Practice underway

Well last night was our first practice. I'm coaching 3rd and 4th graders (all 8-9 year olds). We have a squad of 9 boys and I have to say I am really excited about this season. Pretty nice first practice. We worked on a lot of dribbling, partner passing, proper defensive stance and shuffle, then played some one on one. It was good to see that the Triple Threat principle seems to be sticking into some of their heads already.

I think I have some adjusting to do since I coached 1st and 2nd graders in basketball and baseball last season and had a few 6-7 yr olds on my football team, so I'm not accustomed to all of the kids having decent body control and coordination, as well as better attention spans.

They all have great attitudes, seemed to love being there, followed the simple team rules of holding the ball while coaches talk and always running while on the floor.

Another plus, my assistant coach, (really he's like a co-head coach with his experience and knowledge) is also a take charge, vocal guy and neither of us mind letting the other run the show for a drill or two. We coordinated a practice plan a day in advance, so we were both on the same page.

Here's hoping this group can keep it up!

Good luck and keep up the good work, IF you have any questions fire away.

Practice wise, we have really fallen behind. With Thanksgiving break and a few practices cancelled due to school functions and a funeral for a long time youth coach, we have had 4 one hour practice, with 2 more to go before our first game Saturday morning.

We have focused mainly on ballhandling, layups, and a little bit of rebounding. We have done one give and go drill to emphasize the pass and cut aspect of things but we've got a lot more work to do before I feel that we are game ready. We have an informal scrimmage planned for the end of tonight's practice. Probably about 20 minutes or so. It will be their first taste of 5 on 5 hoops this season. After tonight we'll have a good idea of where we stand and we'll use Thursday's practice to shore up the give and go stuff, more than likely.

Tonight I think we'll spend a little bit of time working on offensive spacing before the scrimmage and we'll see how it goes.

I'm not about to warp speed the process to try to get them ready for a game because I think it will jsut set us back, and we'll be better off in the long run if we stick to a normal timeline of teaching and progression.

I agree, these are young kids and IF you overload them... it will just set you back. As coaches and I don't care what level you coach at, we NEVER feel like we are ready - its the nature of the beast. Remember, this is a journey and not a destination. Be very patient with them and yourself.

IF you were to take out the Ws and Ls equasion I think you would be more at ease. So relax, teach them something about the game and let them have some fun. They will get better ...little steps yes, but they will get better.

4 hours is a bit much for kids this age... heck, for any age... they lose their concentration..... a good friend of mine used to say, the mind can absorb only what the butt can endure.

It seems like you have a good plan... but IF you are going to run a pass and cut offense, spend some time on passing and catching..... good luck

I think i typed that wrong or something. We have had 4 practices, one hour each. Two more practices to go, so basically 2 hours before we play a game.

Sorry! LOL

I was going to say, I SURE DON'T WANT TO PLAY FOR YOU LOL

With one hour practices you need to be super organized.... no wasted time... here is a little tip ( wont cost you much,... A Ferrari Enzo would work :-)

We never gave water breaks.... we allowed them to get water when they wanted it... just raise your hand... and IF we are NOT teaching and your not in the drill at the time... you may go.

5 minute breaks 2 or 3 times a practice... do the math..... for you... even 5 minutes is important. Good luck, glad you corrected that.

I like that. And it's funny you should say that because I started doing that last Thursday. In coming up with a practice plan I realized that a planned 2-3 minute water break lasts about 5 minutes!

We had a scrimmage last night and it went as expected. We have 2-3 kids that can carry us until everybody else gets up to speed. We only spent about 5-10 minutes on the second tier of our pass and cut offense so things were shaky.

My assistant nominated my 3rd grade son to start at point for us. I'm always worried about him being a ball hog, but last night in the scrimmage he was almost too patient in waiting for a wing to cut open. He just stood at the top keeping his dribble waiting for an open pass. I almost had to yell at him to make something happen on his own.

He's more than capable of creating his own shot right now, so I'm trying to get him to walk that fine line of being the patient point guard when he plays there, but also initiating something on his own if nothing else is there. I guess it's not too bad of a problem to have.

The way some kids play TEAM DEFENSE at that age its no surprise that he could probably go to the hole anytime he wants to.... but that wont make your team better - so right now, patience is a good thing. Most kids would just do it themselves every time.

Keep teaching the TEAM concept and it will pay off in spades later on.

