Coaching Basketball: Establishing Discipline and Getting More Out of Your Players

i am quite impressed with thease suggesations.

I am a male and I coach a ninth grade girls basketball team. What advise can you offer to me?

Do you have any more coaching material that you can share with me?

This website has been very helpful. I am coaching a 3rd/4th girls rec league and I have 1 hr and 15 minutes with them. Do you have a proposed practice schedule?

Emily

This is a battle that all coaches fight. If left to my own devices, my practices would have been 17 hours long. One of the things I learned is that you can't coach everything every day.

I think you might be looking at your situation backwards. I think first you should decide what it is you want to accomplish in that practice, then decide how much time you need to spend on each aspect.

This is helped by sitting down before your season and devloping a master plan. Decide what you want to do for the season, decide by when you want to have each aspect completed and plan accordingly.

Coaching 3rd and 4th graders present special challenges, low skill level, limited strength and physical development and short attention span all conspire against you in your quest to turn them into passionate players.

My practices at your level would be 100% skill development. I wouldn't worry at all about plays. I might scrimmage a little bit, but not a lot. I would also start 3 on 3 and eventually work up to 5 on 5. When I did play, it would be half court and I wouldn't take a lot of time to do it. It robs you of your skill teaching time. I would, however, play some teaching games, such as dribble tag, to satisfy their urge for competition.

More importantly, I would keep my units very short. Maybe 5 minutes, 7 minutes tops. In addition, success is the greatest motivator. You should decide whether you want to use smaller balls and lower baskets. There are many schools of thought on this but I know this, it is difficult to teach layups or good shooting form if the kids can't reach the basket when shooting it with proper form.

I hope this helps you.

If I can help you further, feel free to contact me.

Don Kelbick
Contributing Editor Breakthrough Basketball
www.DonKelbickBasketball.com

I totally agree with you guys on this one. My team of u16 boys respond immediately to my instructions as they know what will happen if they don't. However, my assistant struggles with disciplining the boys. We just call it 'good drill seargent/bad drill seargent'. It's funny though because he's a marine.

I start every year the same -- first thing I teach is how to stand with your toes touching the baseline HOLDING your ball, not dribbling it.

Second thing I teach is when I blow the whistle, yell "baseline", and point to an end you better sprint, get your toes on the line, and hold the ball. Last kid does pushups. Dribbling rather than holding? pushups. Toes off line? pushups.

Then we start practice -- and randomly blow the whistle, baseline!!.... and it instantly becomes a contest to make sure you are not last.

I immediately have their attention and can talk. Also serves as a reaction drill and conditioning drill because they never know what baseline they need to sprint.

I actually have kids asking for more "baseline" calls as the season goes on.

If you don't establish discipline and order immediately you will always struggle with kids taking extra shots, walking, not listening, etc.... the net result is frustration for the coach and wasted practice time.

Consistency is the key!

I am coaching 1st and 2nd graders for the 1st time wondering if you have any pointers.
Thanks

Hi Robert,

When working with kids that age you should focus on almost all fundamental skills and keep things as fun as possible.

Keep things face paced and try to avoid kids standing around.

Don't worry about winning. Instead focus on improving, fun, and celebrating small successes. Some them how they can improve.

Kids this age don't always respond well to competition. They want to be in a position where they can succeed.

You can try stations and move constantly move groups of players every two minutes. Remember, 1st graders have a short attention span.

The kids will be learning habits that can stick for life, so teach things like proper shooting form, fun ball handling drills, passing, and simple pivoting footwork.

You should also use smaller balls and lower rims to avoid bad form and habits.

Read these pages for more tips with young players:

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/youthbasketball.html

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/qa/q1-verybasicyouthdrills.html

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/youthfundamentals.html

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/defense/age.html

I hope this helps and good luck. Have fun with it.

Jeff Haefner
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com

Hello,

First of all, I must say that I am thankful for this website. I am a first time coach of 2nd grade Boys. We have had 2 practices. I have been trying to be the nice guy, and they are out of control. Do you have a sample of basic rules and consequences I can pass out? Thank you for your help.

To keep it basic, here is what you can do for youth players:

You can use the same rules as posted above:

- No talking when a coach is talking.

- No lying. Period. There are very severe consequences for this.

- Always be on time.

- If you can't make practice always call.

