Coaching Youth Basketball (1 Viewer)

[Chadstroma]

A tough tie yesterday.... tough in that it was disappointing to the boys that they didn't win but for me and the coaches, we were extremely proud of them and loved what we saw.

We had a game earlier at 11am for a tournament we are in. I had peeked a little into the game for the two teams that played to play us and I wasn't really too worried. I felt like we could handle either team with a good amount of margin for error.

Our second game, I knew was going to be us going against a good team as the team was 4-0 in our league going into our game. On top of that, I am missing two players from our 8 man roster. One of them being my normal PG who is my best ball handler, best shooter, good defender, tons of heart, etc. The other being my 6th man who puts in a lot of good effort, fights for the loose balls, will get a rebound here and there and score if he happens to get the ball wide open from mid range in. So, I have my starters and then two boys that are pretty consistently the least capable on the court each time we play.

My son had a swim meet in the morning. (He did well) and then we went to first basketball game. So, he had a full plate going into the second basketball game.

Sometime late 3rd quarter, my best ball handler with my normal PG out tweaked his knee a bit. Of course, I pull him and have him sit and now the only option I had at PG was my son... which it just isn't a good spot for him.... but we finish the game with a wide margin victory.

I tell my boys, rest up and see you at 3pm.

Unknown to me... two of my boys then go to a club basketball game in-between our game including my now PG who just tweaked his knee and my big guy who is not in the best conditioning shape. No one said anything to me because I think they knew I would not be happy.

In warm ups my son happens to roll his ankle. No damage or anything but it was sore. So, now I have two of my three best players banged up a bit and all three of my best players definitely not fresh.

The game goes on and as I expected, they are a good team. We get behind a bit. A few questionable calls (which is part of the game) but one of them really frustrated me because my boys are bringing the ball up and I want a TO. I shout several times TO and giving the hand signal while walking onto the court. My PG sees and hears me as everyone else in the gym did and did a little stop picking the ball up and took a couple of steps and they called travel. The one ref was a bit older and I know he had some hearing issues as I later called a time out and he was a couple of feet from me and I was yelling TO nearly as loud as I can and it took several attempts to get it. The other one said he was looking at the ball carrier and did not see me and he was on the opposite end of the court so not hearing me was... somewhat understandable. Anyways.... a couple of calls or no calls that went against us and my boys, my top three players I have that all have a history of breaking down mentally with frustration... start to show visible frustration. I kept getting their attention to refocus them and get them back into the game mentally. They each responded and keep playing. Then my big guy, the third of my three best players, tweeks his knee! So, all three of them are somewhat not 100% being banged up and are running low on the fuel tank. But they kept at it. Kept fighting. We finally pull ahead late in the 4th. Up by 3... they scored and we had 1 point lead with 2 seconds left. They get the ball (can't remember how) and there is an inbounds play for them at their hoop. Pass it in, shot goes up and dinks..... my boys go crazy because they didn't hear the whistle as my big guy knocked the shooter on the floor with their bodies colliding after the shot. My boys are crushed. Time expired then the kid gets his two free throws. Sinks the first one. Tie game. Missed the second.... OT. The boys are deflated from the emotional high of the win from a hard battle to not getting the win and now going into OT. We play the OT and each team scores a couple of times. Clearly my boys are empty physically and emotionally but they kept fighting. Time expires and in league play there is only one OT so we ended in a tie.

For me, it was a win because the boys kept fighting. Had moments where they could and started to break down mentally but got back into it. We were short handed, missing one of our best players, the rest of our best players all tied and hurt and we still fought back against a good team and nearly won but we sure as heck didn't let them win either.

 

[Chadstroma]

We took 1st place in a tournament Sunday. One of ten teams. We won each game pretty decidedly. Our margin was 27 points in the first game, 10 in the second and 6 in the championship game but it really wasn't that close as we lead all game long by as much as 15. They made a good push towards the end but we were still in control of the game.

We picked up two wins in one of our leagues this weekend too. Taking us to a 4-2-1 record in it. We started 0-2 in the league against teams we really shouldn't have lost to part of it is we didn't have our big guy but also part of it is my bad as a coach in not getting them prepared in time. The tie game was against a good team but I felt good about that (see above).

Our other league we are still undefeated. 7-0

Our overall record including both leagues and tournaments is 13-2-1.

This week is a busy week with our second tournament starting up. First round is against the team we beat by 10 in the last tournament. Assuming we beat them again, we will be playing Wed-Sunday with two games on Sunday.

