Could 3 on 3 Basketball Be the Best for Youth Players?

By Joe Haefner

Back in college, I came back to my hometown for a Christmas break. I ran into one of my old high school coaches by the name of Casey Ditch and we were talking about youth basketball stuff. Then he said, “Man, I wish all they did with youth players was play 3-on-3. That’s all I did when I was younger.” This really caught my attention, because Casey had developed into quite a player back in his day. He led the state in scoring, beating out former Chicago Bull Bobby Hansen (for those of you who remember him). He did unbelievable stuff with the ball and still could. If it wasn’t for two bad ankles, who knows what Casey would’ve done. We had a particular coach in the area who bragged about holding him to 15 points.

If Casey became such a good player by mostly playing 3 on 3 as a youth, don’t you think your players could benefit from this as well?

When I thought a little more about the conversation I had with Casey, I realized that I played a lot of 3 on 3 when I was younger, too. I started playing in 3 on 3 tournaments when I was in 4th grade. I didn’t start playing organized 5 on 5 until 6th grade, and I handled myself quite well against players who had been playing since they were 8 years old.

If you think about it, 3 on 3 basketball makes a lot of sense. It will improve a youth player’s long-term development for a number of reasons.

1. Players touch the ball more often. In the 5 on 5 game, players can go almost the whole game without touching the ball. In 3 on 3, you could touch the ball EVERY possession. When the player gets more experience handling the ball during game situations, the player is going to improve much more than the players who hardly touch the ball in 5 on 5. It doesn’t matter if you are the point guard or the star post player, you’re still going to get more touches in 3 on 3.

2. More room to operate. A lot of younger players, especially under the age of 12 don’t have the skill, strength, or experience to utilize their basketball skills with 10 players on the court. 3 on 3 gives them more room to operate and practice their skills.

3. Players learn the game! When there are only six (3 on 3) players on the court, players are more inclined to run the pick-and-roll, screen away, and screen the ball without a coach even telling them to do so, because there are fewer options out there. After awhile, they will start to figure things out for themselves which is FANTASTIC and exactly what you want the players to do. With ten (5 on 5) players on the court, a lot of those options aren’t there, because they lack the skill, strength, and experience. Now, with fewer players on the court, it gives them a split second longer to recognize a situation.

4. No pressing & zones. Now, instead of spending time on breaking full court pressure, breaking half-court pressure, playing against a 1-3-1, playing against 3-2, playing against a 2-3, playing against a triangle-and-two, playing against a box-and-one, you can focus on the FUNDAMENTALS. Youth coaches waste so much of their precious time working on things that they shouldn’t worry about at an early age.

99% of the presses that are ran by youth coaches wouldn’t work in high school or college, anyways. Most of the presses I’ve seen, just run 2 to 3 players at the ball and hope he throws the ball high enough, so somebody else can pick it off. It’s just a tactic that takes advantage of a flaw in our basketball development system, because players lack the skill, strength, and experience to react correctly to these situations. Spending that extra time on basketball skills and concepts, will benefit them much more for the future. Not to mention, if taught incorrectly (which most of the time they are), the zones and presses can ingrain some terrible habits in your players that don’t work at the higher levels.

Personally, I feel that youth players should not play in 5 on 5 leagues before age 10 or 11. Part of me feels that may even be too young.

What are your thoughts?

Coaching Youth Basketball with Limited Time (1 Practice a Week)

By Jeff Haefner

We just wrapped up our bonus tele-seminar for customers that ordered the Motion Offense eBook last night…

During the tele-seminar a few youth coaches asked some very good and interesting questions.  One question in particular was…

“I coach 5th grade girls.  We only practice once a week for one hour.  What would you recommend that we focus on during that short amount of time”?

Summarized in my own words, here’s Don’s answer…

In that short amount of time, I would focus on SKILLS, allow the kids some time to play, and give them homework.

To give you an example, here’s a way to work on Skills (fundamentals) and Motion Offense at the same time…

1.  First, pick a couple cuts or screens that you think would be good for your team.  For example, you could choose down-screens and away-screens.

2. Next, run shooting drills that incorporate those movements.  You could have two offensive players (no defense).  One player on the wing, another player on the block.  A coach or third player could have the ball on top of the key.  The player on the wing sets a down screen, the other player rubs off the screen, catches the ball, pivots, and shoots.  Now repeat over and over.  Your players are working on screens (part of your motion offense), pivoting footwork and shooting (skills).