- Unsportsmanlike behavior is never acceptable.

Others like to say, "No messing around." No pinching, grabbing, and so forth. Things that can occur with younger players.


At the end of practice, you should always have some scrimmage time, especially for youth kids! If they are misbehaving, tell them that this going to cut out of their scrimmage time.


EXPLAIN to them why you do this. When kids are understand the “why?” or the reason, they are more likely to listen and do what you tell them.

The reason you do this is so you can teach them the game of basketball. By teaching this to them, it will help them become better basketball players. As a result, they’ll have more fun, because they know how to play the game. They’ll have more fun, because they’ll probably win more games as well. Tell them the reason you apply rules and discipline it to help them. You want them to be successful.

If you don’t have these rules and allow them to goof off, it results in less time learning the game and working on fundamentals that are crucial to becoming good basketball players. And they’ll lose more games that way which will be less fun.


Once, they get to be 12 or 13 years old. You can be a little harsher with the punishments. For example, make them do wall squats, sprints, or whatever you deem necessary. Everybody is different. What you choose to do, it’s crucial that you stick to your disciplinary actions and don’t let anything slide.



Useful tip to get youth kids to get organized and listen when you are trying to teach or demonstrate something:

- Assign each player a row and a spot.
For 10 players, you may have 3 rows. Two rows with three spots and one row with four spots.

- When you blow the whistle and yell, “go to your spots,” the kids should run to their spots and sit down. The group who does it the fastest gets 3 claps from the other groups.

- Then you can demonstrate what you need show them.

Nelita

You need to get tough until your players behave. Establish the rules early and stick to them.

One season, I was assistant coaching a team, and some of the players behaved terribly quite often. From that experience, I've learnt how to deal with bad behaviour.

This is how I discipline for inappropriate behaviour:

1st time: Verbal warning
2nd time: Sit out of training for 5 minutes
3rd time: Sit out from entire training
Continued misbehaviour: Suspended for one game, parents notified.
If that doesn't improve the behaviour, I'd ask someone higher up than me to deal with the situation.

Good luck. It gets easier once you get in control. Sometimes it takes a while to gain respect, but when you have their respect everything is easier.

I am a male coach for a high school junior varsity team(boys) and would like some pointers on a 2-3 and 3-2 defense. We have run these two sets and have had great success with them,but I am always looking for additional tips.

Thanks.

Hi Curtis,

It's been added to long list of things to do. Thanks for the input! We'll let you know when we have some tips available.

If you were interested in how to attack a zone defense, here are some links:

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/qa/q1518.html

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/qa/q1526.html

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/qa/q6-attackzonedefense.html

First off I want to say what a help your site has been. I am a first time coach of 3rd grade girls and we had a great season. Now entering 4th grade the girls see me and always ask when basketball is starting up again :) I really enjoyed the experience and am looking forward to a new season. One thing I would like to add is your advise about teaching only the basics at practice. I disagree on this one point. I have taught my team of 10 about 5 different offensive plays through the year which lead to many baskets. The girls loved learning them and were so proud when they could execute them correctly. They were very simple in nature but gave us a good start on how to move the ball around the court and find the open player. Anyway, keep up the good work and thanks for all the great tips and advice found on your site

Hi Bonitia,

Here are a couple of problems that could come out of teaching your players to run plays when first learning the game:

- It can take time away from teaching fundamentals. For more on this, you can reference a newly posted article on our blog - http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/blog/index.php/important-lesson-for-youth-basketball-coaches/

- Players can tend be robotic and just run through motions rather than learning how to play the game.

I’m not saying that you can NOT teach players how to read the defense within a play. So, I’m not saying to avoid plays altogether. As you said, you used some “simple” plays, and that’s very important. If you teach them how to react to certain situations within a play, plays can still be beneficial to learning the game for youth players.

Another thing is that it makes things much easier on high school coaches if youth players already understand these fundamental of offense. As youth coaches, we have to remember that we are still preparing these players for the future.

I’m not saying that you’re doing anything wrong. For all I know, you do a great job of teaching the fundamentals. I just wanted to clarify what we mean and why.

Congratulations with your first year and that’s great to hear that the kids are still excited to play! All of us coaches need to make sure we keep things fun like you have, especially at the youth level.

thanks for the infor. i''''m about to start training some 9-13year olds. this infor. will help a great deal, plus i feel more confident to be they coach now.