I am seeing good development from most of the players. I have really been pushing them to work on getting better at home and I can tell who is really doing it and who isn't. Looking ahead to some of our league games, mostly teams that haven't been winning much but we do have one tough matchup. Then into the playoffs.

 

[SWC]

I am seeing good development from most of the players.

i have coached a long time and for a lot of teams like for decades and this is what it is all about i see too many parent coaches who coach only for their kid and so one kid gets better and the rest of the team doesnt or actually regresses i also see too many parents who coach to win for themselves and the the other parents and that is also not what matters what matters is raising all ships and getting all of the kids better together and to play together so that when they get to high school they are a force where the 7 8 and 9 girls can all still play thats how you do it right in my opinion take that to the bank shot brohans

 

[Chadstroma]

I am seeing good development from most of the players.

i have coached a long time and for a lot of teams like for decades and this is what it is all about i see too many parent coaches who coach only for their kid and so one kid gets better and the rest of the team doesnt or actually regresses i also see too many parents who coach to win for themselves and the the other parents and that is also not what matters what matters is raising all ships and getting all of the kids better together and to play together so that when they get to high school they are a force where the 7 8 and 9 girls can all still play thats how you do it right in my opinion take that to the bank shot brohans

I really enjoy coaching basketball. Much more than I thought I would. Almost to the point where I think I missed my calling to where I should have gone into coaching and done it for high school etc. I am coaching my older son who is in 5th grade and will do the same for my younger son next year when he starts basketball in 3rd grade. So, I have likely at least 5 more years of coaching. I have developed a pretty good relationship with the AD and have thought about when that time comes, offering to continue to coach at the school (assuming we stick around the area).

The thing that I love about it is investing into these kids. Yes, helping them develop their basketball skills, have them work as a team, improve and work towards winning games. But more so using basketball as a way to instill in them concepts, habits, beliefs, etc that will serve them in life. Getting them to understand that hard work will lead to success, to develop a winning attitude, to treat everyone with respect, that if they want to get better at something it is a process of every day trying to get 1% better, translating things like not whining about calls but if you don't like it- let it fuel you to win the next round, etc. One of the biggest things I have been working on with my boys is mental toughness. My top 4 players (including my son) all are very susceptible to breaking down mentally when things don't go their way, or they get a foul or don't get a foul called, or they make an error, etc. 3 of the 4 have noticeably improved. One is still struggling a bit currently but it is understandable because he just isn't playing as well as he has in the past comparatively with the other kids. Mental toughness is hella hard to coach but it will pay off on the basketball court, other sports and in life if I help them develop it further.

My coaching style is hard. I do yell a bit more than my peers but it is never demeaning or negative in the language. The yelling is also mostly in games and somewhat rare at practice and is centered around them hearing me, getting their attention and focusing them while also often trying to energize them. Practice is more about teaching and explaining and helping them work through things. That being said, my practices are much harder than the other 5th grade teams from our school. I wondered how the boys felt about that but a few examples of showed me that I am doing a good job.... one kid that was on my team last year who ran a ridiculous amount of laps (my boys will run laps if they do things like talk or bounce a ball when I am talking or they are messing around or not focusing, etc). I mean, the kid likely ran more than the kids in cross country ran. If there was anyone that I thought would not want to be on my team, it would have been him.... a couple of weeks after the season started, I asked him how he liked the other team and he immediately responded "I hate it. I wish on was on your team still." another one of the boys that was on the team last season but not this one told me that he "missed running" (he didn't do a lot of laps but my teams do do a lot of running even without those laps). I thought he was being sarcastic but he really missed it. My son told me that one of his class mates that I have never coached said that he wished he was on my team. So, we were talking about this in the car with my daughter and on the way to pick up one of the boys on the team for practice. My daughter does not want me to coach her and says she feels bad for the boys. I told her that my boys love being on my team. When we picked up the player, I asked him, "Do you like me coaching you?" And he said "Yes." and I told him my daughter feels bad for you guys and he responded "Well, I mean, you asked us at the start if we wanted to win and if we did how you would coach us hard so you are just doing what we chose for you to do." It is rewarding to know that the kids WANT the coaching that I am giving even as it is HARD at times and directly at improving their lives more so than even improving them as basketball players.

 

[Chadstroma]

We got creamed.

