Coaching Youth Basketball (1 Viewer)

[Gally]

In my area at least, getting gym time is a huge impediment.

Depending on where you live, outside is a great place to work on various skills for basketball. I am in CA and we never got gym time for youth teams for basketball. 95% of our practice time was outside on the outside HS basketball courts. I realize that many places don't have that luxury, but there are other drills and skill work that don't need an actual basketball court to do.

ETA: You can even get creative and do staggered skill sessions in your garage. Work on dribbling drills and other aspects like defensive footwork in groups of two or three in your garage. Have them come every 15 or 30 minutes and cycle groups through. Then you can tailor the session for the skill level of the player participating. I did this for baseball since I had a batting cage at my house. I would have practices where two or three players would come every 20 minutes and get 100-150 swings and then the the next group comes. Great for the kids and for the coaches because you don't have to keep 10 kids busy all at once.

 

[thecatch]

In my area at least, getting gym time is a huge impediment.

Depending on where you live, outside is a great place to work on various skills for basketball. I am in CA and we never got gym time for youth teams for basketball. 95% of our practice time was outside on the outside HS basketball courts.

Yeah, that's under consideration as well. We're in NorCal so it's not like we're snowed in, but it's a little on the cold side (at least for the parents).

 

[Chadstroma]

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.)?

An hour a week? Ouch. That is not a lot of time at all.

I would likely have one practice focusing on hard skill development and then the next practice break it up with a drill that the kids find more fun to do or a scrimmage. That is very little precious time to develop them so I would want to get the absolute most out of what I got.

 

[Chadstroma]

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 week my 6 grade team has a game tonight, Wed, and Thursday. That is an unusual number for a work week as we usually range from 0-1 on Weekdays and then 1-2 on weekends. Dec is a tough month for court time too so it is scarce between Christmas stuff going on, Boys basketball and Girls volleyball but I did snag a practice time on Friday. One of the Moms asked me last night at the game "we have three games this week, do we really need practice?" and I looked at her and said "absolutely, they get better at practice and not games." (that is probably an over statement but still mostly true). There is a lot of crap that goes on as you get higher up the chain in youth basketball where teams will recruit kids and basically tell them "we don't care if you come to practice, just come to games" because they are using the kids to win and essentially gain monetarily from them without any care about the kids development both in basketball and in life skills. It is a disgrace.

For our teams, we normally get at least 2 hour and half practices a week and then depending on court availability there might be some extra open times that you can take. I really try to get 3 in but not always. And for the 3rd graders sometimes they only get 1 practice a week as the older teams get priority.

 

[Chadstroma]

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.

The way that I communicate that to my kids is that games are won at practice and championships are won at home. It is a concise, easy way for them to really draw a line from their hard work to the pay off.

 

[Chadstroma]

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.

Yea, I am stealing that.

 

[Chadstroma]

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.

Contact schools and churches. We practice at really 5 different places. Our school gym (which has a small and big court), a nearby church that has a court, a nearby elementary school, a court from the local park/rec, and sometimes even the local HS. We scrounge around to find as much court time as we can get. At least by us, schools and churches with courts are happy to rent out the court time for a few extra bucks that is much more reasonable than a gym will charge.

 

[belljr]

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 whats wrong with all sports at the "recreation" levels.

When I was on the board I would argue every year STOP scheduling 12 games and only 6 practices before the season. You could never practice once games started so there was no time to address things kids did wrong during games etc. It was mind numbing arguing with the "heads of the board" But kids like to play games.....

 

[Chadstroma]

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 whats wrong with all sports at the "recreation" levels.

When I was on the board I would argue every year STOP scheduling 12 games and only 6 practices before the season. You could never practice once games started so there was no time to address things kids did wrong during games etc. It was mind numbing arguing with the "heads of the board" But kids like to play games.....

One kid on my team that transferred to our school this year played rec ball for a couple of years before. I can see potential in him but his skill development is so far behind what it should be for someone who has played a few years. He wants basketball as his top sport and is willing to work at it- so far I have seen some great progress in defense and rebounding but we have a ways to go to work on ball handling and offense.

 

[Navin Johnson]

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.)?

That's not a lot. I would give them a ball handling drill to do at home for ten minutes a day and chart their progress, ie how much they fiish or how long it takes them to complete it. Sixty minutes a week will go a long way in improveing ball handling.

For the off season I use a simple tennis ball drill

• Pound the ball one hand snatch the tennis ball with the other
  • A snatch is tossing the ball above the height of your shoulder and snatching it from the top side when it comes back down below
  • 10 snatches/side
• Toss and cross
  • Pound, toss the ball around chin high, crossover, catch.
  • The toss and the cross are two distinct movements. Don't try and start them at the same tim
  • 20 crosses (10 each direction)
• Toss and BTL
• Toss and BTB
• Toss and cross 2x
  • on the double moves you reset to the same hand so do 10x R-L-R, then another 10 L-R-L
• Lebrons
  • Toss, BTL and back thru BTL
• Cross-BTL
  • Here we cross over in front and follow it with a step over between. The other moves I encourage stationary feet, mobile hips and shoulders
• Between-behind
  • Step over BTL and then bring the other foot forward on the BTB
• Behind-behind
  • Back to stationary feet

I am a big believer that ball handling needs to be done for speed, not for comfort. If you are not losing the ball a handful of times you aren't pushing yourself enough. Always be chasing your best time. Also, if you lose the tennis ball - happens a lot early on - you have to continue dribbling while you retrieve it

 

[thecatch]

Awesome stuff all, thanks.

 

[Instinctive]

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.

Yea, I am stealing that.

We called it "Champion of the World" at kids summer camps we ran. it can get really fun if you do normal-ish shots, if you laser a brick, etc.

 

[Instinctive]

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.)?

That's not a lot. I would give them a ball handling drill to do at home for ten minutes a day and chart their progress, ie how much they fiish or how long it takes them to complete it. Sixty minutes a week will go a long way in improveing ball handling.

For the off season I use a simple tennis ball drill

• Pound the ball one hand snatch the tennis ball with the other
  • A snatch is tossing the ball above the height of your shoulder and snatching it from the top side when it comes back down below
  • 10 snatches/side
• Toss and cross
  • Pound, toss the ball around chin high, crossover, catch.
  • The toss and the cross are two distinct movements. Don't try and start them at the same tim
  • 20 crosses (10 each direction)
• Toss and BTL
• Toss and BTB
• Toss and cross 2x
  • on the double moves you reset to the same hand so do 10x R-L-R, then another 10 L-R-L
• Lebrons
  • Toss, BTL and back thru BTL
• Cross-BTL
  • Here we cross over in front and follow it with a step over between. The other moves I encourage stationary feet, mobile hips and shoulders
• Between-behind
  • Step over BTL and then bring the other foot forward on the BTB
• Behind-behind
  • Back to stationary feet

I am a big believer that ball handling needs to be done for speed, not for comfort. If you are not losing the ball a handful of times you aren't pushing yourself enough. Always be chasing your best time. Also, if you lose the tennis ball - happens a lot early on - you have to continue dribbling while you retrieve it

I still have a note somewhere with the Professor's warm up drill. It's like 10-12 different techniques, 25 hard pound the ball dribbles with each one, progressively harder. All alternate hands. So it starts like 25 normal righ thand, then 25 left hand, then 25 right to left cross. Then 25 left to right cross. Then 25 right hand in and out.....you get the point.

 

[acarey50]

In my area at least, getting gym time is a huge impediment.

