I wanted to share the results from our 3rd grade basketball season and some ideas that might help you and your team.
I hope in some way this gives you ideas and helps you with your youth teams and making a positive impact on them.
Our First 5 on 5 Tournament Experience
I’ll start with a story about our first tournament experience….
We decided to have our 3rd grade girl’s team participate in a few 5on5 tournaments to end the season. I was not planning to play in any 5on5 tournaments this year for several reasons…
1) I think small sided games like 3on3 are much better for them (more touches on the ball).
2) I’m not excited about 3rd graders shooting at 10 ft baskets and using women’s 28.5 inch basketballs.
3) 3rd graders have so much to learn and improve regarding basketball skills like individual defense, dribbling, passing, shooting, and footwork… let alone learning a team offense and the nuances of 5on5. So to me it just doesn’t make sense to play 5on5 yet.
However, I had trouble scheduling 3on3 games during the second half of our season. So we decided to join two 5on5 tournaments and one 3on3 tournament to wrap up the season.
I thought the tournaments would be fun and be good for team bonding. I think we would have been fine to skip the tournaments — but the kids do like playing games so we went for it…
It’s not a surprise that we struggled in our first 5on5 tournament. We won one game and lost two.
All of the other teams had already played in dozens of 5on5 games. We were confused, scared, and intimidated… especially at first.
One of our players even asked… “what is a foul?” And a couple others were intimidated when the ref called a foul on them and wanted to know their jersey number. Scary stuff!
But we eventually started to calm down and managed to compete a little bit.
Things Changed Quickly
One week later, in our second tournament. Things changed quite a bit!!
We played MUCH better and the skills we practiced all season started to show.
Not that winning is all that important to me. But we won all of our games and won the tournament.
We had pizza during the day and the girls had a blast.
In the picture you can see we’re kinda like the Bad News Bears. All the other teams had fancy jerseys. We had $10 tshirts and mismatching shorts.
We were by far the shortest team. Most of the opponents towered over us.
During one of the games, a fan from the opposing team blurted… “I can’t believe we’re losing to a bunch of pip squeaks!!!”
I took that as a compliment.
Now I think there are much more important things than winning games and winning tournaments. But the truth is that everyone prefers to win.
And the purpose of this blog post is to share with you… what we did this season, what worked, what didn’t work, and why you should follow your gut.
I also want to point out that you don’t need plays, full court presses, height, or even the most talent to win.
All Half Court Man to Man Defense
We exclusively played half court man to man defense.
We were pressed by a couple teams during the tournament. We never practiced against a press. We learned on the fly. It caused us some problems and made things more challenging. But we spent enough time on ballhandling skills all season long so our players were able to overcome the full court press.
We probably spent 15 minutes each week on our team defense. Mostly in shell drill and then we played a lot of full court 1on1 to improve ball handling and defensive fundamentals/agility.
Even though we didn’t spend a lot of time on defense, that was probably our biggest strength. In the last 4 games, nobody scored more than 6 points against us. In other games those same teams were scoring 15-30 points. And our games were uptempo with a lot of transition offense.
How did we do it?
To start, we emphasized defense and talked about it a lot during small sided games, scrimmages, practices, and every opportunity. All the players knew it was important to me and all the coaches.
Second, we gave them a simple goal and rule to follow…
“Keep the Ball Out of the Lane and as Far From the Basket as Possible”
That is the basis of our defense. We constantly referred to that rule during games and practices. We were consistently teaching during the context of competitive games and asking questions.
Here’s one example. A player was on the wrong side when defending the post. I blew the whistle and very calmly asked…. “what’s our number one rule on defense?” The player responded by reciting the rule.
Then I asked, “where do you think you should be so the ball doesn’t get passed or dribbled into the lane area?”
After a few second of thinking, the player self corrected and came up with a solution (better defensive position). Lesson learned and more importantly retained because they came up with their own solution (instead of the coach just telling them what to do).
Basically we tried to make sure the ball never got within 12 feet of the basket. Sometimes in practice we used cones and tape to create an image of this area for reference.
