we win that game (against a team we beat before) we are in the Championship game.

Today, in the game, my boys were getting lazy on defense and using their hands not their feet. The other team was not very strong in shooting and only scored when they drove. At half time we were tied 6-6 after being 6-2 in the first quarter, I go into this big speech about how if we play defense like they way they can and rebound the way we can then they won't score again. I kept emphasizing that they needed to play defense with their feet.

I think I got through to them and have them ready.... then one of my boys asks "Coach... if we kick them, isn't that a foul?"
About half the time we'll do our FC 1v1's with all the had contact the defender wants. I've found it really helps us, on both sides, when you get those refs who let more go than they should.
That is not a bad idea at all... I think I am going to run with for tonight's practice.
Just don't let them over do it. It will help your offense in getting acclimated to physical pressure but you still want your defense to not make it so obvious. Try and and get them to use their hands to help stay in front, not stop the attacker.
:lmao:
So... I set it up at today's practice.... explaining what I wanted from them etc.... before we run the first go one of my boys says "So we can foul?" and I said "Yes." It was one of my better kids going up against another one of my better ones... my PG, who gives up a couple of inches on the defender. They go and immediately my boy who asked if we can foul bodies him hard enough to send him flying to the floor. (they are close friends so it wasn't with ill intent) "Johhny!" I yell spreadig my arms and giving him a look like "WTF".... he smiles and says "you said we could foul"

.... so I begain to explain more what 'you can foul' means and doesn't mean.... basically what you were saying here.
 
Well all I can say is the City guys who run the league did a pretty crappy job in terms of disbursing talent and especially height.

The team we played two Saturdays ago was GIANT. Like their guards were bigger than my bigs. So we got blasted. My kids were not spaced out on offense and looked lost on defense most of the time. But I did learn that my team, especially the guards, has a ton of quickness. So gonna use that to our advantage.

Played another team this past Saturday, not quite as giant but did have two or three real tall kids. My kids are all tiny. One of their kids was INCREDIBLY talented. Like pulling up and hitting 3s and he's supposedly 11 or 12? No way. So when he was in the game I had two of my quick kids harassing the hell out of him as best we could.

We were actually tied at halftime, and one of my bigs had to leave because it was his birthday and had to get to his party. Went downhill from there and lost by 9. But my kids were actualy spacing out on offense and moving the ball.

Next step is to implement a press using my two guards up front in the zone and having three back just in case they get by my quick little guards.

We'll get a win here hopefully! :lol:
I think one of the reasons my team has done well is that my top 4 guys, 3 of them (including my son) are all about the same height which matches to most teams tallest players but they have the speed of most teams guards. Then I have my Muggsy Bogues PG who out of all the teams we have played is probably the third best ball handler. I favor the run and gun fast break style off of defense and rebounding which gives most teams fits because we have the speed but then we also have size that we can get those rebounds and can't be bullied with the occasional big. So far the biggest big that would give us some difficulty is actually on one of our other schools teams. They play a 1-2-2 zone and when we scrimmaged them, it was giving my boys fits as when my PG would penetrate, he would run right into the Great Wall of Jacob and not know what to do and they would collapse on him. We may face them (hopefully) in the Championship of the tourny if we win out game Sat and then they beat the team we beat but I think Jacob won't be there which would mean we would have the clear advantage against them. I would like to play them at full strength and have an all school championship game.

At this age, the schedule conflicts can be a killer. My availability shows that we won't have out PG this weekend which will hurt for sure. The mother reached out and said they were planning on going out of town for one of their other boys tournaments but they may split the family so he is available. I have been lucky though as most of players have been consistently at practices and games. My son doesn't have a choice but has missed a lot of swim practices due to basketball. Two of my boys are on a travel team but favor our team on schedule conflicts. Other things come up and some misses here and there for swim, scouts, baseball, soccer, vacations, birthday parties, on and on. I was talking to the coach of one of our other teams last night as we were leaving practice and they were coming in and he was saying how hard it has been to have his team together. In fact, he said his best player who is on the same travel team as my boys, favors the travel over the school team. Like I said, I have been lucky but it can be very hard for sure knowing the choices on my side but then seeing other teams too.
 
