I need some advice on 5 to 7 yr old kids. I want the kids to learn the fundamentals of offense. I have done youth drills from this site and built a very good defense and fast break team. We probably have the strongest defense in our league, but when it comes to offense my kids don't move to get open. Been playing 3-2 offense 2wing to 2post. Once the player brings the ball down the court they go to there spot and don't move. If I do get them to move, there like programmed robots they move where I tell them but don't try to get open.

Just my opinion, but a fundamental offense at 5-7 yrs old is one that doesn't dribble off it's feet for two posessions in a row.

How competitive is your league? 5-7's playing 5 on 5? Full size hoops? Are they keeping score? Are their refs? That age should be more about development, then as the development progresses, so do the rules and the competition.

But to answer your question, I would really drill spacing and movement. Work a lot on passing and dribbling in practice. If they can do those things well then you are setting them up for success no matter what offense you run.

It's 5 on 5 full court, we have ref and they do keep score. I was very upset with last season it was more like tackle basketball, all the other coaches where having the kids be very aggressive and kids where getting hurt. I coached fundamentals and the kids did great. All the other teams play zone defense we do man to man.

With my 7 years olds last year, I did not get past 1v1 and 2v1. So spacing wasn't an issue yet. Keep in mind we did not play in a league. It was strictly fun activities and development for the kids.

With my 8 and 9 year olds, I started 3v2 full court no dribble. One they got better, we did 3v3 full court no dribble. That's where they learned how to move, get open, and keep spacing. I can't tell you how much teaching and learning occurs during this drill. When we finally played 5on5 at the end of the season, they already knew how to run motion as 9 year olds. We hardly had to practice motion at all.

Actually, before that we did Ultimate Basketball Passing. It's basically the same as full court 3on3 no dribble, except you get points for advancing the ball past the end-line. We called the end-line the end zone and gave them 7 points for a touch down!!!!

Then eventually we went to 3on3 full court where they can shoot.

Also, play tag and a bunch of variations of tag. That's one of the best ways to develop elusiveness, agility, and learn how to get open. Freeze tag, speed tag, regular tag in a grid, etc.

I just love this clip from Stan Van Gundy. Hits youth BB on the head. Summary: Teach skills and don't worry too much about leagues, wins until maybe 12, 13 years of age. I know that sounds impossible, and it is basically in this country. Then you look at the Spurs and understand why an all time high 92 foreign born players are at the NBA level.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ9jTOAMTtk

If kids this age get good training and then it's reinforced at ages 8, 19, 10 WATCH OUT. You will be breeding great players.

I loved that video. That's why I'm coaching. My son started playing sports last year. The first thing I noticed about the sports in our area. NO ONE is teaching fundamentals or basics. Everyone wants to win. What's happening is you have 2 kids on the team dominate and grow up to be ball hog. I just got done coaching tball. At practice I only did drills we never scrimmaged, I had parents coming up to me telling the kids where going to get killed in there games they have no idea what to do, when there all on the feild. One parent even made fun of one of my drills. I would line the kids up on the fence and call out a base have All the kids run to the base, then I would call out another base in random order they ran to it. one dad said they don't even no the base order. I let the dad figure out why that drill was important. In the game I would say next play is at 3rd the kids would get it to 3rd and get the out. I watched other kids coaches yell in frustration at there team for not listening at what base the play was at. I kept doing the drills, I searched the internet over for drills and practice plans trying to keep practice fun for the kids. I kept telling the parents if I teach them the fundamentals they will win. We went 17 and 0. I had 11 kids on the team 2 had played last season. I no we won every game but that was never a goal of mine I wanted ever kid to get a chance to play and be good.

At this age its all about FUNDAMENTALS and the kids having FUN.

Jeff has some great ideas and the Jeff Van Gundy video is also good.

This is a tough age group so keep it simple... like a simple pass and cut and replace spots. JMO

I no the players here are older, but the number and color code system this guy has on the floor looks like it would work for young kids. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eVbGA8iANe8

Pretty simple.... 5 spots on the floor, pass and cut / fill one of the spots .... the concept of when they are being overplayed means BACK DOOR might he hard to get across at first.... but eventually they should understand itl.