Depending on where you live, outside is a great place to work on various skills for basketball. I am in CA and we never got gym time for youth teams for basketball. 95% of our practice time was outside on the outside HS basketball courts.

Yeah, that's under consideration as well. We're in NorCal so it's not like we're snowed in, but it's a little on the cold side (at least for the parents).

I had one year where a couple of the dads would drop the kids off for practice then head down to a local restaurant for appetizers/beers/watch games, then come back to pick up the kids. Dead of winter of course (Southern California, but still down in the 50s most nights). I told them the least they could do was get a road beer for me for after practice.

 

[Navin Johnson]

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.)?

That's not a lot. I would give them a ball handling drill to do at home for ten minutes a day and chart their progress, ie how much they fiish or how long it takes them to complete it. Sixty minutes a week will go a long way in improveing ball handling.

For the off season I use a simple tennis ball drill

• Pound the ball one hand snatch the tennis ball with the other
  • A snatch is tossing the ball above the height of your shoulder and snatching it from the top side when it comes back down below
  • 10 snatches/side
• Toss and cross
  • Pound, toss the ball around chin high, crossover, catch.
  • The toss and the cross are two distinct movements. Don't try and start them at the same tim
  • 20 crosses (10 each direction)
• Toss and BTL
• Toss and BTB
• Toss and cross 2x
  • on the double moves you reset to the same hand so do 10x R-L-R, then another 10 L-R-L
• Lebrons
  • Toss, BTL and back thru BTL
• Cross-BTL
  • Here we cross over in front and follow it with a step over between. The other moves I encourage stationary feet, mobile hips and shoulders
• Between-behind
  • Step over BTL and then bring the other foot forward on the BTB
• Behind-behind
  • Back to stationary feet

I am a big believer that ball handling needs to be done for speed, not for comfort. If you are not losing the ball a handful of times you aren't pushing yourself enough. Always be chasing your best time. Also, if you lose the tennis ball - happens a lot early on - you have to continue dribbling while you retrieve it

I still have a note somewhere with the Professor's warm up drill. It's like 10-12 different techniques, 25 hard pound the ball dribbles with each one, progressively harder. All alternate hands. So it starts like 25 normal righ thand, then 25 left hand, then 25 right to left cross. Then 25 left to right cross. Then 25 right hand in and out.....you get the point.

I get a lot of stuff online from DJ Sackman, Phil Handy, Drew Hanlen, and Paul Fabritz. Wish there was this type of access when I was playing.

 

[Instinctive]

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.)?

That's not a lot. I would give them a ball handling drill to do at home for ten minutes a day and chart their progress, ie how much they fiish or how long it takes them to complete it. Sixty minutes a week will go a long way in improveing ball handling.

For the off season I use a simple tennis ball drill

• Pound the ball one hand snatch the tennis ball with the other
  • A snatch is tossing the ball above the height of your shoulder and snatching it from the top side when it comes back down below
  • 10 snatches/side
• Toss and cross
  • Pound, toss the ball around chin high, crossover, catch.
  • The toss and the cross are two distinct movements. Don't try and start them at the same tim
  • 20 crosses (10 each direction)
• Toss and BTL
• Toss and BTB
• Toss and cross 2x
  • on the double moves you reset to the same hand so do 10x R-L-R, then another 10 L-R-L
• Lebrons
  • Toss, BTL and back thru BTL
• Cross-BTL
  • Here we cross over in front and follow it with a step over between. The other moves I encourage stationary feet, mobile hips and shoulders
• Between-behind
  • Step over BTL and then bring the other foot forward on the BTB
• Behind-behind
  • Back to stationary feet

I am a big believer that ball handling needs to be done for speed, not for comfort. If you are not losing the ball a handful of times you aren't pushing yourself enough. Always be chasing your best time. Also, if you lose the tennis ball - happens a lot early on - you have to continue dribbling while you retrieve it

I still have a note somewhere with the Professor's warm up drill. It's like 10-12 different techniques, 25 hard pound the ball dribbles with each one, progressively harder. All alternate hands. So it starts like 25 normal righ thand, then 25 left hand, then 25 right to left cross. Then 25 left to right cross. Then 25 right hand in and out.....you get the point.

I get a lot of stuff online from DJ Sackman, Phil Handy, Drew Hanlen, and Paul Fabritz. Wish there was this type of access when I was playing.

When I was coaching (G.A.) one of the interns (a guy who played after college overseas then came back to try and coach) and I spent a few weeks in the off-season trying to build a definitive video guide to every ball handling move. Using like 6 second clips off synergy.

We got to like 60 moves, it was really time consuming, and there were just too many other demands to finish it. Maybe I can pick it up again as a SAH parent lol.

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

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.)?

Why only 1 hour? They need a lot more skill work than that per week.

 

[Chadstroma]

8-0
29-12

Again, one of our more sloppy efforts but better than the last two weeks and against one of the better teams we have faced so far. The first quarter was still tight before we started to pull away towards the half. They had a guard who was a fairly good ball handler but obviously not accustomed to having someone like my son on him and increasingly got frustrated making more and more mistakes. They had a play that slashed us several times which basically had movement opening up the back door cut and was wide open for half of their points.

We got the give and go moving good even with them in a box and 1- the low post defenders would get sucked up and couldn't react to the cut in time and we would get in.... but then they started to realize that they needed to stay home but instead of my boys realizing that it wasn't there and keeping the offense moving, they kept trying to force it. Way too many turnovers on our end.

One of the refs pulled me aside at half and asked why the one A level player was not on A. I shrugged and said both him and 11 (my son) should be on A and he shook his head in agreement then asked if it was politics or was our A just that good. All I told him was that I don't make the teams and that I vocalized my disagreement, but we work with what we got and here we are.

Today is off then a game Wed and Thurs before we get into practice on Friday which we have a lot to work on to clean up things.

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

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.)?

That's not a lot. I would give them a ball handling drill to do at home for ten minutes a day and chart their progress, ie how much they fiish or how long it takes them to complete it. Sixty minutes a week will go a long way in improveing ball handling.

For the off season I use a simple tennis ball drill

• Pound the ball one hand snatch the tennis ball with the other
  • A snatch is tossing the ball above the height of your shoulder and snatching it from the top side when it comes back down below
  • 10 snatches/side
• Toss and cross
  • Pound, toss the ball around chin high, crossover, catch.
  • The toss and the cross are two distinct movements. Don't try and start them at the same tim
  • 20 crosses (10 each direction)
• Toss and BTL
• Toss and BTB
• Toss and cross 2x
  • on the double moves you reset to the same hand so do 10x R-L-R, then another 10 L-R-L
• Lebrons
  • Toss, BTL and back thru BTL
• Cross-BTL
  • Here we cross over in front and follow it with a step over between. The other moves I encourage stationary feet, mobile hips and shoulders
• Between-behind
  • Step over BTL and then bring the other foot forward on the BTB
• Behind-behind
  • Back to stationary feet

I am a big believer that ball handling needs to be done for speed, not for comfort. If you are not losing the ball a handful of times you aren't pushing yourself enough. Always be chasing your best time. Also, if you lose the tennis ball - happens a lot early on - you have to continue dribbling while you retrieve it

Excellent post. You have to convince kids that it's okay to see balls rolling over the gym during ball handling. Most of them think that is "failure" at a drill instead of realizing it's making them better.

 

[Navin Johnson]

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.)?

That's not a lot. I would give them a ball handling drill to do at home for ten minutes a day and chart their progress, ie how much they fiish or how long it takes them to complete it. Sixty minutes a week will go a long way in improveing ball handling.

