[size=150]Thanks, guys! I have tried begin with a 4 out 1 in motion since I have one 12yr old that is 6'2" + but is skinny and hasn't grown into his height yet, coordination-wise, so I've tried to post him down low for lobs and rebounds. I'll let them work on a 5-out set this week and see how they respond. And yes I always encourage them to shoot. :-)

Thanks again!

Mark

As an update: we are 3-0 on the season, winning by scores of 32-8, 38-9 and 17-4.

We have 8 girls on the team. In the first game 4 girls scored. In the second it was 5 girls. In our last game (against our toughest opponent) we had 4 girls score, but our leading scorer (14 and 18 points in first two games) only had 4 points and they came in the final minute.

We've emphasized spacing, good passing and layups all season. (as well as some hardnosed D!!) We shoot a ton of layups in practice and we do a lot of dribbling work, working on various offensive moves like a crossover or a spin dribble with a burst to the hoop. So far we are getting decent movement in games with just passing and cutting. The only "rule" I try to enforce is when you pass, you must cut to the basket.

The girls are also playing very unselfish. We've been pretty good at pushing the ball up the floor with our eyes up and finding an open teammate for a layup.

We play m2m defense, but we have taught the girls to not chase a player around outside the 3 point line, which leads to us having an easier time with our help defense. We honestly spent maybe 30 minutes in 7 hours of practice time so far working on defense.

It doesn't sound like they are afraid to shoot now. :-) I hope that you are playing the last 3 a lot more in those blowouts.

The more experience they get the better they will be... who knows. they might have to really come through in some games.

I don't think we have a player on the team that is afraid to take a shot.

Our league rules state that everybody must play equal playing time. We play two 20 minute halves and the refs stop play as close to each 5 minute segment as possible. Then we sub. Any player that is on the bench must be subbed in for the next 5 minute run. No player can sit consecutive segments. We've used the same rotation in all 3 games, which strategically has us playing our best 5 girls in the final 5 minutes in the case that we are in a close game. Everybody is getting equal opportunity to have the ball. We'll rotate point guards pretty liberally from posession to posession. The theme in our league is that your best player plays point guard and most teams try to just set a ball screen for her to get an easy drive and layup. Our best player has not played PG once this season.

Just to follow up on Mark's posts. I learned after my first few games at this age level that you have to tell them to shoot. Otherwise, they will just "pass and cut" and not look to socre. And it becomes, pass, cut, pass, cut, pass, cut, turnover.

So as I set my offensive rules, Rule 1 is to take the open shot or drive to the basket. Then we talk about the pass, the cut, the screen, etc. Then you have to constantly remind them that offense is about scoring.

I've coached from 1st grade boys and girls up to 6th grade boys and girls. I can't recall having very many players that didn't want to score. Maybe 2 kids and they were both on the younger teams I'd coached.

Kind of along the lines of not wanting to shoot.......

We were up big on Saturday with a couple minutes left. Our best player was still on the court and I was using her as a wing player, to setup our pass and cut offense. Our offense is usually based on beating the defender off the dribble or its a result of our D forcing a turnover and we run the floor. So I'm having the girls slow it down and run our pass and cut motion offense. I put a new girl at PG and she passes and cuts, wide open. But our top player's defender overplayed the pass, missed the steal and our girl just drove it in for a score.

Next time down, I tell her to catch the pass and make sure she looks for the cutter, don't drive. So we get the perfect give and go and I'm thinking this girl will get a good chance to score her first basket of the day. But she catches it in the paint, the defense surrounds her and she dumps the ball down to the block to another open girl and we get a layup for scomebody else.

Sometimes even when you get them in position to shoot it, they find a better play! One thing these girls definitely are is unselfish.