Hi, I'm not your typical coach, I am in eighth grade playing on the junior high team, going to co-coach a third grade team that travels to a nearby town and plays some good competition. These girls have either, never played or have very little playing experience. Are there any tips/tricks that I should know about before beginning the first practice?My mom will be the head coach...technically the co-coach. Are there any easy offensive/defensive plays that are simple enough for them to remember and actually run? Drills or practice ideas are also welcome. I am open to any help I can get. I'm very excited to be a coach of my little sister's team. Please feel free to contact me anytime you have a new idea that may be useful. I will let you know what the outcome is and other feedback. Thank you very much.

Sincerely, Nicki K.

Nicki -

There are no tricks to this.... from what you are saying about their skill levels my suggestion would be to spend a lot of time on fundamentals..... Not sure if you have heard of the KISS method? Keep it Simple Stupid!

They are very young and I would bet that their attention span will be nill. Think about your own experiences playing the game and at practice. Keep things fun at this age - teach them a lot of fundamentals and keep your game plan simple.
M2m defense and a simple 5 out pass and cut offense is my suggestion.

Look ath the left side of this page under HOME.... go to Player Development and Basletball Drills I don't know how much practice time you will have so make a well planned practice schedule tryiung to get in as much of the skills as you can in the alloted time.

Don;t worry too mcuh about the Ws and Ls .... think FUNDAMENTALS and FUN. Good luck.

Nicki -

I have a sample practice plan with some pretty cool drills for 3rd/4th grade level. If you shoot me your e-mail address, I'll send it to you.

Coach Rob

I would be interested in the sample practice plan for 3rd & 4th graders. How do I get your email?

Send me an e-mail at: ssginc4_at_qwestoffice.net (Obviously replace the _at_ with the @ symbol)

i am coaching a 3rd and 4th grade girls team as well and am very interested in learning some great ideas to teach proper fundamentals..... inbox my email northwestreservationsports@hotmail.com

i am interested in learning new drills techniques for coaching 3rd and 4th grade girls basketball teams... i understand that it is for fun and for fundamentals but i have a few kids who are very competitive and can really see them being great players... if any one has any info theyd like to share please inbox my email northwestreservationsports@hotmail.com

Nicki and NW -

Here is something regarding YOUTH BASKETBALL from the other side of the page.... under Coaching Basketball.

This should give you some good ideas ... if you have any specific questions, ask away, we will be more than glad to help you.

Nicki, have a lot of patience with them and yourself....this is a tough age group to coach. I coached 7/8th graders for 13 years before I moved to the HS level. Make sure it is fun for the players and yourself.

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/youthbasketball.html

I coached 1st and 1nd grade girls 2 years ago. I had a team of 6 girls and only 1 of them had ever played basketball before. It truly was quite a season. We got 90 minutes of practice each week and a 40 minute game each weekend.

Most of our time was spent on dribbling, passing and layups. I incorporated footwork (jumpstop, pivot, spin dribble) into these drills. We also spent a little bit of time teaching one on one defense. As the season progressed we started to work on playing defense off the ball (point your pistols, see ball, see your person, etc) We also started to work on form shooting towards the end. We played on 8ft hoops so it was easy to teach proper form.

We didn't have any plays. Games were played as 3 on 3. I ran some controlled scrimmages in practice where we emphasized moving to get open, and making good passes. Once the games started it was usually a free for all, but I made sure each girl got plenty of time to play point guard so she could handle the ball. It was usually whoever brought the ball up either got to the hoop and got a shot or they eventually made a crazy pass you'd expect from kids that young! But they all had fun and as the season went on and they started to grasp the game better they began to actually move the ball on offense and play a little bit of help defense.

Basically, my view on coaching teams this young is to remember it's a marathon, not a sprint. Things will look ugly at first and that's ok. Keep stressing the basic fundamentals and eventually you'll be able to progress to more complex things. Add in some competitive drills like dribble and pass relay races, team shooting/layup competitions, dribble tag, keep away, etc. This will keep them engaged and having fun and you're still working on fundamentals. The relays are even a way of conditioning them while they are having fun.