Coaching Basketball: Communicating With Your Players, Coaches and Parents

I am starting my 3rd year of youth coaching. The best advise I received came from a coach who was just finishing a very successful four year stint as I was just starting.

He recommended scripting your playing time for each game prior to each game. My assistant coach can then get the kids ready for substitutions without me worrying about it. I am an equal playing time advocate, so this also allows me to make sure that happens.

The kids love it because they know when they are going in, instead of worrying about it. The parents love it because they are not worried about playing time for their child. I love it because it allows me to coach the kids on the floor instead of worrying about substitutions.

I need the pdf consists of...

* Rules
* Practice schedule
* Game schedule
* Expectations of players
* Expectations of parents

Love your work. Keep it up. I'd love to get the pdf consisting of

practice schedule

Game schedule

Exspectations of the players

Yours truly

Patricio Bridgewater

patricio@scarlet.an

Hi
this is my first year as a youth coach and I like the idea of setting up the rules and expectations at the beginning so to avoid uncomfortable situations. This is great help you provide for a rookie coach like me. Is there anyway I can get the template or copy of the practice schedule, Game schedule and Exspectations of the players. Thanks and God bless
Sincerely,
Tony Montiel
chispas_2000@hotmail.com

This is my first time coaching and this web site is a God sent. I had a great coach as a kid in Indiana as a child. My coach taught me the fundlementals that carried me through my adult life. Yet being a new coach it is hard to try and live up to what i thought i not only remembered but what i have forgott

thank you for this information

Sincerely,

MJ

This is my first year coaching basketball. I am coaching 6-7 year olds. I have a problem with one of my best players. When he rcieves the ball he will not pass the ball and is insistant upon driving to the basket or shooting regardless of how many defensive players are guarding him or who is open. I have repeadedly reminded him that this is a team sport and as you get more players involved the the better the team plays. He dosen't seam too hear me. I do not want to dampen his effort and enthusiasium by reprminding him but as we all know it is know fun playing with a "ball hog". Any suggestions?

Greg,

I'm more surprised that you have a 6 or 7 year old that has the capabilities to consistently drive to the hoop. That's great. Trying to get a player to play "team ball" at that age should be the last of your concerns at that age. It's hard to get a teenager to play team ball, yet a 6 or 7 year old. You don't want to come down on this kid for this, because he probably doesn't understand the concepts you are trying to teach him. Just focus on having fun and playing teamwork-oriented games to help drive that "teamwork" lesson home. For instance, a great game called "Crossing the River" which involves some blocks teaches kids to work together to achieve a common goal. Just be patient and try to teach him in a fun-manner.

Also at 6 & 7 years old, one of your last concerns should be teaching basketball skills. Rather, you should be teaching movement skills, such as hopping, skipping, running forwards and backwards, squatting, lunging, throwing, jumping and landing, moving laterally and other directions. You don't worry about the technique too much, bur rather whether they can perform the movement or not.

My advice would be to play a lot of TAG. This game is great for so many reasons. It teaches kids how to move forwards, backwards, and diagonally, sideways. It teaches kids spatial awareness and helps develop elusiveness. All of these skills are an absolute MUST in basketball. You could also do race relays of different movement skills, red-light green-light, and so on.

There's an old saying that goes "You have to be able to move properly without a ball before you can move with a ball." If you think about it, how can we expect a kid to run and dribble a ball at the same time if he barely knows how to run. How can we expect a kid to jump and shoot if they barely know how to jump and land.

I hope that gives you a better idea of what you should be working on with this age group.

Great website....Coaching 5 & 6 year old boys and girls, while they are scrimmaging, they are traveling and double dribbling everywhere, should we stop them to make sure they know the right way to get down the floor or let them play without any correcting? They are young so we do not want to discourage them.
thanks for your help

Hi TK,

Allowing double-dribbling and traveling is okay at that age level. Just continue to teach them the rules and the correct way to dribble. You certainly don't want to correct everything. Otherwise, all of the fun will be taken out of the game.

