First of all, love this site. I must visit it a few times a day.

I am helping coach a 4th grade girls’ basketball team. I have played bball but have never coached kids this age. One of the problems we are having is that as the point guard is crossing half court, she is getting double teamed and trapped. She cannot back up dribble since it would then be a back court violation. Other players are open but she cannot make the pass to them (she is small but a good ball handler). Is there a way to handle this? Some of the solutions for older kids don’t work with kids this age due to size and strength limitations. One guy told me to tell her to not stop her dribble. Another one said to have a designated player, either the other guard or a player who can catch a pass, help her out. Another told me to have her pivot and dribble hand off with the helper.

Second issue, we have a few really good defensive players in our backcourt. They get a lot of steals but they are not good dribblers so they cannot effectively dribble down court for a lay up without turning it back over. At this age, is it better to be conservative and have the person who stole the ball get it to the point guard and then set up in our half court offense? Or try and push it up court?

Thanks.

Two second soap box rant: I'm against allowing traps and double-teams at this level, which I'm assuming is 4th grade recreational. Kids are still learning the fundamentals at that point. I understand that pressure has to be introduced at some point, but not before the kids have been allowed to develop the proper fundamentals. In this scenario there's hardly a chance to set up any kind of offense and work on some basic passing and movement.

Having said that, I realize you're dealing with the reality of your present league and need suggestions. Couple of ideas:

Assuming the defense can't cross half court and have to wait for the offensive player to cross half court. Have two girls hustle down court and set up on opposite sides of the court down in the corners. I'd have a third girl set up at the top of the key. This will help spread out the defense. Have two girls bring up the ball, one dribbling and another with her in the back court. Have her far enough away to stretch her defender over a bit. Tell the dribbler they need to stay away from the trap zones on the sides of the court and dribble more towards the middle.

1) If it looks like they're going to trap the girl dribbling, you could call out a signal that tells her to stop before half court and pass to her teammate who's still in the back court with her. She can get it across. If the girl dribbling is savvy enough, she can look up and make that decision to pass before crossing.

2) Work with the girl at the top of the key on setting picks. You can use that position to come up and set an on ball pick for the dribbler.

3) You could also have a few scenarios where the girls down low sprint up to the FT extended once the dribbler crosses half court.

You'll have to set up these scenarios in practice and go over them. The more the girls practice getting ready for traps, the less they'll panic in games when it happens.

In general when running an offense against defenses that like to double-teams, it helps if your girls spread out a bit more than normal, which should force the defense to spread out also. I know that's a Catch 22 if the girls aren't strong enough to make longer passes, but you can teach them to meet the pass.

Emphasize good passes. Work on the basics in practice. What does a strong pass look like? How do you get open? Meeting the pass.

The girls who are good at steals, but not so great at dribbling. See my next comment.

Enter coach's philosophy: At 4th grade, I wouldn't be "assigning positions" as they all should get chances to bring the ball up, play low, and learn how to set picks. So the above scenarios include allowing all the girls a shot at each position during the games. It will be extremely tempting to get the ball to the best ball handlers constantly. This doesn't allow other players to get better. I understand this puts coaches in a tough spot when leagues allow trapping and double-teaming with developing players.

Keep things in perspective, this is 4th grade rec ball. Remember the most important thing, which is, get that cool team chant going before and after games. Oh? And make sure they're wearing crazy socks for game day.

Good advice here. I'll give my two cents and perspective, as I am also coaching 4th grade girls...

- The number one problem is your players are lacking ball handling skills. This is common so don't feel bad. But it is important to address this. So that is something you need to work on in every practice and every game. It will take time. More on this below.

- I am in agreement with Rob. Everyone should play all positions. If your athletic players steal the ball and its a good situation to run for a lay up or advantage in transition (ex: 2v1)... then let them dribble. Otherwise how else will they improve their ball handling? Mistakes are ok and that's how you improve / learn.

