Thanks for the Emails, they have definitely helped my team and I. This is my first year coaching. My team is made up of 6 seventh graders, and 4 freshmen. However I only had 6 kids, and 2 weeks of practice before our first game. We had to practice offense and defense separately, and then we had 4 games in two weeks. Trying to keep up morale I told them our first 4 games would be our practice with a defense. Naturally we lost our first 4 games, all of which were very close in score, and then we won our fifth game against one of the teams that beat us two weeks earlier. The only reason we are keeping close in score is because of our defensive play. We have out rebounded and out shot every team 4 to 1 but my guys are missing the 3rd, 4th, and sometimes 5th and 6th shots. The game we just won however my post players actually made several shots each. I credit this to several of the shooting drills you sent me, and over a week of practice doing most of them. My problem is that though I have probably the best defense and rebounders in our league, I do not have anyone who can handle the ball, or shoot from outside the key. Our success in our last game was do mostly because my team is very fast, so the other team stayed in a 2-3 zone for most of the game. So our plan was to run a 1-3-1 offense having the point guard drive to one side or the other until a defender committed to guard him, this opened up our middle post who was able to take a close shot or ditch the ball to our short corner post. The closest way I've been able to get them to score in a man defense, other than fast breaks, is by running a 2-3 offense. 2 guards up top, and the other three all above the foul line, or sometime I'll take the three post and set them up in a triangle with one on ease block, and one on the foul line, still with two guards up top. Any offensive advise would be great. Also, I have my kids playing pretty good m2m def., but what has helped us to really confuse the other teams is that we are the only team that runs a 1-3-1 flex def. which I learned from your site. Thanks... I put the kids in flex even when they're playing good man def. because it lets them slow down the pace a little so I can keep my big guys in longer.

Thanks again for the Emails.
Jay, in Ohio

I think you are well on your way in establishing a good program. Your team being dominant with defense, speed and rebounding. The offense takes time, repeitition and discipline.
Sounds like your players are missing offensive putbacks. This is tough...they work so hard grabbing that rebound but miss the putback....2nd...3rd..times. It can be frustrating. Spend time in practice working on this. Throw ball off backboard with one player in paint waiting for rebound, player jumps high, gathers rebound, sets themself then power up using backboard. Young players sometimes rush their putbacks or are not squared when going up.
Try this drill one player at a time. Then put a defender in paint with their hands straight up making it hard for putback. Also have rebounders gather rebound with their bodies at different angles to hoop. This way they must grab rebound, turn, square, set and power up.
As for offensive half court sets. I try to keep it simple with youth players. At the minimum 1 play vs zone, one play vs M2M. Maybe a clear out play for a quick guard and an isolation play for one of your bigs. As they grasp these offenses you can add another play vs zone and M2M.

You also state you do not have any good ballhandlers or anybody who can shoot outside the key...again....these things can and should be worked on during every practice. You should be reinforcing fundamentals of proper shooting and dribbling
during every practice. Not just stationary shooting and dribbling drills but shooting off the dribble and dribbling under pressure to simulate game conditions.

Best of Luck Coach!!

Coach A

Thanks for the responce.
I do work on the drills you have recommended, and the shooting, and ball handling has got better, but I just don't have those 1 or 2 'naturals' that all of the other teams have. Although I do let all of my kids shoot as often as they can get open, our philosophy is to mostly work the ball inside, shoot and let the big guys take the rebound shots.
We have 3 games left, and I'm confident we can win atleast 2 of them. We are avging over the past 3 games over 20 points more per game, and we have been having some really good practices.
I think that maybe I expected them to learn more offensive plays than should have been expected in such a short amount of time. Although all of the plays I designed are simple, and work well when executed, I still have 5 different offensive sets.
during our next three games I think I'll just pick 2, and spend more time on them.
Thanks again, I'll send a post after our last game and let you know how we did.

Jay