We also emphasized our core values (hustling, being selfless, and helping each other) consistently. As a result our help defense was quite good and we were very scrappy!
Couple other points that we emphasized…
If the ball is in front of you or on the ground, GRAB IT WITH TWO HANDS.
At this age, being aggressive and taking advantage of opportunities in front of you is half the battle.
NO Plays – Simple Motion Offense Only
With the exception of our box inbounds play, which we taught during a scrimmage… we have zero plays.
We spent about 4 minutes during one practice teaching our inbounds box play. Then it was just reinforced and re-taught during games and scrimmages.
Simple. You get in a box formation. Players on the ball side screen across. The other two players blast over. Seemed to work every time.
If at some point we had trouble, I was going to add an up screen during the game. But it wasn’t necessary.
For team offense, we didn’t spend a lot of time on it. We mostly focused on dribbling skills, passing skills, decision making, and basic footwork (pivots).
All we were looking for was spacing, cutting, and driving. By far the biggest emphasis was spacing. We drove when there were openings. And we passed when a team mate was open. That’s about it.
Now I should point out that our skill development practice drills allowed players to develop some of the decision making and conceptual skills for them to run their motion offense. For example, we had different keep away passing drills and no dribble passing games that helped them develop skills and naturally taught them to pass to the open player.
We also worked on very simple transition offense too. I think that’s important because youth basketball has lots of turnovers with constant up and down.
Most of our offensive practice was done in the context of scrimmaging or playing small sided games.
Another emphasis for me was developing basketball IQ. And trying to take opportunities to teach players. Real simple stuff. In the context of a scrimmage we might point out things like…
– If you are within 10 feet of teammate… cut to an open area for better spacing.
– If the ball is dribbled towards you… cut to an open spot for better spacing.
– If your teammate is driving or cutting to the basket, try not to cut into them and draw the defense to them. Keep spacing.
– If someone is cutting toward you, cut to a new area to improve spacing (get out of their way).
– If your dribble drive gets cut off and the defense is in position, look to retreat dribble and reverse the ball.
– Look to attack the defense and make them play you.
– If you attack and draw a help defender, pass to the open player.
Now we did drill and tell the players to backdoor cut when you pass, when you are covered, and when the ball is dribbled at you. The player did that sometimes. But of course they forget a lot and I didn’t want to make them robotic. So I was not a drill sergeant when it came to this.
To me the spacing and decision making was more important!
One of my mentors, Don Kelbick, recently told me that when building motion offense he shows players different cuts, screens, and situations. But he does not govern cuts or try to control that. He lets them play. Hearing that from Don gave me reassurance that emphasizing spacing and decision making without controlling the players was the right thing to do.
For the most part I let them run a true free form motion offense and let them play. It’s a little rough at first. But they are improving fast.
It was amazing to see them solving problems on their own and just learning “how to play”. Show them a few cuts they can do and work on good spacing. That’s it. It was up to them to figure out the rest.
Little Time Spent on Shooting
We spent a little time on shooting. We do a fair number of lay up drills.. mostly through multi-purpose drills while we work on ballhandling.
For example, we might set up 4 chairs and do full court lay ups while making dribble moves at each chair. The moves we used were:
– cross and accelerate
– in/out and accelerate
– hesitation and accelerate (stop and go)
But we shoot very little. To me it makes more sense to focus on dribbling, passing, and footwork at this age.
As long as they are developing coordination and not developing bad shooting habits, I’m happy at this point. Once the players get bigger, we’ll spend more time on shooting.
90% Fundamental Skills
Little time is spent on “team” offense or defense. Most of our time is spent on fundamental skills.
We use lots of competitive skill development games because they are fun and much more effective when it comes to developing skills that translate into actual games.
The skills we focused on included dribbling, passing, individual defense, footwork (pivots), and agility.
I should also throw in decision making and basketball IQ. In other words, we played various 1on1, 2on2, and 3on3 types of games so players learned when to pass, dribble, retreat dribble, move, create space, get open, pivot, etc.
