I'm the assistant coach on my son\'s team. I need help with a potential problem: the 3rd/4th grade coach is thinking of constructing an "A team" and "B team" according to ability and using those set line-ups. We've only had one practice so far. Playing time will be same for each- league rules. At this age, I'm of the opinion that this could stifle the enthusiasm of the B team members before they've even had a chance to have some fun and gauge their own enjoyment of the game. Of course, it's not "my" team, so maybe I should just keep my mouth shut. But at this age is it too early for division by ability? Thanks for any thoughts or reference to sources for info on a situation like this. I'm the asst. coach on my two son's teams, so your feedback is greatly appreciated.
All the best,
Joe

Joe,

At the 3rd and 4th grade level there should not be an A team(superior) and B team (inferior). You are correct in your observation.
When I coached both my son and daughter at those ages I split the team into (2) equal teams.....each team has at least (1) big and one good ballhandler. This worked well. We had six minute quarters, 3 minutes in, 3 minutes out. Very easy substiution rotation which guarantees equal playing time (1/2 game for each player).
Thing is how do you communicate this to the head coach and have him buy into it w/o giving you attitude. I would approach the league coordinator and tell him/her your concern. Maybe the coordinator can tell the coach that the program would rather not have teams with an A and B teams at this age group.

Or just wait a couple games into the season and tell the coach that the kids on the B team are getting frustrated , not having fun and are not improving as they should be
and maybe suggest that he split up the players into 2 equal teams which would promote more competitiveness throughout the entire game.

Good Luck
Coach A

Hello,
I basically have the same question but the asst. coach and I are the ones that decided to go with a A & B team and we have 1 or maybe 2 parents that do not agree with our division of the players. I have my reasons but wanted to hear what you thought. I started a new program for some players that were getting left out. There has been a 5th grade team already estiblished for 3 years and only 5 boys were getting playing time. Four of those players came over to this new program and now I have 14 boys that decided to play from a very small school district. Ten of those 14 have never played before while 4 have played every year. Between our team and the other team we now have 90% of the boys in that grade level playing basketball. I divided them by experience level for 3 reasons. One was so that the new inexperienced players would get more touches on the ball and not have an issue of a betterplayer hogging the ball. Secondly, I felt it was not fair to the more experienced players that had been around year after year, the B team players has some boys that we fell really aren't going to be there next year or the next. Lastly, We felt that if we had a better player bring up the ball or getting all the shoots that the other less experienced players wouldn't get the chance to learn. When we set up games we try to match the teams up with other teams by skill level. We are seeing improvement from both teams but a couple parents can't seem to ignore the score board and look at the improvements. I have no issues from the boys. They are all excited about the amount of playing time and ball touches. So after hearing my reasons do you still think it is wrong to divide them this way?
Thank you

This is such a tough call - I like the idea of the kids getting some playing time - learning the skills necessary to play and hopefully make it to the next level. THAT should be the goal along with the kids having FUN!

IF the KIDS are happy, who are we to interfere with that? Parents need to remember who the game is for.

When I was the varsity boys coach we had a Freshman A & B team..... I know that there were several B teamers that became varsity player / starters and some became ALL CONFERENCE.... one B teamer didn't even play on the B team, he was one of those "Diamond in the Rough" kids.... so, we never know. He became an All Conference player and was one of the best 3 point shooters I ever coached. Without having those two teams there would have been a lot of kids that wouldn't have gotten enough playing time to improve. I made sure that I knew all of those kids and I watched most of their games.

I kept 17 kids on the Varsity / JV team and IF we didn't have JV games a lot of those kids wouldn't have gotten playing time and I probably wouldn't have kept that many beccause its hard to keep kids happy when they don't play.

My last year of coaching 6-8th grade kids, we had a pretty good team ( first time ever since we didn't have a gym where they grew up in. ) We played a lot of games since they took away one day a week of practice. I called and got a lot of non conference games.... I told the other coaches that I wanted to play an extra period of 10 minutes for the last 7 kids on the team and I wanted to play that part first. They were pretty happy since they got a lot of playing time and had some fun. This also made their parents happy since their sons were playing and not just watching.

I think you have to ask yourself, what works best for you and especially the kids in your situation and then go for it. JMO

I coach the B team of 5th grade boys (my friend coaches the As). I think it works pretty well but it does take thought and coordination between the two of us. We jointly practice one day a week, but separate once day a week. In the winter we played in different leagues that were appropriate to the two teams ability levels. Our rosters are small (mine 8, his 9) so we don't run into playing time issues. Depending on league rules and player absences, we do some flexible rostering that permits some of my guys to play with his team and vice versa. I have had one of my strongest players move up to his team and had one of his players who was struggling come down to mine. I will say that while his team is certainly stronger than mine there are players on both that comfortably can play on both are very close together in terms of their basketball development. That being said, his strongest players are well ahead of my weakest and combining them (as would happen if we had "balanced" teams) would not work as well for either group.

There are some tricky issues to negotiate. There is a dad of one of my boys who feels his son should be on the A team and he is not afraid to express those views. Likewise, there are parents of players on the A team that should their son "move down" to the B team in future seasons would see it as a demotion and probably take their son to another club (we are in urban basketball hotbed so there are lots of options, mostly this is a good thing but it does up the competitive ante for players that are not always healthy). Lastly, if a hot new player shows up, the A team gets first choice.