- Run a very simple transition offense and work on that right away. This will help spread things out as Rob suggests and help with breaking that silly trap. Not to mention you'll score more points just from running good transition. For example, 1 brings it up, 2 sprints to right corner, 3 passes it in and trails to left wing, 4 sprints to left corner, and 5 sprints to block. This gives you good spacing to start. Practice this so they have it down. You can enter the ball with this:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/offense/how-to-initiate-your-offence.html

If you are trapped and the corner is too far for the PG to pass (not strong enough), make sure 2 comes up to the wing area for a good passing angle and make sure you have someone (either 4 or 3) at a good angle on the other wing.

Once your PG gets really good, 2 and 3 can stay in the corner. Your PG will just beat the double team and punish them for trapping in a situationally bad spot to trap in most cases (the middle of the court).

- Your PG should advance the ball in the middle of the court.... even under pressure. This is something all good PGs do and should be practiced with 1on1 drills, etc. So if this is the case, the trap should occur in the middle and the PG should know it's coming. Should be an easy pass to a player on the right or left.

- Whoever said they should keep their dribble alive, I definitely agree. I would never teach a kid at any age to intentionally pick up the ball when you get trapped. It will happen. But you want to avoid traps and good players keep their dribble alive to beat the trap and/or avoid it.

- I have been working with my 4th grade girls team since 2nd grade. We spent significant time on ball handling as 2nd and 3rd graders. And we continue as 4th graders. There was no recruiting, no tryouts where I only picked the best players, and no cuts. All players were invited because they were my daughters friends or acquaintances that asked to join.

I am confident that about 4 of the 10 girls on our team can beat that double team via dribble at least 80% of the time. At least. And I feel all the other 6 players on our team could beat that double team via the dribble about 50% of the time. In fact, last night we just ran a 1v2 full court dribbling drill in a tight space (only using half the width of the court (coaches played D too), and the dribblers were succeeding with an advancement about 25% of the time (all the way down the court without picking up dribble or turning it over). It was the first time we ran this drill against 2 defenders in a tight space. Next time I'm sure will be better.

I only say this to give you an idea of what's possible and ideally what should happen in my opinion.

So I recommend spending a ton of time on ball handling (this is the right thing regardless of the traps or their skill level). Lots of left hand dribbling, chaser drills, dribble tag, change of direction drills, retreat dribbles, etc. And play tons of full court 1on1 and 3on3. Everybody gets to learn PG and learn how to bring it up under pressure. Example of 1on1 I like:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/1on1-grid-drill.html

Also do a lot of drills where they have to dribble without looking at the ball.

Jeff & Rob...

You both have some great ides as usuall The botton line is to teach your players fundamentals and how to play the game. Who caes if you go35-0 and the kids arem't learnng the game / aeen't having any fun amd cant play att the next level. JMO

Remember, the point gurard of tosay might be the center of tomoroww or icea vesa..... Th e ach everyone all the skills needed to play the game.

Thanks guys. This is great advice.

We play in a CYO league. The league actually allows a full court press starting at the mid way point of the season. If it were up to me, this would not be allowed since I think it stunts development.

We started last year with most of this group. We run a motion offense with a lot of pass and cuts.

We try and teach them the game, have fun and stay positive.

Great advice all around.

Also make sure you try some other players out at the "point guard" position. You never know when a player is going to surprise you and be up to the task when given the chance. Maybe one of your other players that is stronger than the current player will strive in that role because they are able to make the passes out of and away from the trap. Maybe a stronger player brings the ball up the floor, beats the trap by getting the ball to your PG and now you're off and running.

You never know if all of the struggles that your current PG is having are messing with her confidence too much and she'll get discouraged from wanting to play. Encourage her, let others try the role and keep playing!

Good luck coach!

Keep in mind all this looks good on paper. It's easy for us to tell you to keep it fun and at the same time deal with the reality of traps and presses. Navigating through getting ready for the "real deal" in games without making practices a drudgery can be very challenging at that age. I like Jeff's concepts of 1 v 1 and 3 v 3, as it allows for everyone to get more ball touches and ultimately more experience.

I used time limits on drills that were dragging or more challenging. "Give me three more good passes and we're out of this drill" or "I need one more minute of hard work" . It helped the kids know there was time limit and the drill wasn't going to drag on forever. Then we'd do a fun drill for a few minutes, something that taught a skill, but the kids enjoyed. Sprinkling in the "fun stuff" helps.