Well all I can say is the City guys who run the league did a pretty crappy job in terms of disbursing talent and especially height.

The team we played two Saturdays ago was GIANT. Like their guards were bigger than my bigs. So we got blasted. My kids were not spaced out on offense and looked lost on defense most of the time. But I did learn that my team, especially the guards, has a ton of quickness. So gonna use that to our advantage.

Played another team this past Saturday, not quite as giant but did have two or three real tall kids. My kids are all tiny. One of their kids was INCREDIBLY talented. Like pulling up and hitting 3s and he's supposedly 11 or 12? No way. So when he was in the game I had two of my quick kids harassing the hell out of him as best we could.

We were actually tied at halftime, and one of my bigs had to leave because it was his birthday and had to get to his party. Went downhill from there and lost by 9. But my kids were actualy spacing out on offense and moving the ball.

Next step is to implement a press using my two guards up front in the zone and having three back just in case they get by my quick little guards.

We'll get a win here hopefully! :lol:
I think one of the reasons my team has done well is that my top 4 guys, 3 of them (including my son) are all about the same height which matches to most teams tallest players but they have the speed of most teams guards. Then I have my Muggsy Bogues PG who out of all the teams we have played is probably the third best ball handler. I favor the run and gun fast break style off of defense and rebounding which gives most teams fits because we have the speed but then we also have size that we can get those rebounds and can't be bullied with the occasional big. So far the biggest big that would give us some difficulty is actually on one of our other schools teams. They play a 1-2-2 zone and when we scrimmaged them, it was giving my boys fits as when my PG would penetrate, he would run right into the Great Wall of Jacob and not know what to do and they would collapse on him. We may face them (hopefully) in the Championship of the tourny if we win out game Sat and then they beat the team we beat but I think Jacob won't be there which would mean we would have the clear advantage against them. I would like to play them at full strength and have an all school championship game.

At this age, the schedule conflicts can be a killer. My availability shows that we won't have out PG this weekend which will hurt for sure. The mother reached out and said they were planning on going out of town for one of their other boys tournaments but they may split the family so he is available. I have been lucky though as most of players have been consistently at practices and games. My son doesn't have a choice but has missed a lot of swim practices due to basketball. Two of my boys are on a travel team but favor our team on schedule conflicts. Other things come up and some misses here and there for swim, scouts, baseball, soccer, vacations, birthday parties, on and on. I was talking to the coach of one of our other teams last night as we were leaving practice and they were coming in and he was saying how hard it has been to have his team together. In fact, he said his best player who is on the same travel team as my boys, favors the travel over the school team. Like I said, I have been lucky but it can be very hard for sure knowing the choices on my side but then seeing other teams too.
Good tactic versus 1-2-2 zone....also works against 2-3.
 
In addition to what @Navin Johnson posted above, at the ages you are coaching, and with the players as you describe them, the easiest zone killer is to have 3 out (point and both wings), a post that is working mid post to high post to get open, then a baseline runner that is working short corner to short corner.

If you can get it to your high post and he simply pivots to the basket, at this age the zone will tend to swarm which leaves the baseline runner wide open for a cut to the basket for a layup.

If on rotation you can hit the baseline runner in the short corner, he is either open for a 10-12 foot shot, or your post now comes open on a dive to the basket.

For your point/wing players, it is a fairly simple pass, cut, replace. If point passed to a wing, he can basket cut that side and clear out opposite - the opposite wing fills the point so you can make a quick ball reversal.

The more you can get the zone having to move quickly, the better. On our team we have a simple rule. If the wing passes back to the point, the point has one job, and that is an immediate pass to the opposite wing to get the ball switched as quickly as possible. It is incredible how effective it is against a youth zone to simply reverse the ball. You really need to impress upon them that the worst thing they can do is immediately pass back or drive towards the direction the pass came from, as that is where the defense and help already are.

