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Coaching Youth Basketball (1 Viewer)

Two things. First, I do think there is a difference on elementary development league with a guarantee of equal playing time and Jr High winning league with no guarantee of playing time (Yes, I am obsessed with winning, I know, but that is what the description basically is from both the leagues and the school).
The min play time rule is irrelevant when talking about what to do in blowouts. In blowouts you give the kids that don't play much more time and you take out your best players. It doesn't matter if there is a min play time rule or not. This is the time to get the lesser kids game experience. Period.
 
i just spent the morning at a signing ceremony for another girl i coached and it feels pretty good take that to the bank brohans
 
My two cents as a former Division 1 coach - this thread is very well informed!

Offense
  • agree don't get too complicated, agree skills focus and how the game works matters most
  • cut when coming towards ball (a "v cut" most commonly) to get open for a pass outside
  • back cut to get open and score
  • what to do when the PG dribbles at you (CUT!)
  • If you start to get more complex you can bring in the on ball screen next - I wouldn't do much off ball screening when kids don't have consistent outside shots yet. If you have a great team who is getting it, I don't mind the back screen off ball to get the other guy cutting to basket and screening his defender - and you can even do that with a baseline cross.

Defense
  • strongly agree that M2M on and off ball is vital, don't have much to add to what everyone has said here
if you are running zone in youth you are not helping anyone get better on offense we used to run an offense with one team i had that was pretty skilled where all we did was tell the kids if you dont have the ball go and screen someone to get a shooter or penetrator open and the ball my lady would sit behind the others teams bench and listen to the coaches say definitively that we were running a continaiety or a flex or whatever when we literally had no plays except go screen and get girls open take that to the bank brohan
 
My son is playing on a 7th grade b ball tournament team. He's a really good kid. The kind of kid that will be the first one of to congratulate a teammate when they do something good. He truly is a selfless teammate, and I love that about him. B ball is his third sport. More of a "stay in shape over the winter" type thing. He's pretty decent, but he's not setting the world on fire in B ball.

I've heard all the horror stories about crazy parents, and ****ty kids. I just hoping he keeps his positive outlook. I think he will. B ball is a great sport. Seems to be a good amount of people who ruin it though.
 
My son is playing on a 7th grade b ball tournament team. He's a really good kid. The kind of kid that will be the first one of to congratulate a teammate when they do something good. He truly is a selfless teammate, and I love that about him. B ball is his third sport. More of a "stay in shape over the winter" type thing. He's pretty decent, but he's not setting the world on fire in B ball.

I've heard all the horror stories about crazy parents, and ****ty kids. I just hoping he keeps his positive outlook. I think he will. B ball is a great sport. Seems to be a good amount of people who ruin it though.
There's basically no sport that is better to play the rest of your life. It's basketball and soccer. They're the only real pickup, social, nearly equipment less sports that last all into college and adulthood.
 
B ball is a great sport. Seems to be a good amount of people who ruin it though.
This is every youth sport. Overbearing adults ruin all of them.
I hear you ......we've mostly had good experience with travel baseball though. Travel volleyball, we had not great experiences. Obviously it mostly depends on the people in the programs. I just think basketball with all the trash talking and what not lends itself to turn pretty toxic, pretty fast
 
B ball is a great sport. Seems to be a good amount of people who ruin it though.
This is every youth sport. Overbearing adults ruin all of them.
I hear you ......we've mostly had good experience with travel baseball though. Travel volleyball, we had not great experiences. Obviously it mostly depends on the people in the programs. I just think basketball with all the trash talking and what not lends itself to turn pretty toxic, pretty fast
Maybe it's just the crowds that I've run in so far, but there seem to be a lot more overbearing baseball dads than basketball dads for whatever reason.
 
My son is playing on a 7th grade b ball tournament team. He's a really good kid. The kind of kid that will be the first one of to congratulate a teammate when they do something good. He truly is a selfless teammate, and I love that about him. B ball is his third sport. More of a "stay in shape over the winter" type thing. He's pretty decent, but he's not setting the world on fire in B ball.

I've heard all the horror stories about crazy parents, and ****ty kids. I just hoping he keeps his positive outlook. I think he will. B ball is a great sport. Seems to be a good amount of people who ruin it though.
There's basically no sport that is better to play the rest of your life. It's basketball and soccer. They're the only real pickup, social, nearly equipment less sports that last all into college and adulthood.
It's a little tough on the joints
 
B ball is a great sport. Seems to be a good amount of people who ruin it though.
This is every youth sport. Overbearing adults ruin all of them.
I hear you ......we've mostly had good experience with travel baseball though. Travel volleyball, we had not great experiences. Obviously it mostly depends on the people in the programs. I just think basketball with all the trash talking and what not lends itself to turn pretty toxic, pretty fast
Maybe it's just the crowds that I've run in so far, but there seem to be a lot more overbearing baseball dads than basketball dads for whatever reason.
The reason is because everyone thinks they know baseball. Other sports sometimes have a little more hold back as they may not feel as comfortable being "experts".
 
B ball is a great sport. Seems to be a good amount of people who ruin it though.
This is every youth sport. Overbearing adults ruin all of them.
I hear you ......we've mostly had good experience with travel baseball though. Travel volleyball, we had not great experiences. Obviously it mostly depends on the people in the programs. I just think basketball with all the trash talking and what not lends itself to turn pretty toxic, pretty fast
Maybe it's just the crowds that I've run in so far, but there seem to be a lot more overbearing baseball dads than basketball dads for whatever reason.
The reason is because everyone thinks they know baseball. Other sports sometimes have a little more hold back as they may not feel as comfortable being "experts".
From my experience, the bad parents are trying to live vicariously through their kids. They are aggressive parents who were probably pretty good athletes, and they have kids who are pretty good athletes. They pay for all the extra trainings. All the latest gear. They believe little billy is going to go D1 and they will squash anyone who they believe is in their way......even though little billy is not going to be a D1 athlete
 
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Thankfully, we don't have that problem with most of our coaches. It's why I'm involved. Too involved. Multiple teams per season is too much, but hopefully this is just a thing in 24-25. May be able to pull back next year.

Unfortunately, we do have this problem with one coach and I think he will be our football coach next season, which is why I won't help...but I also have it on good authority most of our players won't play if he's still coaching. Next summer is going to be interesting
 
3rd Grade Team 1st game

0-0-1
4-4

As expected for their first ever game together and being 3rd graders it was more organized chaos than anything else. We been spending all our time on skill development. We have not even touched on doing an inbounds play and I just kind of set them up in a 5 out "spots" to try to keep them from bunching up. The kids had a great time and they all played real hard. There was, as obviously there would be, a lot to work on. That being said, in a lot of ways the boys impressed me. Every parent came by after the game and had various comments but were all pretty much a different variation of "That was a good game! Much better than I expected"

We had one kid hit.... a 15-17ish shot which was funny because when he hit it his Dad (one of my assistants) and I looked at each other surprised and gave high fives. Then we both said that we were both going to tell him that was a bit further than what we would like him to be shooting now but it was going to be hard since he made it. :lmao:

It was really good to be back at this level just enjoying the kids and the funny things that happen during a game or how you tell them to do something and 2 seconds later they don't do it. This grade has two teams. I have not seen the other team but our team is really overflowing with potential. I have been really impressed a number of times of how the boys have picked up some things and have already improved just a couple of weeks in the season.