39-21

We were actually up 11-9 in the first when I had my son on their good player.... he was as advertised. Best player in the league. Hard as hell to stop. Not athletically imposing but is just very extremely talented in the basketball skillset. Shooting is very good, very good dribbler, can drive, knows how to invite contact and draw the foul and on defense is solid as well.

My son picked up his 3rd foul mid 2nd and I had to pull him. From there, we just could not stop him. My 6th man is a big drop in talent level from my son and we just got into a big hole. By half we were down by 12. I get my son in not too much in the 3rd and he picked up his 4th not long after. None of his fouls were really bad or cheap fouls but I have to get him to understand to play hard defense on a kid like that but also don't get himself in positions of picking up the fouls.

I started to install a 2 and Triangle defense specifically with this team in mind. I didn't use it because our school has all the home games on Youtube. Teams will go on there and prep so I don't want to show it at all at any home games.

They had one other kid that was fairly good, a bit taller and athletic but nothing too great. We got him in foul trouble and he wasn't really a factor. After those two the rest of the team is basically unable to do much at all.

What pissed me off was that the coach (father of the super star) kept him in the whole game until less than 2 minutes to go which to me is such a jerkoff move. You are leading by 20 and especially when I put my entire lesser lineup in.... like, really, you are keeping him in? Jerk. If we see them again, which will only be if we are in the playoffs for one league which may end up them at 1 seed and us at 2nd seed.... which would be the championship game.... I think I can make some adjustments and coach the boys up that we can upset them but it won't be easy. If we do... man that would be awesome.

 

[Chadstroma]

18-4-1 record. We play tonight in a semi final for a tournament- if we win, then we play again for the Championship (which will be our second tournament win) on Sunday.

Out of our 4 losses, 3 of them we shouldn't have lost and two of those three we already got our revenge with lopsided wins. The one team that will be hard for us to win against is that team with the superstar that creamed us 39-21.

Outside of the tournament games which will wrap up this weekend, we have 5 league games to the season. The boys have shown improvement through the season.

 

[Chadstroma]

21-4-1
And our second Tournament Championship

The team we beat in the final was by far the best defensive team we played against so far this season. We were tied into the 4th and then finally clicked and ran away with the quarter.

 

[Chadstroma]

We ended our regular season Saturday. 25-5-1 including tournament play.

We go into two playoffs for the two leagues we are in. For one, we are 3rd seed and we are waiting for the brackets today for the other league playoffs. Tonight is our first playoff game.

 

[Chadstroma]

Heartbreaking early exit from one of our leagues playoffs.

After demolishing our first matchup (3rd vs 11th seeds) we played a matchup against the 6th seed. However, this is much better team than a 6th seed. In fact, in our other league, they are actually the 1st seed. Earlier in the season, we beat them in our only matchup, which was a good close game that they lead most of the game and we came back and took the win. It was early in the season where our team was still learning how to play together and with how I was asking them to play. Heading into the game I was confident that we would beat them again though it would be a close and hard game.

Then I got an email. My PG was sick and was out for the game. Not only is he my PG but he is my second highest scorer, third best rebounder and he is tied with three of my other starters with 2.1 steals a game (it is crazy that the four of them ended with the exact same average steals per game). I could move my shooting guard to PG but a big difference between them is the ability for my normal PG to work the ball to our post player who is our top scorer. Another huge part of that is in the difference of skillset from him to my 6th man which is drastic.

No doubt, it was a huge hit to go into the game without him. I still gave us a 50/50 chance. One huge difference between our early game and this game besides still learning how to play with each other was that one of my starters had a tremendous amount of improvement through the year. Unfortunately, he had an absolutely horrible game. As a whole, we were not playing to our normal level of play.

Now we have a game Saturday for our other leagues playoffs. Currently, I already know that my shooting guard is unavailable as he will be out of town. We can survive that against this team which is not very good.... as long as my PG is good to play. If he doesn't play, most likely we will end up dropping this first round to a much inferior team as I won't have a reliable ball carrier and two of my three top scorers and having to play a lot of minutes of my bench which skillset wise is very below the average of the league. Here is to hoping my PG gets better.

 

[Chadstroma]

We made it through that first and second rounds of the playoffs. We beat each team very convincingly going into mercy rule with both.

Semi-Final was today. Against the team that bounced us from the other league's playoffs but this time we had everyone. It started off a little sloppy and we got down by a few points.... then my shooting guard went off.... he sunk four 3's and we played better overall. By half we were up by 7. My son locked down their best shooter and he was not a factor and they couldn't get anything going consistently. When my boys are on- there isn't a team we have faced that can beat us. We were on today. 33-11 win.