E2A: Ideally your baseline runner is a kid capable of making a 10-12 foot shot and not afraid to finish at the rim. The post is one of your better passers and a threat to drive. It could be your "Muggsy Bogues" kid if he is not afraid to finish in the middle and is able to make a pass under pressure, the post in this offense does not need to be a big. Now, if it can be a bigger player that is a threat to attack from the high post and can finish, it makes the job easier, but just putting a big kid here is not going to necessarily be the most effective.
 
I wanted to laser focus on the basics of offense that will serve them as they get older and wanted to simplify it all so our offense is a 5 out set up with our plays simply being a screen, give and go, pick and roll, isolation and then I added the swing to it to attack the zone's we face. It has been helped break their zones down. I just really wanted to get them to be able to execute those well and be able to build off of that for the future. Though I thought I was giving up some success now for their success in the future, it has ended up being effective now too because our execution is better than the other teams.

For the most part the zones haven't hurt us too much, most teams do play some form of zone against us. The one exception was for the scrimmage against our sister team from our school. Their big man Jacob... who is the biggest we will come up against this season... was able to stop our penetration dead every time because of him and our second tallest in the school sitting on the blocks in that 1-2-2. If we play them in the Championship Sunday, we will be pushing the ball up and down the court as hard and as fast as we can because they will not be able to match that at all in speed or conditioning. However, my understanding is that Jacob will not be playing this weekend like he didn't the last weekend because he is in Hawaii... lucky dog. Regardless, the swing with mid range shots should do the trick when our fast breaks aren't there. In the scrimmage, we were on the small court at school which compacted everything as well and benefited them. This weekend, we will be playing a full size court which the advantage switches to us.

I will be interested to see if we end up playing the team we beat in the Championship for the tourney (assuming we win Sat and move on or lose and then win to get back to the Championship) but I really want to play our sister team as I feel that will be the most fun to do and I can feel happy for the other team if they were to beat us.

Going back to the offense, I have started to get them to understand moving without the ball and cutting etc and then next year will be installing a motion offense. This year I have about half of the same kids I had last year. Then 6th grade it goes to A and B teams. Our school should be a powerhouse. With that A team, assuming everyone progresses roughly at their current talent level etc (a bad assumption but still), we will have comparative top end talent and depth that I haven't seen other schools have. We have come up against a couple of teams with one superstar who is better than any one of my kids but no teams with even my depth of being able to put 4 good players on the court. Add in the good players from our other two teams... it will be a slaughter in most games. I think there may be one school who juding by records may be able to compete against us. They have three teams that all have done decently well. We won't see two of their teams but the one in our division we end up playing Sat for our third game.
 
I would consider running Dribble Drive Motion (DDM) instead of pure motion.
Our offense is prob the most similar to a 5 out DDM right now than anything else with the exception of using more screens than you typically would have in a DDM being we have no post player. I have coached the concepts of penetration as our goal, passing off if the defense stops it, and off ball movement to get open but not clog up the lanes. All of which are hallmarks of the DDM. Our isolation 'play' is pretty much exactly a 5 out DDM.

My thinking was that I would see who I ended up with on the team next year to really decide what form of motion offense we put in but to think of it, DDM is prob gives the kids the most 'freedom' off of concepts than other motion offenses (Is DDM really even considered motion? I have always thought of it as such). Next year is the last 'developmental league' year where there are no cuts or A and B teams. I want them to get a better understanding of how offense works versus running an offense if that makes sense. That has been my focus and goal last year (where we didn't even have 'plays' like we do this year which are simply a screen, give and go, pick and roll, iso and swing and this year too where trying to laser focus on the fundamentals and concepts.
 
14-2
We played a 3-2 in one of our leagues (we are 5-1 in that league). They were a good game, I am surprised that they lost 2 games before us. Obviously well coached. 1 very good player who hit two 3's and another pretty good player and the rest of the team in the midling area. We were behind all of the 1st but never very far off. As is their MO my boys played better in the 2nd half and we took the lead fairly early after the break and kept it.

Tomorrow is a big day.

Our first game at 10am is against a team we are currently tied for 2nd place in our division going into the weekend with a 5-1 record as well. I haven't seen them and the league doesn't break down the wins/losses so I am going in blind but based on records, it should be a tough game.

