I am coaching 3/4 grade boys. We get 60 minutes of practice, twice a week. So 2 hours per week. Tonight is practice #5 and then one more practice before the first game this weekend.

I am struggling with the issue of how much time should we spend on individual fundamentals, vs working on our motion offense as a team to make sure the kids get the idea of it. We spent about 20 minutes last week on an actual 5 man offense. Typically we spend 5 minutes on passing, 5 min dribbling, then get into layup drills: basic dribble drive from both sides, then we add in a cone or coach and the kids must use a crossover dribble and get into the paint to score. We might end with either one on one drills, so they get the feel of a defender or a competitive shooting/layup drill.

Should we spend any more time on team offense right now? We haven't even really scrimmaged. I've been more focused on developing individual skills at this point. We had also worked on give and go work all 4 practices. So they have the idea of pass and cut, they just need to be accustomed to the spacing.

These are young kids and it sounds like you are doing a good job of teaching fundamentals... there is so much for them to learn. Yes, I would spend some time on spacing and continue working on fundamentals. Don't worry too much about the Ws... its youth ball - they are supposed to have FUN and learn a little bit about the game.

Keep your drills short and keep them moving..... I hope you are teaching m2m defense also.

Good luck and keep up the good work.

Definitely man to man. Although we haven't done much defensive work yet, we have had a few one on one sessions, so they know what one on one defense is suppose to feel like. I open every practice with dynamic warmups to get the blood flowing and get them into basketball mindsets. We jog to halfcourt, job back. Then job to halfcourt, backpedal back. I added what I call "layup skips" last week to get their muscles used to jumping off one leg and bringing the same knee, same elbow up. And lastly, we slide, sideline to sideline and back. Takes just a couple minutes and gets their bodies moving in a basketball sense.

Tonight our first out of bounds play goes in.

Depending on how many coaches and players you have, you could do some 3 on 3 work. You can do 3 on 3 pass and cut, 3 on 3 no dribble motion, etc. Have one coach take a group and you take the other so everyone is busy. I think no dribble is good for teaching them to move, pass, get open, and get spacing. Just an idea. Bottom line you are doing lots of skills which is the most important thing.

Before the game you can do some 5 on 0 for your warm up. You could also do that in practice for a warm up passing drill. Have one coach on one end and other catch take the others.

Glad to see that you are teaching them how to play m2m D..... they will learn something about the game this way... its more difficult, especially at that age... but its the only way to go with young kids.

Like Coach Sar points out....these are young kids. They are 3rd and 4th grade boys, just learning the game of basketball. You should devote 75% of your practice reinforcing fundamentals of proper shooting form, passing, dribbling, rebounding and defense.
Keep your plays simple, for now, at this age:
1 play vs M2M
1 play vs zone
1 OOB play

For this age and attention span, keep your drills short and fun. No drill should last more than 5-7 minutes, then move onto the the next drill. Make up a practice plan before every practice so you can stay on task during the practice.

I remind all youth basketball coaches on teaching a skill:
-Talk about the skill
-Demonstrate the skill
-Have players perfom the skill
-Feedback, (observe and correct)
-Repetition of the skill

As your kids mature and develop, you can use 50% to work on fundamentals and the rest on plays and fullcourt scrimmages.

I really miss coaching those ages!!

Have fun!! Be enthusiastic at EVERY practice!!

Good Luck

Coach A

Already been said, but keep the drills moving and like Coach A said, have a practice plan. I always have a plan written out with extra drills or concepts. It helps when a drill is stalling, I move on to the next with plenty to choose from.

I'm big on hands behind the back at least for a few drills on defense and no dribbling on offense for a few drills. The no hands on defense could be a 1 v 1 drill (or even a scrimmage) teaching the D player to use his feet and body. The no dribble scrimmage (or 3 v 3) is a great way to sharpen the kid's passing and getting open skills.

It's already been mentioned in another thread, but using a 5 out motion offense would simplify how much time you would need to spend on running the offense. I'd lean more towards continuing to build fundamental skills that are important in any offense.

I for one was never big with having the hands behind the back.... its not a natural guarding position... we tried both hands on a towel for awhile... but I finally settled on telling them NO STEALS.... that seemed to work for us.

We got beat this weekend in our first game by a team that featured one kid that also plays on the travel team, and another kid that was a pretty decent player. I believe they were the two primary ballhandlers and scorers throughout the game. They typically setup some sort of pick and roll play at the top of the key for these two boys. I think the pick and roll has it's place in basketball, just not at the 3rd and 4th grade recreation level. I've felt this way for a while, so it's not just the sore loser in me saying this! LOL. I've watched 1st and 2nd grade teams run this play in leagues where they don't even keep score. Sure, the kids get excited because it usually leads to easy scores, but I think there are better ways to teach the young ones to score a basket. Give and Go, a good basket cut, etc.

We weren't very good on defense and we played out of control on offense many times, as I think the big stage of an actual game got a few kids playing faster than the should have been. If that makes sense. But we had 4 different boys score and I believe everybody got to touch the ball and play a role. I'm not too concerned with wins and losses right now because I think every boy on the team has been improving with each practice and eventually we'll get used to playing the games as a team.

That coach is developing two players.... you are developing a team..... KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. Trust me, at the end of the season your players will be better off for your philosophy.