For the off season I use a simple tennis ball drill

• Pound the ball one hand snatch the tennis ball with the other
  • A snatch is tossing the ball above the height of your shoulder and snatching it from the top side when it comes back down below
  • 10 snatches/side
• Toss and cross
  • Pound, toss the ball around chin high, crossover, catch.
  • The toss and the cross are two distinct movements. Don't try and start them at the same tim
  • 20 crosses (10 each direction)
• Toss and BTL
• Toss and BTB
• Toss and cross 2x
  • on the double moves you reset to the same hand so do 10x R-L-R, then another 10 L-R-L
• Lebrons
  • Toss, BTL and back thru BTL
• Cross-BTL
  • Here we cross over in front and follow it with a step over between. The other moves I encourage stationary feet, mobile hips and shoulders
• Between-behind
  • Step over BTL and then bring the other foot forward on the BTB
• Behind-behind
  • Back to stationary feet

I am a big believer that ball handling needs to be done for speed, not for comfort. If you are not losing the ball a handful of times you aren't pushing yourself enough. Always be chasing your best time. Also, if you lose the tennis ball - happens a lot early on - you have to continue dribbling while you retrieve it

Excellent post. You have to convince kids that it's okay to see balls rolling over the gym during ball handling. Most of them think that is "failure" at a drill instead of realizing it's making them better.

Thanks. I need to go back and look if I have something more age appropriate for the OP. I think I started this with u14s and some of the better u12s when I was coming up coaching my son's teams. He was able to finish it just under 4 minutes as a u18.

 

[SWC]

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.)?

That's not a lot. I would give them a ball handling drill to do at home for ten minutes a day and chart their progress, ie how much they fiish or how long it takes them to complete it. Sixty minutes a week will go a long way in improveing ball handling.

For the off season I use a simple tennis ball drill

• Pound the ball one hand snatch the tennis ball with the other
  • A snatch is tossing the ball above the height of your shoulder and snatching it from the top side when it comes back down below
  • 10 snatches/side
• Toss and cross
  • Pound, toss the ball around chin high, crossover, catch.
  • The toss and the cross are two distinct movements. Don't try and start them at the same tim
  • 20 crosses (10 each direction)
• Toss and BTL
• Toss and BTB
• Toss and cross 2x
  • on the double moves you reset to the same hand so do 10x R-L-R, then another 10 L-R-L
• Lebrons
  • Toss, BTL and back thru BTL
• Cross-BTL
  • Here we cross over in front and follow it with a step over between. The other moves I encourage stationary feet, mobile hips and shoulders
• Between-behind
  • Step over BTL and then bring the other foot forward on the BTB
• Behind-behind
  • Back to stationary feet

I am a big believer that ball handling needs to be done for speed, not for comfort. If you are not losing the ball a handful of times you aren't pushing yourself enough. Always be chasing your best time. Also, if you lose the tennis ball - happens a lot early on - you have to continue dribbling while you retrieve it

Excellent post. You have to convince kids that it's okay to see balls rolling over the gym during ball handling. Most of them think that is "failure" at a drill instead of realizing it's making them better.

i used to and still do tell kids that if they dont lose the ball occassionally in ball handling drills they arent pushing themselves hard enough and that losing the ball means you are leaning and thats a good thing take that to the bank brohans

 

[Navin Johnson]

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.)?

That's not a lot. I would give them a ball handling drill to do at home for ten minutes a day and chart their progress, ie how much they fiish or how long it takes them to complete it. Sixty minutes a week will go a long way in improveing ball handling.

For the off season I use a simple tennis ball drill

• Pound the ball one hand snatch the tennis ball with the other
  • A snatch is tossing the ball above the height of your shoulder and snatching it from the top side when it comes back down below
  • 10 snatches/side
• Toss and cross
  • Pound, toss the ball around chin high, crossover, catch.
  • The toss and the cross are two distinct movements. Don't try and start them at the same tim
  • 20 crosses (10 each direction)
• Toss and BTL
• Toss and BTB
• Toss and cross 2x
  • on the double moves you reset to the same hand so do 10x R-L-R, then another 10 L-R-L
• Lebrons
  • Toss, BTL and back thru BTL
• Cross-BTL
  • Here we cross over in front and follow it with a step over between. The other moves I encourage stationary feet, mobile hips and shoulders
• Between-behind
  • Step over BTL and then bring the other foot forward on the BTB
• Behind-behind
  • Back to stationary feet

I am a big believer that ball handling needs to be done for speed, not for comfort. If you are not losing the ball a handful of times you aren't pushing yourself enough. Always be chasing your best time. Also, if you lose the tennis ball - happens a lot early on - you have to continue dribbling while you retrieve it

Excellent post. You have to convince kids that it's okay to see balls rolling over the gym during ball handling. Most of them think that is "failure" at a drill instead of realizing it's making them better.

i used to and still do tell kids that if they dont lose the ball occassionally in ball handling drills they arent pushing themselves hard enough and that losing the ball means you are leaning and thats a good thing take that to the bank brohans

I tell them that you aren't training your hands, you are training your brain and when you lose the ball it isn't because your hands were too slow it is because your brain can't keep up and that your brain will adjust. I made this up a long time ago and have no idea if it is actually true, but it sounds good

 

[Brunell4MVP]

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.

Kid ended up playing D3 ball. He thanks me all the time for putting him in that situation. Sends me an email every month about how he's doing. Stop being soft on them and maybe they'll step up

 

[Gally]

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.

Kid ended up playing D3 ball. He thanks me all the time for putting him in that situation. Sends me an email every month about how he's doing. Stop being soft on them and maybe they'll step up

Telling a kid to go purposely foul out so you can get rid of your worst player and circumvent play time rules is not about being soft/hard on kids. It is a terrible move as a coach. Maybe I am missing something here but I don't get how it is positive for the kid in any way.

What is he thanking you for? What did he get out of it? There has to be something more to this because your description makes no sense.

 

[Chadstroma]

9-0
37-19

This was the team that gave us the legitimately hardest time. Which was really surprising to me because their teams in 5th and lower grades were never any of the top teams. It was curious to me that their B team had the level of talent that it did. Pure talent wise, my two top players are significantly ahead of their best players but they did present a little bit of a matchup problem that we have not come up against in the past. The had a point that could handle the ball decently enough but their best player was a taller kid (taller than any on my team) that was also athletic and somewhat skilled. He was clearly their biggest threat. I kept my son on their point and then assigned my second best defender to this kid. He did a great job against him but it was not easy as he gave up a good two inches on him and is a little slower as well. I had thought about putting my son on their taller kid and my second best defender on their point but I didn't think my guy could keep up with their point.

The 1st Q, it was a pretty close game. I think we were up by 2. By the half we pulled away a bit to an 11 point lead and then continued to build on that giving up a stronger lead when we were stuck in mercy rules so defense was in the paint and they were able to hit their mid range shots consistently with no pressure.

My son had his best offensive game coming in with 10 points. He is starting to understand how he needs to take shots under pressure and in traffic. He has had a tendency to try to avoid contact and then over compensate with his shots going up with too much hot sauce on them. I tried to simplify it for him in that he has been 'going up soft and shooting hard and you need to go up hard and shoot soft.' He had a couple of plays that he did exactly that, going hard to the basket and letting the contact hit him and then putting the ball up nice and easy. If my son becomes a reliable threat on offense, then I don't think any team in the B leagues have a hope to beat us as long as I have my two top boys playing.

His stat line was nice.... 10 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals, 5 assists and 2 blocks.

We have a game tonight that my assistant knows one of the kids on the team as their kids are long time friends playing soccer together. He says he is pretty good so we shall see.