The development of our skills was clearly one of our keys to success.
Maybe in another post I can go into more detail about the skills we focused on. Skill development is a lot more than just dribbling the ball in a figure 8 and doing a bunch of Maravich drills (although we did do that at times).
Mostly Small Sided Games
As 2nd and 3rd graders, we played almost exclusively small sided games like 1on1, 2on2, 3on3, and a little bit of 4on4.
Players get more touches on the ball this way and our whole team is able to develop point guard like skills.
While everyone else is playing 5on5 we have been playing small sided games.
As a result, we as a team, seem to have better ballhandling skills than the other teams we played in the tournaments. I also think we’re developing better decision making skills and higher basketball IQ by playing the small sided games.
Emphasize Core Values
We really focused on hustling, effort, listening skills, and helping each other.
Listening was a must. I don’t want to say we were mean about it. But we were fairly strict and if we ever disciplined, it was because of poor listening skills and/or focus.
There were multiple occasions where we disciplined players. We told them we’re going to have a lot of fun — but part of the deal we made at the beginning of the season is that when a coach is talking… your eyes are on the coach and you listen carefully.
In addition to harping on the listening skills… we spent a lot of time emphasizing hustle, great effort, and helping each other.
There are many opportunities within practice and games to teach these lessons.
I was ecstatic to see this carry over into our tournament games. I saw high fives, they were encouraging each other, and they kept their composure at all times.
I think I’m more proud of that than winning the tournament.
Tracked Hustle Stats
Another way that we emphasized hustle was to track stats. I think it made a difference.
We tracked rebounds, steals, blocks, and forced jump balls. We then added up those stats to come up with their total “hustle stats”.
It didn’t take long and after each game, players were asking if they could see their stats. So we pulled out the iPad and showed them using the Breakthrough Stats app.
At practice following our first tournament, I gave the 4 players with the most hustle stats a Gatorade.
We also made a conscious effort to verbally praise good defensive effort and passing (teamwork). Since that requires hustle too and you can’t really measure defense on the stat sheet.
Accepted All Players (No Cutting)
I accepted all players that wanted to participate at the beginning of the season. As second graders it started out with my daughter’s close friends from school. Then it spread a little bit in third grade and we ended up with 12 players. We had to get a little creative to split them up and schedule multiple games so everyone got plenty of playing time.
At the tournaments and games we limited it to 8 or 9 players on the roster. That way everyone got plenty of playing time and they didn’t have to sit on the bench very long.
12 was a lot to handle. But I didn’t have the heart to cut anyone. Three dads volunteered to help this season (couldn’t have done it without them). Ended up working out great!
Follow Your Gut
This just shows that you don’t need zones, plays, presses, or any of that to win. You don’t even need to play 5on5 games. After working on skills all season, we just needed three games under our belt and we took off from there.
All in all, I think we improved a ton and the players had a lot of fun. So I feel that it has been a successful season and very positive.
I hope in some way this blog post helps you and your team succeed.
If you have any questions, let me know.
Thanks Jeff, I enjoyed the read and it reinforced my belief that the beautiful basics are the keys to everything else. Cheers from Brisbane Australia
I enjoyed reading your post Jeff! I coach 8th grade girls basketball. I did have some offensive sets, but often emphasized spacing, passing and cutting to the basket. I will try to use some of the ideas that have worked well for you. One of my challenges was getting the girls to follow their shot, but I planned for them to play dribble knockout every practice. The girls really histled and followed their shots knowing there was a chance to be “out”. I also had them play “21” periodically to get instill some toughness. I only had 8 players this past season, so we were forced to do 2 on 2 and 3 on 3, but you are absolutely correct that it is not necessary for 5 on 5 scrimmages (I kind of learned that by default). I will continue to read your blog!
Jeff, this is a terrific blog. It should be read by all youth coaches. I would like to hear more about your drills and practice sessions.
So, I’m not 100% sure, but it sounds like you are not in a league? If this is true how do you find tournaments/games? Does it end up costing a lot (to join tournaments)?
