An update to our team:

Our overall season record stands at 3-2. We are 1-0 in league play and also went 2-2 in a preseason tournament we just played this weekend. We took second in the tournament. We lost to a very good team in pool play 30-10. They played fast, passed well and just outgunned us big time. We ended up playing them in the finals and lost 10-7. We were down 8-7 with under a minute to play and we had a couple shots to take the lead that just didn't fall. I am a firm believer in m2m defense, but I changed us to a box and 1 defense in the championship. Our 1 was a chaser, just hounding the ball. This definitely slowed them down and gave us a chance.

We'll still play m2m, but my thoughts are that if we're in a tournament and make the finals then we'll make some adjustments to give us a chance to win the whole thing if we need to. If we see this team again later this season, I don't think we'll need the zone as much, as I anticipate our defense getting better as the season goes on.

Offensively, we've got some girls that are pretty good penetrators and we've focused a lot on ballhandling and dribble drive stuff. We've gone to a 4 out set and our main rules are pass and cut, dribble handoff or dribble at/backdoor action. We also work in some high ball screens against an agressive defense just to free our guards up. These girls are really showing that they have a decent basketball IQ for 4th grade. Playing this early tournament and basically getting 4 games in 3 days that we otherwise wouldn't have had has given us a wealth of experience that is going to really pay off for us.

Congrats! Sounds like things are going well so far.

We stand at 4-3 on the season. Last week we had to play a team a grade older than us and we hung with them for a while, only trailing by 3 at halftime. But they ended up just being too big for us and we wore down in the second half trying to keep them boxed out and off the boards. They were much bigger than us. Yesterday we pulled out a tight one. Trailed by 1 when my daughter got fouled with 12 seconds remaining. She calmly sunk both free throws and we won by a point.

Things we need to get better at: Passing. We wait too long to throw the pass and we end up turning it over too much. Luckily, the opposition is in the same boat. It's 4th grade girls, so we're playing a lot of chaotic, low scoring games. At times we run our offense pretty well, but there are still too many times when we are playing out of control and wasting posessions. Defensively, we just need to maintain more focus and stop leaving our girl and chasing the ball every now and then. That's usually how other teams have scored against us. When we are on defensively, we are a pretty darn good unit.

We are running a 4 out motion. Would you recommend putting our best players at the two top guard spots so that they are handling the ball more and initiating offense?

Congrats! Fun when it comes together like that.

Teaching them where to throw the pass (away from the defender) and having the person receiving the pass come towards the ball instead of waiting like a catcher in baseball might help. Playing some 4 v 4 games in practice with just passing can help improve your passing. Team A on offense, Team B on defense, half-court. Team A has to get 5 good passes, no dribbling allowed. If Team B gets a steal or deflects the pass, they are now on offense. Tell the girls they have to pass within 5 seconds. If a player holds the ball too long, start counting down from 5. If she doesn't pass before time is up, the other team is on offense. No dribbling shell drills help teammates figure out they have to get open and come towards the ball when passed. Putting a time limit on the pass adds that additional tweak.

Tough habit to break. Teaching help side defense at that age is especially difficult. Maybe breaking it down in a quick shell drill 3 v 3 and showing them where they should be when one pass away, two passes away. Have you done the Sheriff drill with them?

Depends upon what your coaching philosophy is here. Putting the two best players up top will probably give you a better chance at running an offense. The problem at the younger ages is kids that aren't that good with the ball can blend in and never get the touches they need to improve. If you decide to let your more experienced handlers deal in games, look for ways to get your other players more experience whether in practice or if you have a lead in the games.

It's a tough balancing act when you're dealing with more developing players in a competitive environment. Standings and scores can definitely influence decisions, which is why establishing a coaching philosophy up front helps.

We've started doing the no dribble shell in the past week or so, so we'll just have to keep on that. What's the sheriff drill? Does it have anything to do with the old addage of "pointing pistols"?