By the way, a RED one will do just fine. :-)

Well, we are 3 games into the season and we sit at 1-2 with a game against the front-running 3-0 powerhouse tomorrow morning.

Our first game was a back and forth affair. We held the lead for a good part of the game by 2-4 points at anytime, but couldn't close it out and lost by two.

Game two saw a lot of improvement, as we jumped out to a 10-0 lead and then held on for a 6 point victory. Lots of contributions from everybody, I think each kid has at least 1 rebound and chased down at least 1 loose ball.

Game three last week was a frustrating one. We opened up a 10 point lead in the first half with real tough defense, hustle and good, smart passing. Then started turning the ball over, missing open layups and stopped hustling back on defense. We lost this game by 4 points.

So we're 1-2. I wish we were 3-0. I've been working on getting the kids to finish everything strong. Every drill, every sprint, whatever we do, finish it. Go hard until its over.

The inexperienced, first year kids are coming along pretty well, getting more comfortable with the flow of a basketball game. We'll keep working hard and I'll keep teaching!

I know that every coach worth his salt wants to win... remember, these are young kids... their attention span is not exactly what we would like...8=9 years old? Just keep teaching fundamentals and the game... then let them have some fun..... sometimes you get some great lessons from a loss.

One thing we used to do after every game was to go out for a "pop" and write down the things we had problems with. I put those into the next few days practice plans... I wanted to correct them so we didn't continue making the same mistake. Not always easy...... going out after every game was one of the reasons I coached for so many years....... helped to unwind and relax.... and NOT take the game home.

As long as you keep seeing improvement every time you hit the floor you are doing things right. Ws come from a team being very fundamentally sound..... so keep teaching. Good luck and keep us informed.

Well, this past weekend we got taken out behind the woodshed, so to speak! LOL Suffered a 31-9 beatdown by the top team in the league.

Despite being outclassed for msot of the game, there were some good signs. One of my middle of the road boys has been coming along real well and played his best game to date. Had a few steals, nosed around for a couple rebounds and even spent a stretch defending their best player, who he was about a foot shorter than. But he held his own, played solid D and even boxed him out for a rebound.

Another little guy who is shy as can be had a steal at one point and dribbled the length of the floor only to have his layup bounce around and off the rim. But 3 weeks ago I don't think I could have envisioned him doing any of that.

Another of the shy ones registered a couple of blocked shots, as well!

Score got out of hand quick, so we stressed to the boys to play hard, make sure they are still chasing every rebound, etc. Try to run the offense a little. Wasn't much else we could do! LOL

Got spanked eh!

Thats tough, but, IF your kids understand your philosophy about teaching them how to play and having fun.... then its all good. FUN is so important at that age and IF you can get them ready to play at the next level..... then it will be worth it. There is nothing more gratifying than seeing someone you coached as a youngster get to the high school level and be a player.

It sounds like they are beginning to catch on... and doing some good things. So, keep working with them and complimenting them too while using their name... every kid wants to hear his name while at practice - it makes them feel good and encourages them to work hard and get better. Keep up the good work.

Well, ever since suffering the 22 point whooping, we have been a new team. The kids have really picked up their defense in the last 3 weeks and we've rattled off 3 wins in a row to put us at 4-3.

It's incredible the difference when you shuffle your feet, beat your man to the spot and get your hands up as opposed to just gambling for steals all the time! LOL. Kids have really seen the difference. Last night we opened the game with an 11-1 lead, only to see it slip to 13-9 because we had a stretch where we reverted back to our old ways of going for steals and it created a hectic pace that had us scrambling on defense. We recovered, settled down and finished them off in the end with our defense.

Two weeks ago at practice we were working heavy on 1 on 1 offense and defense and a couple of the better kids insisted on just trying to steal the dribble. So I decided they were going to go the rest of practice playing defense with their hands behind their back. When they realized that they could play effective defense without gambling I think a light turned on! And another rule of the drill was that if the offense scored they stayed on offense and a new defender came in. You want to play offense? Then you better play defense first!

I like the part about - You want to play offense? Then you better play defense first!

As for the hands behind the back... we tried that and its hard to maintain a good balance that way... we went to small towels/rags that they had to hold in front of them with the palms up. That worked for us.

That's a good idea about the towels. Fortunately, the kids that I had doing this were our more athletic kids and they didn't seem to have a problem with the balance. They are at that age where the legs are still a little rubbery!

Good luck, keep up the good work.