Where to start with... basketball!

[clayadams]

I apologize for the somewhat off topic question, but I've come to trust the opinion of folks on here and I know most of you have spent time with multiple sports. So, baseball season is almost over and it's about time for rec basketball. I've signed my daughter up for the first time. It'll be 9-10, all girls, 4 teams. Sadly, only 2 coaches have volunteered. So, I went ahead and did it... I volunteered. I haven't played basketball since HS. Thing is, I don't keep up with it. I don't remember jack squat other than running suicides and puking. I can't stand to watch it on TV and haven't watched a game since I played in it.

I know several of you guys have coached kids. So my questions... where do I even start with a group of 9-10yo girls? I've been around my daughter for years now and honestly, she's not quite like most other girls when it comes to being athletic. She's hardcore and works her tail off to play baseball and be dang good at it. I don't know what to expect from "regular" girls this age. I might even find myself totally surprised at their attitude though and hope I am. I just know all of my daughters friends are what I see as more stereotypical girls and don't have the same attitude towards sports.

With all that said, does anyone have any good books about teaching kids this age? Drills? How much should I run them? I feel woefully under prepared for this. I'd LOVE it if they all end up charged and determined like mine is, but that's even too much to ask for half her rec league baseball team. LOL

Let me also say that my #1 goal is FUN. Getting your tails kicked all the time isn't fun though and I hope to instill life lessons as well about hard work and dedication. I've taken the positive coaching course previously and fully intend on implementing the lessons learned. I'm not one to yell and get angry and won't. I don't want to come off sounding like a "win win win" coach, I just want to do right by the girls. I hope posting this on a baseball board isn't TOO bad. I know it's almost the "off season" so no better time than now. Besides, the posts have been thin as of late.

[d-mac]

I coached my daughters basketball team last year. It was 6-7 year old girls. My advice would be to find a book or some material that focuses on coaching girls. Coaching girls was a lot different than I expected. I had 7 girls and I'm not sure any of them played because they liked basketball, I think it was more to be part of the group. I had trouble connecting with the girls, imo. Maybe it was in my head more than anything, because I had some of the girls begging me to coach again when we went to the girls club to sign up. It was a constant struggle for me. I didn't really enjoy it, so I've retired from coaching girls basketball.

We focused on fundamentals. The league allowed the girls to run with the ball, I refused to allow our girls to do that. We practiced for an hour and we would work on fundamentals for 30 minutes and then we would play 3 on 3/4 for the last 30 minutes.

[AdamInNY]

Going through same thing with 9-10 yo boys. I coached part of last year as well.

Basically this season I've been given three practices prior to the season starting. Besides the basics (dribbling, layups, etc) we've worked a lot of positioning. With such limited time we've been working on zone defense, how to take the ball up the court, some rebounding, and I'm hoping to get a few inbound plays and basic picks in place.

From my experience last year and the other sports my kids play (baseball and soccer) basketball seems to be the sport where coaching can make the biggest difference at this age. Strategy in a game is huge.

[Cannonball]

Clay, I'll look around and try to find my flash drive that has some of my basketball stuff on it. If I can find it, I'll get some stuff to you. I coached at the high school level but some of the stuff might be helpful. As an FYI, we moved in to a new house last summer and so, I am having a hard time finding much of my stuff.

[clayadams]

Thanks Cannon! I'll be emailing you tonight. We've got a coaches meeting in a few hours. In Dec they're putting on a coaches clinic for all of us and having one of the local college's (D2) coach help us out. I'm looking forward to that.

[Bigdaddy76]

Fundamentals!!! At that age, if you can teach one of the kids a crossover, they'll be unstoppable!!

[Jake Patterson]

Clay,
I coached girls school basketball for 11 years. P.M. me your address and I'll send you some information.
Jake

[StanTheMan]

Don't get stuck on "running plays"... i.e. starting in a basic set with the point guard bringing the ball up, then the center goes to location X, picks for a forward going to Y, then pass to the shooting guard, who then passes to the forward who shoots, etc. with a few variations.

Defenses will learn what you are doing, and stop it easily. The girls will also be clueless on how to proceed if the open pass is not there, or does not go smoothly. They will often throw a pass that will easily be intercepted because they are SUPPOSED to pass it to player X, Y or Z without seeing if they are open or not.


I had a lot of success with having a player come pick for a fast point guard near the top of the key, who then made a decision once they made it around that pick. Some drives, some jumpers, some passes when the defense moves towards her, etc. Very basic stuff, but not rigid and predictable.

Also teach your smaller, perhaps less skilled offensive players to play RABID defense at the top of a 2-1-2 zone or at the top of a 2-3 zone. A few steals here or there or perhaps forcing a bad pass or two and the parents love it. The kid responds too. It's all about moving your feet and staying in good position.


My secret weapon was a 1-3-1 zone in the second half. My daughter (the aformentioned fast PG) was under the basket in that formation and could box out well to rebound long shots. She was travel team SS in softball, and pretty athletic easily picking off lobbed passes over the "3" in the zone. Teams could not deal with it, especially with pressure on the ball from the 1 up top. Tons of aimless passes picked off by the 3 and the 1 deep player. Coaches often said to me after the game "first time we saw a 1-3-1 all year" and "old school defense" that sort of comment. My league was 9/10 year old girls - B League (A/B/C) CYO basketball in Indianapolis, where they take hoops pretty seriously.