Our second game is our tourny game at 12pm, we will have to go diretly from the 10am game to this game. We play a team we beat previously in an exhibition match, let's call them Small team. They beat our sister team from our school and we beat their sister team from their school district in the last round, let's call them Henry team. So, our sister team and Henry, which we beat last weekend, played tonight. Henry beat our sister team who is now out of the tourny. If we beat Small tomorrow, we go to the Championship game and wait for who we play- either Small or Henry depending on who wins as they will play at 11am before the 1pm Championship game. If we lose to Small then we have to play Henry at 11am to get back to the Championship game to play Small again. The last (only) time we beat Small we didn't have our PG and one of my top 4 guys just went off for 19 points and we won fairly easily. Small beat our sister team 9-7. Then Henry beat our sister team 14-12. I believe we can beat both again but neither team is a lock for us. Playing a full court is very helpful as the first times we played both teams in exhibition was on a munchkin court that was so compact it killed our fast breaks and out 5 out offense that works so well for us. I was really hoping our sister team was going to be able to beat them and we could end up playing against each other in the Championship but I guess we will just have to take it ourselves.

We get a break before our third game at 4pm. It is in our other league which doesn't keep track of wins and losses as it is meant to be purely a development league for 3rd and 4th grades but we have not lost a game in that league yet. We play a team that played our sister team after our game tonight and our sister team beat them pretty handidly. They have one kid that has good height but plays guard as their best ball handler. We won't have my PG for this game but my other top 3 can match up against him well. I am hoping we can take control of the game well enough and I can rotate my top three guys in and out to stay on him and play my other kids most of the game.
 
14-2
We played a 3-2 in one of our leagues (we are 5-1 in that league). They were a good game, I am surprised that they lost 2 games before us. Obviously well coached. 1 very good player who hit two 3's and another pretty good player and the rest of the team in the midling area. We were behind all of the 1st but never very far off. As is their MO my boys played better in the 2nd half and we took the lead fairly early after the break and kept it.

Tomorrow is a big day.

Our first game at 10am is against a team we are currently tied for 2nd place in our division going into the weekend with a 5-1 record as well. I haven't seen them and the league doesn't break down the wins/losses so I am going in blind but based on records, it should be a tough game.

Our second game is our tourny game at 12pm, we will have to go diretly from the 10am game to this game. We play a team we beat previously in an exhibition match, let's call them Small team. They beat our sister team from our school and we beat their sister team from their school district in the last round, let's call them Henry team. So, our sister team and Henry, which we beat last weekend, played tonight. Henry beat our sister team who is now out of the tourny. If we beat Small tomorrow, we go to the Championship game and wait for who we play- either Small or Henry depending on who wins as they will play at 11am before the 1pm Championship game. If we lose to Small then we have to play Henry at 11am to get back to the Championship game to play Small again. The last (only) time we beat Small we didn't have our PG and one of my top 4 guys just went off for 19 points and we won fairly easily. Small beat our sister team 9-7. Then Henry beat our sister team 14-12. I believe we can beat both again but neither team is a lock for us. Playing a full court is very helpful as the first times we played both teams in exhibition was on a munchkin court that was so compact it killed our fast breaks and out 5 out offense that works so well for us. I was really hoping our sister team was going to be able to beat them and we could end up playing against each other in the Championship but I guess we will just have to take it ourselves.

We get a break before our third game at 4pm. It is in our other league which doesn't keep track of wins and losses as it is meant to be purely a development league for 3rd and 4th grades but we have not lost a game in that league yet. We play a team that played our sister team after our game tonight and our sister team beat them pretty handidly. They have one kid that has good height but plays guard as their best ball handler. We won't have my PG for this game but my other top 3 can match up against him well. I am hoping we can take control of the game well enough and I can rotate my top three guys in and out to stay on him and play my other kids most of the game.
Good Luck tomorrow
 
15-4

Yesterday did not go as hoped.