When we practice and play 4 on 4 or 2 on 2 breakdown drills, I make sure to get every girl reps at each spot on the floor. So everybody is playing point or wing or post at some point in our practices. The games can get pretty hectic, which results in almost any player on our team coming up with a loose ball, steal, rebound and pushing it up the floor a little. The problem becomes in a hectic game, with limited actual half-court possessions, like yesterday, our 2-3 top players aren't getting involved in much offense unless we put them out front at guard positions. Their ability to drive and create can then open up opportunities for our other players.

Yep, the pointing pistols drill, it's a good one to help them defensively, imo.

I hear your on the point guard situation. Ran into something similar when I coached flag football. I had two QBs that knew what they were dong. When I started coaching in 1st/2nd grade, I let everyone play QB. BIG mistake. Fumbles, mishandled snaps, etc. We were going 4 and out constantly. Finally decided to put the two better players at QB most of the time. The result? More successful plays and touches for everyone. We stayed on the field longer on offense.

On the flip side, I played a lot of 3 v 3 and let all the kids try their hand at QB in practice. If we had a nice lead in a game, we rotated QBs a lot and tried to get every kid in at QB at least once or twice during the season.

I think you can pull this off if you're doing 3 v 3 in practice and getting those developing players lots of touches and encouragement.

We've got a week off and 3 practices before our next game. I'm thinking of beginning to work on a full court pressure defense to help us get some easier looks at the basket. Games have been officiated pretty loosely, and while our girls are coming around to playing stronger with the ball on offense, it's still a work in progress. (I've even started bringing a hand held shield from football to practice to give them some resistance when we work individual offense.)

We're allowed to press in the second half of games and I think it might help us get some points on the board.

My first thought is to just go with a full court man to man press. High pressure on the ball, with 3 girls playing very loose help looking for steals and maybe even a trap and 1 girl always back to protect the hoop. It's man to man which is our defense anyway. We work full court zig zags every practice, so they know how to guard the ball in the full court. It will just be teaching them the adjustment of full court help defense.

I had a seconday thought of installing a diamond press, but with 4th grade girls I'm not sure of the risk-reward of the teaching time to do it, the focus of shifting from the diamond press, back into a halfcourt m2m defense, etc.

Any thoughts?

If you're opponent is weak enough with their ballhandling skill and experience, you'll get turnovers almost regardless of what you run full court.

The dangers of pressing are...
- your players start picking up bad habits that work right now against weak ballhandlers
- against a good team you're full court will look pretty bad and your half court defense will probably suffer. even at the high school level, our guys tend to lose discipline in the half court when we extend full court. it's something you have to practice.

They'll probably see some success with the press at this age. And that's the danger of it. They can play undisciplined defense and get rewarded for it because the opponent is not strong enough or skilled enough to break the press.

There are pros and cons. My biggest suggestion would be careful about developing bad habits that stick with them because it works so well at this age.

Maybe you can try picking them up just past half court... almost 3/4. That way you can pay closer attention to defending the right way and it's very similar to your half court defense.

Jeff presents some valid points regarding a press at this age. I'm going under the assumption that all these teams understand this is a competitive league with tryouts, standings, and some type of playoff at the end. I'm not a big fan of leagues allowing presses at the younger levels (4th, 5th and even 6th), but if all the teams understand what they signed up for, you have to go with the flow.

My take on presses is they can be devastating to the opponent, especially at the younger levels. it won't take much pressure and you will see turnovers. Like Jeff mentioned though, it's easy for younger players to develop bad habits and play sloppy defense, esp if the refs are "letting them play".

One benefit of pressing is you learn what presses are trying to do, so when your team is pressed, they will understand what is going on. I really don't think it will matter what you run, you will see results. If you find that it's working and you're up by 15+, be cool and call it off.

Coach...
I'm sorry I have to go along with Jeff says.... You can get a lot of turnovers and some easy points out of pressing At this age... And you might get you a few more wins... But in the long run I think it will hurt your team more than Help it. Your goals should be to make your team fundamentally strong and get them ready to play at the next level.

Think this over very carefully and weigh the pros and cons... Then make your decision based on making your players better. At this age it's not about winning and losing.

Good luck you been doing a great job with your team, keep up the good work.