I found this saying in the UC coaching clinic notes that I really like…
“It’s not Christmas”. Meaning – No gifts for our opponent. Examples:
- Layups
- Free throws
- Bad fouls
- Open 3’s for good shooter
- Turnovers for touchdown
This fits my coaching philosophy and seems like a good way to get young athletes playing the right way. Kids love Christmas and this is something they will remember.
I plan to start using this saying to help hammer home what we want our players to do. Just another tool for the coaching tool box that you might want to considering using.
Hey coach, love your blogs! I’m coaching a team of 3rd grade girls with a few 4th graders mixed in. Having a lot of trouble getting them to grasp the motion half court offense. Not trying to get too complicated, just moving with out the ball, some basic screens and sharp cuts/passes. We’ve been doing quite a bit of 4v4 passing drills with no shooting or dribbling, which helps, but they still struggle in scrimmages and during games.
Some teams pick it up faster than others. Couple thoughts…
– I explain our entire offense in one sentence and continually ask them to repeat to get it into their head…”We want spacing and ball movement until we get a good shot.”
– To have a good youth offense, you need basic skills, spacing, and cutting. If players can do those thing, you’re set. Now if they have trouble dribbling in 1v1 situations, pivoting, passing, and catching…. there’s not much you can do until they develop in those areas.
– Assuming they are somewhat proficient in those basic skills, then spacing and cutting is all you need. Some of the best drills for this include:
* string spacing (dribble at a player and have them cut to improving spacing)
* 5v0 pass and cut. when you pass basket cut, then find open area on 3pt line. keep good spacing. always replace players that cut so the player with the ball has two passing options.
* no dribble drills… ex: 4v4 full court. passing and pivoting only. advance the ball to the endline and you get a touch down!
* Basic pass and cut drills
* http://jeffhaefner.com/coach/fill-and-backdoor-cut-drill-improve-team-offense-skills-at-the-same-time/
Just keeping working on those skills and constantly practice and emphasize spacing and ball movement. Eventually it will come together. Hope this helps.
We have 13 girls on our team (which is too many in my opinion) and I would say 6-7 have adequate skills to work a motion offense. We also only have a half court to practice on so we’re kind of limited as to what we can do!
Yea that’s a lot. We have 12 players but we have 6 baskets so practices are no problem. For games, we just scheduled a few extra and then only bring 9 to each game/tourney. Hopefully you have more than one basket to use!