That’s correct… we’re not in a league. I contacted local coaches and teams in the area and scheduled our own games for 3on3 and 4on4. Sometimes we paid a ref and other times we (the coaches) called our own games. It’s more like a scrimmage but our players didn’t know the difference. I told the coaches you could stand on the court and stop play at any time to teach. Works pretty good.
To find tournaments you can search on google. I just searched for ” basketball tournaments in iowa”. You can find 3on3 tournaments here:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/3on3/
We paid between $100 and $160 for the tournaments we joined. However it can cost more depending on your location and the type of tournament.
Jeff great stuff. I’m the director of velocity basketball academy in north Texas and I have the same philosophy’s. I focus on the key fundamentals of the game and only have a secondary break but use it for floor spacing. We never need more than that as we seem to score off one of those options. Our offensive is a 5 out read react and usually score after 2 to 3 cuts. What I find is the kids love to play an up tempo game and use their skills they are learning and their skills develop so much faster. I agree that 3 on 3 tournaments are better for the younger groups.
Enjoy the blog and it’s great there is another coach out the teaching the game and not trying to out athlete teams
Jeff, this is excellent. We are planning a free instructional camp this summer for primarily 4 – 6 graders. I will incorporate a lot of these concepts in our program. Is your basketball stat app available on android tablets?
Ivor – The stats app only works on Apple iPad.
Jeff
I am so impressed by your teams success with no plays using half court man to man and super simple motion offense focusing on skills with competitive small sided games. I think you hit something big coaching such a young group and using your knowledge to make a successful season. I coach middle school girls 1st time this year. We were not very successful (2-7). I pressed full and half. I played exclusively 2-3 zone. My offense was transition offense fast break with no plays. I thought my team would score a lot of points off steals we did not. Most of my points were from the center rebounding the ball and heaving it to my shooting guard who was the only one who can make a layup. But I used a ton of your competitive 1v1 skill drills. I have convinced that I will go half court man to man, motion offence, small sided games and competitive skill drills. I really want my girls to do well next year.
Interesting Jeff. Here in Tasmania, Oz, U10 age do not play with many modified rules except small basketballs and lower rings ie 8 ft. Still 5 on 5 which tends to discourage ball handling skill development and confidence. Some players just rarely touch the ball in a game. It becomes a pack hunting ( of the ball) exercise.
I am coaching an U12 boys team and it is their first year of competition. We have been concentrating on basic skills, and getting footwork correct and generally concentrating on passing skills and being able to execute under pressure. Local competition runs with full FIBA rules ( crazy in my opinion) and most teams they come up against run full court presses ( but not always m to m). This makes it difficult for my team to progress the ball in 8 seconds to the forward court where their passing skills under pressure have not been developed. Also their ability to pass long and accurately is not good enough to overcome such tactics.
We are therefore having to employ and teach a press breaker offence to get players free and progress the ball without a lot of dribbling.
Do you have some suggestions ( drills) for developing passing under pressure, getting open in the back court, receiving strongly etc like passing and moving without dribbling? So they can cut down the turnovers and get the ball confidently into their forward court for good fast break lay ups?
Coach Phil
Coach Phil – Check out this article. I think it will help you with handling pressure, spacing, passing, and receiving.
http://jeffhaefner.com/coach/my-favorite-passing-drills-how-to-cut-down-on-bad-passes-and-turnovers/
Great philosophy and isn’t limited to basketball. The small game theory hit youth hockey in Canada quite some time ago and many hockey groups in USA have picked it up. USA hockey promotes this type of play immensely. I have followed Breakthrough BBall for quite some time and find the drills you promote fit perfectly with this philo. Congrats on the success, it’s great to see some results to prove the theory. Keep up the good work with Breakthrough. We need to get the word out to the masses.