I teach under 13 yrs girls and need advice on three basic defenses to run to keep it simple for them.....

Hi Bill,

In order to keep it simple, I would only teach one defense at that age. And that's man to man defense. At that age, you want to spend a ton of time developing fundamentals. If you only teach one defense, it'll open up more time for skill development and when the players are older, the high school coaches can spend a little less time on fundamentals and more time with game strategies and such which will help them win more games.

It is very typical to see zones and full-court presses at your age level, but I would try to avoid that and focus on developing the players rather than winning a few extra games.

Quite honestly, who remembers how many games you won when you're 13? However, they do remember their senior year.

If you want to learn more about man to man defense, you can visit: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/defense/man.html

You can also find a lot of information on skill develoment / fundamentals at: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/basketballfundamentals.html

I am coaching grade 5 girls team and my biggest challenge is my own daughter. She makes comments about what drills we are doing and about what we are doing next. I have made her sit out from drills a couple of times but that makes her resent it even more. Please suggest how to deal with her lack of respect. If anything, I had hoped she would be a positive example to the others. I do not single her out during practices nor am I any more critical about her skills than with anyone else. Help!

Hi Corinne,

This is section is posted above in the article: "You must establish some very basic rules and expectations. You owe it to your players, their parents and especially to yourself. Do you really want to coach 20 kids without any discipline or structure in place?

When those rules are broken or expectations are not met, then there are consequences, every time. Not some of the time. Every time!

The behavior of your players will very quickly change if you are consistent with your discipline."

I think you need to have a reward and discipline system. If you don't have one and let some stuff slide, her behavior will never be where you want it.

Second, have you sat her down and explained to her how you want her to act and WHY you want her to act that way? Sit down and talk to her about it. Try not to lecture her, because it could turn her off.

It's hard for me to judge why she's acting that way, because I'm not there. But she could be acting that way to look "cool" in front of her friends. It can actually be very tough on a kid when his/her parent is the coach.

I have an 8th grade basketball team that seems to have a lot of behavioral problems in school, I was wanting to send out an Academic Conduct sheet to all the teachers to make sure they are behaving, do you have anything along that line or can your recommend anything that would help me out. I would greatly appreciate that1

I am going to be coaching basketball for the first time. I understand that setting up rules and being consistent is a must according to what I have read from you. Can you tell me the sequence of skills I should be using with 7th and 8th graders. And what drills can I use to reinforce those skills and to make activities more fun. Do you also have any suggestions on what else can I do to increase their motivation and accountability.
Thanks,

Hi Edvaldo,

We have dedicated this section to middle school coaches: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/msbasketball.html

You'll be able to find a lot of useful drills & tips.

Corinne,
Just something quick to add to your comment. I have a similar problem but my daughter is great most of the time. She has has 2 outbursts at practice. The first time I tried to handle it myself but the second time I handed her over to my assistant coach. That worked wonders. She came back out on the floor with a positive attitude and didn't feel like "mom" was picking on her. Just thought I would share that :) Love reading all the comments in here. They are so helpful.

Edvaldo,

Check out this new article we put together. It's still a rough draft and we might tweak a couple things, but I think this is exactly what you're looking for (what skills to teach youth players).
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/teach-youth.html

Hope this helps.

I like what you said.
I just want to ask some questions.
How do I make my young team (who is really bad) win every game?
And how do I get everyone to listen to me as soon as I say come in guys.
YEAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Did you read my last comment it would be great if you could answer my questions thanks. :)

Does anyone answer questions? Or do i need to go somewhere>?

Hi Bob,

There is no secret formula to win every game. That's part of the art of coaching. One of things that you can do is work on fundamentals. You can find plenty of fundamentals we find very important at this link: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/basketballfundamentals.html

For your hustle issue with the players, here is what I have done in the past that has done wonders for me:

1. Blow your whistle for players to come in.
2. If the kids do not sprint to where you are standing. Say, "Well, it doesn't look you guys are warmed up."
3. Put them on the line and make them run until they can't run anymore. Make sure to tell them that any time you blow your whistle and motion for the players to come in, they should stop shooting and immediately sprint to you.

The next time you blow your whistle, you should not have the same problem. If you do, make them run again.

Thanks very much, do I need a whistle though? Because it becomes very noisy for the other team.

