Hi,
My 7-9 year old team surprised me last night by playing a perennially good team to a 1 point loss in our season opener. We're woefully short, and the starters have an issue getting inside and forcing the offense. We were zero for zero from the foul line and the other team was 5 for 9, and won 25-24.
Is there a form of instant courage I can inject into them to force the issue offensively? Hopefully now that they've experienced what their lack of push does (or really doesn't) do for them, they can find it within themselves to get tougher.
Our rebounding also suffers (naturally) because of the size disparity. We were probably outshot 3 to 1, with most of their shots being short range putbacks that kept missing, shot by a kid who was 8" taller than any of our guys.
We have alot of positive to take from the loss though, and if we can stay tough, we'll be the surprise team that nobody will want to play come March.

I'm not so sure that 7-9 year olds have that in their make up. Thats one of the things that I liked when I watched our freshman play... they were playing for fun.... and they were not out to hurt anybody....
This is supposed to be fun at this age... they have plenty of time to get tougher as they get older.... teach them the fundamentals...
If you want to make them a little tougher mentally, make your practices competitive..make them a little harde, drills and all. Kids love to compete but make sure they are having fun.
God Bless you for working with kids this young... not so sure I could have done that.
Ken

I'd recommend more overall passes which will hopefully lead to more pass and cuts. Had the same problem with my 10-11 y/o's recently and someone suggested 5 passes before they even thought about taking a shot. It worked. You have to be patient through the bad passes though. They started to see that ball movement creates open teammates.

I think it's pretty common to have a few kids who are more competitive than the rest. They seem to be naturally more aggressive and understand hustling. Couple of ideas:

1) Line 9 balls at half court (if you have 10 players) and on whistle they run all out to grab a ball. Odd man out sits. Remove a ball each time someone is eliminated.

2) Play blood and guts. 3 kids at one hoop, goal is to score. Every player for themselves. Let them play - not calling every single thing. Allow double teaming person with ball. One of my smaller players wins consistently b/c he hustles.

3) Give out a small prize at end of game(s) for something you want them to do. If they get X amount of rebounds in the game, they all get the prize. You can do it for loose balls, # of passes, etc.

Having said all that, remember to keep it fun. Easy to get caught up in the hype and forget they're 7-9 y/o's.

CRob

Like Coach Rob said.. these are 7-9 year olds... I know that you and the kids want to win... but that shouldn't be your goal with this age group.

You said you lost by one to a much taller opponent and missed every free throw.... and were out rebounded... so you need to work on shooting - form and live especially free throws... and some box out drills....

Keep teaching them the game.. you must be doing something right IF they were that close to a team much bigger than you. God Bless you for working with this age group.... its a tough age to keep focused.

Good luck,
Coach Sar