Liked your simple spacing rules and am thinking about some simple beginning rules for point guards as well. Maybe something like these (?) in order of preference and as a way to teach them to watch for best offensive match-ups to exploit since often the best player on the other team will be defending the point guard which means that is your worst match-up to try to exploit:
1) Pass and cut;
2) Pass and screen;
3) Last option should be drive and dish;
4) But always take the open lane if they start giving it to you.
Outside shots by point guard without a pass are not the best option, especially early in the game
as they tend to prevent other teammates from getting into an offensive rhythm.
Point guards role is not first as a scorer but as a distributor.
Give it a try and see what happens. You can always tweak. As long as you have spacing, player movement, and teach fundamentals… it’s hard to go wrong. I have found the hard way that as I add more rules our offense gets worse because it leads to more indecision. The simpler the better. And for my young team, my only rule was to keep good spacing. Everything else was more of a guideline and things to look for. You constantly teach and reinforce spacing. Another rule you might consider is don’t stand for more than 3 seconds. Everything else you give players freedom to play and just show them possible things they can do (like screen, cut, etc). Now as they get older you can get more into shot selection and getting players involved. It all depends on the age your working with.
jeff, great job. you read my mind!! super article. i can’t wait to try the drills in the dvd you mentioned.
questions:
1) how often do you practice each week
2)how long do you practice at that age?
thanks
LJ – We practice 2-3 times per week. If we have game that week, we practice twice. If no game we try to practice 3 times. However many times players miss or practices get cancelled because of weather, I have a conflict, etc. In 2nd grade we practiced 60 minutes. In 3rd grade the attention spans are better and we practice 90 minutes.
Jeff, a sample practice later in the season for me looks like this
Form shooting
pair shooting
Villanova -fast break drill full ct. 3 v 2 then go back 2 v 1
1 v 1 tournament- first to score wins,and loser moves on
2 v 2 dribble
3 v 3 no dribble game
Irish soccer – passing 5 v 5 no
dribble -full court
rebounding 2 v 2
scrimmage
foul shots
what would a session look like for you in the BEGINNING of the season!! thanks
Here’s a practice plan from early in the season. I probably deviated from this plan as I often do based on what I think needs to be done. But this is what I had written down going into an early season practice….
Defense & Passing
• Stance
• Stance – mirror ball and contest shot
• Push step
• 4on0 overhead passes (pass, skip, drive)
• Show the danger zone. Explain defense.
• Shell Drill – pass, skip, drive
Offense & Passing
– Pass and cut drill. 2 lines. First 2 players have a ball. Pass, cut, receive pass, jump stop, lay up. Get rebound and go to end of other line. Passer goes to end of other line too.
– 4on0 pass and cut (perimeter passes only).
Dribbling
– Cones touches (40 seconds):
– left only
– right only
– change of direction
– back up
– 1 on 1 advancement (get ball in lane) – focus on offense and defense
Shooting
– Hold follow through. Back spin on ball.
– Shooting with pivots
– front pivot
– front pivot, step through
Dribble, lay up, passing drill (if time?)
Review Offense
3on3 Half Court
Jeff
ever think of making a video of 3 practice sessions? 1 each in the beginning, middle and end of the season?
That’s an interesting idea. Maybe I’ll give that a try next season. Thanks!
Jeff, I’ve been wanting to email you for some time about the youth basketball in my area. I really agree with your coaching style, and implement much of the same with my teams. The most popular league to play in here is a church league. It has regulation height baskets and plays with a women’s size ball from 3rd grade on up. 90% of the teams we go up against play exclusively zone. The kids I coach (3rd & 4th graders) are paralyzed by it- they are too small/weak to shoot over it, and have a hard time getting the ball in a good shooting range because the defenses are really packed it in. We play exclusively m2m, and work on a ton of fundamentals and competitive drills in practice. My biggest concerns are: 1) Since we only practice 2x/week, I can’t & don’t want to work on offenses because I don’t want to waste time teaching them a zone so we can practice against it- then in games my kids become totally stagnated and frustrated- it’s horrible to watch them go through that. 2) Since I don’t have time or the resources to go outside this league, I’m stuck playing against a zone- how can I make my kids feel successful? I’m not asking to win every game, more just how to give them some tools so they don’t flounder so much against the zone, and they actually enjoy playing. Thanks!
