Need some advice on how to get through to my center on being more aggressive. I have a 4th grade girls team that I just moved up to the A league here in Plano, Texas as we won the B league in the fall, 8-0, by an average of 20-5 each game. So the team is pretty good, but against the A teams the speed of the game is faster and more aggressive. She is somewhat passive, but loves the game. I am continually talking with her about rebounding, but rebounding drills are fine, but at the end of the day it is about passion to go get the ball and not let the other girl have it. So I am running out of ideas to change her behavior. You have any ideas?

Thx,
Glenn

Aggressiveness is a matter of confidence. The more confident, the less fearful of mistakes. The less fearful of mistakes, the less fear of failure. The less fear of failure, the less fear of the coach. The less fear of the coach, the more aggressive due to no fear of failure.

Look at what you are asking. You are talking about a 4th grade girl. She must be what, 10 years old? You are talking about changing behavior and passion. I think you need to be more concerned about robbing her passion. Are you aware that 86% of kids that take part in youth sports don't participate in those sports after they are 13 years old. The overwhelming reason for that is coaches and parents emphasizing the wrong things as the kids grow into the game.

Don't worry about changing the behavior and instilling passion of a 10 year old. Let her enjoy herself and she will take care of it by herself.

With coaching young girls, teaching aggressiveness takes time. It's just not in their genetic makeup to be aggressive so it is very difficult to teach girls, especially in the 4th grade, to be physical when it comes to rebounding. Boys take to aggessiveness so much quicker.
Just simple drills like putting the entire team in the paint and having the coaches take random short and long shots around the perimeter and letting them box-out, fight and run for the ball can be fun and shows that everyone should aggresively go after the ball.
A fun drill for grades 4 to 6 is:

Place ball inside center of circle at mid-court. Have team form a circle around the ball, all the players are outside the center court circle a step or two. One girl is chosen to go inside the circle and "guard the ball". The other players are assigned a number(1-9). They must remember their number. Coach calls out a number, that player rushes in to touch the ball. The player guarding the ball must meet the girl, turn, feel her and box her out for 3 seconds, preventing her from touching the ball. Coach counts out 3 seconds during this time. After 3 seconds the coach yells out another number...repeat same. Keep it flowing with random numbers. Change out the girl in middle and replace with another girl, that girls number now belongs to to the girl who was in the middle who is now on the circle.

All in all...with young girls.....aggressiveness takes a long time to develop