Hi,
I coach girls basketball at a club level and I have parents come to me and say that I need to yell more at their kids. That it will motivate them more. I have repeatedly told them, that is not part of my coaching and not what I do. That I don't believe in yelling or raising my voice at them. I will yell on the the court in a positive way if I think they can't hear me...but the parents don't seem to understand and I am not sure how I can explain this to them. I think they get the perception that I don't care because I am not yelling or screaming at them if they make a bad pass or don't box out.

Instead I'll ask the girls what they thought they did well in game and what we need to work on in the next practice. And that's what we will focus on for our next practice.

Yet, the parents think that I need to be a bit mean to the girls at times, saying, that is the only way to motivate my daughter. My response, (is what I would love to say to a parent, but I haven't, "I shouldn't have to motivate your daughter to play basketball, she needs to be the one to motivate herself, we are here to teach skills and help develop them as players...we are not their cheerleaders).

Please help : )

Hi!
Great website and very good advise and tips on teaching youth basketball.
I have a question: how can you play a 2nd grade boys basketball team that has one tall player on their team and he is good at shooting from the outside?
I am coaching a 2nd grade boys basketball team and we made it to the play-offs. We are playing this coming Saturday against a team that has this tall player and he is good at shooting from the outside.
Can you please send me any tips or help me with some advise on this? Thank you.

Hi Nicole,

As long as you can motivate them, you don't need to yell. If they are a youth team, I would not yell at all. When kids get yelled at, they naturally become stressed. When kids are stressed, things are not fun and learning is inhibited.

So yelling ends up being counter-productive. Unfortunately, these parents see college coaches yelling and don't realize that these are older players and that these coaches have different relationships with these players.

Just stay strong and try to improve the kids as players and as people. Honestly, who cares if you do NOT yell? I'm not a big fan of yelling a lot even at the higher levels.

Hi Sergio,

Glad to hear that you have enjoyed the tips. If I were coaching second graders, I would not worry about defending a particular player. Rather, just worry about improving your players. When you get to the high school varsity level, you can start to worry about scheming for good players.

It's the whole idea of focusing on the 'critical few' versus the 'trivial many.'

My nine year old son was picked to be on an all star team from his recreation league and I was proud, he was happy and told his other friends of his accomplishment. The all star coach was different than his season team coach and was different in every way. He yelled much of the games and relegated my son as a role player. My son did make mistakes but being yelled at really upset me. I did not approach the coach about it but the yelling bothered my son and he shut down his game and would only pass the ball off immediately after a steal or rebound. I was wondering should have I approached him on this, I was a youth coach myself in the past and never yelled at anyone and my baseball team finished fifth out of thirtynine teams so I know a little about coaching.
Also parents of the other players showed frustration a three second violation that my son committed when their more skilled son was making similar mistakes. I came close to calling them out on this but again refrained. I also took up for a youth player who was a little heavy when a opposing team parent made fun of him, he quickly changed and my teams parents took notice and did not openly critisize my son anymore.
I want some advise on handling this coach for the future or some just like him, and advise for over zeolous parents.
Should I remind them that I coached without yelling and was very successful. Thanks.

Hi Jay,

Don Kelbick (Author of the Motion Offense Book) once told us that youth coaches have bad role models. And he absolutely hit it on the nose. These coaches see Roy Williams or Coach K yelling at their players, so they think it's the right thing to do.

The coach is probably a good guy does not understand child development and just thinks that's how you are supposed to coach, because that's what he sees the good coaches doing and that's what his coach used to do.

Stress actually makes things not fun and stops learning for children which is exactly what we don't want. I'm not in your situation and I don't know the coach, so it's a little hard to say what to do. Maybe, approach him and talk about this study you found and how stress inhibits learning... blah blah blah. If you do it in a non-confrontational way, he might listen. If you're going to sit their and rip him a new one, he'll probably be less likely to listen.

As for the parents, just continue to do what is right. Hopefully, they catch on.

Hi Jay,

I forgot to reference you to this audio by Don Kelbick: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/audio/news7kelbick.html

It's one of the best interviews I have heard about coaching.

In the table of contents, you'll see these two headings:

Coaching Basketball: Why Stress Retards Growth 4.30

Common Coaching Mistake & Why They Learn From the Wrong People 6.10

I think those sections apply to your situation.