Talor – To be honest I’m not sure what will work because I’ve never been in that situation with young kids. Couple thoughts and ideas….
– You could schedule your own games and invite coach to play you 3on3, 4on4, or 5on5. Then you can decide on the rules.
– Teach spacing, player movement, and ball movement. Just like in a motion offense, have kids move into gaps to get open. You could put them in “spots” or the gaps of the zone. But they might get stagnant.
If we face zone, I’ll just tell our players to keep moving and find gaps. My hope is that we will be skilled enough and have good enough decision making to just play and handle the zone. But we have not faced a zone yet.
If you have a good post player you can have them post up and try to throw it to them inside. But not many teams have a player like that.
Another option is to put your PG in the middle near free throw line. Work the ball around until they get it in the middle and have your PG make a play (attack for score or dish).
Now if you face a really good zone, there is nothing you can do. Kids this age just aren’t strong enough to throw skip passes, shoot outside, or do what is fundamentally needed to beat a good zone. With that said, I don’t know if any youth teams actually run a good zone. 90% of them are really bad and only work because kids are standing in the lane.
Again, my hope is that by teaching enough skills and motion, we can just run that and not have to worry about it. That’s the ideal situation.
Jeff: Tremendous messages for youth coaches. I would also recommend including numerical advantage games like 2 on 1 and 3 on 2 as well as the even numbered small-sided games. Numerical advantage games help kids to learn to read the defense (decision-making) because someone is always open – it could be the player with the ball (drive) or a teammate (pass). As well there are opportunities to cut to the basket because “the basket is open” or “no one is guarding the basket”. My experience is that kids are more likely to recognize opportunities to cut to the basket in numerical advantage games than in regular small-sided games because an undefended path to the basket occurs more frequently. Another significant benefit is improved passing. We do not do any passing technique drills; the numerical advantage games provide the best opportunity to create decision-making opportunities necessary to improve passing – done both in the full-court and half-court.
Thank you for your tremendous contributions to youth basketball.
Mike – That is a good point and I complete agree. Even though I didn’t specify in the article, that’s exactly what we do at times. We even go the other direction with certain players (ex: 1 vs 2) to really challenge ballhandling and learn to handle double teams. Thanks for adding to the article!
BTW, we often play half court 2 vs 1 (run around cones near half court and then attack) so we can keep all the players busy and active. Sometimes in the full court 2on1 there is too much standing on the baseline.
Our two most popular advantage games are 3 in a Line Toss Drill and 5 in a Line Toss Drill. Example: 3 in a LIne – the 1st player in the line has a ball and starts 1 step below the foul line, the 2nd player is on offense and the 3rd is on defence. The 1st tosses the ball out to the top of the key, chases, catches on a jump stop facing away from the basket, turns faces and reads the defense. The 2nd must sprint out to space along the 3 pt. at the same time, away from his/her teammate and must also read the defense. We emphasize that the defense will tell you what to do. We do not give any instructions to the defender because we would like to get different reads if possible. The reads are with the ball “if you are not defended – drive” and “if you are defended – pass”; the read away from the ball is “if the basket open – cut” (after you have spaced to the 3 pt. line) or “if the basket is guarded – stay spaced out”. Obviously what usually happens is the defender stays back so the 1st player drives and the defender moves to stop the drive which should open up a path the basket for the 2nd player to cut.
Initially when we teach this we will be the 3rd player and rush out and guard the 1st player to show the 2nd player an open basket so they can cut. We also will go out and guard the 2nd player to show the 1st player they are not guarded so they should drive. But we quickly let the players be the defenders. Simple but incredibly effective. The passing improves because the kids figure out a way to get the ball to their teammate.
We basically use the same teaching points for 5 in a Line Toss. The key point we are emphasizing is to read the defender (“look at the defender and see what he/she is doing – they will tell you what to do!”) The reading of the defense can be done at this age but it can’t have too much interference.