My son was getting down in defensive position all game long and like serious very good form defensive position as well as keeping the proper angles. He also had an actual, real, legit block shot.

Good stuff.
 
6th grade team

4-0
41-10

When we showed up the game ahead of us was going and already a blow out. The Cen team was ahead something like 50's to 10ish. I quickly could see why. The team had a lot of height.... like half the team at least was taller or significantly taller than my tallest boy. And they had some skilled players as well. I saw a woman who looked like she was in charge and asked her what grade it was which she replied 6th and that they had three teams A, B and C or B light (which is not how it is supposed to be but whatever) the team we were watching was their B team and we would play their C team. This is actually a public school and is their Jr High. The previous years they had several elementary schools that all feed into this Jr High. They have fielded some pretty good teams the last couple of years. In 4th, one of their teams was undefeated in the regular season with the exception of us beating them then that team lost a close game in the semi-final against the team we defeated for that Championship. Last year, one of their other teams was the team we defeated in the Championship game. So, I have seen some of the boys but there were a number of new boys or at least boys I have not seen. I am not sure if they had an influx of boys who did not play in Elementary but now play in Jr High. I sent a text to our A team coaches and told them that I haven't seen their A team but based on seeing their B team... that A team will be a hard team to go against.

Setting up for our game, I could see right away that this would be our toughest opponent so far. They had height and size over us and they had a guard that could handle the ball well and played solid defense. They came out and played M2M which is the first time I can really recall a team playing M2M on us in our league play so that was fun. I told the boys that this would be a challenge and honestly the ending point total really does not tell the story, it was a much closer game than the score or at least until the second half (this league plays halves). We got up a little and they battled back and got it to within 4 and then we pulled away a bit to half time at 19-10. Then the second half we dominated on defense not allowing them a single point and that lead to a lot of fast break points.

It was a very physical game. The refs were letting them really go at it, even to the point that I was really starting to worry about someone getting hurt. Again, remember, my team is basically a bunch of football players playing basketball and the other team was a bunch of bigger boys that weren't afraid of contact. We have got to get better communicating because my son ran into numerous brick walls (and sometimes a shoulder being lead into) on screens but he kept at it and continued to play his usual great defense.

The best thing about the game was that the last couple of practices, I spent almost all the time focusing on getting the boys to make quicker decisions, shooting when open, and above all not going into 'turtle mode' as I call it... when one of the boys gets the ball, tucks it into their belly and bends over trying to protect the basketball which inevitably leads to either a turnover or jump ball. None of the boys did that which was great but what was even greater was one of the boys who up to this game had scored 2 points and mostly because he would kind of panic and not even square up to the basket and look to pass it away even when open. Well, he scored 14 points, the second highest on the team. He went 6 for 7 along with his 2-2 at the free throw line. Almost all of the shots were 12-17 footers and most closer to the 17 than the 12 (just one fast break that he did a beautiful jump stop and then let the defenders fly by then put it up off the board just as I have been working with him to do). He is a fairly reserved kid but he was feeling both being hot and his reaction to being hot, letting out a roar and jumping up and down being excited after his last couple of shots.

My PG, who is new to playing PG, had 10 assists.

My son had 3 points, 7 rebounds, 6 steals, 3 blocks and 4 assists.

It was a good game. It further showed the progress the boys are making. Yesterday at practice I had them run a weave. It was, for the most part, exactly how the weave is supposed to work. This was in stark contrast to our first practice where we ran it and it was an absolute trainwreck. It was the last drill before we went into our free throw/suicide ending of practice so I brought them in and pointed out how well it went which the agreed. I then pointed to how it was so much better than the first practice and they all lite up and were excited as it was something they could really see dramatic improvement on across the board.

The team is playing great defense- which is awesome since most of the team has not played M2M and they have gone through some big learning curves on it but we have spent a lot of time in practice on it and it shows. They are passing well and almost all are very willing passers. They are getting a high % from the field at 64% and free throw line 86% over the 4 games. We need to really work on boxing out as that has been something they are consistently not doing and my son who is by far the leading rebounder is relying on his athleticism while the boys are hoping they are in the right place at the right time.... but they all go for that ball like a pack of wolves.

We have a game Monday and Friday, two during that weekend and two more during the week before we get into the Christmas break.
 
sounds like your boys are coming along well, Chad. Happy to see some of the players you were concerned about really turning it on and contributing.
I think the boys have a straight line connection from their hard work and seeing significant real improvement and they are all even more pumped up and committed than when we started which is great. I don't think I have ever seen someone go from how the one boy played in the first three games to playing last night with that much of a jump in difference. I have never seen his Dad so pumped up too (a fairly reserved Doctor). It really was our point of emphasis for our last two practices- working on immediately going into triple threat position, squaring up to the basket, spot shooting, etc. Out of the 3 and half hours of practice, 3 hours of it was all about getting these boys to stop hesitating and doing the turtle. That and the threat of suicides for every turtle did the trick. They all were making good, fast decisions and shooting it when they should and no turtles and then the one boy went off for the 14 points. He also had 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
 
sounds like your boys are coming along well, Chad. Happy to see some of the players you were concerned about really turning it on and contributing.
I think the boys have a straight line connection from their hard work and seeing significant real improvement and they are all even more pumped up and committed than when we started which is great. I don't think I have ever seen someone go from how the one boy played in the first three games to playing last night with that much of a jump in difference. I have never seen his Dad so pumped up too (a fairly reserved Doctor). It really was our point of emphasis for our last two practices- working on immediately going into triple threat position, squaring up to the basket, spot shooting, etc. Out of the 3 and half hours of practice, 3 hours of it was all about getting these boys to stop hesitating and doing the turtle. That and the threat of suicides for every turtle did the trick. They all were making good, fast decisions and shooting it when they should and no turtles and then the one boy went off for the 14 points. He also had 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
I don't teach triple threat any more (probably last ten years.) I teach the hop now, always catch to shoot, react to a split step and attack the close out.

Also, what is a turtle?
 
sounds like your boys are coming along well, Chad. Happy to see some of the players you were concerned about really turning it on and contributing.
I think the boys have a straight line connection from their hard work and seeing significant real improvement and they are all even more pumped up and committed than when we started which is great. I don't think I have ever seen someone go from how the one boy played in the first three games to playing last night with that much of a jump in difference. I have never seen his Dad so pumped up too (a fairly reserved Doctor). It really was our point of emphasis for our last two practices- working on immediately going into triple threat position, squaring up to the basket, spot shooting, etc. Out of the 3 and half hours of practice, 3 hours of it was all about getting these boys to stop hesitating and doing the turtle. That and the threat of suicides for every turtle did the trick. They all were making good, fast decisions and shooting it when they should and no turtles and then the one boy went off for the 14 points. He also had 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
I don't teach triple threat any more (probably last ten years.) I teach the hop now, always catch to shoot, react to a split step and attack the close out.

