I have experience coaching 8th and 9th grade boys. With them I ask, at random, "who's the man?" Their answer is suppossed to be "I am!" enthusiastically. At first they are timid and quiet, but they catch on quick after I repeat myself as needed. It really seems to boost their confidence. In short it works for me. But I also am coaching my daughters team, which incudes 1st and 2nd grade girls. My question is how to use this approach with them? It seems silly to say who's the woman, or who's the girl! Any ideas?

You are talking about 1st and 2nd graders - they are all about having fun.... you have to make this fun for them so they WANT to come to the next practice and learn. It has to be tough teaching them fundamentals at that age.... so work on the skills that are really necessary ... passing & catching, dribbling. Run a very simple offense, 5 out pass and cut, play m2m defense and then let them have fun.

I coached varsity players and the last thing we did at every practice was to run a situation... a mini game..... its for them, they like to compete a little bit, even at that age and they will learn about the game. My players looked forward to the "situations" ........... and its a great teaching tool... in your case, I would think it would be more about having fun.

I'm not sure that the approach that you used with the boys would work here... I never coached kids of that age. Maybe someone else will have a different idea here. There is one thing about girls... in order for them to play/practice well, they need to be happy. As for boys, in order for them to be happy, they need to play well.

Good luck and God Bless you for working with that age group.

Not sure if I have any ideas to replace the "whos the man?" question.

Things I have done with our 2nd and 3rd grade girls team include:

- Blow the whistle... who's going to be first? Don't be the last one here. They have fun with this and always try to be first and anticipate when I'll blow the whistle.

- Give out 10 high fives before you leave.

- Chant our team name on 3.... "Ok... Tigers on 3. 1, 2, 3... TIGERS!" Now they all want to lead the chant. I think this is the part of the practice the most look forward to. I let a new player lead it each time. The scream as loud as they can. Looks a little crazy but they think it's fun.

- One idea (not sure if it's a good idea) that plays on your "who's the man?" thing is to ask... "What are we?". Then you could have them say 3 characteristics that you think are important. The things I emphasize are hard working, selfless, and resilient. Young kids don't know that means but they can be taught and of course you can use different words. "What are we? .... Hard working! Selfless! Resilient!!!"

- Then of course we have tons of fun drills and gimmicks we use during practice.

1st/2nd graders - thinking the motivation will come from having FUN and tons of encouragement. When the kids were smaller we tried to include the parents in our team chants/cheers. Helped to get the volume up. Here's a short clip from a few years back during one of our flag football seasons. When we had all the parents things really got cranked up.

https://vimeo.com/81547266

Thanks for the ideas everyone. Tonight at practice one of the things I did to work on boxing out was to use mini tootsie rolls instead of a basketball. They were afraid to touch each other when we did it before with just a ball. However tonight they were so aggressive and did box out! It was great. I have coached the same 12 girls in 2 leagues last year and now in 1 this year. We are getting ready for league #2 now. Seeing them improve makes it all worth it! My next question is how the 5 out pass and cut offense would work against a basic 2-1-2 zone. Its all the other teams use in all of the leagues we have played in. Not sure it would work against a zone.


Alan

The 5 out can work one of two ways against the zone..
- spread it out passing around the perimeter until you can attack or shoot. Having everyone outside can make it easier to pass around the outside.
- playters can cut and then loop back to find gaps and open spots in the zone

I usually just go to a gap attack when playing against a zone. I'm not sure I've ever played against a 2-1-2 zone and if we did I don't think I could tell what it was. You could use 3 perimeter players working together (top of key and two wings), a player working the middle area, and a runner on the baseline.

If you are going to use it against a zone, I would look at two things. First, focus on getting the ball reversed quickly. So if the ball is passed to the wing, the defense shifts, pass right back to the top (and cut), and quickly pass to the opposite wing and look for the first cutter. She should be open with a great angle to get her the ball and a layup.

Second, I would also teach the players in the corners to cut into the open areas behind the zone, towards the hoop. Don't wait for the ball and pass to cut. Cut without the ball. The key is as soon as their defender turns her head, automatic cut. You should get a few easy layups.