I have two teams, 6th and 7th grade. Only two players from each group can make it consistently. I'm a pass first, mid range - dribble drive match- up minded coach and wonder how soon is too soon ( besides the obvious ) to teach and encourage the 3pt shot.

Ways to do so would be helpful.

To be an effective 3 point shooter, they should be able to hit that shot with about 35% accuracy... anything less than that, they should be inside the arc. A higher percentage would be better of course.

But, each kid is different, I saw this young boy step up at half time of a HS game and nail a 3 from the top of the key, nothing but net with perfect form. I thought he was maybe a 5th grader, he was in 7th but he had great form... no throwing the ball up at the hoop.

The 3 ball has changed the game... not so sure for the better, but it has changed the game. It allows the smaller players to shoot some shots without the ball being slapped back at them... but, what I see a lot of is kids THROWING / HEAVING the ball up and not being very successful. Every kid wants to dunk or hit the 3. A lot of coaches & players forget about the mid range game which is important too... forces the defense to cover the entire court. If those 4 kids can shoot the ball with good FORM and are successful, I would allow that shot - only you know your kids.... think about what is best for them and their development - so they can play high school ball.

When I first started coaching at the high school level, our school was big man oriented... when I became the Varsity coach, it was maybe 3 years and the bigs went south.... so maybe we had 1 big if you want to call 6'3 big. I started holding shooting camps to develop shooters... and we got a lot of good shooters from that..... but there were still kids that couldn't hit the 3, so we encuoraged them to shot fake, dribble inside the arc and use a pull up jumper, which worked for them.

What are your thoughts now?