Also, what is a turtle?
What about the crossover, dribble through the legs, no look passes, and the eurostep? #fundamentals
 
sounds like your boys are coming along well, Chad. Happy to see some of the players you were concerned about really turning it on and contributing.
I think the boys have a straight line connection from their hard work and seeing significant real improvement and they are all even more pumped up and committed than when we started which is great. I don't think I have ever seen someone go from how the one boy played in the first three games to playing last night with that much of a jump in difference. I have never seen his Dad so pumped up too (a fairly reserved Doctor). It really was our point of emphasis for our last two practices- working on immediately going into triple threat position, squaring up to the basket, spot shooting, etc. Out of the 3 and half hours of practice, 3 hours of it was all about getting these boys to stop hesitating and doing the turtle. That and the threat of suicides for every turtle did the trick. They all were making good, fast decisions and shooting it when they should and no turtles and then the one boy went off for the 14 points. He also had 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
I don't teach triple threat any more (probably last ten years.) I teach the hop now, always catch to shoot, react to a split step and attack the close out.

Also, what is a turtle?
I see triple threat as foundational and would be taught with hop and 1-2 step as later. I teach the triple threat to get their stance, footwork and alignment correct quickly when they need to turn to the basket off a rebound or pass and going immediately into whatever decision they need to make on shooting, dribbling or passing. Not so much the old school way of go into position and then make a decision and move but rather a fluid seemless motion but with the correct ball positioning along with stance, footwork and alignment. Which other than my son and the other A player, the boys were really struggling with. What they would do is at best hesitate and allow the defense to be on top of them and at worse what I call going into turtle position where they bring the ball down to about waist level and then bend down over it in their attempt to protect the ball which inevitably leads to a turnover or jump ball. I do or would teach hop- including pro, step or shooting but I don't think it would be beneficial for anyone other than my two top guys right now. I also like to segway into 1-2 step before hop. My view is basketball is situational and I do not approach it with a "always" or "never" on which technique is 'correct'. Skillset awareness along with situational awareness should dictate what you do. I don't coach to my kids but try to meet them where they are at and meet their needs to develop in their own way that is best for them. Most of the kids on the team would struggle badly with hop other than my top two. If I had spent the week working on hop then it would have benefited my son and the other kid and not help the others at all.
 
sounds like your boys are coming along well, Chad. Happy to see some of the players you were concerned about really turning it on and contributing.
I think the boys have a straight line connection from their hard work and seeing significant real improvement and they are all even more pumped up and committed than when we started which is great. I don't think I have ever seen someone go from how the one boy played in the first three games to playing last night with that much of a jump in difference. I have never seen his Dad so pumped up too (a fairly reserved Doctor). It really was our point of emphasis for our last two practices- working on immediately going into triple threat position, squaring up to the basket, spot shooting, etc. Out of the 3 and half hours of practice, 3 hours of it was all about getting these boys to stop hesitating and doing the turtle. That and the threat of suicides for every turtle did the trick. They all were making good, fast decisions and shooting it when they should and no turtles and then the one boy went off for the 14 points. He also had 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
I don't teach triple threat any more (probably last ten years.) I teach the hop now, always catch to shoot, react to a split step and attack the close out.

Also, what is a turtle?
What about the crossover, dribble through the legs, no look passes, and the eurostep? #fundamentals
I do some extensive ball handling, both stationary (with tennis balls) and moving forward and back. Our kids can always handle and shoot it, which is good because we usually don't have a lot of size, but we press the brakes off teams (run and jump for 40 minutes.)
 
sounds like your boys are coming along well, Chad. Happy to see some of the players you were concerned about really turning it on and contributing.
I think the boys have a straight line connection from their hard work and seeing significant real improvement and they are all even more pumped up and committed than when we started which is great. I don't think I have ever seen someone go from how the one boy played in the first three games to playing last night with that much of a jump in difference. I have never seen his Dad so pumped up too (a fairly reserved Doctor). It really was our point of emphasis for our last two practices- working on immediately going into triple threat position, squaring up to the basket, spot shooting, etc. Out of the 3 and half hours of practice, 3 hours of it was all about getting these boys to stop hesitating and doing the turtle. That and the threat of suicides for every turtle did the trick. They all were making good, fast decisions and shooting it when they should and no turtles and then the one boy went off for the 14 points. He also had 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
I don't teach triple threat any more (probably last ten years.) I teach the hop now, always catch to shoot, react to a split step and attack the close out.

Also, what is a turtle?
What about the crossover, dribble through the legs, no look passes, and the eurostep? #fundamentals
I do some extensive ball handling, both stationary (with tennis balls) and moving forward and back. Our kids can always handle and shoot it, which is good because we usually don't have a lot of size, but we press the brakes off teams (run and jump for 40 minutes.)
They are on their own on no looks though
 
I have a bunch of terminology that is my own... turtle is one of them, Dorthy's is another (when they are gliding on defense and bring their feet too close together- I have to draw the line of the analogy for the kids though)
 
sounds like your boys are coming along well, Chad. Happy to see some of the players you were concerned about really turning it on and contributing.
I think the boys have a straight line connection from their hard work and seeing significant real improvement and they are all even more pumped up and committed than when we started which is great. I don't think I have ever seen someone go from how the one boy played in the first three games to playing last night with that much of a jump in difference. I have never seen his Dad so pumped up too (a fairly reserved Doctor). It really was our point of emphasis for our last two practices- working on immediately going into triple threat position, squaring up to the basket, spot shooting, etc. Out of the 3 and half hours of practice, 3 hours of it was all about getting these boys to stop hesitating and doing the turtle. That and the threat of suicides for every turtle did the trick. They all were making good, fast decisions and shooting it when they should and no turtles and then the one boy went off for the 14 points. He also had 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
I don't teach triple threat any more (probably last ten years.) I teach the hop now, always catch to shoot, react to a split step and attack the close out.

Also, what is a turtle?
I see triple threat as foundational and would be taught with hop and 1-2 step as later. I teach the triple threat to get their stance, footwork and alignment correct quickly when they need to turn to the basket off a rebound or pass and going immediately into whatever decision they need to make on shooting, dribbling or passing. Not so much the old school way of go into position and then make a decision and move but rather a fluid seemless motion but with the correct ball positioning along with stance, footwork and alignment. Which other than my son and the other A player, the boys were really struggling with. What they would do is at best hesitate and allow the defense to be on top of them and at worse what I call going into turtle position where they bring the ball down to about waist level and then bend down over it in their attempt to protect the ball which inevitably leads to a turnover or jump ball. I do or would teach hop- including pro, step or shooting but I don't think it would be beneficial for anyone other than my two top guys right now. I also like to segway into 1-2 step before hop. My view is basketball is situational and I do not approach it with a "always" or "never" on which technique is 'correct'. Skillset awareness along with situational awareness should dictate what you do. I don't coach to my kids but try to meet them where they are at and meet their needs to develop in their own way that is best for them. Most of the kids on the team would struggle badly with hop other than my top two. If I had spent the week working on hop then it would have benefited my son and the other kid and not help the others at all.
I think the hop is better as you don't need to compensate for rotational movement. It is also much easier as we have a zero step, although I push them to catch in the air, but they can learn it progressively going form one to two if need be. We drill catch and 'square in the air' (kind of misleading because we also teach a staggered stance) turning as much as 180 degrees. On contact with the floor, we are loaded and dipped. All stuff from the Doc Scheppler school.
 
sounds like your boys are coming along well, Chad. Happy to see some of the players you were concerned about really turning it on and contributing.
I think the boys have a straight line connection from their hard work and seeing significant real improvement and they are all even more pumped up and committed than when we started which is great. I don't think I have ever seen someone go from how the one boy played in the first three games to playing last night with that much of a jump in difference. I have never seen his Dad so pumped up too (a fairly reserved Doctor). It really was our point of emphasis for our last two practices- working on immediately going into triple threat position, squaring up to the basket, spot shooting, etc. Out of the 3 and half hours of practice, 3 hours of it was all about getting these boys to stop hesitating and doing the turtle. That and the threat of suicides for every turtle did the trick. They all were making good, fast decisions and shooting it when they should and no turtles and then the one boy went off for the 14 points. He also had 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
I don't teach triple threat any more (probably last ten years.) I teach the hop now, always catch to shoot, react to a split step and attack the close out.