And do I have to punish in order to get them to run in is there any other nicer way?

Bob,

Yes, you'll need a whistle. Is there a nicer way? Probably, but I've never found one that works. Keep in mind, I have never had to make then run more than once. In fact, I would not want to do it often at all. Punishing negatively is not a good thing. But in this case, one harsh instance of discipline often is the best thing for them because it allows you to regain control for the rest of the year. Then you can have very fun practices that are controlled.

The key is consistency. I suggest that you read the article above again and maybe watch Supernanny (as suggested above). It might sound silly but those same concepts in the TV show actually work. Kids are smart and if you not consistent and take control, they will exploit it.

Also, you mentioned that you work with young kids and you want to win every game. I would suggest that winning is NOT important with youth teams!! And most importantly, you should not give your kids the feeling that winning is really important to you. That sends the wrong message and trust me kids will pick up on what's important to you.

Instead of winning, your goals should be:

Thank you for your help, I am now wondering why winning is not important though? I will teach them the skills and fundamentals but is winning a few games really bad?
And also how does that give the wrong message?

No, winning is certainly not bad! But you should NOT be overly concerned about winning. It's all about what you demonstrate that is important. If you teach your team that winning is the most important thing, that is NOT a good thing. However, if you teach your team that "teamwork" and "good sportsman ship" is the number 1, most important thing!! Don't you think that is sending a better message?

In addition, if winning is your #1 goal right now, then you should full court press, run a zone, and teach things like that. Then you'll win a few games now and you're team will be really bad when they get older. Pressing and running zones teaches young players really bad habits. Plus, you'll be wasting time teaching zones and presses instead of teaching skills that work when they get older. Big mistake.

The #1 biggest mistake I see youth coaches make is they are TOO concerned about winning!!!

I'm not saying don't win a few games. If you practice the right things and have a little talent on your team, you will win a few games, maybe a lot of games.

Just worry about teaching the right things and eventually winning will become a by-product of teaching those things.

Just be patient!!! Teaching fundamentals takes time. You probably won't win games right away. But you'll be setting a foundation for those kids to be successful in the future.

Good luck.

I am a first time coach who is coaching a set of 8-9 YO boys...1-2 of the 8 have some fundamental skills, most do not (prob. not uncommon) - how can I structure the practices to keep things interesting/fun, while satisfying their need/desire to scrimmage?

What are effective 2 on 2, or 3 on 3 to practice with kids this age?

What drills/fundamentals should I focus on first?

Please help.
thanks!

Hi Dave,

I would check out this page: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/teach-youth.html

It helps you decide what skills to teach your youth players. It also has some sample practices at the bottom of the page.

I have inherited a 6th grade boys team a few weeks into the season. The team is very difficult to keep their attention and they are often horseing around instead of listening. I have held a couple weeks of practices with them already. How do I get this team under control and focused on learning basketball? Will disciplining work at this late stage?

Hi Mark,

Make your expecations of their behavior clear and concise. If they do not follow, they will be disciplined.

I also use these tactics to get their attention.

1. Make a rule, when you clap, they have to clap twice. Do this a few times, it usually gets their attention.

2. Don't say a word and just look at them until they become quiet.

Not saying my way is the best way, but this is usually my last resort. If nothing works and they are completely out of control, run them and make them do wall squats until they can't move anymore. After doing this once, I usually do not have a problem the rest of the year.

Discipline is better later than never.

You can find a lot of useful tips throughout this article and comments left by others.

Wow - a lot of great stuff!

I have recently began coaching a high school team that is extremely talented - most play the sport year round. Top colleges have picked 3 of the athletes all ready. It is a small school - but, still produces very quality athletes. They are favored to win state. Like I said - I am new to coach them. Discipline is their biggest hindrance. I feel, although, they are amazing athletes and players - nobody has taken the time to teach teamwork or team respect/coach respect. Suggestions? We have lost games because of team dynamic and disrepect.

Coach - It's all about what you emphasize. If you talk about teamwork constantly, reward good teamwork, and display the importance of teamwork through your actions, you're players will pick up on it.

You can't do everything ( http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/three-things.html ), but if "teamwork" is THE critical thing for your team, make it a big focus and emphasis for you. Read some books about developing teamwork. I'm sure there are plenty of good resources out there if you search.