Championship game Sat. The team we will play beat one of our school's other team in OT. It would have been fun to matchup against our own school but it is what it is.

29-6-1 record... really hoping to push that to a 30-6-1 record.

 

[Chadstroma]

PART 1
This is the first weekend in a very long time that we have no sports going on. I wanted to take time to reflect on the season now that it is completed.

We got that 30-6-1 overall record including all our season, tournament and playoff games.

We won the championship in one of our leagues (20 teams in the division and back to back championship wins from 4th and 5th grade).
We won two tournament championships (these tournaments were full of teams that were not in our league).

The Championship game was a good one. We started off very poorly getting quickly into a 0-6 hole. I was worried because I didn't exactly like how we matched up against them. We did not play this team at all this year but had played them last year. Last year, during the regular season, they were undefeated until they played us. We beat them. I remembered that their #8 was their offensive weapon. I had put one of my better defenders on him and he shut him down. Going into this game, I was going to put my son (who is our best defender and I matched up against their best offensive player through most of the games) on #8. However, while watching them warm up it was quickly evident that that would not work. They had a kid that was not on the team last year who had good height, taller than my son and just short of my big guy, but was very athletic. If I put my big guy on him, he would run circles around him so I put my son on him as there was no one else who could really match up with his size and athleticism. I put my two guard on #8. My two guard plays good defense but he is much better off ball than matching up on someone with the ball. #8 did get some points but he did a good job on him and my son locked down their big guy. Through the 1st half, we clawed our way up and we were down by 2 at the half.

I told the team that that was a good team, we are not playing our best ball and we are only down by 2. We got this. They were playing a box and 1 defense and collapsing on to our big guy if we got him the ball in the post. I did notice that they were not always good on the transition. They tended to run down with their backs to the ball, find their spot and turn around (as is the case with zone defenses and this age a lot of times). I told my boys to push the ball down the court and attack but don't force it if it wasn't there. One of my boys hit a 3 and that really set us off.... from there, we kept pushing the ball down and their transition defense would break down. We pulled ahead and were up by as much as 8 with about 2 minutes left. They hit a three and then we traded baskets to end the game with a 5 point win.

I had 8 players on the team this year. We started off getting our rosters and I had 9 players. The instructions were that if there was any players to be switched, both coaches had to agree. The team was a little different from the previous year. I had a core of my three from last year (my son, my PG and two guard) but lost one who was one of my better players. Solid offensively (had our highest point total in a game) and right there with my son as being a great defender. We gained our big guy, who I believe is the tallest in the league and has some size (not fat but not skinny either) who can also shoot. He was a hard matchup for most teams. And our fifth, who is a great athlete and I thought was better at basketball than he was... at least to start the year. With my overestimation of my 5th, it seemed clear we had the best starting 5. One of the other coaches came and asked to swap players.... one of the 'average' kids on my team and he game me one of the kids with less than developed skills in return. The other coach said they had 8 and we had 9 and we had a better starting 5 so if they could get our other kid who was 'average'. I had no desire to fight and again, I agreed that we had the strongest 5 so I agreed to their requests.

 

[Chadstroma]

PART 2
That had me with the following:
PG- My PG is really likely best suited as a small forward which is where I had him to begin the year but he has good ball handling skills and above all could pass well s o eventually moved him to PG. He was as happy to make a great pass as he is to take a great shot and helped move the offense by both driving and passing. He did a great job all season long after I moved him there. For most of the season, he was our 2nd highest scorer. For some reason my stat guy didn't record assists but there is no doubt he has the most assists on the team. And on top of that at the end of the season he was in a 4 way tie for most steals and was my third best rebounder.

Shooting Guard- This was my PG from last year and started at PG this year. He is a shorter kid but quick, has good ball handling and can shoot. Last year, he was likely our MVP but this year he seemed to keep pressing too hard and had a lot of turnovers and on top of that, his shooting regressed from last year. It clearly was all mental as he would mentally break down after a turnover or missed shot and that would only snowball it all. I moved him to shooting guard and told him that I was hoping this would open him up for more better shots.