Thanks again. Keep the youth stuff coming.
Great drill!! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks so much for posting about this. It’s encouraging to know that there are a few youth basketball coaches out there who prioritize player development over game prep for meaningless, almost immediately forgotten wins, yet still field very competitive and accomplished teams. With my third-grade boys team I take a similar approach that I annoyingly like to refer to as “Crossover Lite” because it heavily stresses athleticism-building activities and small-sided games (as Brian McCormick and Breakthrough prescribe) but reduces the basketball-specific technical skill development to just two areas: ballhandling and layups. We have one hour of practice weekly, at most, so that’s what it comes down to. When I look at why we tend to beat the more traditionally coached teams, often in blowouts, it seems to relate to these three things: (1) teams that use a lot of set plays wind up with a de facto “ball control” offense at this level, drastically reducing their own field goal attempts per game; (2) teams that use set plays usually run a lot of ball screens, but ball screens clump four players around the ball, and that destroys any spacing for drives or passes; and (3) teams that use set plays are especially hesitant, even frightened, during the transition situations that often make the difference in the fourth quarter, when things get ragged. Close-to-final point: I often have trouble convincing the parents of whatever team I coach that it’s okay for our players to look disorganized out there, even when we’re winning by 20 points. Football is a seemingly orderly, plays-based sport where the kids can look respectful, well-trained, and spiritless while smashing each other in the mouth, but basketball calls for freedom, creativity, and split-second decisionmaking. It’s about what’s in your heart, not what the coach tells you to do! Maybe next year the football-oriented dads around here will buy into my crazed ranting. But again, thank you and thank the world for the Breakthrough-Bigelow-McCormick nexus that provides my coaching lifeline every year.
All I want to say Jeff Is your doing great work. Much Appreciated!!!!!
I have been running an in-house basketball clinic improving the knowledge, skills and development of youth players. I have implemented many of your drills and let me tell you the improvement after a few weeks is astonishing. I only see these individuals once a week but I encourage them to do the drills at home as well. We gotten so much buzz that here has been talk of creating an in house basketball league. Teachers are becoming more involved, parents are excited, the youth are excited and its because I have taken your simple drills and applied them once a week which has given the kids tons of confidence while gaining experiences…again your doing great work… Greatly Appreciated!!!
Always good to hear the site has been helpful and you’re getting positive results!
Jeff
what transition offense do you run?
I coach 4th grade. I’m thinking after a steal, a player cuts to the paint and we try to get him the ball. If he is not open we send a 2nd player to the corner who we pass the ball to. That corner player looks to pass to the post or give the ball back to the guy who passed it to him, Like a give and go. thougths? love your dvds
LJ –
With transition offense, the most important things are to run (get down the court) and spacing.
You hear a lot of coaches talk about the importance of spacing in offense. Well spacing is important as soon as you get the ball. You want players running wide (spread out) inside of everyone running down the middle of the court, which is what usually happens. Having more than one person running down the middle is fine and actually good, but they should still be spaced (example: 1st guy pulls the defenders to the basket and second guy trails for the open outside shot).
So to help with spacing, we give players a little bit of structure. Last year as 3rd graders we ran a numbered break. 3 inbounds and trails to the left wing, 1 brings it up mostly down the middle (although anyone on our team can bring it up to their spot), 2 sprints to right corner, 4 sprints to left corner, and 5 sprints to basket.
At this level, you get a lot of easy ones just by having 5 always sprint to the rim.
This year I’m going try and give them more freedom and just full spots as fast as the can (closest person fills it). Post runs to the rim, wing run wide to the corners, and trailer fills open wing.
Beyond that we mostly just teach them how to play…
– Headman. Pass ahead to the open player (immediately or off the dribble attack).
– Make them play you. Pass ahead or attack the basket until you are stopped.
– Use momentum and dribble fundamentals to beat defenders in the open court.
– Use dribble fundamentals to beat defenders in tight space.
– Fill rebounding spots for put-backs after missed shots.
