Coach Youth Basketball

Basketball is one of the most popular sports in the world and is played by people of all ages. As more kids get into basketball, more coaches are needed to help teach them the game. New coaches must focus on keeping the game simple and fun for young children, while also emphasizing hard work and sportsmanship. Coaches should always maintain a positive attitude and offer encouragement, so the kids can fall in love with the game while developing a variety of skills.

Steps

Making a Practice Plan for Your Players

1. Write up a schedule before coming to practice. Time is valuable, and it often feels like there isn't enough time to properly work with your players. To manage your time as best as you can, put together a detailed practice plan that lists how much time you'll be spending on each drill. This will save you those precious extra minutes that could be wasted trying to figure out what to do next.
   • Make sure to allot time for water breaks and listen to your players. If someone needs a water break, or just needs to sit down for a few minutes, let them do so.
2. Dedicate the beginning of practice to stretching and warming up. This can get overlooked quite a bit because young kids can seemingly jump into a workout without properly getting their bodies ready. Start each training session with about 10-15 minutes of jogging, stretching, and other warmups.
   • Do team warmups that are structured the same way every time. This way, your kids will get a better idea of what it takes to properly warm up.Template:Greenbox: '''Warning''': Glossing over this aspect of practice increases the chances of a kid getting injured. Never skip or shorten a warmup.
3. Focus on individual skill work for about half of practice. At the youth level, kids are still learning how to be comfortable on a court and with a basketball in their hands. Skill work should take up about half of your practice and must feature fun drills that serve a purpose. Skill drills should teach players how and when to do something, so they will be prepared to use what they've learned in a game.
   • As an example, if you want to do a dribbling drill for 10 minutes, 5 minutes should be the kids working on dribbling by themselves and 5 minutes should be the kids dribbling with a defender trying to take the ball away from them.
4. Have the kids play in scrimmages for 10-15 minutes of each practice. Always give the kids a chance to run around and play basketball towards the end of practice. They've worked hard, so reward them for it! Scrimmages let players learn the game on the fly and put them in situations that are similar to an actual game, which aids their overall development. Encourage your players to use the skills they've just learned in the scrimmage so they get more confident with them.
   • Not all scrimmages need to be 5-on-5. In fact, the best way to ensure every kid gets a chance to touch the ball, take shots, and move around a lot is by having them play 2-on-2 or 3-on-3. If you have multiple baskets and balls at your disposal, try small-sided games.
   • You can even start with some 2-on-2 or 3-on-3 games and then transition to a full 5-on-5 scrimmage afterwards.
5. Leave a few minutes at the very end for a cool down period. This consists of slow jogging and walking up and down the court, followed by stretching to finish things off. A cool down lets the body's temperature decrease, while the stretching flushes away lactic acid and other waste products that have built up over the course of practice.
   • The cool down is a great time to talk to your players. You can ask them what things they might do differently, or just discuss an upcoming game or tournament.
6. Keep practices fun and interesting. Basketball is a game and that should never be forgotten by coaches, players, or parents. While it is important to teach kids the fundamentals of the game, they won't be interested in learning if the drills aren't fun. Turn drills into small competitions, like a dribbling relay race, and always check in with your players to see if they're having fun.
   • Don't be afraid to ask your players what drills they'd like to do. It could help them stay engaged and learn more about their abilities!

