Here is my take. At that age forget doing a lot of talking -- "if this, then that." Their eyes will quickly glaze over. Do the talking in spurts when they need to catch their breath. Running drills is fine, but can get really boring.

Last night, durring practice with similarly aged boys, after few drills etc. I decided I was going to dedicate the majority of time to "scrimage." Instead of 10-15 miniutes at the end -- double it to 20-30 minuites. Let them play 3 on 3, 4 on 4, and eventually 5 on 5. That is what they like to do. The catch is to stop the action frequently for the teachable moments. For example, if someone is out of position on defense, stop and show the team what should be done. Good luck.

I would say that it holds true at any age... after a little while they turn you off... make your speaking moments short just like any drills you run. Our drill segments ran from 5-10 minutes .. scrimmaging was 20 , press offense work was 10-15.

The younger the kids the less talking you need to do, they need hands on work... and they are there to have fun.... how many are saying I want to be like Mike?

AND by all means... use the K I S S method.

Ken

Two drills that come to mind:

Sheriff drill: Two offensive players, one defender. Defender is guarding person without ball, 2nd person (usually a coach) is dribbling ball. Starts out slow with dribbler at free throw line dribbling side to side and then moving down opposite side towards basket. Defender sags on their player but keeps a gun (their hand pointing) on each player. We have the dribbler eventually pass to other O player to see if defender gets right on it. Sometimes the kids get confused when ball goes to their player and keep two guns pointed out. Good drill to teach watching ball and their player at same time.

No hands drill: I'm a firm believer that great defense comes from the feet. Kids need to understand how important it is to move quickly on defense. This is a great drill for that.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/playcreator/view.asp?ID=37&type=drill

CRob

Thanks for all the great advice coaches. This is a great site thank you for that. I will be back asking for more advice and hopefully be able to offer some advice of my own down the road Thanks again. Dennis

My problem is with a couple of my 9 year olds losing their man of defense. I basically told them, wherever your man goes, stick to him like glue. Unfortunately, some aren't. Any tips?

We really don't want them to stick to their man IF they don't have the ball... they should be able to see man and ball - like coach Rob described to you... we called it Pistols and he calls it the Sherrif Drill.

Sheriff drill: Two offensive players, one defender. Defender is guarding person without ball, 2nd person (usually a coach) is dribbling ball. Starts out slow with dribbler at free throw line dribbling side to side and then moving down opposite side towards basket. Defender sags on their player but keeps a gun (their hand pointing) on each player. We have the dribbler eventually pass to other O player to see if defender gets right on it. Sometimes the kids get confused when ball goes to their player and keep two guns pointed out. Good drill to teach watching ball and their player at same time.

This is the way you want to teach kids of that age... be patient... they are young and their attention span is short.