– Decision making off the dribble – learn when to attack and when pull back. See the defense and pull back (change speeds) when the defense is in good position.
I do not script or choreograph anything (like cut to the paint and then send second player to corner to pass ball if not open). I don’t want to limit the creativity of my players and getting that detailed take too much time in my opinion. Although there is nothing wrong with that play. I just want them to do it on their own. So I emphasize spacing and ball movement in all directions (north, south, east, west) via dribble and pass. That’s it. Then because of that constant emphasis, the players will eventually make that scripted play on their own without me showing. And next time down the court they’ll do something different (while keeping spacing and looking to move the ball in all directions).
Anyway, that’s what we run. Super simple. But does require focus on player development.
BTW, a lot of what I run and teach came from Don Kelbick’s Transition Offense DVD. I also teach this (which I learned from Keith Haske Uptempo System):
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/offense/how-to-initiate-your-offence.html
thanks again. I coach soccer and I used this type of warmup. I’m going to use it for basketball also http://www.jssm.org/vol7/n3/2/v7n3-2pdf.pdf
thanks Jeff, that really simplifies things. GREAT answer!! I’ll let you know how it goes. Love the 30 competitive skill dev. DVD!!
Is it better to practice on 8ft or 10ft rims if the league/tournaments uses 10ft?
What age are we talking here? 3rd graders? I think 9ft is good for 3rd graders. For my 3rd grade girls team, we did a mix. But for the most part we stuck with a small basketball and lowered the rim to around 9 ft. I was more concerned with developing good habits for the long term than winning a few tournaments. Although we did end up winning some. Here are what I recommend for ball sizes, which is important (weight is the key factor).
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/basketballs/size-chart.html
I have a mixture of 2nd and 3rd graders. I really want them to develope proper shooting techniques, but we have to play league games on 10 ft. rims. Should I get a youth weighted ball to get them stronger or just use smaller balls and lower rims?
They just need time to grown and get older. Using a weighted ball for shooting will do little for them other than create bad habits. Use a SMALL basketball and lower rims.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/store/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=35&cat=Youth+Size+4+-+25%2E5%26quot%3B
Great post.
I see this discussion is old so I’m not sure if anyone will see this but, my husband coaches a youth team with 7-8 year olds. they practice pretty good but when it comes to games, they get scared/intimidated by the other team. any suggestions as to what we could do to liven them up? I’m not sure if such a young age should be taught aggression in that way.
It really depends on the group… are they just nervous, inexperienced, timid by nature, etc? I would not worry too much but just ask them to play the right way. Reward and encourage effort (not making baskets… but hustling down the court, playing defense, etc). I always tell kids it’s ok to make mistakes. Most important thing is to listen to your coaches, hustle, and have fun. Maybe a little bit if 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, etc in practice so they get used to defensive pressure might help too.
What do you use as discipline with3 or 4th grade or older for that matter?
For youth kids, usually sit them out of practice for a while. That is a punishment for most kids. But there’s some that don’t care. I don’t know if you remember the Supernanny TV show. Similar concept. She’d put kids in the naughty corner.. very consistent about the discipline. Then when time is up, make sure they understood why they are there. Then make them feel accepted again (hug for her, for basketball maybe a hand shake or knuckles).
You can also have kids do push ups… but I want them to like exercising and don’t want them to think of push ups as a punishment. Admittedly I have used push ups as a punishment but kinda regret it.
For older kids, playing time or the bench was our primary form of punishment. Sometimes finger pad push ups.
Hi. Thanks for this summary. I found it helpful I did have a question for you about man to man. I hope since this post is so old that you still read comments. Anyway, I noticed when coaching 2nd and 3rd grade teams that they often lack the focus to quickly find their man while in transition and it’s even worse when substitution happens mid-game. I was wondering if you had any tips on this if you are playing man defense in youth basketball. Thanks
Here are a few tips for substitutions:
https://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/haefner/youth-defense-how-to-make-sure-young-players-know-who-they-are-guarding/