Even with all that, I focus on getting my guys better, stoking their passion for the game, and finding the right competitive dynamic. Practicing one a week with the As fires up the competitive juices (they have to play and harder and faster than normal to keep up) but that individual practice is key to as it allows us to foster our own identity.

I have two teams. One is a what we call our blue team, its a tournament type team, it is for those players and parents commited to playing at a higher level., our red team is a developmental team and its for those kids that need playing time at a less competitive level so they can learn how to play without the pressure of more skilled players. I really try not to verbalize it as A and B team but simply a blue and red team. When we had one team with all players on it we had the problem of ball hogging and bullying by the more skilled players and parents to be honest. They both play in league but in different divisions. We do conditioning together although we have so many now we have it broken up into groups, one group may be doing speed ladders, while the other is doing mini hurdles, then they switch etc. Then we do basketball drills together and split up for last 20-30 minutes to work on team stuff. So far players and parents are happy. Their daughter who never got to touch the ball unless she was rebounding and handing it to the more skilled player is now the ball handler. We encourage everyone to touch the ball, and to catch and shoot if you are in position. We have not started league again but will do so in a few more weeks. We carry 7 on the blue team for league and 8 on the red team for league. When we go to tourneys we invite one or two of the girls from red to participate in the tourney. We practice twice a week Wednesday we practice for 1 hour and 30 minutes, and on Friday 1 hour and 45 minutes. They are second grade girls.

I strongly agree with Coach A's method of two equal teams, especially with the ages of the players being discussed. Having coached at different levels with various ways of dividing into teams I have found that A and B teams works well starting at the freshman high school level and not so well for development sake any earlier.Freshman B players will be skilled enough to bring the ball down court and move the ball around with some efficiency. Not so with younger players. With younger players their offensive skill development is typically way behind their defensive skill development. Without a couple of players to get the ball down court and be able to pass the ball to other players you will have 4 players standing around while the point guard is getting the ball stolen from them or in the least being tied up into a jump ball. I guarantee that "b" level players at the ages you are talking about will be a game full of jump ball calls. Also, at the high school level other schools will also have B teams and it is much easier to find games against like competition. Again, not so at earlier levels in many locales. Many times there is only one league. Not to mention gym practice time which is usually limited.It is a better use of practice time having everyone doing the same fundamentals and team drills. Now, as far as touches versus ball hogging: this is one of the jobs of being a coach. For instance, you could say get the ball to our best player, Lebron, and let's go. Lebron will get his points, your team will score, and no one else will touch the ball. Or, you could say get the ball to Lebron, and Lebron, when we get into our half court offense you must reverse the ball to the left wing and cut through to the right wing. Right wing you have to replace Lebron uptake the point. Left wing you can shoot or pass inside or pass back out to the top. Now the top can pass look inside or reverse the ball back to Lebron. This is very basic movement , but 3 pr 4 players touch the ball each time down. You, as coach, have control over things like this. The bottom line is that less skilled players need the assistance of playing with better skilled players. And yes, after 25 years of coaching , I can assure you that the better players' development will not be hampered by playing with the lesser skilled. They still will be playing against opponents who most likely will put their better players on them. And, of corse, you will have your better players guard the opponent's better players. Everyone will develop with good coaching. Good luck.

Thank you for all the responses to this topic.

It has been a little while since I posted about our team division. We decided to remain as a blue team and a red team. Our red team has shown great strides and may give our blue team a run for their money. Both teams have developed nicely. Learning to be unselfish and act like team players. The last league game my blue team played every girl had scored but one. Coach called a time out and let everyone know. The next play after returning to court the girls passed to said girl on the block and she shot and scored. I loveed that. I could not be any happier with their progress both as players and team members.

My red team is still playing league as we speak. They have come from a team that won only one game in spring league to being real contenders in summer league in an upper division. So far in league they have won 2 and lost one by 2 points the last 10 seconds of the game...but contending this team teh whole way. This team were pretty tough characters, but our girls never lost their cool. We average 5-7 kids out of 8 scoring every game. We have 4 kids that have never played organized ball with two of them never having touched a basketball until a few months ago.

WE have had alot of people approach us and want to move their team over to our club and several girls thinking of moving into our area to come to our club. With that said if a kid has been with me they get the first spots on the teams. I will not accept any new kids unless we have girls leave. I have 16 great parents that are really plugged into the program its a clubs dream.

I have to think long and hard about accepting other teams into the club as it is alot of work to make sure things run smoothly. I have gym space easily for 2 teams but the additional teams woudl require more space...we all know thats not always easy to get

It sounds like you are doing all the right things.... the girls are happy and your parents back you all the way, What more is their to ask for. Your kids are learning and it seems like they are becoming true team players. That is great way to start at this level..

As for adding more teams/players... that would be great IF you have the facilities for them to practice in. Without that, you will be in for a lot of trouble. IF you can find another facility for them to practice at, then it might be able to work out. Then you have to address the coaching issues ( IF you are going to add another team )

You know your kids and the parents now, so do what YOU think is the right thing to do for everyone concerned, Think about your goals right now and stick to your philosopjhy.

Good luck.

Looks like you are suffering from an abundance of riches. Your teams are improving and having fun, other families are noticing and so they want to join. Congrats! In terms of adding them ,it becomes one of capacity (both coaching and facilities). If you have enough of both, by all means expand, but if not don't or proceed slowly.