Also, what is a turtle?
I see triple threat as foundational and would be taught with hop and 1-2 step as later. I teach the triple threat to get their stance, footwork and alignment correct quickly when they need to turn to the basket off a rebound or pass and going immediately into whatever decision they need to make on shooting, dribbling or passing. Not so much the old school way of go into position and then make a decision and move but rather a fluid seemless motion but with the correct ball positioning along with stance, footwork and alignment. Which other than my son and the other A player, the boys were really struggling with. What they would do is at best hesitate and allow the defense to be on top of them and at worse what I call going into turtle position where they bring the ball down to about waist level and then bend down over it in their attempt to protect the ball which inevitably leads to a turnover or jump ball. I do or would teach hop- including pro, step or shooting but I don't think it would be beneficial for anyone other than my two top guys right now. I also like to segway into 1-2 step before hop. My view is basketball is situational and I do not approach it with a "always" or "never" on which technique is 'correct'. Skillset awareness along with situational awareness should dictate what you do. I don't coach to my kids but try to meet them where they are at and meet their needs to develop in their own way that is best for them. Most of the kids on the team would struggle badly with hop other than my top two. If I had spent the week working on hop then it would have benefited my son and the other kid and not help the others at all.
I disagree. The hop is as basic as it gets IMO. You want rhythm amd balance as quickly as possible to make your shot more repeatable
 
sounds like your boys are coming along well, Chad. Happy to see some of the players you were concerned about really turning it on and contributing.
I think the boys have a straight line connection from their hard work and seeing significant real improvement and they are all even more pumped up and committed than when we started which is great. I don't think I have ever seen someone go from how the one boy played in the first three games to playing last night with that much of a jump in difference. I have never seen his Dad so pumped up too (a fairly reserved Doctor). It really was our point of emphasis for our last two practices- working on immediately going into triple threat position, squaring up to the basket, spot shooting, etc. Out of the 3 and half hours of practice, 3 hours of it was all about getting these boys to stop hesitating and doing the turtle. That and the threat of suicides for every turtle did the trick. They all were making good, fast decisions and shooting it when they should and no turtles and then the one boy went off for the 14 points. He also had 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
I don't teach triple threat any more (probably last ten years.) I teach the hop now, always catch to shoot, react to a split step and attack the close out.

Also, what is a turtle?
I see triple threat as foundational and would be taught with hop and 1-2 step as later. I teach the triple threat to get their stance, footwork and alignment correct quickly when they need to turn to the basket off a rebound or pass and going immediately into whatever decision they need to make on shooting, dribbling or passing. Not so much the old school way of go into position and then make a decision and move but rather a fluid seemless motion but with the correct ball positioning along with stance, footwork and alignment. Which other than my son and the other A player, the boys were really struggling with. What they would do is at best hesitate and allow the defense to be on top of them and at worse what I call going into turtle position where they bring the ball down to about waist level and then bend down over it in their attempt to protect the ball which inevitably leads to a turnover or jump ball. I do or would teach hop- including pro, step or shooting but I don't think it would be beneficial for anyone other than my two top guys right now. I also like to segway into 1-2 step before hop. My view is basketball is situational and I do not approach it with a "always" or "never" on which technique is 'correct'. Skillset awareness along with situational awareness should dictate what you do. I don't coach to my kids but try to meet them where they are at and meet their needs to develop in their own way that is best for them. Most of the kids on the team would struggle badly with hop other than my top two. If I had spent the week working on hop then it would have benefited my son and the other kid and not help the others at all.
I think the hop is better as you don't need to compensate for rotational movement. It is also much easier as we have a zero step, although I push them to catch in the air, but they can learn it progressively going form one to two if need be. We drill catch and 'square in the air' (kind of misleading because we also teach a staggered stance) turning as much as 180 degrees. On contact with the floor, we are loaded and dipped. All stuff from the Doc Scheppler school.
I just think it is a bridge too far for most of the boys on the team right now.... but maybe I am wrong. I will try to dig into it more and explore whether my thinking is off or not.
 
sounds like your boys are coming along well, Chad. Happy to see some of the players you were concerned about really turning it on and contributing.
I think the boys have a straight line connection from their hard work and seeing significant real improvement and they are all even more pumped up and committed than when we started which is great. I don't think I have ever seen someone go from how the one boy played in the first three games to playing last night with that much of a jump in difference. I have never seen his Dad so pumped up too (a fairly reserved Doctor). It really was our point of emphasis for our last two practices- working on immediately going into triple threat position, squaring up to the basket, spot shooting, etc. Out of the 3 and half hours of practice, 3 hours of it was all about getting these boys to stop hesitating and doing the turtle. That and the threat of suicides for every turtle did the trick. They all were making good, fast decisions and shooting it when they should and no turtles and then the one boy went off for the 14 points. He also had 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
I don't teach triple threat any more (probably last ten years.) I teach the hop now, always catch to shoot, react to a split step and attack the close out.

Also, what is a turtle?
I see triple threat as foundational and would be taught with hop and 1-2 step as later. I teach the triple threat to get their stance, footwork and alignment correct quickly when they need to turn to the basket off a rebound or pass and going immediately into whatever decision they need to make on shooting, dribbling or passing. Not so much the old school way of go into position and then make a decision and move but rather a fluid seemless motion but with the correct ball positioning along with stance, footwork and alignment. Which other than my son and the other A player, the boys were really struggling with. What they would do is at best hesitate and allow the defense to be on top of them and at worse what I call going into turtle position where they bring the ball down to about waist level and then bend down over it in their attempt to protect the ball which inevitably leads to a turnover or jump ball. I do or would teach hop- including pro, step or shooting but I don't think it would be beneficial for anyone other than my two top guys right now. I also like to segway into 1-2 step before hop. My view is basketball is situational and I do not approach it with a "always" or "never" on which technique is 'correct'. Skillset awareness along with situational awareness should dictate what you do. I don't coach to my kids but try to meet them where they are at and meet their needs to develop in their own way that is best for them. Most of the kids on the team would struggle badly with hop other than my top two. If I had spent the week working on hop then it would have benefited my son and the other kid and not help the others at all.
I think the hop is better as you don't need to compensate for rotational movement. It is also much easier as we have a zero step, although I push them to catch in the air, but they can learn it progressively going form one to two if need be. We drill catch and 'square in the air' (kind of misleading because we also teach a staggered stance) turning as much as 180 degrees. On contact with the floor, we are loaded and dipped. All stuff from the Doc Scheppler school.
I just think it is a bridge too far for most of the boys on the team right now.... but maybe I am wrong. I will try to dig into it more and explore whether my thinking is off or not.
You should look up Scheppler's stuff. I coached against him for 14 years in the bay area. His teams were making 12 threes a game (32 minutes) in the 90's. I was old school, ie triple threat, two-piece shot and then I reached out to him when I was visiting to watch his practices and I'll never look back.
 