[tg643]

Teach basic fundamentals of dribbling, layups, rebounding and defense. While you can demonstrate proper shooting technique no one I ever taught became a shooter with fifteen minutes of shooting drills during practice. Like any other sport everything starts with footwork. Teach proper footwork. Teach your players how to play proper one on one and zone defense. Our program didn't allow zone until 11/12's. Hopefully your league doesn't allow triple teaming and team chase's the ball defense. The teams that win take the most shots. That's because shooting percentages are low at this age. The teams that play defense and rebound win. They get more shots. If you can get one of the high school girl players involved as an assistant. Watch her interact with the girls and learn from it. It's different than coaching boys.

There's a lot of good stuff here ... http://www.y-coach.com/CD/Coaching.h...all_Drills.htm

[raptor]

Hard-nosed tough girls play defense and get low..scrap and win 50/50 balls..look for some tough girls!

[trademark]

Where to Start...?

I apologize for the somewhat off topic question, but I've come to trust the opinion of folks on here and I know most of you have spent time with multiple sports. So, baseball season is almost over and it's about time for rec basketball. I've signed my daughter up for the first time. It'll be 9-10, all girls, 4 teams. Sadly, only 2 coaches have volunteered. So, I went ahead and did it... I volunteered. I haven't played basketball since HS. Thing is, I don't keep up with it. I don't remember jack squat other than running suicides and puking. I can't stand to watch it on TV and haven't watched a game since I played in it.

I know several of you guys have coached kids. So my questions... where do I even start with a group of 9-10yo girls? I've been around my daughter for years now and honestly, she's not quite like most other girls when it comes to being athletic. She's hardcore and works her tail off to play baseball and be dang good at it. I don't know what to expect from "regular" girls this age. I might even find myself totally surprised at their attitude though and hope I am. I just know all of my daughters friends are what I see as more stereotypical girls and don't have the same attitude towards sports.

With all that said, does anyone have any good books about teaching kids this age? Drills? How much should I run them? I feel woefully under prepared for this. I'd LOVE it if they all end up charged and determined like mine is, but that's even too much to ask for half her rec league baseball team. LOL

Let me also say that my #1 goal is FUN. Getting your tails kicked all the time isn't fun though and I hope to instill life lessons as well about hard work and dedication. I've taken the positive coaching course previously and fully intend on implementing the lessons learned. I'm not one to yell and get angry and won't. I don't want to come off sounding like a "win win win" coach, I just want to do right by the girls. I hope posting this on a baseball board isn't TOO bad. I know it's almost the "off season" so no better time than now. Besides, the posts have been thin as of late.

I’ve got two words for you:

JASON OTTER

http://www.otterbasketball.com/video/video.php

Kids aged 9-10 is the perfect age to introduce them to his program from basics to the college level.
Here’s another link…

http://www.otterbasketball.com/

Teach basic fundamentals of dribbling, layups, rebounding and defense. While you can demonstrate proper shooting technique no one I ever taught became a shooter with fifteen minutes of shooting drills during practice. Like any other sport everything starts with footwork. Teach proper footwork. Teach your players how to play proper one on one and zone defense. Our program didn't allow zone until 11/12's. Hopefully your league doesn't allow triple teaming and team chase's the ball defense. The teams that win take the most shots. That's because shooting percentages are low at this age. The teams that play defense and rebound win. They get more shots. If you can get one of the high school girl players involved as an assistant. Watch her interact with the girls and learn from it. It's different than coaching boys.
There's a lot of good stuff here ... http://www.y-coach.com/CD/Coaching.h...all_Drills.htm

Tg643’s post is pretty good.
I’d add the OP should not get all hung up on how many plays you can teach them. Teach them 3 or 4 plays… work on those few plays during every practice, but spend the majority of your time working on dribbling and the fundamentals of basketball.

[trademark]

Hard-nosed tough girls play defense and get low..scrap and win 50/50 balls..look for some tough girls!

I respectfully disagree that this is the approach for 9/10 YO boys/girls.

[raptor]

I respectfully disagree that this is the approach for 9/10 YO boys/girls.

LOL...maybe not. It probably wouldn't surprise you that Bobby Hurley was one of my favorite players!

[trademark]

BH was a good player.
And there is nothing wrong with being aggressive as long as it's clean with good sportsmanship. I will agree that at the age of 9-10, it's hard to get kids to be as aggressive as they need to be.
But I also believe aggressiveness stems from confidence in ones abilities and the best way to gain confidence is success and the best way to achieve success is thru practice, which at 9 and 10 YO, that means working on the fundamentals.

[Jake Patterson]

Several people asked for the basketball info I offered Clay...

What I sent Clay was a book we made from a number basketball coaching clinics we offered a few years back. It is geared to new coaches. If anyone would like a copy PM me your Email address (The file is too big for here) and I will send you a pdf of the book.

Jake