Our first game we were missing one of my our top 4 guys but that wasn't the reason we lost. At the end of the half we had 1 point which just doesn't happen for us. The balls just would not drop. Shot after good shot just poped out. They got ahead of us 10-1 and then in the second we started to get some things going but still were 'off'. 16-8 was the finish. One of the refs after wards came up and was like 'Sometimes there are just those days' and then he followed up with 'when was the last time you guys had 1 point in a half?' and I said that this was the first. And he said 'Yea, one of those days.'

We moved on to our tourney game. we weren't quite as cold but we also were not shooting like we normally do. We kept in it until towards the end where they had a couple of shots go in and pulled away. 20-13 Afterwards, the coach on the other team, who also is involved in the tourny came up and told me a couple of times "well coached team coach." which was super nice. We chatted a bit and talked about some of the interesting things over the tourney (one girls game was called early because a parent was causing problems and the game before us the coach was pretty ridiculous... I was surprised they didn't T him up)

Our final game of the day, we had our top two ball handlers not there because they had a game for their travel team. I mentioned earlier that our 'offense' is most similar to DDM and driving to the basic is a big part of what we do.... needless to say.... this hurt. We got down early by half it was 7-2. Now... there was some extra fun in this one. I have good relations with all the refs we have come played with. Either a neutral, professional 'thanks, good game ref' at the end or more friendly chatting, interaction, etc. I make it a point to not be critical of calls and try to limit anything to just advocating for my kids when I think it needs to be done which is rarely. I recognize that they aren't professionals and the boys aren't playing in the NBA. There will be missd or bad calls and that is part of the game. The only previous time that I advocated was two times... one was with this ref a number of weeks ago. A boy on the other team was clearly frustrated and when one of my boys went up he just bull dozed him with his body and there was no attempt to go for the ball. The foul was called but I thought they needed to say something to the kid like most of the refs often do to help direct and correct during play. This ref obviously took exception to that. After the game, I went up to him to make peace and explain myself... which he reacted very defensively and angry. I started by saying "I just wanted to let you know I wasn't being critical or anything, I just wanted you to say something to the kid as he wasn't going for the ball." and he replied angrily "your kids are hacking too" (which is a WAY over exaggeration, my kids are aggressive on defense but they always go for the ball) so I said, "great, say something to them then, I just don't want anyone to get hurt" which seemed to make him more mad. At this point, I realize that there was nothing helpful in this and it was only making things worse so I said "that's all, I just would have liked something to be said to the kid, thanks for refereeing." and walked away. The next game we played, I noticed him giving my glares and dirty looks but ignored it. I saw him to start this game and thought to myself 'great' and made a mental note to be careful. Now, I do have a bad habit that I am trying to break myself of of doing the travel/double dribble call signs when I see a violation which at 4th grade happens not unfrequently. Now most refs don't seem to have an issue with this as I am not getting on them if they don't call it etc. Apparently after all this happened, my AC said that he noticed that when I did it one time (a call he made) that he gave me a long glare but I didn't even see it as I was making extra effort to not engage with this ref. About mid through the first half the coach on the other side advocated for a travel call saying something along the lines of 'if you call it one us, call it on them', it wasn't aggresive or near being over the line or anything. the ref is coming up the court and is looking at the opposing coach while close to me and while looking at him says "BOTH OF YOU NEED TO SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!" I was confused and was like "what did I do?!" and he turns to me, clearly most angry with me, and demands that I "shut up and sit down, this is about the kids, not you". I was calm and talking low in all my interaction and just asked "I can't stand?" and his reply was "you can shut up and sit down or leave my court, this is about the kids, not you." so recognizing that anything I said would only escalate things and since it had nothing to do with my boys, I went and sat down (I usually stand the whole game). The kids played out the game. We came back and won the game 10-7. After the game the opposing coach and I was were like "what the heck was that all about?" So, I filled in the past and that clearly the ref does not like me personally so he was just looking for something to go off on me so he got his little dig at me in when he spoke up and then it went off from there. The funny thing is that I agree, it is about the kid but he was making it about him not them. I keep bringing up to the kids, control what you can control and let go of everything else... so I have to listen to myself here. :lmao:

So, today we have an 11am game to win and get back in the championship game or go home. To make things interesting, the mother of my PG just texted me that he threw up this morning so he may not be there. She is hoping he just ate something but will see how he is doing and let me know. It will be very hard to beat both teams without him. We shall see.
 
