Questions From Subscribers...

I wonder if they really want to be there..... have you sat down with their parents and the kids? Maybe that might help.... IF they don't listen... have them do a couple of pushups or situps while the rest of the team is practicing.... and if they keep disrupting things... just have them sit on the side till you get your point across.

This is a tough age so try to keep your composure... good luck and try to have fun.....One thing I tell young coaches is to keep your drills short / fun and competitive ... keep the talking to a minimum and keep them moving.

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am coaching a 3rd and 4th grade girls(combined due to small enrollment) basketball team. I have 2 girls that are very difficult to coach. They are disruptive and rarely listen when I am trying to explain something. So, when it is actually time to do the drill, they do not know what to do and I have to explain it again. When I try to correct something they are doing incorrectly, they blattantly disregard what I have told them and continue to do it wrong. I have tried punishing them by making them run, punishing the entire team by making everyone run, making them sit out practice, talking to their parents, talking to the girls about disrespect, and unfortunately yelling and nothing seems to work. I am at my witts end. I am hoping that someone has some suggestions on how to handle some "unruly and incorrigible" young girls. They are turning me into an angry, constantly frustrated coach and I just want to enjoy coaching my daughters team and I want all of the girls to enjoy playing basketball and enjoy having me as their coach. I am sure that is not happening at this time.

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Maybe someone smarter than me can give you a better answer, but I don't think there's anything you can do to turn things around overnight.

Here are some things you can do to slowly turn things around:



Make things fun. Do what ever you can to make basketball fun again. Play the knock-out drill, smile, compliment your players, do some fun drills, keep things fast paced, and have fun yourself.


Celebrate small successes. Instead of worrying about winning, put them in a position where they can experience other successes...

For example, if you work on shooting form, you can chart their progress and show their improvement in shooting percentage during practice. Celebrate these small successes!

Maybe you can also measure things like turnovers, rebounds, and celebrate improving in those areas. Show them how they are improving!

Kids want to be successful and have fun. But unfortunately not everyone can win


Slowly prove to your players that you can make them better. This takes little accomplishments over time. To give you an idea, Don Kelbick (NBA development coach) gets the attention of his players by teaching them something they've never seen before. He shows the NEW triple threat technique (shoot, shoot, shoot). You could show them this technique to get their attention and prove you can teach them something valuable.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/individual_offense.html


Be confident. Study the fundamentals and be confident when teaching the fundamentals.


Explain the "reason why" for each fundamental and some drills. A great way to get your plays on board is to explain the reason why do certain things. Most coaches neglect this super effective tactic and instead they just jam the tactic down their player's throat. They don't even explain the reason why they are doing it.

Explaining the "reason why" is a proven psychological trigger that causes people to take a desired action.

At a psychological level, humans by nature want to know the reason why they are doing something.

Let's take man-to-man defense as an example... If you're players don't understand the reason you want them to keep their knees bent, always be ready to help, see man and ball, apply ball pressure, and so on, then they will NOT give 100%!

If you want them to give 100%, you need to teach the reason why you're doing something.

Teach them why you're quicker if you keep a low center of gravity and knees bent.

Teach them why you're not supposed to leave your feet and get out of position.

Teach them why they are sagging away from their man when they are one pass away.

The more your players understand the science behind your defense, the more they will buy into it and perform!


Show them you care. One of the best ways to motivate players is to show them you care. Go to their games and events outside of basketball. Help them with school. Show a genuine interest.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Jeff Haefner
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com

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