Season: I am coaching a team of seven 8 year olds right now in a rec league. We are 5 practices into our season with another 7 practices before our 1st game. I've been working on fundamentals our first 4 practices and then had a 3-on-3 scrimmage last night - which went really well.

Dilemma: My asst coach wants to put in an offense and/or 2 to 3 set plays. We spent about 20 minutes running 1 set play (very simple) last practice and at the end, it was a "deer in a head lights" look for everyone!!! Last year (same group of kids), we spent about 50% of the practice time working on an offense (roughly 5 hours) and when we had our 1st scrimmage, no one knew what was going on. So, I'm a little reluctant to spend alot of time implementing an offense/set plays when I can spend it on offensive and defensive fundamentals. They all do pretty well on fast break transition the way it is.

Question: Should we implement an offense? Should not implement an offense and just run set plays? Should we not implement either?

Follow-Up: If you were to teach an offense/set plays, when is the best time to do it during a practice (beginning, middle, end)? Does anyone have any experience with when the kids retain the most information?

Thank you in advance!

I would teach them a simple pass and cut offense at this age... and in my experiences its best too teach new things when they are fresh... at the beginning of practice. JMO

Forget about running sets at this age... teach them how to play the game.... sets are like basektball by the numbers .... when they get older is the time to do that.... AFTER they have learned all the fundamentals. JMO

I agree. Definitely NO set plays. Like you said, you'll just spend most of your time in practice working on them and they still will mess it up in games anyway. And even if they didn't mess it up, what good did it do the kids long term development (agility, passing, dribbling, footwork, etc abilities)?

I would teach a very simple pass and cut offense like Coach Sar mentioned. I would not spend much time on it. Most of the time should be spent on skills, athletic development, and fostering a love for the game.

I would practice 3 on 3 no dribble (this will teach them spacing and improve passing skills). Then practice pass and cut lay up drills. This teaches them the cutting aspect of the offense. Then you just show them the whole offense by putting tape on the floor for their 5 spots. Have them practice 5 on 0, pass, basket cut, and find an open spot. That will give you enough movement and spacing to have somewhat of an offense. Then you can spend 90% of your time on other things like skills, defense, athletic development, etc.

Sounds like you are doing a good job and are on the right track with what you are doing so far.

Throw me in the "no set plays" category, a 5 out motion offense is a great foundation. If most teams play M2M, spreading out your offense will yield big results. Even bringing up the corners just below FT line extended.

I'd go with some basic rules:
1) if you pass, you cut all the way to the basket, then fill.
2) if there's a spot open above you, fill it.
3) if someone dribbles towards you, cut and fill.
4) cuts need to be hard and fast.

The point should pass to the wing, then cut and fill opposite the pass. If a wing passes it, they cut and fill back to the same side corner.

I would teach them to jab the opposite way they are going to cut to get their defender moving that way first. A lot of kids get lazy and run straight making it easier to defend. Teach them about "crossing the face" of their defender on the dribble and pass. If a teammate has crossed his defender's face, he's probably open on the cut.

Last comment, I like the 5 out motion for younger kids because it gives everyone a chance to touch the ball and learn the fundamentals.

I agree with everybody else. Teach them to space the floor and pass and cut. I have been teaching my team of 3/4 grade boys a 5 out motion offense this season. Our record is 1-3, but I can see vast improvement in each boy's offensive skills already because we spend so much time on ballhandling, attacking the basket against a one on one defender, etc.

We have played the same team 3 times so far and we are 1-2 against them. I warn you, this might turn into a rant. They have one boy that is also on the travel team. He has been there for the two games that they beat us. He plays point guard and they will bring the ball up the floor very deliberately while the other 4 kids get into a box set on the elbows and blocks. Then the coach calls out "play 1" or "play 2" and they will either have one or both elbow players come set a pick for the PG. He then simply drives around it and scores layups. He probably scored over 20 points against us last weekend. We had a few good stretches early against him, even forcing a 5 second call against him at one point, but it was very frustrating to coach against. Rarely did any other kid on that team touch the basketball.

Now, we also played them once when the travel player was at a tournament. We had them shutout at halftime and it was evident that most of the other boys don't have many basketball skills. We ended up beating them by 10 points, rather easily. There are a couple other teams in our league that just have one kid bring the ball down the court and then they try to set a pick for him while everybody else clears out.

What are your thoughts on this type of "offense" at this level?

Thats not an offense .... thats taking advantage of ONE good kid.... he is NOT doing that boy any favors and he certainly isn't helping all the other kids on the team.

Play good help defense and that boy should be able to drive to the basket - you can have the player that is defending the person making the screen step out early and show big, then recover as the original defender recovers to his man..
Once he picks a side, the other two defenders should jump to the help line and that will take away any driving lanes too.

Now, with all that being said, you cant control what the other guy is doing, but you certainly can control what you do and how you teach the game... and thats getting everyone involved. Keep up the good work....AND, I bet your kids are having more fun too.

We, too, are about to play a team that has the same type of offense--lot's of ball screens around the half court line. To combat this, I'm going to have my defender play defense inside the 3 point line (not at half court) and have the rest of the defenders playing strong wolf pack style defense.

Coach P,

This is exactly what we have been doing defensively all season. In the first game our defense was picking up the PG at half court and we just weren't good enough one on one to stay with him. So now we all sprint back to the paint and find our guy on defense, with the point guard being picked up around the 3 point line. As the boys have gotten better defensively, I've allowed them to extend their defense accordingly. This has made a world of difference.