15-5

The team fought hard but we fell short 9-14. We didn't have our PG and that hurt a lot. As I mentioned earlier, our offense is most similar to a 5 out DDM and it thrives off of our PG ability to drive. He can consistently beat his defenders off the dribble, penetrate and either the D collapses on him and he can kick it out or they don't and he takes it all the way. We have a few basic "plays" to switch things up but as I mentioned earlier they are not plays as much as the absolute basics of an offense (screen, give and go, pick and roll, etc). My second best ball handler can drive but he is best on the wing or baseline 1 on 1 and pulling up a little floater if help comes over. He does not generate the same kind of penetration up top... I don't think it is because he isn't capable but he just isn't as aggressive as our little guy. Plus putting him up top takes him out of what he does best. At the end of the game the other coach asked me where he was. I think he feels the same that I do that if we had him the result most likely would have been different. But as I told the kids, we only focus on what we can control. We can't control a team mate getting sick, or refs, or the other team etc. We can control ourselves and our play.

The second best ball carrier and my son are very alike in many ways. They kind of look alike, are the same height, have some similar mannerisms now (they sit next to each other in class), and are both very emotional. Both of them started getting very frustrated on the court. Both got hurt, i.e. they had something minor like a slap on the hand (my son) or getting bumped in the leg (my second ball handler) and break down like they just broke a bone and flow a river. Both started playing frustrated. Both I had to try calm down. Both broke down crying when we lost. My son certainly gets it from me as that is how I was at his age playing. I was the best player on my team consistently but would end up fouling out many games. It wasn't to later that I learned to control myself partly because of maturing and partly because of a coach from the older level of club that I respected a lot pulled me aside one game and broke it down to me in that I had to control myself, not get emotional and foul like that because my team needed me. They have similar issues. I want them to funnel that passion because both of them will get their gears moving and play harder when they get wound up but they also play recklessly. Any thoughts or suggestions on helping guide them at a younger age better than I got... I am all ears.

It wasn't the outcome we wanted but I am very proud of these boys. 5 games over a weekend is not easy for 4th graders... plus I know several of the boys had other sports stuff too. They were warriors and never quit... whether it was missing key players, our balls just not dropping, a ref who apparently really does not like their coach, or just a long weekend. They gave it their all.
 
Still winless. :oldunsure:

We have quick guards but they are just too small to drive and get layups in a traditional motion offense. My tallest kids are like guards on the other teams.

That said, we played a terrible team two Saturdays ago and ended up losing by 3 somehow.

I think I am just going to install a full-court press and just let these quick guards be super-aggressive and get steals. Gonna have my best kid play "center field" so he can run up quickly and get passes from the guards for layups. I seriously think this is the only way we are going to win games.

The City did a horrendous job of balancing talent and height on these teams. Hate to place blame elsewhere but it is what it is. I coached 4th graders in a different league about 5-6 years ago and we were absolutely elite. I certainly know what I'm doing, I just don't have much to work with here.
 
Still winless. :oldunsure:

We have quick guards but they are just too small to drive and get layups in a traditional motion offense. My tallest kids are like guards on the other teams.

That said, we played a terrible team two Saturdays ago and ended up losing by 3 somehow.

I think I am just going to install a full-court press and just let these quick guards be super-aggressive and get steals. Gonna have my best kid play "center field" so he can run up quickly and get passes from the guards for layups. I seriously think this is the only way we are going to win games.

The City did a horrendous job of balancing talent and height on these teams. Hate to place blame elsewhere but it is what it is. I coached 4th graders in a different league about 5-6 years ago and we were absolutely elite. I certainly know what I'm doing, I just don't have much to work with here.
They allow full press in the league? One of our leagues does not allow it and the other is last two minutes of end of halves.