Here goes my question. I have read all of the posts about how parents are the bad ones yelling at our children from the sidelines of a baseball game. What if the tables are turned and its the coach that is yelling or talking very rough pushing shoving the kids because they struck out or even beat themselves up for wanting to do so good like knock the ball out of the park. Well here is my story my son struck out at the plate he did get upset with himself for it, then coach stomped over to him grabbed his arm and gritted his teeth at him telling him to look at him because he just hit the home plate hard with his bat after he struck out . No he didn't sling the bat to harm anyone, nor did he kick dirt or throw his helmet off he just didn't want to strike out. The coach at this point was so upset for what reason to this day we don''t know why. He told my child still pushing an shoving him if he ever did that he will never bat again.
He scared my son so bad an told my husband dad his face was scarier then yours has ever been. I do understand with 7 yr olds you need to be little stern with them but no need to get that rough now this took place in front of all spectators an his teammates, my opinion no need to embarrass the child. I believe what would have been better to say to him coming from the coach I'm not mad at you so don't be mad at yourself you will do better at your next bat. instead he gets him so upset that he can't think at the next time he gets up to bat. That was the first episode we in countered, after the game the coach took the kids to the side to talk to them about the game instead of saying we lost that's okay no big deal we will practice get better an come back out here with our heads high an play the best we can. This is what our coach tells our kids....You need to tell your parents how to control your behaviors on the field. BIG mistake first off never talk down about a parent to a child through the child. If he has a problem with our parenting skills he might want to confront us not our babies. Second he began talking about the lost and one of the 7 yr olds said yes coach we can't win them all, our loving coach we have snapped his head a said with a pointed finger SHUT-UP NOW!!!!! Well another mistake in my eyes. He immediately put several parents on the defense for their kids. He now believes and has told us this is ok behavior because I talk to my own children this way. If we don't like how he talks to the kids we need to reevaluate our kids on his team. Now this coach as for his teaching and training skills is out of this world couldn't ask for a better opportunity for these guys. I just want some feed back on what you guys think or if we over reacting about this coaches behavior. Now keep in mind these kids are only 7 not grown adults and not MLB players getting paid to have to take abuse or lose their jobs, but it is a competitive ball team not rec ball, so therefore its not cheap we pay alot of money to be on this team somewhere in the neighborhood of 2500.00 just to cover everything these boys will need including travel expenses. please give me some feed back or an article I can read pertaining to coach an their code of conduct. Not on the behavior of the parents I already have read all about parents. I want something on the hidden abuse little league teams take that is wrong or crossing the line with someone's child.

If I'm being honest, it's tough to give a clear opinion when I'm only hearing one side of the story.

However, if I'm interpreting the situation properly, I would take my son or daughter off the team. I have two young children. I love sports! I want my children to be happy and successful at what ever they do. But I would not put them on a team like that.

Who cares if the coach is GREAT at teaching skill? These are 7 year olds. Steve Nash (NBA MVP) did not starting playing basketball until he as 14 years old. He had zero skill as a 7 year old. Look at him now. There are many sports super stars that didn't get involved in their sport until later in childhood.

If the child does not develop a passion for the sport, they will NEVER reach their potential. That is the key. And it's not something you can force.

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/blog/index.php/8-secrets-to-sucess-how-they-relate-to-youth-coaching-parenting/

I would put my child in a situation where they could...

- learn to enjoy sports
- learn "character" and "integrity" through positive role models
- improve athletically (running, jumping, balance, flexibility, coordination, etc)
- have fun
- learn life lessons that are appropriate to their age (a 7 year old probably isn't quite ready to learn about super hard work yet. but learning about honesty, integrity, teamwork, etc is a good thing at this age)

The Positive Coaching Alliance has some great guidelines for coaching and developing young people. They even have an online training course. I think this will take the things I mentioned further and clarify them for you.
http://www.positivecoach.org

Good luck.

I am coaching 5-6 yr old basketball in a few weeks and am so looking forward to having fun with the kids. If anyone has suggestions for practices, games, I would appreciate your opinions. We told our 3-yr old that he would be the Assistant Coach and he is the more excited than anyone. I think the previous info about not stressing double dribbles, etc. is great advice. I am looking forward to seeing the simple things like how high they set the goals for this age.