 

[Chadstroma]

10-0
21-16

First time all season we have trailed at any point in the season (we were down by 4 at half) and first time we did not put a team into mercy rule. The friend of my kid was indeed pretty good. Tall (taller than any of mine), athletic and could handle the ball. The only real weak area of his game was that he doesn't have a great shot so he has to drive. They had him at point which actually ended up being good for us as I could keep my son on point and their best player at the same time. My son did a great job of keeping him shut down (I don't think he scored while my son was on the court) but the scoring table told me that he had 3 fouls a bit way past mid way through the 1st half. I believe they got it wrong as I am very confident he had two fouls instead but there was not much I could do and pulled him. Once I did they were able to go on a run against us for a bit and pull up by 4. My other A player had a real rough night. He shot 2 for 14. A bit of it was being guarded better than he usually is guarded (his friend was on him in a junk defense) but it really was mostly him just being cold as he missed tons of shots he normally would be 75% or better on shooting.

My guys got a little panicky towards the end of the 1st and were trying to force things. I really focused on them calming down, relaxing, taking their time and not forcing anything- move the ball and let the game come to them which they followed through on and started to play better ball as a team and we took the lead and kept it.

I told our team after that this was obviously by far the best team that we have played and that they are capable of beating us but today, in the 1st, we were beating ourselves but that they got control of themselves and focused and took back the game. I think this was good for them in a lot of ways. I have been struggling against them being "too confident" as they were getting use to just blowing out each team. I think this put some fear into them. On the other side, it as great to see them react to it and not melt away but refocus and fight through a really bad offensive outing where out other A player was not able to carry us.

A big difference in the game was that I put my son back in at the start of the 2nd. I gave him the direction of keeping on their best player but to not foul. Move your feet, contain him and do not reach. He did exactly that and shut him down for the entire 2nd half without a foul. He had another typical stat line for him at 7 points, 10 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 blocks and 2 assists. He continues to improve in being aggressive down low with the ball and learning to use his body and strength to go to the rim in traffic and let the other team foul him if they choose to and then not over compensating for that contact with hard shots being thrown up.

We do play them again in about 4 weeks.

 

[Chadstroma]

Tournament (this tournament was played all at the court I dislike the most... it is a small court but the worst part is that the ceiling is relatively low to being with but then has several beams that come down. If you shoot a 3 with any amount of proper arch on it, it will hit a beam. It certainly does not favor how we play)

10-1
13-16

We entered a three day tournament. Our first game was against a team we beat previously 29-12. I am pretty sure that this team borrowed players from their other B team (which is generally allowable within the rules in league games and this tournament, which was hosted by a school in our leagues, followed league rules) but regardless, it really should have been another relatively easy win for us. However, the 1st half was an absolute hideous affair for us. Pretty much with the exception of injury, if something could go wrong for us, it did. My son picked up two quick fouls in the first couple of minutes so I was forced to pull him. They played a tight 2-1-2 zone which is fine but my boys, for whatever reason... maybe being rusty, maybe being cocky.... kept trying to force things and we had a ton of turnovers. Tons of shots that typically drop for us just were not going down. On top of all of that, there was more than a couple of questionable calls that all went against us. And then towards the end of the half my other good player picked up his 3rd foul. The half ended with us down 14-2. Between sitting him and then him later fouling out- most of the second half I did not have my other top player who is the majority of our normal offensive output. Even so, we started playing somewhat close to how we normally do and mounted a comeback but it just was not enough. Surprisingly, we took our first loss and moved to the consolation bracket.

11-1
38-11

Another team we have already played and defeated by a large margin. They have several bigs but they all were not very athletic or skilled and their team really lacked a ball handler. My son ate up their point guard and we created a ton of fast breaks. We got up big early and then I challenged my other good player to only use his right hand (he is a lefty who favors it with only using his right in a quick cross over back to his left) and moved my son to point. We finished it up.

12-1
45-17

And we finished up the tournament with another team we previously played. My normal point guard was unable to make the game so my son was moved over to run point the entire game. He had a very good game and we played our normal good defense that generates a lot of fast breaks and quick points. Again, not really sure if it was knocking off the rust or if it was a wake up call from the earlier loss but we started playing much more like we previously have, and the game was well in hand early. My son did well enough at point and still provided his usual additions with 8 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists (I am sure he had more but not enough to correct), 5 steals and 2 blocks and only picked up one foul.

My son so far for the season is averaging the following stat line: (these are actually lowballed as I have had trouble with the stat keepers doing a good job- I know of missing data but not enough to fill it in)
5.2 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.2 steals, 1 block, 2.2 assists. Further, his pressure on the point guards creates a lot of steals for my other players as they will not infrequently make bad passes that my other boys grab.

Most of the boys have shown improvement. Still have some bad habits we are trying to break (like getting a rebound down low and then passing out of it rather than putting it back up on offense). My one player who has basketball as his top sport has been making some good progress and though he didn't have a big stat day, I can see the improvement on the court with how he is moving, his defense and positioning himself better on offense (though he is too reluctant to take a shot when he has the chance). This is his first year playing at our school as he transferred in. He previously has played rec league but 'coaching' must have been near nothing as it really seemed like it was his first year playing basketball. He is the tallest on our team but judging by his parents height, he will lose that advantage as he gets older so if he wants to have any hope of playing in HS he is going to really need to develop a lot. I am trying to help get him there.

We are roughly about half way through the season. I am not ruling out any other tournaments but I am not planning on entering any. The season goes through mid Feb and then playoffs.

 

[Chadstroma]

13-1
28-11

This is the third time we played this team and the scores were all very similar. There really was not much about this game that was noteworthy. The only interesting point was that towards the end of the game I had taken out my two star players. League rules allow press in the last 2 minutes of the game but we were in mercy rule so that team has to choose- either keep us in the paint on defense or press, you can not do both. At the 2 min mark, they initially went to press. I then told my players to go back in but then the ref clarified with them that that would mean we could play defense so they opted to not press so I had them sit back down. However, as my point was approaching the half court one of their kids went over it and played defense. A little confused, I asked the ref something like "are they pressing or are we in the paint?" and he said "you are in the paint." I replied "yea, but they went over half court?" (in more a clarifying response in my head but sounding like it was a complaint) the ref, who I have a very good relationship with, turned and gave me a 'are you serious?' look and I realized how it sounded and started laughing as did he. After the game, he was like I looked at you and you looked at me and it was all said.

14-1
33-20

The game was not nearly as close as the final score says it was. This was our schools rival and the first time we played them this season. We jumped out ahead quickly and I don't think that they scored until we were placed in mercy rule. Once we were placed in the paint they had a couple of kids that could actually hit a mid range shot and even a 3. They changed their defense from a man to a tight 2-1-2 because we were slashing them up badly and getting baskets low. I told my guys to take the 3's and crash the boards. After a couple of 3's they went to a box and 1 towards the very end of the game and we exposed that by attacking again. It didn't really matter at that point again. The one interesting point of the game was that my son came up and set a screen while they went to the box and 1. It was a perfectly legit screen that he was well in position (the defender had at least two steps to avoid it), did not lean or move. My ball carrier as coached and cut the shoulders tight. The kid guarding the ball carrier was a smaller, scrawny kid while my son is easily one of the strongest kids in the league and solid. The kid tried to fight through the screen which was a bad decision with there not being any room for him to cut through he was forced to run right into my son and basically bounced right off him falling hard to the ground. It happened right in front of me, about 5 feet away and the ref was also nearby and had a perfect view. Again, 100% clean so there was no call. Of course, because the kid hit the ground hard you immediately heard multiples of the other teams parents calling for a foul. Which I found funny as they clearly have no understanding of basketball. Then the opposing coach started in on the refs about it. I just said to him "it was a legal screen, what do you want from them?" and he starts in on yelling at me. He started to take a few steps towards me- which I am pretty sure was just to argue and then his assistant got up and grabbed him and pulled him back to their bench. How someone who is a 'coach' doesn't know what a legal screen is and the rules meaning it can't be a foul.... and actually, if anything, it would have been a pushing foul on the defender into my ball carrier..... is sad. I expect parents to be dumb and think because the kid falls to the ground hard it must be a foul but a coach? I will say it irked me a bit so I sent my best offensive player back in the game after sitting him for a bit and was going to keep him out for the game. I probably would not have done it if not for it being the rival school and this coach being silly.