5-0
36-10

My normal PG was sick and not at the game so my son stepped in at point for most of the game. We won largely based on how we have won every game which is solid defense overall but really with my son pressuring their PG at half and my other A player on the 2 guard getting steals and creating turnovers. 11 steals from the whole team, 5 from my son.

We had the kid who was the biggest offender of turteling score 6 points. He actually has a decent shot so getting him to break the habit of immediately taking the ball low and waiting for the defense to come on top of him is working well for him. He is a fun kid- he is always smiling, like ALWAYS. He had several..... let's say.... odd plays during the game. One where apparently he forgot where he was and thought he was playing soccer with a full on kick of the ball soccer move on a loose ball. "sorry coach" with a big smile. A couple of other mistakes or turnover "sorry coach" again with a big smile. After he scored his 6 points and I gave him a breather, I said to him "See what happens when you actually shoot the ball when you are open?" and he said "I was just thinking about not running suicides for turteling" again, with a big smile. (Yes, I threatened the boys with suicides if anyone turteled)

Pretty much the entire second half was centered around trying to get our least skilled player a basket. My son kept feeding him the ball, over and over.... half of the time he would mishandle the pass, lose the dribble, or get the ball stolen but he did get 7 shots up which all missed but 3 or 4 were very close. One I thought was going in but bounced out of the rim. He also had two free throws and both were very close but missed. Him actually getting the ball to the rim from a free throw is HUGE progress for him. The entire gym was all invested in it with excitement for his shots going up and then groans of disappointment when it missed. My son told me even the boys on the other team were wanting him to score except for one who said "we can still win" which I love the fight in him for but found it cute as we had taken the foot off the gas pedal way earlier.

I talked to the coach of the other B team for a bit and I am taking something that they have done and using it which is not an unknown concept but I have never done it before which is having team captains and then giving them some responsibility in leadership- like leading warm ups and being more vocal/active with the other boys. It will be my son and the other A player so I can try to develop them in ways that is somewhat hard as the only challenge they have it how many stats can I get which I don't find helpful much in the way of development plus how once the game is in hand, how we really try to shift the attention to the other boys. I will do this as well as challenge them in ways such forcing the other A player to ONLY use his right hand (he is a lefty) as he is very weak on it. I will also try to get my son more shots and driving opportunities as that is his weaker side of his game. And so forth.

My son's stat line 6 points, 12 rebounds, 5 steals and 3 assists.
 
So much great info in this thread!

Thoughts on defending a one high screen without zone or double teaming? Context is 4th grade and (in 3rd grade) one league team ran a single play over and over again where one kid would bring the ball up, get his separation from the defender for a fairly easy layup. Was able to argue the case to the ref last year on a sportmanship/development angle but not sure how it'd play out this year. Rules are the same and each player is matched up with an opponent each quarter to guard or be guarded by.
 
B ball is a great sport. Seems to be a good amount of people who ruin it though.
This is every youth sport. Overbearing adults ruin all of them.
I coached AAU for many years. First practice I would do a team meeting before the game with parents. Laid out the rules. If a parent does things like try to instruct during a practice, complain about playing time, berate a ref ... their kid was on the bnench the entire next game. The kids knew the rules and the parents knew the rules. So some dumb *** parent of the best player on the team shows up at the next practice my first year and starts yelling at his kid to run faster. Kid sat the entire first game. Never had a problem with any parent after that. It's not that hard to control if you threaten playing time.
 
So much great info in this thread!

Thoughts on defending a one high screen without zone or double teaming? Context is 4th grade and (in 3rd grade) one league team ran a single play over and over again where one kid would bring the ball up, get his separation from the defender for a fairly easy layup. Was able to argue the case to the ref last year on a sportmanship/development angle but not sure how it'd play out this year. Rules are the same and each player is matched up with an opponent each quarter to guard or be guarded by.
Is he getting off to his strong hand? We usually ice him to his weak hand baseline or blitz and recover to his weak hand middle.
 
So much great info in this thread!

Thoughts on defending a one high screen without zone or double teaming? Context is 4th grade and (in 3rd grade) one league team ran a single play over and over again where one kid would bring the ball up, get his separation from the defender for a fairly easy layup. Was able to argue the case to the ref last year on a sportmanship/development angle but not sure how it'd play out this year. Rules are the same and each player is matched up with an opponent each quarter to guard or be guarded by.
Just to confirm, he's getting open on a high screen, but league rules are that you can not double team.

Are you allowed to switch? Are you allowed to have your other defenders in proper help position? I ask as some leagues do the kids/teams a major disservice with rules like all defenders must be within 5 feet of your man at all times, which forms very bad habits that need to be broken as they get older, as that is not good man to man defensive principles.

A few options, dependent on your personnel and league rules:
  • If you can double team, in this scenario as described with a dominant player, I'd trap out of the screen and have help come and cover the screener rolling. Force the ball out of the hands of the one dominant player and make anyone else beat you.
  • If you can't double team, then perhaps just switching all the on ball stuff will be easiest for you, unless league rules don't allow switching.
  • In most situations, I'd prefer to have the the screener's defender show hard and force the ballhandler out wide or even better, to turn back to his original defender. If he gets pushed out wide, it gives the kid getting screened a chance to fight through and recover. Help defenders can cover the middle defending the roller until the defender that was showing can recover.

Once you get the ball out of his hands, you could do something like play him "no catch" (aka face guard him the entire time) or slightly less aggressively play him no help/light help where his defender stays closer to him, but not full on faceguard, but it still means he will be out of normal help position, so other defenders need to adjust accordingly.

And, as @Navin Johnson stated, if he is strong hand dominant, just really overplay that side and force him to his weak hand as much as possible.
 
So much great info in this thread!

Thoughts on defending a one high screen without zone or double teaming? Context is 4th grade and (in 3rd grade) one league team ran a single play over and over again where one kid would bring the ball up, get his separation from the defender for a fairly easy layup. Was able to argue the case to the ref last year on a sportmanship/development angle but not sure how it'd play out this year. Rules are the same and each player is matched up with an opponent each quarter to guard or be guarded by.
Just to confirm, he's getting open on a high screen, but league rules are that you can not double team.

Are you allowed to switch? Are you allowed to have your other defenders in proper help position? I ask as some leagues do the kids/teams a major disservice with rules like all defenders must be within 5 feet of your man at all times, which forms very bad habits that need to be broken as they get older, as that is not good man to man defensive principles.