Small forward- This was the kid who is a great athlete (big on soccer) and I thought had better basketball skills than he did at the beginning of the year. His shooting was erratic but what really was a problem is he had zero aggressiveness. Always dribbling away from people. Pull up and shoot even if there was an open lane in front of him. Going for layups, if a defender came over he would do a fallaway layup. If he got a rebound on offense, he would immediately dribble out to the 3 point line. And so on. Early in the season, we lost a close game after we were down by 2 and he got a steal. Went down the court and then passed it to absolutely no one (because he panicked) and the ball went out of bounds. I told him that I was going to make him more aggressive if it was the only thing I did all season long. Over the course of the season he improved dramatically in this which I will take the credit for. However, his biggest improvement was in his shooting which was mostly the time his Dad spent with him and the time he spent practicing. He went from being a distant 4th best shooter on the team to being the best mid range shooter on the team (though he was not as good from 3 point line). Easily the most improved player on the team and a big reason why we won the championship in which he scored 16, including the 3 that got us going and a number of those points in transition.

Power forward- This was my son. My son is the youngest on the court, literally being on that line of being in 4th grade instead of 5th grade and we had the choice. The way I describe him in sports is that he is not going to be the fastest on the team but he will be one of the fastest, not the quickest but one of the quickest, not the tallest but one of the tallest, not the strongest but one of the strongest. He is one of the best on ball defenders in the league (perhaps the best, I didn't see anyone we went against that I would say was clearly better). He is aggressive on defense as he lead out team in fouls. All season long, I would give him the assignment of whoever was their best offensive player with some rare exceptions where I felt match up wise we needed to do something different. He guarded everyone from the smallest, quickest kid on the other team to their big guys. Consistently, he would limit or shut down those assignments. He also was our second best rebounder. Offensively, he was just very erratic and not much of a threat. We need to work on that.

Center- I would say he was our MVP this year. He had our highest scoring game of the season (32 points) was our leading scorer all season and leading rebounder all season as well. I don't think he gave up any height on anyone he played against all season long and he isn't all height and bones with some heft to him. A massively hard matchup for most teams we faced. Though not quick or fast, he does have athletic ability and can shoot as well. We used him in low post 95% of the time but he actually can shoot pretty well. In fact, in a tournament, he won a "shootout" award where they had them shoot from the blocks, elbows, free throw line and top of the key- he hit all 6 shots. He got a lot of points from being "hack a shaq'ed" and going to the free throw line... but unlike Shaq, could actually hit those free throws. My big challenge to him is to work on conditioning this off season. If he can continue to increase that (he improved through the season) he wil be dangerous moving forward. If not, he won't be able to play as much with the high tempo I believe we will need to do in Jr High.

6th Man- A good kid with lots of energy. He has potential but the biggest issue with him is what I call 'happy feet'. His feet seemingly go in different directions based on their own whims at time. He can actually score when open but also would take some shots out of his range when he got the ball and immediately heaved it up. On defense, he was a liability as no matter how many times I would tell him, he would line up between his defender and the ball and then lose track of his man. Being a smaller kid, he would not get as much rebounds as well.

Bench- My two boys on my bench.... good kids with good hearts but if they weren't the two least skilled kids in the league, they certainly are right up there among those who would be. Catching the ball is a struggle for them. Shooting, even under the basket and open, was a struggle as well. Defensively, they were a basket waiting to happen if their defender just moved spots. In our blow outs, without my directing the team to do so, the boys would try to get the ball to them for them to score. One of them did score 4 points (in the same game).

This is the last year of 'developmental' league where if there are multiple teams, they are to be split roughly evenly in as much as talent goes. Our grade had three teams. Almost all other schools had 1 or 2 teams. Next year is tryouts with A and B teams. Our A team will be a tough one for sure. We have both top end talent and depth. There will be a couple of boys who could play in the A league but will just not make the cut (it will be interesting to see how that shapes up). There are also going to be some really good teams from other schools. There will be more than a couple of teams that can match up their starting 5 with ours but they won't have near the depth as we do. The one team that will have the depth as we do will not have the top end talent. If I coach the A team, we will try to run the other teams into the ground. Full court press all game, man to man defense, push the ball on fast break as often as we can and run a motion offense. I can rotate fresh legs in and out of the game all game long while the other teams will have to either let their stars get tired out or bring in the their bench which we can take advantage of. I don't know if I will coach the A team both of the other HC's have sons that will make A but I do think because of the success we have had, I will likely get that nod.

It has been a great year. Fun. Rewarding. Meaningful. I love coaching these boys.