Hello all.

I'm helping to coach the 6th-8th grade girls basketball team in our elementary school.

What I've noticed while doing this (and this goes for previous experiences with younger girls as wells), is that their quickness, aggressiveness and hustle is pretty much nonexistent. I get the quickness, as some just don't have it yet. But the hustle and aggressiveness should be able to be coached, right? How can I accomplish this? Pretty much the only girls this age that I see with these skills developed are those that play lots of travel ball and its seems to just be ingrained in the way they play. I'm not expecting this type of change with my girls, but would like to at least try. Any thoughts? Any ideas of drills or situations I can put them in to begin to develop these skills?

Thanks!

Put them in situations and drills where they are competitive all the time. For one, you could keep score and the loser(s) have to run? Not a lot, like up and back one time or baseline to half court and back, just to make it mean something.

One thing we did was to run "situations" at the end of every practice.... (mini games) you set the situation... Team A is up by 1, Team B has the ball, 1 minute, NO timeouts, both teams in the bonus etc. Great competitive games, the kids love this and they get to learn something.

IF you do something fun at the end of practice they will look forward to the next practice.

Quickness and hustle: Make sure they hustle on and off the court or anytime you call them over. No jogging, full sprint. If you do this with the "non court stuff" they'll begin to understand you mean business. This means when they're shooting around just warming up before practice and you call them over, they should sprint to you.

Aggressiveness is a tough one. Some players seem to have it naturally, others need a nudge and others never seem to get it. The travel girls get it because they have to play through a lot of the time and have the experience of being aggressive. One drill you can do is contact on lay-up drills. It can be as simple as just fouling them as they go up for the lay-up (slapping their arm or wrist enough to make it uncomfortable). Emphasize that they should expect contact in a game. Expect it. Make the shot anyway. No excuses. The officials won't rescue them.

Right back up is another drill we used. Three players face the basket right next to each other in-between FT line and the hoop. Coach throws up shot (misses) and the girls fight to get rebound (cutthroat) and put it right back up. Allow contact and encourage them to play through the contact.

With both of those drills, I'm not suggesting a free-for-all, you don't want the players getting hurt. However, you do want them getting used to contact.

Last thought. Reward what you want to see on the court.

This will sounds simple but emphasize hustle and aggressiveness constantly.

Talk about it before practice. Ask them if they know what it means, give them examples of what it means.

When ever you blow the whistle have them sprint to you. Who's gonna be first? Don't be last! Then give high fives to the first 3 players that get there. I have not tried this but you could have the last three do 5 push ups. Simple but works great.

Reward hustle constantly. Praise it. Encourage it in every drill. That is all that matters to you.

I give players a list of the 4 most imprint things....

- when coaches is talking, eyes on coach and listen carefully.
- hustle
- be resilient (never give up, don't worry about mistakes, etc)
- help others (this includes teammates and helping people off the court).

To me that's all that matters and they know it. Those things are non negotiable. We emphasize, preach, and teach those things constantly. Even give them homework regarding those character values. They know that's important and try hard in those areas.

Seems to work at all levels.

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/mental/motivate-players.html

Another thought after some 3 v 3 games this weekend, is play 3 v 3 in practice and let them play. Again, no fouling that can hurt someone, but a few bumps here and there let it slide. Losers have consequences. Easier to hide in 5 v 5.

Make it tougher in practice than it will be in the game. I like letting them play when the teams are uneven, especially when working against a press break. Team A is on defense and has one or more players than Team B who is trying to break a full court press. Allow double teaming and aggressive defense.