A few options, dependent on your personnel and league rules:
  • If you can double team, in this scenario as described with a dominant player, I'd trap out of the screen and have help come and cover the screener rolling. Force the ball out of the hands of the one dominant player and make anyone else beat you.
  • If you can't double team, then perhaps just switching all the on ball stuff will be easiest for you, unless league rules don't allow switching.
  • In most situations, I'd prefer to have the the screener's defender show hard and force the ballhandler out wide or even better, to turn back to his original defender. If he gets pushed out wide, it gives the kid getting screened a chance to fight through and recover. Help defenders can cover the middle defending the roller until the defender that was showing can recover.

Once you get the ball out of his hands, you could do something like play him "no catch" (aka face guard him the entire time) or slightly less aggressively play him no help/light help where his defender stays closer to him, but not full on faceguard, but it still means he will be out of normal help position, so other defenders need to adjust accordingly.

And, as @Navin Johnson stated, if he is strong hand dominant, just really overplay that side and force him to his weak hand as much as possible.
People would be surprised at how well you can defend just funneling weak hand. I sound like a broken record on the bench constantly telling the kids to stay left. Our men's team basically made our opponents quit in the second quarter this week as they couldn't go to their weak hand and got flustered
 
People would be surprised at how well you can defend just funneling weak hand.
Especially in youth ball. The was the first thing I tried to get my guys to do. I drove it home by playing defense on them during practice forcing them to their weak hands. Once they make the mental connection of how hard it is for them it is much easier to get them to remember to do it.
 
People would be surprised at how well you can defend just funneling weak hand. I sound like a broken record on the bench constantly telling the kids to stay left. Our men's team basically made our opponents quit in the second quarter this week as they couldn't go to their weak hand and got flustered
Absolutely - when we spot a player that can't use their weak hand, we will often massively overplay it - this is for youth and even some of our younger high school teams. At the varsity level, we will definitely shade, but it's much more difficult to truly overplay to one side at that level. For the youth team that I'm currently coaching (8th graders, so mostly 13 year olds) , I'll be sure to note which of our opponents are left handed so my defenders are aware that when we want them to shade them, it's to take away the left in those cases.
 
6-0
22-6

This game on Friday night was the sloppiest play from the team so far in the year. Though we won by a margin our team FG % was 27%. Our best offensive did score 14 (a season low for him) but was shooting 32% from the field. Defense and rebounding won the game for us really as most of our points were off fast breaks and they did not score until well into the second half. We have 4 more games this week (including tonight) before we have a practice again on Friday so it will be interesting to see how the boys respond to that play.

There was a bit of drama in the game. Well into the second half, one of their boys went to the ground. I did not see exactly what happened to get him down there. The kid got up, very upset and basically started to have a meltdown. The ref asked me to take one of my boys out of the game for a bit for unsportsmanlike conduct, which I did. This is a good kid, as really the whole team is, and when I came out, I asked him "what did you do?" he said he laughed. Which, knowing this kid, 100% makes sense. So, I told, him "Ok, yea, don't do that when a kid falls down." as far as I knew that was it and the ref at a timeout explained that he was laughing and just wanted him to come out to diffuse the situation and that he could go back in.

At one point in the game, one of their players came by me and was cussing someone out... it kind of felt like it was at me but it could have just been under his breath at one of my players or the ref or his parents... I dunno. So, I ignored it. At the end of the game, my boys told me (unsolicited) that they were cussing them out and calling the boy that laughed a fat rear end etc. Which I said something along the line of "yea, when you are beating teams this badly, there is going to be a lot of frustration and you are going to get that stuff....don't let it get to you"

As I finished our end of game huddle the opposing coach pulled over asking to talk. He then said that my player that laughed had called the other player 'they/them' and that the other kid gets bullied at school etc. Now, I am thinking to myself, that does not track with the kid that I know. Laughing? Absolutely. Even maybe teasing? Yes. But saying things like that? No, it is hard to believe. But on top of it the 'they/them' seemed very odd to me. I am doubtful most of our boys, or any of them, even know what that means (my son didn't as he heard me talking about it and asked me what 'they/them' meant). I told the coach, "Ok, I will talk to my guys but I really do not think this was a one way street and my boys already told me that your guys were swearing at them the whole game and I even heard it.... which it may have even been directed at me, so you need to talk to your guys as well." he did not like that and kept pushing back on it. He said something like 'we are men, and we are going to cuss' which... first, these are boys and second, if your player did sweat at me, you just do not cuss out an opposing coach. Again, he kept pushing on it even though I told him several times that I would talk to my kids but that he needed to do the same. That was seemingly not good enough for him. The conversation kind of ended and as I walked over to my bench, I heard him say something about being mature. Again, ignored it.

I talked to a couple of our boys- they all said that they did not hear anything from our boy who laughed like what they were saying. I rewatched the game looking for any indication of smack talk and did not see anything. If anything, there really wasn't a lot of downtime that you could whisper something as we play high tempo. When the kid fell, it seems like he tripped over my son who was guarding someone else. He got up and went to the sideline and you can hear him say "he was calling me names" as he has his meltdown and then "he did it on purpose" (he being my player who laughed) which he didn't do anything at all as he wasn't even close to the kid when he fell. Almost immediately, the mother came over from the other side spectator bleachers to her kid. The kid gets on a phone talking to someone obviously complaining about what happened (still in meltdown mode). After the game, the whole family goes over to the coach and then he comes over to me for the conversation. I pretty much could tell from how the kids family was acting that this was not the end of it so I sent an email to our AD to give him a heads up and tell him what I saw/heard etc.

Indeed, the ref, who I believe actually runs the league too, called our AD yesterday because the mother had emailed the league. The ref said other than the laughing, he saw or heard nothing at all. The AD watched the game too and basically saw the same things as me. One of the HS kids running the table said that they heard the other kids cussing out my boys but didn't hear my boys say anything. None of our parents, at least half of them of whom I talked to, (on the other side of the court) heard or saw anything. One odd note was that after talking to the coach and going over to my bench and gathering my things, sort of talking to my assistant, I looked back over my shoulder and the kid was about 10 feet looking at me with.... maybe his older brother? and clearly saying something about me. Again, I ignored it. My best guess is that this kid is 100% struggling with emotional/mental issues (either one or both, I don't know). When he went down and my player laughed, he over reacted and had a meltdown but to excuse his behavior and try to get back at my player weaponized the whole bully angle. The AD doesn't think there is anything further that will come of it as there is no evidence that suggests what they are saying actually occurred and it ends up a he said she said thing. And any actual evidence and all eye witness accounts line up with what we think happened.

I looked on the schedule and yes, of course, it is one of the few teams we will play twice during regular season. Sigh.
 
6-0
22-6

This game on Friday night was the sloppiest play from the team so far in the year. Though we won by a margin our team FG % was 27%. Our best offensive did score 14 (a season low for him) but was shooting 32% from the field. Defense and rebounding won the game for us really as most of our points were off fast breaks and they did not score until well into the second half. We have 4 more games this week (including tonight) before we have a practice again on Friday so it will be interesting to see how the boys respond to that play.

