"Chucking" is certainly a problem at that age. You have to stress your offensive philosophy of looking for a "GOOD" shot, not just any shot.

And certainly practicing with 7 can be a challenge. Looks for older brothers/sisters, moms, and dads to fill in. The shell drill is easy for parents to step in (as long as they can pass and catch :)).

I would also look to run a lot of off balanced stuff -- 1 less on defense than offense. I'd put 4 on offense and 3 on defense. Your offense should be forced to find the open man for the good shot and your defense will be top notch come game time.

Also, make sure you teach them "help" defense. One problem at this age level they will stay "stuck" to their man while the ball is driven in for a layup. The unbalanced 4 on 3 will help with that.

Coach Sars: Are you suggesting we now put hockey boards in basketball gyms and change on the fly, remember I played hockey, and it aint gonna work. In hockey, there is very little stoppage in play and you dont require a time out or a change of possession to get in a sub. Im just playing with you my friend your advice as always is sound, I just dont know how to respond to this particular topic...Your friend Coach Mac.

As long as there isn't any cross checking, it should be fine LOL

Nice to have you back on board Mac.

Howdy Folks,

You've been so kind in your advice I thought I'd give you an update. We lost our first two games by a total of 5 points. I made some adjustments to the line up, and we won our third game (against what I perceive to be equitable opponents to the ones who beat us) by 14 points. The change in line-up reduced our turnovers and increased opponent turnover considerably.

My most notorious "practice chucker" is 4-7 from the 3 point line, and a wicked ball-stealer. *grinning* He's still firing from the chest, but I'm not sure he's strong enough to shoot over the head yet.

The 4-3 Offense/Defense drill has really helped. They're ball hawks, and at this level, it seems to be quite profitable. I'm just telling the guys to find their man and stick to him like glue for the games- no complicated shifts- just a "beat your man" philosophy. Our most talented player has taken upon himself to cover the lanes against opponent drives, and its working.

The advice to move my best guy to a wing has worked out great. He's happy and scoring well, and the "great attitude, needs skill" player on the team has stepped into the post position with gusto.

Going forward, I need to work the guys more in motion offense and our set plays. They seem to forget in the heat of action, so before our win I just told the posts to screen whenever a wing has a ball. These baby steps paid off.

Thanks again for what you guys do. Having stepped forward to coach (or everyone else stepping backward) was brand new to me, and this site has made me many times more effective that I would have been otherwise. Our team is very grateful.

A lot of this for him might be the strenght issue. Be patient... and work on his form - BEEF - That to will come to pass and in the long run, he will be a better player for it as he gets older... ( shooting fundamentaly sound ) IF he wants to play at the next level.

By the way, congratulations on the W. Its always nice to get one here and there.... paybacks huh!!


I would spend more time on the fundamentals and motion and not so much on sets... sets teaches just that... how to run a set. Nothing wrong with having 1, maybe 2 for a special situation. That too will pay off for them as they get older. Keep up the good work guys.... have fun.

I need some advice now, I feel like I'm riding a wild horse.

We've won our last 3 games by a total of 55 points. The vast majority of points is being scored by my advanced player. The team mantra in practice is "no shot, no shoot, no pass, no pass", and its really limited the turnovers. I've had to be real hard to get them to make game passes in practice, but its paying off.

The Headmaster of the school told me yesterday how important our success has been to the school spirit. We're not known for our athletic output.

Here's where it gets hard. As you know I have 7 players. If I had kids beating down the door this would be an easy question. I've had issues in practice where there is back talk, and apathetic movement, and distracting behavior. I had a team meeting, gave everyone a verbal warning, and then introduced an escalating discipline plan that involves loss of game time and eventual expulsion from the team.

It worked for one day. The biggest problem is my star player. The drills are "beneath him", and he won't perform. He's so lazy during these drills that he's actually showing kids the wrong way to do things. The attitude is contagious, and before I know it, I've got 5 kids acting like monkeys, and two kids trying to learn the best they can.

I want the team to be successful, and I have no player reserve to draw from. I've been thinking about sitting him (and the other problems) out of practices when they don't put out, and even in games.

I know the right thing to do is put them on the escalating tiers of discipline, but we risk dissolving the team, and taking out our most important game weapon. I am torn between knowing that ultimately this is the right thing to do and the feeling that that it would be betraying the kids that really do put out in practice, and who's only basketball experience may be this one.

Do I ride it out and do my best to not kill them, take the wins and muddle through the practices with half the team sitting out? Or do I stick to the coaching guns and risk having no team at the end of the process and before the end of the season?

his is a tough call, welcome to the world of coaching! I know this is easy for me to say this since I am not the one there..... but IF it were me, I would NOT allow 1 or 2 kids to destroy the team.... especially 6/7th graders.

I will give you a couple of examples.

