So I'm about to start coaching....

[ZenMaster]

Originally Posted by SCREWstonRockets

It's just for one season. If all goes well, I'll try to coach next season too. Anyways, I just found out that we're going to have player evaluations/"tryouts" this weekend and the following week, we actually get to draft our team. Which is pretty cool because it kind of makes me feel like a GM also lol. Thanks for all the advice, everybody. Can't wait to get my Rudy T/Tex Winter/Phil Jackson on!

This might be a bit long because I've recently started a project with a bunch of kids in the same age as yours, so I have a few thoughts I'd like to share.

It's my first time working with kids this age and I'm doing it to try and develop them over a 5-7 year span and it's different from what I've been used to because at that age you have to teach the kids EVERYTHING.
Last year I had one of the best U-15 teams in my country and my mentor was one of the best youth coaches we have here, he has just recently been a part of the "basketball without borders" camp in Barcelona, and a lot of thoughts on basketball are influenced by him in one way or another.

If you see yourself coaching for more than one year you'll be doing yourself and the kids a favor if you stick with the same group. That way you give yourself a chance to build their skills in layers so to speak by adding on to what you have already taught them.

This is what I focus on, keep in mind that these points are with player development in mind, I don't focus on winning anything for a good 3-4 years, but if it happens it happens.

1) Make sure you are doing the same things in practice that you want to do in games.

2) Fundamentals, fundamentals and fundamentals. Make sure they learn the right techniques.

3) No zone defense, no help man defense. I teach my players that we play 1on1 man defense and it's their job to stop the other guy. If you can't guard your man 1on1 without help you need to get better.
Focus on working 1on1 man defensive technique every day.

4) Turn up the pace. I tell my guys everyday that we need to be the fastest team in the country going from top of the key to top of the key.
Make sure you have the pace up in practice along with the games.
More times going back and forth equals more opportunities to score and play defense which equals more chances to develop as a player.
Running a high paced system also makes it a great incentive for the kids to be in great shape. One of my team goals is also to be the best conditioned team in the country.
Have a rule that says they should always be looking to pass ahead and not dribble the entire length of the court when getting into offense.

5) Don't run a screen offense, you want them going 1on1 a lot working with the ball, do a lot of 1on1 drills in practice. It will teach them both offensively and defensively for what they need in games.

I might write some more later, just got company.

Here are a few sites that should be helpful to you:

Forum with a lot of fine coaches.

oachingbetterbball.blogspot.com

Big site with plenty of drills and systems. Everything you need basically, there are youth drills in ever area.

http://www.hoopsplaybook.ca/

[Rake2204]

Nice post Zen. I support nearly all of your points. The only difference is that Ido believe in teaching help defense in a man-to-man situation. I understand the reason you do not though. I have seen the situation where a player will play matador defense only to turn and yell, "HELP!", then become upset when the help does not arrive on time. That's a topic we must cover very early in the season for I do believe help defense is a fundamental defensive element I must infuse.

Now, I had something else to say regarding this topic but my mind just went blank, so I'll leave it at that.

[ZenMaster]

Originally Posted by Rake2204

Nice post Zen. I support nearly all of your points. The only difference is that Ido believe in teaching help defense in a man-to-man situation. I understand the reason you do not though. I have seen the situation where a player will play matador defense only to turn and yell, "HELP!", then become upset when the help does not arrive on time. That's a topic we must cover very early in the season for I do believe help defense is a fundamental defensive element I must infuse.

Now, I had something else to say regarding this topic but my mind just went blank, so I'll leave it at that.

Yeah the matador defense is horrible, I play some rec ball regularly with a guy who apparently consider it the rest of the teams job to guard his man, gets me pissed every time.

I'll put in help defense after next season when they turn 13, it's just so much easier to put it in when everybody is good at and understands 1on1 defense. It also gives me more time to work on other stuff in practice.
It's for the long run, and it's a thing I can do because I know I'll be working with them in the next years as well.

[Maga_1]

Originally Posted by chains5000

This.
You should just don't care about winning, it's all about teaching and the kids having a good time.

yea, with their ages its all about "make them love the basketball game"

[sundizz]

I coached basketball at that age group. Unfortunately, I had to coach girls 12-13 year olds, and they were absolutely terrible. I had, by far, the worse 'talent' in the league. We had one girl from Japan (spoke no English) who was really good, and one girl that was tall and could play pretty well. She almost quit when she met the other girls on the team ahah.

The most most most important thing for kids at that age is to have structure in the practices. It may sound like a good time for them to just run around and it be havoc but it's the complete opposite. This doesn't mean making them do sprints or anything, but moreso just implementing SIMPLE things that they can do to enjoy the game while also improving at it.

Second most important thing is to have them get to know each other as soon as possible. My first practices I always have them run a few laps, then come chill in a circle and we play a team building game. The one I use, every kid pretends they are a different animal, one stands in the center and tries to tag other kids (kind of hard to explain on text, but super fun way to get kids to loosen up and meet each other).

The skill most kids lack is an ability to dribble, and an ability to pass properly. As such, I usually just focused on these areas of basketball. If you can do these two, you can at least play in a game and enjoy being out there. I did warmups, then dribbling up and back (right hand, left hand, crossover etc), then 3 person weave. Then we had a simple zone offense and we'd practice that, one team on defense one on offense. Then I'd end it with a 10 minute or so scrimmage, only 2 dribbles allowed.

Best idea mentioned above, just push the ball and play a defense that makes people shoot from the outside. We just played a 3-2 defense, and our 1st scoring option was get it to our pg (she could dribble really well) and push it up the court to try and score.

Substitutions, etc is one of the harder parts to get done. Just stay organized, it goes a long way. Good luck. It's super fun!