This has been real hard for me I'm 1st time coach coaching 3rd - 5th grade girls this is the #2 team (#1 team is mostly 5th-6th graders that have played) so I have 8 of my 10 girls have never played. Most of the girls are coming along well my main focus is fundamentals. My problem is to have my girls that get it to keep progressing while the 3 girls that struggle (can't catch, pass, trouble just focusing sometime) not to impead there progress but I don't want the girls that struggle to be turned away from this great game. There are some drills that just can't be done as a team if i include everyone. example I can't break them up in 2 groups and say we just want to work on chest passes around the preimeter this 5 min drills takes 20min by the time we do it with the ball not hitting the ground. so do i take the three girls and send them off with one of my asst. and have them work on the real basics or do i keep them with the team. When I do stations at practice i will put those three together but when the whole team does a drill we struggle getting though it. I hope im somewhat clear with all this babble. any suggestion would be great. Thank Dennis

You as a coach have an obligation to teach all the girls basketball fundamentals at this agegroup, regardless of talent level. Include all the girls in all drills, they need to know they are all apart of the team. Don't allow drills to lag on longer than planned because certain less talented girls may hinder the progress. Have a practice plan and limit the time for each drill, then move to next drill.
If some girls have trouble with certain drills then revisit that same drill again next practice....repetition and reinforcement....they will catch on.
I started coaching girls in 3rd grade park and rec. I now coach 8th grade girls in travel and AAU. You will always have a few girls that aren't athletic or are just less talented.
I do agree with giving these girls special one-on-one time going over fundamentals. Having another coach pull one or more players
off to a side hoop to work on basic shooting form, proper passing, ballhandling is OK........just adjust your practice plan for that.
If you have 3 hoops and a 3rd coach or parent it is always good to set up stations at each hoop, 1 coach and 3 to 4 girls at each station, rotate every 5 min. Each coach touching on different basic fundamentals of the game.
I'd even have a little chat with the older talented girls. Remind them to be patient with the younger less talented girls. Remind these 5th graders that they were in 3rd grade once too.

Good Luck,

Coach A

Thanks Coach A. That is how I have approched it to this point. I was just worried about the other girls not improving and standing around while we as coaches spend much more time with the other girls. My 3rd grade girls are coming along and as coaches we kind of smile because each practice you see improvement. The main 2 girls I am talking about one in 4th and other is actually a 6th grader they haven't improved and I swear to you its not a lack of effort from the coaches. I personally made them my project but I am failing there are 5 other girls who never played and from day 1 to now all I can say is wow and other coaches and parents have nothing but great things to say about there improvements. So I guess i will keep working as hard as i can with them. I know it is not about winning its about learning at this level i just don't want to hurt the other player progression. Example our 1st game every girl played the same about same amount of time rules they have to appear in 2 qtrs and sit out a entire qtr all my kids played atleast 1 full qtr and 3 min in the others, the team we were playing the coach would bring his less taltented in for a min in one qtr and 1min in another and they were done. Not sure if any of this makes sense just writeing what comes to mind. Thanks Again Dennis

Yo Boots!

Your rotation for substitution is very fair!! Your girls deserve that!!
Unfortunately skill development, game experience and player confidence is
not a priority for the other coach.
Keep up the great effort and enthusiasm!!

I agree with Coach A... he has some great advice. Unfortunately there are coaches who are in the game for the wrong reason.... they want the WS... and aren't worried about teaching ALL the kids the game.

Keep up the good work and remember that some kids get better at different rates.. kind of like growing up. BE patient.. and keep working with them

They WILL thank you later.

Ken

Is it wrong to want a full team of talented players?
I currently coach a team that has 5 kids that "get it" and the other 7 who are all in the beginners basketball stage. Next year, I plan on keeping my 5 together, but I would like to add another 5 kids who get it. I am all about teaching fundamentals and making sure the kids have fun, but there is a significant gap in skill development between my starting 5 and the other 7. They struggle with drills in practice and they are not having success in games when other teams guard them.
How can I add 5 more equally skilled players to my team for next year? Is it wrong of me to hand out flyers to elementary schools or give my business card to parents?

Are these kids or pro's? Yes, they will come to you at different levels of skill, but all want to learn. A good youth coach takes pride in teaching less talented players, and great joy in their accomplishments, their advances.

I wonder how many good basketball players the sport misses out on because a youth coach looks at a young struggling player, shrugs a shoulder and says "He/she doesn't get it. I better get a more talented player."

I truly would hope that all coaches at the youth level would work with every kid that wants to learn, and go through the growing pains with them to let the kids know that they are not alone, that their coach is with them, supports them, and cares about their development as a player.

A coach who is scouting to replace his less talented players has already given up on the kid in question, and really needs to ask himself or herself why they are involved in youth sports. Is it to teach kids? Or win games?

Just my opinion.

Brian Sass

If you are really "adding 5", there might not be anything wrong with that. As Coach Sass points out, you don't want to give up on these kids! They all should get attention and opportunity to develop.

But I don't see anything wrong with challenging the more talented players, as long as you are challenging and helping the less talented players too.

I have a group of young players that I coach. There is a large gap in skill, aggressiveness, and understanding of the game.

My goal is to develop all of those players on the team as much as I can. So I make sure the better players get challenged by playing against good competition and I continue teaching them as they are ready. In some cases, splitting them up into groups is the right thing to do. In other cases, they are together.

I also want to challenge the less skilled players but not too much. Sometimes that means I need them players against players of similar ability so they have a chance to grow and learn without losing confidence.

It's a constant balance of trying to develop everyone.

I think Brian McCormick did a great job of defining some of this in his book "The 21st Century Basketball Practice". I'll attach a snippet about the "sweet spot". I try to keep all my players in the sweet spot so that they all improve as much as possible.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/store/shopexd.asp?id=129

By no means am I giving up on them. They are all younger players and won't be on my team next year. I'm looking to add to my 5 kids who will be with me next year.