I was a varsity coach so there is a lot of pressure to succeed, but NOT to the point where the tail is going to wag the dog. There is more to the game that winning... its up to you to teach them the difference between right and wrong. IF you don't, how would you like to be their next coach?

One year I had a great shooter, but he was a jerk at the time. He comes off the floor mumbling under his breath about our offense. I told my assistant to take him downstairs to the locker room. At half time I told him to take off his uniform, he is done for the day. After the game I gave him a few choice words about his behavior and what the team has tried to do for him... without ONE negative comment.

Later in the year, he and one other kid cuss out a ref after the game. The ref wanted to report him. I asked him IF he would allow me to handle it. He said yes, when we got back to school, I threw them both off the team for the rest of the year. From that point on, he was a changed kid.... he came back the next year and played well without ONE problem

Example 2 We were playing for the conference championship... were having a morning walk through / workout.... last thing I said was... DO NOT BE LATE TOMORROW. Well, 3 starters come WALKING IN no less, NOT ready to practice ( not dressed ) 40 minutes late..... walking across the floor.... there had to be smoke coming from my head. I told my assistant to get them out of the gym before I do something I would be sorry for. Then I told our manager to take their uniforms out of the bag, they are NOT dressing for the game tonight. The biggest game of the year for us.

My assistant asked me why no uniforms... I said that this way I wouldn't be tempted to play them if we were close. The subs played well once they got their nerves under control and we lost a close game. One of their kids came by our bench and gave me this look, like what's with them? I just shrugged my shoulders.

After the game, their AD and several parents came over to me and said, we have a lot of respect for you. We know what you did and we know that had to be hard to do.

I had a couple of sayings that I used with reporters.... so, whatever you do, "Don't let the tail wag the dog!" And " IF they want it their way, let them go to Burger King. "

You could start by throwing them all out of practice for one day.... and if that doesn't work..... bench your best player for the enxt game, the one causing the problems. JMO

I'm not one to sugar-coat things. If I'm getting unacceptable behavior from a player, they will know about it. And they'll hear from me in a louder tone than they are probably wanting to hear.

If you've put it out there as team policy that these behaviors can result in lost playing time and his behavior has not improved with the "lesser" punishment, I would bench him for at least one game. If it's his actions that are leading to the other players following suit and misbehaving during practice, then I'd make him the example. Let the other kids play. If they have a poor outing, I'd straight up let them know that if they want to continue to be sheep and follow the bad examples set by our "star" player, then they will not improve as players and they will continue to have poor showings on the court. Or they can be their own person, put in the work and improve themselves.

If the team has a poor showing without the "star" player, I'd tell him he's got a decision to make. He is a leader on the team obviously. He can continue to act the way he's acted and lead the team down this path of poor showings and his rear end on the bench or he can step up as a true leader, show the proper behavior and lead the team down a path of success. His choice. If the team plays well without him, then you tell him he can continue to act like a baby in practice because the rest of the kids are ready to play without him. Or he can remove his head from his hindquarters and contribute to the team's success.

There are probably tons of ways to handle this. But I'd probably go about it this way.....that's just me. I don't mind much hearing from the overbearing parents who think you're doing an awful job or have outlandish complaints. They are adults and I'm not going to try to change them. But when kids are acting this disrespectful and I've been charged with coaching them, then I'm going to do whatever I can to get their actions straight before it's too late.

Ha! Nice.

This season has provided some interesting coaching experience for you. As coaches, that's usually how it goes. You run across a few situations that leave a bad taste in your mouth and it has a tendency to influence your coaching philosophy the next time around. I've found that by establishing a simple coaching philosophy (e.g. you can expect A, B, C, from me, I expect E, F, G from you, and I will not tolerate X, Y, Z) and clearly communicating that philosophy to the players and parents before the season starts has saved me countless headaches down the road. Something to remember next time around on this merry go round.

Running with 7 players and not really having a history with them, it makes sense something like this could happen. 20/20 hindsight at this point, but I'd plant a mental flag about this situation and make sure the higher powers at your school help get you more players before the next season rolls around. You can run camps, skill sessions, etc. Just some food for thought if you plan on sticking with these folks.

Easy for us to tell you what the we'd do, but like Coach Sar mentioned we're not in the middle of this "fine mess" dealing with the repercussions of decisions. Before making any decisions, I'd get with the next person up the chain of command if you have one available. It's a lot easier to make a tough decision like sitting a kid if you have the support of someone higher up. Especially since this is your first year coaching.

I'm a big life lesson coach. My kids probably got sick of all my metaphors about how basketball relates to situations in life. It's true though, but that's for another thread. I'm more in the camp of "do the right thing" and use this as an opportunity to teach a life lesson to these kids. Quite frankly, the kid with the attitude needs to sit out. Kids don't like that. If he quits, he quits. Again though, I'd try to get some support from a higher up.