3.  You can do the same thing with away screens, basket cuts, and any type of cut or screen.  The key is to choose a couple elements from your motion offense and turn those elements into skill building drills.  Your imagination is the only limit to the types of drills you can come up with.  It doesn’t hurt to mix things up and make the youth basketball drills fun too. 

By practicing this way, you’ll save a ton of time and get a lot more done.

Also, you’re providing drills that your players can practice on their own.  Don’t be afraid to give them some homework.  Some players will put in the work outside of practice to get better.

Let them play

After practicing skills, I would let them play at the end.  It’s up to you how much time you spend scrimmaging.  But as an example, you could work on skills for 45 minutes, then scrimmage for 15 minutes at the end.   In practice, I think kids need to play at least a little bit.

During the scrimmage, start by showing the kids general spacing.  You’ll probably want to put tape on the floor so they know the basic motion offense spots.  Then just tell them to play.  If they don’t know what to do, just say “Do you remember the down screen drill we did at the beginning of practice?  Do that.  Sometimes it will work, sometimes it won’t  That’s ok.  If it doesn’t work, do it again.” 

Now you have worked on skills, you have the beginning of a motion offense, and your kids are “learning how to play”. 

How productive do you think that hour would be if you spent nearly the entire time teaching them a set play or a patterned offense?  It takes a long time for kids to learn and remember patterns and plays.  Kids will get VERY little benefit from that!

That’s the great thing about a motion offense.  You can work on skills and motion offense at the same time.

You could even practice some man to man defense during the scrimmage.  Just have one coach responsible for making minor corrections during the scrimmage.  This coach only watches the defense and tries to improve their positioning.

This is how you get the MOST out a short amount of time.  Kids need to play, learn skills, and have fun.

If you’d like to hear the actual question and answer in audio, Right Click here and select Save As.

Important Lesson for Youth Basketball Coaches

By Jeff Haefner

Here’s a guest post and very good lesson from Coach Ken Sartini.  We really think he was on the money with this, so we decided to post it on our blog.  Enjoy…

I went to church this morning and as I was looking through the weekly bulletin I came upon this:

Jesus said:  ” A foolish person builds a house on sand…. A wise person builds a house on solid ground. ”

The Deacon spoke on this at length during his homily and it got me thinking.  Since I always told my students about building a house and that it takes a good foundation for it to last, but with a poor foundation the building will crumble.  I told them that their education was the foundation for their lives. Get a good education and build a good foundation for your future.

This holds true in basketball also.  If we are to have a good program we need to build from the bottom up… ( the foundation ) and that begins at the lowest level possible, teaching the fundamentals of the game and how to play, NOT just sets and winning as the end all.  Good solid fundamentals are the foundation of your programs.  As a varsity coach I loved it when kids came in knowing how to play m2m defense, be able to read and set screens and how to shoot.  I didn’t care what offense they ran, as long as they had these basics, we could teach the rest.

Now comes the planning part. 

I was talking to John Jenkins and we were discussing fundamentals vs winning and we came to the conclusion that while the basketball fundamentals are extremely important there are other things that the players need to know in order to implement these.  He related to me of a college coach that came in to coach some of his younger kids and taught nothing but fundamentals. Since they didn’t run a press offense in practice, they got destroyed and never got the chance to do much in games.

John and I talked about some kids that were shooting the ball off their left eye and pushing the ball instead of good solid fundamental shooting.  We had some kids that came in and they were dribbling with their right hands, taking the ball to their left side before bringing the ball up to the proper side to shoot.  It takes a lot of time to break bad habits like this.

So, to all you lower level youth coaches, plan your practices wisely! 

Make a good practice plan, just like you would have a lesson plan in the classroom.  I realize that at some levels time is a big factor - so planning is even more important.  If you don’t know how to make a good practice plan, search the Internet and find the answer….. or find a mentor to help you learn that skill.  Use your time wisely, make sure that you cover the things that they are going to need to  play the game while teaching good fundamentals.  Help them build a good foundation so they can continue to play as they progress through each level….. and they will have some success.

While everyone wants to win…. in the end.. who really cares if kids go 30-0 and cant play when they reach high school because they are so far behind fundamentally.  That is the measure of your success as a youth basketball coach.

OK, that’s my sermon for the day.  Sorry if I bored you… but like I always say…JMO….

If you’d like to contact me or ask me a question, just leave your comments below.

Coach Ken Sartini

In the long run, it’s not what we have done, but what we have become through all of our experiences.