 

[Chadstroma]

0-3-1
3-8

My little guys are still learning. 90% of my focus at practices is building skill development and their fundamental foundations. They have a lot of potential actually and are making progress skill wise but have really struggled with learning to play the game. They either are super reluctant to pass or they do and throw it up for grabs (even though I have spent tons of time on drills specifically for bounce passes) and when they get the ball often launch it up no matter where they are or end up being deers in headlights with the defense collapsing on them, however, towards the end of this game, it seemed like the light bulb went off for one of the boys as he got a couple of passes and attacked the basic with the lane in front of him. Hoping to build off of that with them.

 

[Chadstroma]

15-1
39-24

Another solid win and it was not as close as the final score suggests. Not much noteworthy of the game. My son was not feeling well and you could see it on the court but he still played well. My other A player was playing his 3rd game of the day (only noon) as he had two games earlier with his club team and again, you could see it was slowing him down a bit. Both then actually played again right after the game with our other B team as they were short players as half of their team was on one of the school's robotics teams that were competing at a big event. They played a team that might actually be the second best team in our leagues. As far as I know (the standings for both leagues are several weeks behind) they had no lost a game. With my 4 boys added to their roster they beat them though it was a fairly close game. I think that my team can beat them consistently but they could steal a game from us if we had an off day.

16-1
38-16

This was a rematch of the team that first gave us some problems. Being one of only two teams to have us trailing at any point in a game. 90% of their team is one kid who is a taller and very athletic kid. He can handle the ball decently well but doesn't have an outside shot. If you let him get low though then not many kids in the B league can handle him down there. It wasn't a true rematch as they were short handed and called up a couple of 5th graders and even a 4th grader to play. Typically, that means that these are the best 5th and 4th graders and honestly, from our first matchup I would say that they were upgrades over the 6th graders that they were filing in for. As normal, I assigned my son to guard him and instructed him to not be aggressive and to simply keep in front of him so he can't drive. My son pretty much shut him down. As I mentioned above, my son was not feeling well so he asked to come out of the game several times to catch his breath which is absolutely unusual. So, I put one of my other boys on their stud who is a good defender. The last time we played them, when my son got in foul trouble, I put my other A player on him thinking this other kid was maybe a tad too slow for him. My other A player had a few fouls already so I didn't want to do that and assigned him to this other kid. He did an absolutely great job defending him and continued to keep him in check. So very proud of him. Instead of having us in the paint on mercy rule they had us play up to the three point line and they started chucking up threes... eventually hitting three of them.

 

[Chadstroma]

1-3-1
12-10

My little guys got their first win! It was good to see as when time ran out they all ran over to the bench, all excited and jumping up and down like they just won a championship. At some point, we were up in the game like 6-4 and one of my coaches pointed out to me that this was the first time we had been up in a game. Then, they went on a run and we were down 10-6. We then went on our own run to end the game ahead. We can see some payoff on some of the skill development and teaching the game that we have been doing which then paid off in the win as well. My son, whom I have moved to PG over the last couple of games, did well and scored as well.

 

[Chadstroma]

17-1
31-16
&
18-1
51-12

The first game was a normal game for us except for some reason, my son was struggling... not in the game but mentally. He was getting down on himself even though he was having a solid game. He had a breakaway and then got tripped up and feel. He made out like he was injured but I didn't buy it. I sat him and then touched base with him during the game if he was fine to go back in and he basically took himself out. This isn't totally unknown for him as he struggled a bit both in sport and personal at times but has made a ton of progress and I really don't know why he was 'triggered' during this game. We had 6 players total that day so the rest of the 5 took it the rest of the game.

The second game, I was not there so I don't know what really happened. My assistant coached the game. He did tell me the refs had made several comments to him about how we were crushing the other team and needed to stop trying or something along those lines. I asked if he got everyone in the game and said he did adding in that our least skilled kid even got in there with a hard foul (he is extremely not physical). It was against the team that we had the drama before with so I have a feeling the boys were out to pound the other team for it. Stat wise my son had a pretty good game too- he was at a basketball clinic and then speed/agility clinic after for the day before going to the game so he was pretty primed up.

 

[Chadstroma]

1-3-2
12-12

This game ended up in a tie but it was a win in terms of the progress that the boys showed. They really started showing an understanding of ball movement, setting screens, and shot selection. Noticeable to everyone, huge improvement. For the most part, they showed improvement on defense as well. The other side had a kid that was like 5 for 5. He was Cool Hand Luke... if he got the ball with any daylight he was on the mark. It was probably my failure to not assign one of my better defenders to him and instead I kept trying to get the natural matchups to keep on him and defend him but the natural matchups also tend to be the boys who drop on their assignments the most. Even so... we were up 12-10 with like 15 seconds to go and one of their boys was fouled on a shot. I was thinking "what are the chances this kid makes both?" well.... apparently pretty good. He hit both. Tied it up. I called time out and gave the boys direction which was for my son to drive and if they collapsed on him pass to one of the blocks where I had our two best shooters other than my son for a quick shot. My son came down and basically kind of panicked and threw up a wild "layup" shot after getting a bit out of control. Tie game. But again, just dramatic improvement.

 

[The Z Machine]

@Chadstroma, any chance of causing some real drama by challenging the A team from your school to a scrimmage?

 

[Chadstroma]

@Chadstroma, any chance of causing some real drama by challenging the A team from your school to a scrimmage?

We would lose... just wouldn't be able to match up or have the firepower to keep up with them BUT it could be fun. I think Ibjust might ask for a scrimmage.

I don't think I reported the following...
So if any remember about our football season, we had a total stud transfer come into the school. As tall as our other tallest kid, strongest by far, and fastest. He is a football stud. In basketball, his skillset is not very developed but his non-stop engine and physical attributes means he could be a huge asset on defense and the boards. He was on A. A lot of the kids didn't think he should be because his shot was not very good. I disagreed but I value defense and rebounding more than the kids typically do. So, this kid tried out for a club 7on7 flag football team and made the national team where they do a ton of travel. Compound that with him riding the bench a lot (which I don't get.... I would have a total approach to rotatation than they do) as well as being frustrated with the coaching (he was really bummed that I wasn't coaching him when rosters came out and then he watched some of our practice one day and told his Mom "Coach Chad is a "real" coach" and expressed disappointment with the A team coaches) that lead to him quiting. I don't agree with it but I understand it.

So, before I found out he quit, I saw one of A's games after our practice ended in our other gym. They lost the game. I also saw part of another of their game last Sat as well which overall, I would approach things much differently than the current coaches do.