There was a bit of drama in the game. Well into the second half, one of their boys went to the ground. I did not see exactly what happened to get him down there. The kid got up, very upset and basically started to have a meltdown. The ref asked me to take one of my boys out of the game for a bit for unsportsmanlike conduct, which I did. This is a good kid, as really the whole team is, and when I came out, I asked him "what did you do?" he said he laughed. Which, knowing this kid, 100% makes sense. So, I told, him "Ok, yea, don't do that when a kid falls down." as far as I knew that was it and the ref at a timeout explained that he was laughing and just wanted him to come out to diffuse the situation and that he could go back in.

At one point in the game, one of their players came by me and was cussing someone out... it kind of felt like it was at me but it could have just been under his breath at one of my players or the ref or his parents... I dunno. So, I ignored it. At the end of the game, my boys told me (unsolicited) that they were cussing them out and calling the boy that laughed a fat rear end etc. Which I said something along the line of "yea, when you are beating teams this badly, there is going to be a lot of frustration and you are going to get that stuff....don't let it get to you"

As I finished our end of game huddle the opposing coach pulled over asking to talk. He then said that my player that laughed had called the other player 'they/them' and that the other kid gets bullied at school etc. Now, I am thinking to myself, that does not track with the kid that I know. Laughing? Absolutely. Even maybe teasing? Yes. But saying things like that? No, it is hard to believe. But on top of it the 'they/them' seemed very odd to me. I am doubtful most of our boys, or any of them, even know what that means (my son didn't as he heard me talking about it and asked me what 'they/them' meant). I told the coach, "Ok, I will talk to my guys but I really do not think this was a one way street and my boys already told me that your guys were swearing at them the whole game and I even heard it.... which it may have even been directed at me, so you need to talk to your guys as well." he did not like that and kept pushing back on it. He said something like 'we are men, and we are going to cuss' which... first, these are boys and second, if your player did sweat at me, you just do not cuss out an opposing coach. Again, he kept pushing on it even though I told him several times that I would talk to my kids but that he needed to do the same. That was seemingly not good enough for him. The conversation kind of ended and as I walked over to my bench, I heard him say something about being mature. Again, ignored it.

I talked to a couple of our boys- they all said that they did not hear anything from our boy who laughed like what they were saying. I rewatched the game looking for any indication of smack talk and did not see anything. If anything, there really wasn't a lot of downtime that you could whisper something as we play high tempo. When the kid fell, it seems like he tripped over my son who was guarding someone else. He got up and went to the sideline and you can hear him say "he was calling me names" as he has his meltdown and then "he did it on purpose" (he being my player who laughed) which he didn't do anything at all as he wasn't even close to the kid when he fell. Almost immediately, the mother came over from the other side spectator bleachers to her kid. The kid gets on a phone talking to someone obviously complaining about what happened (still in meltdown mode). After the game, the whole family goes over to the coach and then he comes over to me for the conversation. I pretty much could tell from how the kids family was acting that this was not the end of it so I sent an email to our AD to give him a heads up and tell him what I saw/heard etc.

Indeed, the ref, who I believe actually runs the league too, called our AD yesterday because the mother had emailed the league. The ref said other than the laughing, he saw or heard nothing at all. The AD watched the game too and basically saw the same things as me. One of the HS kids running the table said that they heard the other kids cussing out my boys but didn't hear my boys say anything. None of our parents, at least half of them of whom I talked to, (on the other side of the court) heard or saw anything. One odd note was that after talking to the coach and going over to my bench and gathering my things, sort of talking to my assistant, I looked back over my shoulder and the kid was about 10 feet looking at me with.... maybe his older brother? and clearly saying something about me. Again, I ignored it. My best guess is that this kid is 100% struggling with emotional/mental issues (either one or both, I don't know). When he went down and my player laughed, he over reacted and had a meltdown but to excuse his behavior and try to get back at my player weaponized the whole bully angle. The AD doesn't think there is anything further that will come of it as there is no evidence that suggests what they are saying actually occurred and it ends up a he said she said thing. And any actual evidence and all eye witness accounts line up with what we think happened.

I looked on the schedule and yes, of course, it is one of the few teams we will play twice during regular season. Sigh.
Sounds like a juicy, wordless *** kicking is in store for meeting two to me.
 
So much great info in this thread!

Thoughts on defending a one high screen without zone or double teaming? Context is 4th grade and (in 3rd grade) one league team ran a single play over and over again where one kid would bring the ball up, get his separation from the defender for a fairly easy layup. Was able to argue the case to the ref last year on a sportmanship/development angle but not sure how it'd play out this year. Rules are the same and each player is matched up with an opponent each quarter to guard or be guarded by.
Yeah. 4th grade ball and younger is odd. The man to man rule. We used to switch but it doesn’t help.

I used to have an average defender face guard their best player at half court and try to keep him from getting the ball. And if they bring it up then they guard him at half court. Then when that good player gets around that defender someone else helps. Then it’s still man to man. The hope is they will pass it. That is often dependent on how good or selfish that good player is. Worst case the kid gets tired.

I also would get my worst player to foul out. I’d only do it in the playoffs. Sounds terrible but it worked. Put them on someone better and they use their hands. Then i was allowed to bring in someone that had played 2 quarters already.

One thing to remember at all levels is it doesn’t matter much. They aren’t gonna be pros. Most won’t even play in HS. You just want them all to try hard. I had a couple of aau kids play D1 college. But they sat the bench. It’s a special kid that has college level talent size and speed. If they have it they probably aren’t playing in your league. Azzi fudd played against our travel teams. A girl playing 2 years up in the boys league. Scoring 20+ per game. She moved on to bigger things.
 
Last edited:
7-0
29-11

We had improved play from Friday but it was easily our second sloppiest game after Friday. I think that maybe they are getting over confident and forcing things that maybe they were not earlier on the season. We play again tomorrow against a team that might be one of the better teams in the leagues. Hopefully I see better play tomorrow.

Today's game was another one where the refs were very reluctant to call much in the way of fouls. I get letting them play but at the same time, you are just begging for players to start to get rougher and rougher until someone gets hurt.

I did briefly speak with my player that was accused of saying 'they/them' on Friday. I asked him if he said anything to the other kid and he said no, I just laughed at him. He then said that the other kid was calling him a fat rear end a lot. I am going to take a minute before tomorrow's game and just go over my expectations of how they behave on the floor. Not because I don't think that they have been but so that it is clear I did speak with the team as well as making sure the boys know exactly how they should and should not act. Essentially, it will boil down to not caring what the other teams say to them. Don't let it get to them and the best way to get back at them is to show it doesn't bother them. I will explain that since we are mercy ruling these teams that there is likely to be a lot of frustration on their part. If they keep at it and we are up like we have been, just smile and then look at the score board and smile again- and continue to beat them on the court.
 
My little guys team....
0-1-1
6-26

Since I was at his older brothers game, I missed this game so I don't really know much other than my assistants told me that the other team hit their first 6 shots in the game and so it quickly got out of hand. A bittersweat thing in that my son did make his first shot and apparently it was a deep on. He said it was (showing me with his hands) less than a foot from the 3 point line. Not a shot I would want him to take but can't say that I am not proud of him hitting it. My older son heard where the shot was and immediately said "that's a bad shot" as I have drilled into my team, you don't take a two close to the three line- either attack the basket or hop back and take the 3. I had to tell my older son that they are in 3rd grade, I have told them that they are not allowed to take 3 pointers.
 