If you are small and quick then I would certainly go full press if allowed. Get them to push the ball up the court as fast as they can on steals and the occasional accidental rebound. At this age, it is rare for these teams to be able to play good transition defense, even more so if they play zone defense like most of the teams we face do. My boys play much better transition defense than most teams which I think is because we have only done M2M defense and have really focused on them understanding help and off ball defense concepts so they are pretty good at stopping the ball and covering all offensive players coming down. For most teams we go against, we run and gun as much as we can.
 
Big game tomorrow night.

We are currently in a 4 way tie for second place at 7-2. The team in first place is 8-0. Should be a good one. I am looking forward to it.
 
Big game tomorrow night.

We are currently in a 4 way tie for second place at 7-2. The team in first place is 8-0. Should be a good one. I am looking forward to it.
Big win. 20-17.

I could see why the team had not lost yet. Unlike most of the good teams we have played where they would generally have one super star and then the rest of the team would be average, this team has a very good guard and then two kids that had height that was well over my boys. They didn't have any kids that were bad players so it went from very good, to a couple that were good and the rest being average. I was missing two of my mid-tier guys so my one left mid-tier played a lot of time and he begged me to give him a breather twice. :lmao: My second best ball handler got in foul trouble so he didn't play for a good half of the first half (games go by halves not quarters).

We lead the whole game but it was always close. My boys played good ball throughout the game. They played hard with good defense all game. The other team was clearly not used to not being able to do what they wanted on offense and their top guy was visibly getting frustrated. There was a couple of things I loved seeing... one was really good ball movement. Best we have had all season long. I have been driving a message into my PG to get him to embrace passing more and that the more that he starts to excel at that the more he will be dangerous as a scorer because defenses will have to respect his passing as well. He seemed to take it to heart and did more passing. Another thing was that I have been trying to get my guys to understand how developing a head fake can be a powerful addition to their offensive skills. My second best ball handler, who has a similar game to me as a kid where he excels in the short corner to corner and driving, really "got it". He had several very nice head fakes that opened up his drives to the basket. After the first one that had two defenders in the air for him to drive with a beautiful finish, the opposing coach kept screaming "STOP BITING ON THE FAKE!!!" but they kept going up and he would be able to drive... sometimes dishing it, sometimes getting to the basket... the one thing I need to work on him about is being more decisive and trusting the head fake as he is a little hesitant which allows help defense to come over. I also challenged them to focus on boxing out and going to get those rebounds even though they had the height on us. The responded and we got the boards.

The one interesting point in the game... my son goes down to the ground on defense. From my angle it looked like a charge with the elbow being thrown. I walk over and ask him "Whats going on?" and my son as he is holding his throat says that he got jabbed in the throat. At this time the ref is basically standing over us and replies "That is what you get when you reach."..... I stood up and faced him giving him my best what the heck did you just say and said forcefully to him "Are you kidding me? Get over there." motioning him away. He started to make a motion like he was going to T me up but then stopped.... I think he realized that he was out of line. I went back attending to my son, who got up and went to the bench. As we walked, I gave the ref a death stare. I do think that he felt bad about it... shortly after that, there was a rebound and from one of my boys but he was right in the middle of a couple of their players. I could see he would end up getting a jump ball so I called for a time out quickly. In my eyes, clearly before the other team got their hands in there but the nearest ref waived me off saying it was already jump ball and I can't call the time out. The ref that I had the issue with waived him off and called the time out. He was out of position but the senior ref and the other ref objected a little bit but he over ruled him. I do think that that was a make up call for that interaction. After the game, I went up to him and said something alone the lines of "you understand, that wasn't the time to say something." and he said something about trying to be helpful and I replied "yea, but not when he is on the ground." then he mentioned something about one of my boys who actually had some dried blood on his jersey cause before we even started to warm up, he somehow caught a ball in the face and had a bleeding nose for a little and then said next time to switch jerseys inside out and not let them see basically telling me that he let him play when he shouldn't have.

So that team drops their first game. It may not mean anything but if they drop another one, it could end up being the tiebreaker that catapults us into 1st place. Very proud of the boys. Overall 17-6 record from all games played so far.
 

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