I'm not your typical coach, I have coached high school, college, international and profesional in several countries. Now, Im retired in mainland China and through boredom, decided to take on a youth primary school team. Well, it's harder than I thought and I have developed a renewed appreciation for all youth coaches. . I find myself trying to implement drills and plays that I would with high school or college teams and they simply dont work. I need help with this. I am big on fundamentals and M2M defense, however, I require drills and plays that are scaled down to kids 9 and 10 years old. the oter problem I have is the communication problem. I speak a limited amount of chinese and find myself using my posy board to describe what I want to 15 blank faces. Any help wouild be appreciated. Coach Mac.

Wow! Fishing is a lot calmer, just a thought. First thing I would do is try to get someone to help coach/interpret, preferably a parent or older sibling who is bilingual.

Regarding drills for 9/10 y/o's, I kept most of mine more game-like in the sense of teaching fundamentals, but throwing in something that added some fun to the drill. I made the drills competitive, losers had consequences, but again, added the fun in so they had to do five pushups barking like dogs or something like that.

I usually focused on one or two, maybe three concepts each practice. It seems that younger kids even up through 8th grade can only handle a few concepts at once. Same with the offense. Probably going to be a bit frustrating since you're used to throwing out a concept having the players get it for the most part.

A few drills that add some fun to the practice:

Two lines behind the basket on either side of lanes. One line is D, other line is O. Coach is in-between lines and tosses ball out in middle of lane. D has to touch the opposite low block before covering O. O has to take a shot, no dribbles. D gets there quick, closes out, yells shot in Chinese, and blocks out. Switch lines.

Break them up into groups of three. They get in circles and compete against each other to see how many passes they can make in X amount of seconds. Can't pass to the person next to you. You determine bounce or chest.

Hustle drill. X amount of players on baseline, put balls spread out at half court, but take out one ball less than there are players. On coach's whistle players hustle to get a ball, obviously one player won't end up with one and they're out. Keep taking a ball out each time so there's one less ball than players. Fun drill.

3 man weave half court (might not be able to do 3 man yet, dunno). They start under basket and do a three man weave to half court. Closest player to half court circle puts ball down and he's on defense. The other two play 2 on 1 coming back.

3 up. Two teams shooting from a spot you feel comfortable they can make it but it challenges them. First team to get 3 in a row wins. If team A shoot and makes it, they are 1 up. If teams B makes one right after that, you're back to zero. Teams can take away points from other team by making baskets. You can make this 4 up also. Teams shoot at same time and shooter gets own rebound passes to next in line.

With 15 kids, I'd play 3 on 3 a lot and keep rotating teams in. One game is 5 good passes. Offense can't dribble but has to make 5 good passes to stay on court. If D gets ball they are on offense and next team comes in from sideline on D. The no dribble thing I used a lot at younger ages to get them passing better and moving to the ball to receive the pass.

Shell drills giving points for defense only. Same concept as above, but to get points you have to be on defense and get a stop or rebound. O gets on D by scoring or O rebound. Can switch teams in/out on this also.

Main thing i found with younger kids is keep the drills fun but competitive. Keep things moving so they don't get bored. With 15, that will be a challenge unless you can get a helper who can be running things at other end for you with a group.

On offense, I'd run a 5 out motion with cut and fill. Then add on from there.

Learn the how to say, "No! The other way! Go the other way!" in Chinese. It will come in handy.

Coach Rob: Thank you for taking the time and interest to answer my problem. Your advice is excellent and will be implemented by me. MOst of the drills you described I know but other than a three man weave, Ive not used them but will in this case. I read with a smile your comment on learning to say go the other way in Chinese and until I began this venture, didnt know what that meant, but now I do. Take care coach and thanks for some great advice..Coach Mac

Mac -

Tough gig!! First thing you need to do is to solve the communication problem.... like Rob said, get someone who speaks fluent Chinese and have him help you... you might have to teach him the game... but that might be better than someone who just thinks he knows the game and you don't have a clue as to what he is saying to the kids.

You have coached the game a long time, you know a lot of drills etc.... just dumb them down a little bit for that age group.... you might be surprised how easily they will pick it up. I ran summer camps for young kids and used most of the drills that I used for the high school team..... just started at the very basics.

Passing - catching - some shooting.... dribbling and jump stops etc.KISS method with them. Don't sell yourself short, I know you well enough to know that you can teach this game to these kids. Just don't expect anyone to be dunking the ball LOL

Start with passing and catching the ball.... standing still and then add some movement.... IF they cant do these 2 things, they wont be able to play.

As for an offense, I agree with Rob, 5 out pass and cut... fill the open spots. I know you will teach m2m... just add things a little at a time. I hope you are feeling better.

Coach Mac.

For me we use a lot of games you do where kids are just dribbling and passing. Dribble tag, pirate dribbling, sharks and minnows, cone tip over, cone touches in 1 min, no dribble 4on4 advancement, etc.

I'll email you my practice plans for 3rd graders. A lot of it probably won't make sense because I know what the drill is in my head. But it might give you ideas for your practices. And if there is a specific drill you're interested in, let me know and I can try to find it for you. I think I have your email somewhere. If you don't get my email in 5 minutes, let me know.

We also have our fun drills ebook and the Bigelow DVDs have lots of good drills and concepts that work with these young kids.

Gentlemen and Ken: Your advice is spot on, I have implemented some things already after Coach rob contacted me. Jeff, many many thianks for the email very very helpful. Ken, as alsways you are there for any coach or kid, thank you my friends...Coach Mac P.S.....the biggest traint I had to learn was PATIENCE...

Gentlemen and Ken ???? I'm trying to figure that one out LOL

I coached for a long time Mac.... 43+ years and have helped coaches, parents and kids on line... or at least I tried to help them...... This is a great game, it treated me well and as long as I am coherent, I will try to help people with their questions etc. Look at you, you have been in the game a long time and you aren't stepping down any time soon.

What is amazing is that some of the younger coaches like Jeff and Joe JUST TO NAME A FEW... there are many more, that have amassed so much knowlege and know so much about the game.

I have met several coaches that I talked to online, hopefully some day we will be able to meet too.

God willing my friend....God willing....Coach Mac ps. Perhaps Jeff or Joe could set up a coaches forum that would bring us all together sometine, I would love to host one here in China...

Wouldn't that be a treat... who the heck is going to speak Chinese for you??? LOL

My daughter speaks both fluent Chinese and English......as well, she is very familiar with all basketball terms. I too can muddle through wth Poo tung hua. Coach Mac aka..Wang zhai...