I think I'm going to take a stab at putting together a 3 on 3 "league" that you guys wrote about a few months back. Here's my question. The league would be for grades 2-6. I won't have a lot of kids and the skill level will be pretty low. Originally, I thought I'd want to do full court to get kids to play in the open court a little bit, but do you think that's off track? Do you think a half court would be more appropriate in this situation or do you think full court is ok?

Logistically, full court obviously uses more space. So if time and space is an issue, then half court can be better.

In a perfect world I think you mix it up. 50% of the time you play full court 3v3 and 50% of the time you play half court. So maybe the first two weeks you play half court. The the second two weeks you play full court.

Full court gives you more space to attack in the open court, teaches transition offense/defense concepts, etc. Half court allows you to slow down and teach half court defense and offense. All of that is important.

Also keep in mind you may need to implement rules at times. Maybe no dribble. Or everyone has to touch the ball before you shoot (in case some kids just aren't getting to touch the ball). Just be ready to adapt (change rules, playing area, and constraints) to maximize development.

Good luck.

THANKS for the thorough reply. Great points.

I think it depends upon what your goals are regarding this league. I'm more in the camp of 1/2 court for a 3v3 league using the traditional rule of having to take the ball back behind the 3 point line after every possession. Especially based on what you said about having lower skill levels. Jeff's point about learning transition offense/defense is a good one with full court, however, if the skill levels aren't quite there, you might run into a lot of running up and down the court with minimal efficiency. The 1/2 court set up should allow for more ball touches, rebounds, passes, screens, etc.

We have a 3v3 camp/league in our area that seems to works well for kids that are still developing. The players come with their teams set (usually 4 per team) and receive instruction for the first 1/2 hour with scrimmages the second 1/2 hour. Towards the end of the camp/league, there is a tournament.

The cool part about this camp/league is they teach skills and require those skills to be used during the scrimmages. For example, if the skill is setting screens, the kids practice that and are required to set 3 screens before attempting to score during the scrimmages. They also include things like Jeff mentioned with no dribbling allowed during scrimmages to encourage good spacing and passing.

The most important part of all this is to make sure and give out an award for the most creative team name, one for the craziest socks and one for the most improved team.