Most of the boys at some point have been on one of my teams. I felt like they were not playing at the level they could. I really hated their shot selection which was basically drivr and then kick out and shoot a 3. The two boys that made A over my son and my other A player played like I thought....not bad and they are "A" level but just don't bring anything to the team to really help win. I would rank them after my son and my other A player as well as another player on the other B team and ahead of one other player on the other B that I think is on the bubble of A and B. The big thing though was I was watching this kid on the other team eat them up. He was a big kid but too fast for our big guy (who I begged to work on conditioning through the summer and really did not). He was too big for any of the other players so he would bully them if they out someone else on him and just go around our big guy if they put him on. I think the kid who quit would have done a good job on him but my son would have shut him down... easily.

Watching the game validated a lot of my points I made when teams were announced. Now, not that I enjoy that or want to see that but I don't think anyone that knows can watch that team and say "yea, we made the right call". It really has taken what I think should be the team to beat and turned them into an upper mid tier team that will get bounced early in playoffs. Which sucks. I love those kids on that team (even the ones I think should not have been selected over my son and other player) and hate to see it.

Meanwhile, we are perfect in season play and our only loss is a game we really should never have lost. Barring another game where we beat ourselves, we should be able to continue and win both league championships.

 

[Instinctive]

@Chadstroma, any chance of causing some real drama by challenging the A team from your school to a scrimmage?

We would lose... just wouldn't be able to match up or have the firepower to keep up with them BUT it could be fun. I think Ibjust might ask for a scrimmage.

I don't think I reported the following...
So if any remember about our football season, we had a total stud transfer come into the school. As tall as our other tallest kid, strongest by far, and fastest. He is a football stud. In basketball, his skillset is not very developed but his non-stop engine and physical attributes means he could be a huge asset on defense and the boards. He was on A. A lot of the kids didn't think he should be because his shot was not very good. I disagreed but I value defense and rebounding more than the kids typically do. So, this kid tried out for a club 7on7 flag football team and made the national team where they do a ton of travel. Compound that with him riding the bench a lot (which I don't get.... I would have a total approach to rotatation than they do) as well as being frustrated with the coaching (he was really bummed that I wasn't coaching him when rosters came out and then he watched some of our practice one day and told his Mom "Coach Chad is a "real" coach" and expressed disappointment with the A team coaches) that lead to him quiting. I don't agree with it but I understand it.

So, before I found out he quit, I saw one of A's games after our practice ended in our other gym. They lost the game. I also saw part of another of their game last Sat as well which overall, I would approach things much differently than the current coaches do.

If you trust the mom and the kid actually likes basketball and wants to play, I'd mention you would be happy to have him on the B team and develop and practice if he wanted. Sucks when a kid quits because of coaches (I say from experience).

 

[Gally]

@Chadstroma, any chance of causing some real drama by challenging the A team from your school to a scrimmage?

We would lose... just wouldn't be able to match up or have the firepower to keep up with them BUT it could be fun. I think Ibjust might ask for a scrimmage.

I don't think I reported the following...
So if any remember about our football season, we had a total stud transfer come into the school. As tall as our other tallest kid, strongest by far, and fastest. He is a football stud. In basketball, his skillset is not very developed but his non-stop engine and physical attributes means he could be a huge asset on defense and the boards. He was on A. A lot of the kids didn't think he should be because his shot was not very good. I disagreed but I value defense and rebounding more than the kids typically do. So, this kid tried out for a club 7on7 flag football team and made the national team where they do a ton of travel. Compound that with him riding the bench a lot (which I don't get.... I would have a total approach to rotatation than they do) as well as being frustrated with the coaching (he was really bummed that I wasn't coaching him when rosters came out and then he watched some of our practice one day and told his Mom "Coach Chad is a "real" coach" and expressed disappointment with the A team coaches) that lead to him quiting. I don't agree with it but I understand it.

So, before I found out he quit, I saw one of A's games after our practice ended in our other gym. They lost the game. I also saw part of another of their game last Sat as well which overall, I would approach things much differently than the current coaches do.

If you trust the mom and the kid actually likes basketball and wants to play, I'd mention you would be happy to have him on the B team and develop and practice if he wanted. Sucks when a kid quits because of coaches (I say from experience).

He doesn't even necessarily need to be on the team (especially if he has to miss a ton for Flag Football). Just offer up the opportunity to practice with your team.

 

[The Z Machine]

@Chadstroma, any chance of causing some real drama by challenging the A team from your school to a scrimmage?

We would lose... just wouldn't be able to match up or have the firepower to keep up with them BUT it could be fun. I think Ibjust might ask for a scrimmage.

I don't think I reported the following...
So if any remember about our football season, we had a total stud transfer come into the school. As tall as our other tallest kid, strongest by far, and fastest. He is a football stud. In basketball, his skillset is not very developed but his non-stop engine and physical attributes means he could be a huge asset on defense and the boards. He was on A. A lot of the kids didn't think he should be because his shot was not very good. I disagreed but I value defense and rebounding more than the kids typically do. So, this kid tried out for a club 7on7 flag football team and made the national team where they do a ton of travel. Compound that with him riding the bench a lot (which I don't get.... I would have a total approach to rotatation than they do) as well as being frustrated with the coaching (he was really bummed that I wasn't coaching him when rosters came out and then he watched some of our practice one day and told his Mom "Coach Chad is a "real" coach" and expressed disappointment with the A team coaches) that lead to him quiting. I don't agree with it but I understand it.

So, before I found out he quit, I saw one of A's games after our practice ended in our other gym. They lost the game. I also saw part of another of their game last Sat as well which overall, I would approach things much differently than the current coaches do.

If you trust the mom and the kid actually likes basketball and wants to play, I'd mention you would be happy to have him on the B team and develop and practice if he wanted. Sucks when a kid quits because of coaches (I say from experience).

He doesn't even necessarily need to be on the team (especially if he has to miss a ton for Flag Football). Just offer up the opportunity to practice with your team.

Would that take reps from the other boys though? Would the rest of them benefit or enjoy it? Or would it be a distraction?

 

[Instinctive]

@Chadstroma, any chance of causing some real drama by challenging the A team from your school to a scrimmage?

We would lose... just wouldn't be able to match up or have the firepower to keep up with them BUT it could be fun. I think Ibjust might ask for a scrimmage.

I don't think I reported the following...
So if any remember about our football season, we had a total stud transfer come into the school. As tall as our other tallest kid, strongest by far, and fastest. He is a football stud. In basketball, his skillset is not very developed but his non-stop engine and physical attributes means he could be a huge asset on defense and the boards. He was on A. A lot of the kids didn't think he should be because his shot was not very good. I disagreed but I value defense and rebounding more than the kids typically do. So, this kid tried out for a club 7on7 flag football team and made the national team where they do a ton of travel. Compound that with him riding the bench a lot (which I don't get.... I would have a total approach to rotatation than they do) as well as being frustrated with the coaching (he was really bummed that I wasn't coaching him when rosters came out and then he watched some of our practice one day and told his Mom "Coach Chad is a "real" coach" and expressed disappointment with the A team coaches) that lead to him quiting. I don't agree with it but I understand it.

So, before I found out he quit, I saw one of A's games after our practice ended in our other gym. They lost the game. I also saw part of another of their game last Sat as well which overall, I would approach things much differently than the current coaches do.

If you trust the mom and the kid actually likes basketball and wants to play, I'd mention you would be happy to have him on the B team and develop and practice if he wanted. Sucks when a kid quits because of coaches (I say from experience).

He doesn't even necessarily need to be on the team (especially if he has to miss a ton for Flag Football). Just offer up the opportunity to practice with your team.