My little guys team....
0-1-1
6-26

Since I was at his older brothers game, I missed this game so I don't really know much other than my assistants told me that the other team hit their first 6 shots in the game and so it quickly got out of hand. A bittersweat thing in that my son did make his first shot and apparently it was a deep on. He said it was (showing me with his hands) less than a foot from the 3 point line. Not a shot I would want him to take but can't say that I am not proud of him hitting it. My older son heard where the shot was and immediately said "that's a bad shot" as I have drilled into my team, you don't take a two close to the three line- either attack the basket or hop back and take the 3. I had to tell my older son that they are in 3rd grade, I have told them that they are not allowed to take 3 pointers.
I do this with my young teams as well, as they are generally not strong enough to shoot with anything close to proper form. I let them know that unless I specifically have called for a 3 for strategic purposes - like we are down and running out of time, and even then it's probably not a good idea - then they are not to shoot a 3. If they do shoot a 2 without it being called, we are running at the next practice. If they shoot it and make it, we are running more, as the make just reinforces the bad habit. It's said to them half joking, but they know that they are not to take a 3.

Now that the team I am coaching is 7th and 8th graders, different story.
 
I also would get my worst player to foul out. I’d only do it in the playoffs. Sounds terrible but it worked. Put them on someone better and they use their hands. Then i was allowed to bring in someone that had played 2 quarters already.
This is terrible. Really a bad look if you are purposely trying to have your player do this.
 
So I have 1 hour of practice time per week with a group of 10-12 year old boys who are fairly talented but still very raw on some fundamentals. This is not an AAU team but it's a league that I'd say is a step above your casual rec leagues competitively. Given the time constraints, my inclination is to be ultra efficient and focus hard on important basic skills, but I also want them to enjoy practice. My question is, how much "fun" stuff do you mix in per hour with kids in that age range (knock out, scrimmaging, etc.)?
 
So I have 1 hour of practice time per week with a group of 10-12 year old boys who are fairly talented but still very raw on some fundamentals. This is not an AAU team but it's a league that I'd say is a step above your casual rec leagues competitively. Given the time constraints, my inclination is to be ultra efficient and focus hard on important basic skills, but I also want them to enjoy practice. My question is, how much "fun" stuff do you mix in per hour with kids in that age range (knock out, scrimmaging, etc.)?
You are likely not going to get anything done to your satisfaction in 1 hour a week. That isn't anywhere to close to enough time to instill much. I would see about putting together drills/activities that focus on a particular skill but that are also fun. An hour really isn't much time at all.
 
So I have 1 hour of practice time per week with a group of 10-12 year old boys who are fairly talented but still very raw on some fundamentals. This is not an AAU team but it's a league that I'd say is a step above your casual rec leagues competitively. Given the time constraints, my inclination is to be ultra efficient and focus hard on important basic skills, but I also want them to enjoy practice. My question is, how much "fun" stuff do you mix in per hour with kids in that age range (knock out, scrimmaging, etc.)?
You are likely not going to get anything done to your satisfaction in 1 hour a week. That isn't anywhere to close to enough time to instill much. I would see about putting together drills/activities that focus on a particular skill but that are also fun. An hour really isn't much time at all.
I think I may just focus on one single thing for a weeks practice. For instance - boxing out. You could do a couple drills and a couple games.

One we used to do is two or three guys at the foul line, I miss a shot, whoever gets the rebound gets a point. If you don't box out or you don't get the rebound, you're off and someone new is on.

You can do a million creative competition things based on boxing out well and getting the rebound.


And then you could do one that's all passing stuff, etc.
 
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So I have 1 hour of practice time per week with a group of 10-12 year old boys who are fairly talented but still very raw on some fundamentals. This is not an AAU team but it's a league that I'd say is a step above your casual rec leagues competitively. Given the time constraints, my inclination is to be ultra efficient and focus hard on important basic skills, but I also want them to enjoy practice. My question is, how much "fun" stuff do you mix in per hour with kids in that age range (knock out, scrimmaging, etc.)?
You are likely not going to get anything done to your satisfaction in 1 hour a week. That isn't anywhere to close to enough time to instill much. I would see about putting together drills/activities that focus on a particular skill but that are also fun. An hour really isn't much time at all.
Agreed. We had a good baseline to work from with our now 12 year olds, a team that first came together last year, but we didn't start to see the payoff until now. Off to a 3-0 start, including 2 blowouts, and the other a win over last year's league champ. And this was with two 90 min practices per week, a separate 90 min skills session per week put on by HS coaches, and 3 tournaments built around our regular season schedule. As I said to the boys after yesterday's 43-23 win, what I'm most proud of is none of you scored more than 10 pts and every basket but one was scored via assist, offensive rebound, or a breakaway off a steal. That was a far cry from our off balance runners in the lane half court offense from this time a year ago when we generally only scored based on plays by our defense.

I share that so your expectations are rooted in reality if you only have 1 hour per week. With those constraints I'd be happy if I got M2M defense, one simple (stack?) inbounds play, and a basic understanding of triple threat in before game 1. I'd bypass the 'fun' stuff for now and replace that time (20 mins?) with scrimmage. Realistically, an offense probably can't be installed with these constraints, but by doing this they're both having fun and it's giving you an opportunity to evaluate where they are. Hopefully you see enough to know what you do with offense (give and go, pick and roll, backdoor cuts, etc) and where there are some obvious holes (dribbling too much, not boxing out, taking bad shots, etc) from the outset. Offense install would be a season long process- if by doing this, can I get something (i.e. motion) to work by some point in the season. Then maybe you can do some fun stuff like knockout at practice later in the season.

I mention that last point because at this age it is very important that is still prioritized. Before you get lost in the weeds, keep reminding yourself of that. And have fun out there yourself.
 
Also: this is exactly what's wrong with American basketball development. We should be spending 5-10x as much time practicing as playing not the other way around.
This is the same for all sports.....not just basketball. When I was coaching youth sports I told them that they need to be practicing on their own every day if they wanted to get better because the couple hours a week I had them was not enough for real improvement. It was obvious which kids did this and those were the ones that ended up being the starters and difference makers as they got older into HS.

Getting better is hard work and really takes the player to put in the extra time for this. Ideally as a youth coach you give the player the fundamental techniques and drills and the player needs to work on those on their own. Otherwise improvement doesn't happen.
 
One we used to do is two or three guys at the foil line, I miss a shot, whoever gets the rebound gets a point. If you don't box out or you don't get the rebound, you're off and someone new is on.
Games like this is exactly what I was talking about. There are many creative ways to teach a technique and still make it fun for the hour you have them.
 
Also: this is exactly what's wrong with American basketball development. We should be spending 5-10x as much time practicing as playing not the other way around.
In my area at least, getting gym time is a huge impediment. It's frustrating. We have 4-6 hours a week for little league practice and for basketball, the other coaches and I are calling around trying (mostly unsuccessfully) trying to pay out of pocket for additional gym rentals at reasonable times so we can practice for a second hour.
 

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