You have one of the most important and fun jobs in the world as a youth basketball coach! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You’ll be instilling behaviors in these children that will last the rest of their life. And, whether you like it or not, you’ll be setting an example and teaching them life lessons (good and bad). Children are impressionable. They notice stuff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You have a duty and responsibility to teach them the proper things, both in basketball and in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many youth basketball coaches are unsure where to begin or what to teach. Hence, I hope I can assist you in this regard. I have got some tips for you on what to teach young basketball players down below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have divided it into three levels. Once you master each level, you can progress to the next to teach more skills and concepts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
No matter their age, all new players should begin at Level 1. As a general rule, I provide ages next to the levels. You will progress through the levels at varying speeds depending on your age and ability level. You may see that you will spend four years working on Level 1 with children aged seven to ten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every year, I would advise returning to Level 1. Every year, several high school and college coaches begin at Level 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They simply advance through the ranks faster than a youth squad. It’s an excellent technique to instill basics in your players year after year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coaches should want to focus on long-term development for youth athletes, not how many games they win when they’re 11 years old. Trying to move them too soon will harm them in the long run. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
First and foremost, you must lay a solid foundation. You shouldn’t try to teach them every dribble move or every option in the motion offense in a single year. You couldn’t teach someone calculus if they didn’t know how to conduct simple addition and subtraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here’s what you should teach, in order of importance: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lay ups <\/strong>– Practice a lot of lay ups with both hands. Your goal should be to get all players to make layups equally well with their left and right hands!! Teach them how to hop on the correct foot. When shooting a right hand layup, they should jump off the left leg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When shooting a left hand lay up, they should shoot off their right leg. It will be challenging, but persevere. To practice the footwork, you should probably start very near to the basket, without dribbling, and take only one step. While shooting left-handed layups, they should dribble with their left hand after you add the dribble. And vice versa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Teach them triple threat positioning, rotating on their left and right foot without traveling, jump stops, and to square up to the basket as soon as they catch the ball in a triple threat stance. You should practice your footwork a lot! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Shooting form<\/strong> – I strongly advise utilizing smaller balls and lower baskets for this age group. If it is not practicable, enable the players to dip their elbows to gain strength<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ball handling <\/strong>– Teach your athletes to dribble with both their left and right hands equally. Basic dribble moves like as the speed dribble, crossover, protect-the-ball dribble, and back-up dribble. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Teach and practice the fundamental chest, bounce, and overhead passes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Offense<\/strong> – No systematic or patterned offenses are permitted. First, get them used to being on the court. Kids will begin to make their own decisions. Your key priority should be that they move rather than stand stationary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you incorporate a few simple cuts and possibly screens into your shooting drills at the start of practice, your players will already be familiar with how to operate in a motion offense. You won’t have to spend time teaching offense. Allow them to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fundamental cuts and how to open<\/strong> – If time allows, introduce the basket cut and straight cut. I would propose incorporating these cuts into your shooting drills at the start of session. This will save you a lot of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Teach the fundamental stance, defensive slide, and off-ball principles. Don’t be concerned about devoting more effort to defense. You’ll spend more time on defense as they get older. Concentrating on it for 5 to 10 minutes every practice would suffice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Off Ball Fundamentals<\/strong>: – Be between the man and the ball – Always stop the ball if it is in front of you! <\/p>\n\n\n\n I am against zone defenses for development purposes in this age group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For everything listed above, you should progress to more advanced skills. But, if your 10- to 12-year-olds are unskilled, you should begin at Level 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And, at the start of each season, you should start at level 1 until you have mastered those talents. Afterwards you can go on to the more advanced material below. development uses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lay ups<\/strong>: jumping off one foot and jump-stop lay ups are two examples. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Teach more cuts, such as the back cut and the curl cut. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Continue to emphasize shooting form and incorporate some mobility into shooting drills (shooting off the dribble and off the catch). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ball handling and dribbling<\/strong> – teach additional dribble skills such the inside-out dribble (fake crossover), hesitation move, and between-the-legs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Passing<\/strong> – Continue teaching fundamental passes while also introducing some advanced passes (baseball pass and wrap around pass). Some drills to try include machine gun passing and pass and switch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Passing under pressure<\/strong> – To pressure the passer, employ pair passing with a defensive man in the middle sprinting back and forth. You can practice breaking pressure with this drill: full court press breaker drill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Teach the fundamentals of screens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Introduce jab steps and ball fakes to your footwork (pass fakes and shot fakes). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Introduce the technique of rebounding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Post moves at their most basic. Drop step and leap hook are both techniques. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Introduce more fundamental spacing ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Offense: Continue to play 2 on 2 and 3 on 3 to teach basics. You may also begin to incorporate more motion offense situations and 5 on 5 games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Defense – continue focusing and devoting more attention to the defensive stance, defensive slide, and off-ball fundamentals discussed in Level 1. Work on more off-ball defense principles if you believe your guys are ready. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I will show you how to construct and teach your defense step by step in our Man to Man Defense System. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I am also against zone defenses for development purposes in this age group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For everything listed above, you should progress to more advanced skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Practice contested lay ups. You might also start teaching players same-leg, same-shooting hand lay ups. That goes against popular thought, but consider it for a moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your player has just blown past a defender or is on a fast break. Do you want them to stutter-step so the defense can recover and contest the shot? So if that means hopping on your right-leg and shooting right-handed on the same side, so be it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Continue to teach basic cuts and introduce new ones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Continue to encourage proper shooting technique (move to big baskets and bigger balls). Practice shooting off the dribble and on the move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ball Handling and Dribbling \u2013 teach additional dribble skills such as the spin move and behind-the-back. Include some double-moves (crossover followed with a behind-the-back).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Passing – include some more advanced passes (dribble pass, behind-the-back pass, pick and roll pass). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Passing Under Pressure – To pressure the passer, employ Pair Passing with a defensive man in the middle sprinting back and forth. This drill can be used to practice breaking pressure: Full Court Press Breaker Drill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Teach the Fundamental Screens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Continue to practice jab steps, pivots, and ball fakes (pass fakes and shot fakes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rebounding <\/strong>\u2013 emphasize rebounding skill and devote more time to rebounding workouts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Post moves<\/strong> – keep practicing post moves stated above while introducing a few additional when the players are ready drop step counter and up-and-under move. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Spacing<\/strong> – progress to more difficult spacing drills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Offensive – add more motion offense scenarios. You should notice that your players are getting better at reading defenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Defense <\/strong>– Reinforce previous level basics before moving on to rotations and scenarios. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then go into great length on rotations and scenarios in our Man to Man Defense System.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You have one of the most important and fun jobs in the world as a youth basketball coach! You’ll be instilling behaviors in these children that will last the rest of their life. And, whether you like it or not, you’ll be setting an example and teaching them life lessons (good and bad). 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