Would that take reps from the other boys though? Would the rest of them benefit or enjoy it? Or would it be a distraction?

You always benefit from another player in practice if they are good. Especially if they are better than you and trying hard.

 

[Gally]

@Chadstroma, any chance of causing some real drama by challenging the A team from your school to a scrimmage?

We would lose... just wouldn't be able to match up or have the firepower to keep up with them BUT it could be fun. I think Ibjust might ask for a scrimmage.

I don't think I reported the following...
So if any remember about our football season, we had a total stud transfer come into the school. As tall as our other tallest kid, strongest by far, and fastest. He is a football stud. In basketball, his skillset is not very developed but his non-stop engine and physical attributes means he could be a huge asset on defense and the boards. He was on A. A lot of the kids didn't think he should be because his shot was not very good. I disagreed but I value defense and rebounding more than the kids typically do. So, this kid tried out for a club 7on7 flag football team and made the national team where they do a ton of travel. Compound that with him riding the bench a lot (which I don't get.... I would have a total approach to rotatation than they do) as well as being frustrated with the coaching (he was really bummed that I wasn't coaching him when rosters came out and then he watched some of our practice one day and told his Mom "Coach Chad is a "real" coach" and expressed disappointment with the A team coaches) that lead to him quiting. I don't agree with it but I understand it.

So, before I found out he quit, I saw one of A's games after our practice ended in our other gym. They lost the game. I also saw part of another of their game last Sat as well which overall, I would approach things much differently than the current coaches do.

If you trust the mom and the kid actually likes basketball and wants to play, I'd mention you would be happy to have him on the B team and develop and practice if he wanted. Sucks when a kid quits because of coaches (I say from experience).

He doesn't even necessarily need to be on the team (especially if he has to miss a ton for Flag Football). Just offer up the opportunity to practice with your team.

Would that take reps from the other boys though? Would the rest of them benefit or enjoy it? Or would it be a distraction?

That is kid dependent. If the kid isn't generally a distraction by his actions (meaning disrupting practice, drills, goofing off, etc) then the kids won't care. Typically there aren't so many kids that one more takes anything away.

When my kid was in 1st grade he practiced with a 2nd/3rd grade team and it was great for everyone. In our area the league started at 2nd grade so he couldn't play. We tried to petition to get him in the league (he was better than most 2nd/3rd graders) but they didn't allow him to be on a team. So I asked one of the coaches that was a friend of mine if he could just show up and practice and he had no problem with it. It was good for everybody.

 

[Chadstroma]

@Chadstroma, any chance of causing some real drama by challenging the A team from your school to a scrimmage?

We would lose... just wouldn't be able to match up or have the firepower to keep up with them BUT it could be fun. I think Ibjust might ask for a scrimmage.

I don't think I reported the following...
So if any remember about our football season, we had a total stud transfer come into the school. As tall as our other tallest kid, strongest by far, and fastest. He is a football stud. In basketball, his skillset is not very developed but his non-stop engine and physical attributes means he could be a huge asset on defense and the boards. He was on A. A lot of the kids didn't think he should be because his shot was not very good. I disagreed but I value defense and rebounding more than the kids typically do. So, this kid tried out for a club 7on7 flag football team and made the national team where they do a ton of travel. Compound that with him riding the bench a lot (which I don't get.... I would have a total approach to rotatation than they do) as well as being frustrated with the coaching (he was really bummed that I wasn't coaching him when rosters came out and then he watched some of our practice one day and told his Mom "Coach Chad is a "real" coach" and expressed disappointment with the A team coaches) that lead to him quiting. I don't agree with it but I understand it.

So, before I found out he quit, I saw one of A's games after our practice ended in our other gym. They lost the game. I also saw part of another of their game last Sat as well which overall, I would approach things much differently than the current coaches do.

If you trust the mom and the kid actually likes basketball and wants to play, I'd mention you would be happy to have him on the B team and develop and practice if he wanted. Sucks when a kid quits because of coaches (I say from experience).

He doesn't even necessarily need to be on the team (especially if he has to miss a ton for Flag Football). Just offer up the opportunity to practice with your team.

Would that take reps from the other boys though? Would the rest of them benefit or enjoy it? Or would it be a distraction?

That is kid dependent. If the kid isn't generally a distraction by his actions (meaning disrupting practice, drills, goofing off, etc) then the kids won't care. Typically there aren't so many kids that one more takes anything away.

When my kid was in 1st grade he practiced with a 2nd/3rd grade team and it was great for everyone. In our area the league started at 2nd grade so he couldn't play. We tried to petition to get him in the league (he was better than most 2nd/3rd graders) but they didn't allow him to be on a team. So I asked one of the coaches that was a friend of mine if he could just show up and practice and he had no problem with it. It was good for everybody.

The kid is a hard worker.... more than any other kid I have seen at his age which is largely the reason why he is so far superior to the other boys. There would be no distractions at practice from him being there and I like the idea. I will offer that out but my guess is that they will not take me up on it much or at all. They live a ways away from the school. Their plan is to stay this year and then after his older sister graduates, relocate closer (my guess is maybe between our school and Mt. Carmel where he wants to go to HS).

I am not going to offer a spot on the team. It would just cause so much drama. The coaches, parents and even players on A are apparently very upset about this to begin with. This would rock the boat even more and we are in the last stretch of the season as is.

I also don't think he quite because of the coaches but being disappointed he was not being coached by me (sounds arrogant but that is what his Mom told me previously) and not exactly thrilled about the coaching he was getting was absolutely a contributing factor. The big thing was making this 7on7 team that they will be doing a lot of travel for (Vegas, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Orlando, etc) and then the lack of playing time as well. I think if he was getting playing time, they would have stuck it out and just missed some time for the 7on7 but felt like why spend the time into the team if he is going to ride the bench and then on the other hand has a rather big opportunity in a sport he is more passionate about to begin with. I do feel like if I was coaching A that he would have stuck it out but at this point, moving him to B would just cause chaos.

On another note- our other B team is short players and will not have their second best player so they requested my son to play which he will on Sat. I will not be able to watch it as my little guy has game time at the same time.

 

[Chadstroma]

19-1
42-11

Another win that was not in doubt. They scored 10 of their points in mercy rule time. I only had 6 players as a couple are sick. My son notched a double double with 10 assists and 11 rebounds along with 5 points, 2 blocks and 3 steals. He has shown a good amount of progress in being able to be in control in driving and finishing it with some touch.... going up strong and shooting soft versus going up soft (avoiding contact) and shooting hard (trying to compensate for avoiding contact by launching the ball at the basket). His shooting has improved a lot too but he doesn't take many shots rather optioning to drive instead mostly. He still has a tendency to have 'concrete fee' where he will get the ball and instead of pivoting, keeping both feet still and trying to lean out of pressure (hard to explain) he also had a couple of turnovers of travel.... like delaying a pass because of defenders getting in the way and taking 3 steps on a fast break as an example of one. The whole team has progressed a lot from the start of the season which is gratifying to see.

I did offer up practice time for the other boy. The mom declined and told me that the AD and A coaches also offered for him to 'come when he can' and they just don't have the time for it... which I think is more along the lines of they don't want to make the time for it. They are pretty fixated on him with football. The Dad was not not on board with basketball to begin with... I pushed it with them to have him have break time away from football and still develop athletically which will help with football as I am a big believer in needing that mental and physical variance to avoid injury and burn out.

