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PostPosted: 11 Apr 2011, 19:09 

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Greetings. Its an privilege to have received such wonderful resources from you. I plan on using them with the KG-1st grade team i\'m coaching at the YMCA. Here is my inquiry: i have a daughter who will be 7 years old in September, and a son who will turn 5 on April 15th. They are on their first team at the YMCA, which is a mixed gender KG-1st grade level team. My son is in a bit over his head, but I had to have them play on the same team because of time constraints. He kinda just runs around and has fun, which is about what I expected of him. My daughter is actually as good as most of the boys on our team because of her athleticism from dancing. She handles the ball surprisingly well, and is strong enough to make close shots. I believe she really has a bright future because she's hungry to learn to play. I believe my son will catch on as he gets more athletic and engaged in the actual skill of the game. I really need some advice about what to teach them at this age because I don\'t want to push too hard, at the same time, i\'m a believer in the Larry Bird "Do it till you get it right" philosophy...which by the way helps my daughter as an honor student. I agree with your assessment that teaching athleticism is more important at this age than teaching basketball skill. I'm perfectly ok with doing that at this point. At the same time, I want to make sure that I''m challenging the both of them enough to keep their interest high, while having fun teaching them. I was a football player in high school and college, so teaching/coaching basketball is totally new to me, even though I'm a huge fan. Anyway, I would feel better if I could get some feedback about what to teach/stress, and if I should vary things between my daughter and son. Thanks


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PostPosted: 11 Apr 2011, 20:35 
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Location: Miami, Fl.
When you are Larry Birds age, "Practice til you get it right" applies.

Your kids are 5 and 7 years old. Leave them alone. Let them experiment. At that age, you need help with child development, not basketball development. Strength, attention span, lack of solid time and spacial relationships, retention, basic coordination are all more important than basketball skills.

Personally, I think that if you don't let them cross the street alone it is because you don't trust that any of those skills have been developed yet.

I think you should just leave them alone, let them play by imitation until you think that they enjoy playing enough to do it by themselves. Right now they are doing it because you take them and they want to please you. When you have to tell them to stop dribbling in the house or stop shooting the ball into the sink, indications that they like what they are doing, then maybe you should worry about basketball things

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Don Kelbick
http://www.DonKelbickBasketball.com
http://www.BreakthroughBasketball.com


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PostPosted: 12 Apr 2011, 05:51 
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Don is right, let them play and have some fun.... but if you are looking for a little guidance, take a look at this... it would be well worth your investment.

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/bigelow-youth-right-way.html

Bob Bigelow will give you a lot of sound advice and show you how to deal with coaching youth basketball.

Teaching/coaching 5-7 year olds the game of basketball is almost an impossible task
for many reasons. Right now the biggest thing you can teach them is to pass and catch the ball... maybe some spacing on offense ( I doubt that they will understand the concept at this age... maybe I am wrong ) Teach them some very basic m2m defensive concepts... like how to defend on the ball.

As the year progresses you might be able to add more to your practice plans. I cant even imagine what its like to coach kids this age..... 5th graders were the youngest I ever worked with and that was a challenge. FUN but a challenge. Don't take this to serioulsy right now..... let them have FUN and good luck.


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