Also, if you set a good example and demonstrate superb integrity, then you're players will develop respect for you. This will make what you emphasize even more effective.

Good luck!

What is a good number of sprints to start with? This is my 1st year coaching and it's been a while since I've been to a practice...what's a good number to start with?5, 10...? Even for conditioning after a practice what's a good number to start with?

Jim,

I don't run sprints at the end of practice anymore because of several reasons...

- If players know condition is coming at the end of practice they will pace themselves and not give 100% during the normal body of practice.

- Running is not much fun for players and that’s what they’ll be talking about in the locker room. They’ll be moaning and groaning about Coach making them run – or if it’s a youth team, they’re getting in the car with Mom and Dad talking negatively about practice.

- You want you’re players to be excited about basketball and feel good about it. That why it’s so important to end on a positive note!

Instead, you should include conditioning as part of your regular drills and practice. This way they go HARD the entire practice and it just becomes a habit.

If you MUST run sprints for discipline reasons, you can start with a 2-3 sprints. Depending on their age, they may or may not be tired.

Also, I recently solicited the help of a bunch of experienced coaches to put together an extremely thorough guide to motivating players. It's almost done and you'll definitely want to check it out. Make sure you're signed up for our newsletter and you'll get the report for free.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/register.asp

I''m 21 years old and I coach high school basketball for a small private school that I used to play for when I was playing basketball. I only have 1 two-hour practice with them every week (working on getting a 2nd two-hour practice). As you can imagine - its hard to get in everything that is necessary (conditioning, drills, plays, and if enough time, scrimmage). What would you suggest for my situation as far as practices go? Should I try to get a little bit of everything in every practice? Or should I focus on two or three things each practice instead?

Also, I have a great bunch of guys and we have a good time, but there''s one guy who I causes 80% of the problems. When I need the guys to work or when I''m trying to talk to them, many times he''s joking around which usually means he''s talking/distracting someone else. I''ve made the whole team run sprints before because of him and its been somewhat effective but I still feel like I''m not getting through to him. I don''t wanna waste too much practice time running them for discipline since my time is very limited but I can''t just let him get away with it either. Any suggestions??

Drew,

For your first question, look at this article:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/three-things.html

For your second question, that is not something I have been forced to deal with. For what I reason I felt like I had good control (maybe I was lucky). One thing that can change behavior is bench time. If the kids wants to play, they will stop acting up. You could stick them on the bench and see what happens. Anyway, I suggest asking your question in our forum:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/forum/

Drew

I believe the answer to your first question lies inside the question. Think about what you are doing when you say "everything that is necessary." You have then 1 day (maybe 2), that means you don''t have them 5-6 days. How much of what "is necessary" going to carry over to your next practice. Will the plays? Probably not. The conditioning? Definitely not. Your best bet is to work on things that they can and will continue to work on when you don''t have them. I always believe in concentrating on players over plays. I would recommend skill work 75% of the time, presented in a manner that is fun and they can replicate when they are alone or with their friends. Spend the other 25% of the time scrimmaging to teach them the game and where those skills fit in. That will also help condition them as well. Don''t let it frustrate you. You cannot out-coach your limitations. You took the job knowing what they were so take advantage of what you have and don''t worry about what you don''t have.

In regard to your one player who is causing all the problems, he is exhibiting passive-aggressive behavior almost assuredly brought on by either boredom or insecurity. Maybe he doesn''t want to be there. Remember, you only have him 1 day per week, the forces in his life have him the other time and will have more effect on him. You have to spend some time getting to know him and then putting him in a position where he can feel useful and comfortable so wants to be there. If you can''t do that, you either have to ask him to leave or roll with the punches.

It is never a good idea to punish an entire team for the action of one player. It creates animosity and removes the incentive to do the right thing from the non-offending players.

Don Kelbick
www.DonKelbickBasketball.com
www.BreakthroughBasketball.com

Thanks for the feedback and advice on the planning of practices - I really appreciate it!

However,

I believe that my disruptive player is TOO comfortable, not the other way around. Most of these guys are seniors and are my brother's age. My brother is also on the team but I've basically grown up with these kids around and I believe that therein lies the issue. I think he may be having trouble seeing me as a coach and someone who's in charge because his whole life I've been just another one of the guys. Any advice on this? has anyone encountered anything like this?