We entered two tournaments. The first is an open tournament with no A and B brackets. So, most, if not all, teams will be A teams. We are having the three best players from our other B team join us. My assessment is that we will lose the first game and be out though most of the teams in the tourney are other Catholic schools outside of our normal leagues. Our first matchup I have never seen before. However, if we did win, then the next round would be against a team that has the best player in our A league on it and beat our A team last week. I won't be able to matchup against them. I think it will be good for our A players to be challenged by higher level players and then also for my team to get humbled as they are getting kind of arrogant on their wins and I would like them to get a humbling to keep an edge. The other tournament does have A and B and against teams against teams in our league against a small field.

6 more regular season games left before playoffs.

 

[thecatch]

We're playing in an all-play rec league with different skill divisions per age range (advanced, intermediate, beginner). Most teams are thrown together randomly at registration but there is the option to assemble and bring your own team. Our team is mostly random (except for the coaches' kids) and is truly intermediate level talent wise. We won our first two games by 10-20 but they were pretty competitive until the very end.

Game 3 comes around, and the other team has a squad that won the championship in the advanced league the last year and has clearly been put together based on talent. The kids have played together for multiple years. They are running offensive sets, half court traps, and full court presses that are coordinated so far beyond what a typical intermediate team with our level of practice time can do it is funny. We lost by 40 and the kids are all bummed out.

Why on earth do coaches play "down" (in terms of leagues below their team's actual skill level) like this? There's no benefit to a team like that playing in a division where they are curb stomping a bunch of elementary school age kids every week. I guess this is rhetorical because I know it is based on the coaches' egos, but it still mind blowing to me.

 

[Chadstroma]

1-4-2
4-15

I knew we were in trouble before the game started. As the kids were lining up for the tip off the ref turned to me and said that 22 is pretty good huh? I was confused on who he was talking about and then he nudged over to one of their players. The ball goes off and he goes right into a between the legs, cross over jab move that just smoked my son who is a pretty good defender. Yup.... this is going to be rough.

My boys started really breaking down mentally getting frustrated, mad, upset, etc. I had to pull one of my best players because he was having a meltdown. Basically told me assistant to coach the game and spent a couple of minutes talking to him... gist of it being "crying doesn't help anything, turn that into playing harder" I got him to the point to get him back in (his Mom said she was impressed because no one has ever got him back to playing after a meltdown before). I rotated my son out and then he had a meltdown and had to spend time doing the exact same thing again with him. Got him ready to go back in. We got put into mercy rules which I realized was the first time ever a team I coached was on the wrong side of a mercy rules game.

The kid was easily the best ball handler I have ever seen for 3rd grade. After we shook hands the HC said that she actually went to our school for a few years when she was a kid. I mentioned "22 is pretty good" and she said it was her son. No surprise, she said he eats, sleeps and drinks basketball and does the Dribble Up app a lot. I told my boys... "when I say you get better by working at home- THAT is what I mean. Do you think he is playing video games? Or working on his game".

 

[Navin Johnson]

1-4-2
4-15

I knew we were in trouble before the game started. As the kids were lining up for the tip off the ref turned to me and said that 22 is pretty good huh? I was confused on who he was talking about and then he nudged over to one of their players. The ball goes off and he goes right into a between the legs, cross over jab move that just smoked my son who is a pretty good defender. Yup.... this is going to be rough.

My boys started really breaking down mentally getting frustrated, mad, upset, etc. I had to pull one of my best players because he was having a meltdown. Basically told me assistant to coach the game and spent a couple of minutes talking to him... gist of it being "crying doesn't help anything, turn that into playing harder" I got him to the point to get him back in (his Mom said she was impressed because no one has ever got him back to playing after a meltdown before). I rotated my son out and then he had a meltdown and had to spend time doing the exact same thing again with him. Got him ready to go back in. We got put into mercy rules which I realized was the first time ever a team I coached was on the wrong side of a mercy rules game.

The kid was easily the best ball handler I have ever seen for 3rd grade. After we shook hands the HC said that she actually went to our school for a few years when she was a kid. I mentioned "22 is pretty good" and she said it was her son. No surprise, she said he eats, sleeps and drinks basketball and does the Dribble Up app a lot. I told my boys... "when I say you get better by working at home- THAT is what I mean. Do you think he is playing video games? Or working on his game".

It doesn't even take much. Ten minutes a day stationary ball handling will get you to an elite handle quick. It's just that most kids don't like practicing ball handling because it is boring.

I have a tennis ball drill where they are always up against their best time - I tell the beginners they can cap it at 10 minutes and track how far the getthru the drill. Had to clean up my Google Photos account and upload my vids to YouTube. u14 kids mostly here

 

[acarey50]

Dribble Up is actually a pretty good app for developing ball handling for youth players.

We had a lot of our kids using it during Covid, challenging each other to see who could get the best score, etc.

Saw good improvement in the kids that did it fairly consistently considering we could not actually practice as a team for quite some time.

 

[Chadstroma]

Dribble Up is actually a pretty good app for developing ball handling for youth players.

We had a lot of our kids using it during Covid, challenging each other to see who could get the best score, etc.

Saw good improvement in the kids that did it fairly consistently considering we could not actually practice as a team for quite some time.

Yea, that kid was athletic and had some height. He could shoot decently well but not exceptionally well beyond other good 3rd graders but his ball handling was tremendous. I would consider it for my boys but I am doubtful that they would spend time on it. They haven't shown me yet that they will consistently opt to work versus playing video games.

 

[thecatch]

Dribble Up is actually a pretty good app for developing ball handling for youth players.

We had a lot of our kids using it during Covid, challenging each other to see who could get the best score, etc.

Saw good improvement in the kids that did it fairly consistently considering we could not actually practice as a team for quite some time.

I downloaded Homecourt for my kids, which is basically the same thing as far as I can tell only you don’t need any special equipment. They LOVE it.

 

[Chadstroma]

20-1
31-16

As far as I know this team has not won a game yet this season. My top scorer was playing his 5th game in two days (1 the night before and 3 earlier in the day) and knowing that we outmatched them I directed him to use his right hand and to not cross over from the right side of the court to the left or I would sit him for the game. I told him that he could easily beat these kids with his left so he needed to challenge himself to get better. He struggled a bit, which was expected and the purpose of my direction to him so he could improve. My assistant, his father, told him "forget it, play your game" which I will say pissed me off. I told him not to counter my direction and he replied that it was messing up his game to which I said "I don't care. That is the point." I was wondering if would blow up into a thing but he backed down and continued the rest of the game normally. I gave some direction to other boys meant to help them develop and changed up the normal rotation of substitution to continue to push them as well as sitting my scorer to rest him and give more playing time elsewhere. The funny thing about it is that the kids on the other team were trash talking my kids. WTF... you are playing the team that has not lost a regular season game and you haven't won a single regular season game and are put into mercy rule and you are talking trash?! The balls on those kids. When my kids complained to me, I told them to ignore it and just smile back, all our talking is on the board.

We have a game tonight and then 4 more left for the regular season.

We play a tournament this Sat which will be against A teams. We are borrowing a couple of the A level players from our other B team but I expect us to get spanked in a one and done tourney.

Then we have another tourney lined up that does have A and B brackets which I would expect us to run the table as most (all?) the teams are teams we have seen before.

 

[Chadstroma]

Dribble Up is actually a pretty good app for developing ball handling for youth players.

We had a lot of our kids using it during Covid, challenging each other to see who could get the best score, etc.

Saw good improvement in the kids that did it fairly consistently considering we could not actually practice as a team for quite some time.

I downloaded Homecourt for my kids, which is basically the same thing as far as I can tell only you don’t need any special equipment. They LOVE it.

I am going to check that out. I haven't heard of it.