Doing Drills to Hone Different Skills

1. Teach your players proper shooting form. Have your kids start directly in front of the basket and about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} from it when they begin to practice their shooting motion. Once they make 10 shots with the correct form, have them take 2 steps back and start the drill again. Once they reach the foul line and make 10 shots from there, the drill is over. The key is to get the player comfortable with a single, easily-repeated motion before having them shoot far from the basket.
   • Bad habits can become difficult to eliminate if they are not fixed early in a player's career. Your kids must bend their knees, keep their shooting elbow in, and have the ball on the pads of their fingertips. The ball should not be on the player's palm. Players should finish each shot with a follow through, where they snap their shooting hand forward after releasing the ball.{{greenbox: Tip: The beauty of practicing shooting form is that you don't need a basket! Encourage your kids to go home and constantly work on their shooting form with a basketball. Instead of shooting, have them flick the basketball straight up into the air about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} above their head and catch it when it comes back down.}}
2. Set up a passing drill to emphasize the 3 types of passes. These are the bounce pass, chest pass, and over-the-head pass. All passes must be made with two hands. One effective passing drill starts by putting two players a few feet apart at one baseline and having them face each other. Give one a basketball and have the pair shuffle their feet while passing the ball back and forth until they reach the other baseline. Then, have them try a different type of pass as they make their way back down the court.
   • A bounce pass should land a few feet in front of your teammate so the ball will jump up to their hip. A chest pass is thrown on a straight line right to your teammate's chest, while an over-the-head pass is a soccer-style pass to a teammate.
3. Work on ball-handling by pairing up teammates. A dribbling drill that will help prepare kids for games is a 1-on-1 exercise where a player dribbles the ball down the court while a teammate guards them the entire way. The defender should force their teammate to dribble the ball with both hands as they go. When the pair gets to the other end of the court, have them switch roles so the defender becomes the dribbler.
   • As players dribble the basketball, their knees should be bent, and their eyes should be up. Teach the kids to use their off arm to shield the ball from oncoming defenders.
   • Make sure the kids work on dribbling with both hands, as they'll need this skillset when they start playing competitive games.
4. Go over boxing out with your kids. Boxing out is often overlooked at every level of the game, but it is a vital part of winning basketball. When a shot goes up, kids should be taught to find a player on the other team and put their body in between the opponent and the basket while facing the rim. Here's a fun drill that teaches boxing out: place a basketball in the middle of the court and have 10 players surrounding it, 5 players who are trying to get the ball and 5 players who are trying to prevent them from getting it. Have the 5 defensive players box out the 5 offensive players while you count to 15. If no offensive player can touch the ball within 15 seconds, the defensive team wins. If someone gets to the basketball and touches it, the defensive team loses.
   • Boxing out is important because if kids just run to the ball without finding an opponent, the rebound could ricochet to an unmarked player, who can then score easily.

Preparing for a Game

1. Draw up 4-5 plays and teach them to your kids. You don't want to overload kids with information, especially if they've just started playing the sport. However, you will need to run some plays during games, so put together 4-5 simple plays and share them with your team. Give each play a name so that when you go to call them out during a game, your players will be familiar with which play you want to run. Each play should feature all 5 players on the court moving around and playing a role.
   • Moving without the basketball is a big part in running a good offense. Everyone wants to handle the ball, but a good offense has all of its players moving around and getting open.Template:Greenbox: '''Tip''': You don't want your kids to be bunched up on the court, so emphasize spacing. Tell your players that if they're a few feet from a teammate, they're too close to each other and someone needs to move to an open space.
2. Focus on getting 1 play down before moving on to the next one. As great as set plays are, they won't be effective if your kids don't know them. During practice, go over 1 play over and over again until you feel your players are comfortable with it. When your players can run through the play in its entirety without you stepping in, start working on the next play.
   • Don't be afraid to stop the play if someone makes a mistake. Use these instances as teaching moments so that your whole team can learn from the mistake and get better as a result.
3. Spend time at the end of each practice talking about the plays. During the cool down period, quiz your players on different aspects of the play. For example, ask a kid to tell you the role of a specific position for a specific play. It's one thing to physically work on the plays, but if your players can understand why they're running the plays, they'll be even more comfortable with them in a game.
   • If your players seem too tired to take anything away from these chats, you can skip them. Instead, have them show up to a game about 45 minutes early so you can go over the plays right before the game starts.
   • You can also use this time to ask your players if they have any ideas for plays. Collaboration like this will help develop your kids' basketball minds and will get them even more engaged in learning about the sport!
4. Lead by example by keeping a positive, respectful attitude. Young children are incredibly impressionable, so your actions around them will make a big impact on how they see the game. Don't curse at officials during games and don't berate players for making mistakes. Always practice good sportsmanship, and have your kids shake hands with the opponents at the end of every game. If kids see you acting out, they'll think it's okay for them to do so.
   • When a player makes a mistake, use it as a teaching moment instead of criticizing them. Use a gentle tone and choose your words carefully to let them know where they went wrong. Then, tell them what they should do differently for next time!
   • Remember to pay attention to the individual personalities of the kids you're coaching—some kids will respond better to certain approaches than others.
   • Encourage your players to do their best through positive reinforcement.

References

See also

• Become a Snowboard Instructor in Canada
• Coach a Basketball Training Session
• Become a Hockey Coach
• Be a Good Cricket Umpire
• Become a Basketball Coach
• Become a Karate Teacher
• Become an Umpire
• Become a Soccer Referee
• Be an Esports Coach
• Be a Martial Arts Instructor

Read more ...