Coaching Youth Basketball: Focusing on the Fundamentals

I agree,too ,much too soon is not good.
Get a firm foundation in fundamentals to build on.
Some good free video clips of this.
http://www.coachesclipboard.net/VideoClips.html

You are so right about the importance of fundamentals. I read awhile back that the number of international players in the NBA is increasing every year because of just this. NBA coaches acknowledged that they are more skilled in the fundamentals and better team players than the American players. I have to agree.

OK That just answered my earlier question about full court press....see your point, back to the half court defense it is!

great website......I never see or hear about the importance of pivoting in teaching books and websites, but feel it to be extremely important in all phases of the game. Also the team I coach (5th grade boys) has a wide range of talent and this makes teaching a bit confusing. Some are so far ahead of others any suggestions?

This is a great website. Thank you for all the basic info. I'm a rookie youth coach (3rd grade boys) and this is just the sort of help I need.

I'm going to read through your e-books. I am looking for an extremely basic offense for my boys. About a 3rd of them are playing basketball for the first time.

Any suggestions are much appreciated.

Hi Ernie,

We answered a question similar to this at this link: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/qa/q7-youth-offense.html

It refers to 11 year olds, but the same principles apply to younger ages as well.


Joe

How long could take a fundamenals teaching for young players (in terms of months)? Thanks

Hi Gabriel,

I don't think you can put a number on how long it will take to teach fundamentals. It depends on the age level, skill level, and what you're trying to teach. Coaching is an art form and part of that is recognizing when it's time to progress to a new skill with a higher level of difficulty.

When teaching fundamentals, that never stops. Youth coaches to Pro coaches all emphasize fundamentals.

I'm a 7th & 8th grade girls coach and totally agree with you on teaching fundamentals at this age. 75% of my practices are focused on skill building. Unfortunately, the 5 & 6th grade coaches at the school don't. Their practices consist of goofing off and scrimmaging. You know the old "kids this age dont' have long attention spans" and "just getting them in the gym is enough at this age" In fact they criticize me for not scrimmaging enough. I feel like I should approach them about the lack of fundamentals and that is going to hurt the kids' development in the long run. I don't want to start a fight but its hard to stand by and see the kids being cheated. Any advice on how to handle this situation? Thanks

Brian - Your question was posted on our forum and has received some good responses:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=96

I agree with the theme of the article, which is teach fundamentals first, teach them 75% of practice, and save full court press for later. Well said in that regard.

However I do not agree with the statement "Do NOT teach them full court press."

Why would you purposely not teach them any aspect of the game?

Pressing is a part of the game. You will teach them press-break of course in case the other team presses... they deserve to know how to run a decent press also.

Even if it is not used every game or the whole game, this is part of at least introducing to them the experiences they will build on later.

I coach a middle school team that is very talented but also very short. We play a lot of teams with guys that look 3-4 years older than ours. If we sat back in a half-court set we would get demolished on the boards, regardless of how much I drill boxing out. We win because we use our quickness and the defensive training that I stress (huge part of fundamentals) to pressure the ball and create turnovers.

Thank you for a good article about fundamentals and for letting me share my point of view.

Hi Eric,

You bring up some good points there. The problem really lies with youth basketball teams that don't focus on the fundamentals and all they do is press. They use a ploy that takes advantage of players being weaker, smaller, and not able to mentally process things quick enough to break the press. In essence, it's a swarm the ball defense that would never work at the higher levels of basketball. Personally, I don't believe in organized pressing before high school. I think for the long-term development of the players it's best to work on the fundamentals and concepts that will help more when they are older.

However, if you want to extend your man to man defense and pressure the ball at the middle school level, I don't think that's a big deal.

This discussion is further discussed at this page: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/defense/age.html