March 12Mar 12 They need volunteers and this way I get to be near her. How difficult is it at that age? Are you running offensive sets? I feel like they're too old for sharks and minnows at that point.
March 12Mar 12 27 minutes ago, South Austin said: What do the terms of your probation say about this? Or his custody agreement.
March 12Mar 12 2 hours ago, Im_smarter_then_you said: They need volunteers and this way I get to be near her. How difficult is it at that age? Are you running offensive sets? I feel like they're too old for sharks and minnows at that point. Are 10 year old girls running offensive sets? Bro - the girls on your team will barely be able to dribble or shoot the ball. Just teach them basics and teamwork and make sure they have fun.
March 12Mar 12 First, you need to run a camp with all the prospective players and them through their paces. You need to identify what the strengths and weaknesses are of your team and make sure that their conditioning matches your chosen style of play. Are you going to be a high powered run and gun offense or a slow, methodical team that grinds down your opponents with a stifling defense? Once you’ve done your diligence and honed your coaching philosophy you’re going to need to identify who your stars and role players are going to be. Ideally you’ll have a smart point guard that can read the defense and create opportunities with quick passes. It would be great if you have a talented power forward in the mold of Dirk that can score from just about anywhere on the court and shoot with hands in her face. On the other side of the court, you need to get yourself a bruiser that can make her presence know under the basket and muscle all the other girls out for the ball. And, whatever you do, don’t be scared to make in-game adjustments. Sometimes your star is having an off night or the other team has a really good scouting report on you. Work through that and adjust as needed.
March 12Mar 12 Serious answer: the biggest issue you're going to have is behavior management. I don't mean the kids are going to be misbehaving, but they are going to get bored and do their own thing in practice and in games if you don't keep them busy. So make sure everyone is busy at all times. For example, don't do a drill where everyone stands in a line and waits their turn to shoot. Have a couple of kids working on shooting, have others rebound the shots, have another group working on passing at the same time, and then rotate. During games, give the kids on the bench a task. "Hey, [kid with 4 y's in her name], can you watch #10 on the other team and tell me how many times she touches the ball. I'm trying to figure out if we should guard her closely or not." And just remember, you really can't screw this up too badly. If Rodney Terry can coach, so can you.
March 13Mar 13 4 hours ago, royiv said: First, you need to run a camp with all the prospective players and them through their paces. You need to identify what the strengths and weaknesses are of your team and make sure that their conditioning matches your chosen style of play. Are you going to be a high powered run and gun offense or a slow, methodical team that grinds down your opponents with a stifling defense? Once you’ve done your diligence and honed your coaching philosophy you’re going to need to identify who your stars and role players are going to be. Ideally you’ll have a smart point guard that can read the defense and create opportunities with quick passes. It would be great if you have a talented power forward in the mold of Dirk that can score from just about anywhere on the court and shoot with hands in her face. On the other side of the court, you need to get yourself a bruiser that can make her presence know under the basket and muscle all the other girls out for the ball. And, whatever you do, don’t be scared to make in-game adjustments. Sometimes your star is having an off night or the other team has a really good scouting report on you. Work through that and adjust as needed. 95% of the time, posts that try to come off like this fail and you kind of nod your head as you read it and say, yea haha, I know you were trying to be funny but its not even close. thanks for trying. This was not one of those posts.
March 13Mar 13 At this age if you want to win, teach defense and layups. Have them run a havoc defense and run out on the break.
March 13Mar 13 Author 5 hours ago, royiv said: First, you need to run a camp with all the prospective players and them through their paces. You need to identify what the strengths and weaknesses are of your team and make sure that their conditioning matches your chosen style of play. Are you going to be a high powered run and gun offense or a slow, methodical team that grinds down your opponents with a stifling defense? Once you’ve done your diligence and honed your coaching philosophy you’re going to need to identify who your stars and role players are going to be. Ideally you’ll have a smart point guard that can read the defense and create opportunities with quick passes. It would be great if you have a talented power forward in the mold of Dirk that can score from just about anywhere on the court and shoot with hands in her face. On the other side of the court, you need to get yourself a bruiser that can make her presence know under the basket and muscle all the other girls out for the ball. And, whatever you do, don’t be scared to make in-game adjustments. Sometimes your star is having an off night or the other team has a really good scouting report on you. Work through that and adjust as needed. I’m thinking either motion or triangle
March 13Mar 13 1 hour ago, Im_smarter_then_you said: I’m thinking either motion or triangle Don’t forget havoc.
March 13Mar 13 Some great advice already on this thread. I started helping my mom with her team of 12-13 year old girls part way into the season and it was really fun. This is going to be long, but some of the stuff I did could be applicable and this will echo some of the advice already given. Be the hype man and make them feel confident. Don't ask them to do something they can't. It's easier to keep their confidence up, than it is to rebuild it. Make sure to praise rebounds, defense, picks and hustle after loose balls just as much as you do assists and scoring. Be loud and excited when they do something well. Your players will notice and start doing the same thing naturally, which gels your team chemistry. Let them know it's okay to make mistakes, as long as they are giving full effort. Frame mistakes as something you are confident they will get better at, rather than something they screwed up. We had 2 good guards, so we pressed every possession until the game was out of hand and I started to feel bad. None of the other 12-13 year old girls teams could handle relentless full-court pressure, your 10-year old opponents are going to have no chance. It's a lot of fun for the kids and we got a lot of turnovers leading to easy baskets. On O, we kept it simple and ran whenever possible. When forced into a half-court we mostly ran picks for our 2 best offensive threats to shoot or pass out of. Get the other kids good at picks and boxing out for rebounds and be vocally proud of them when they do them well. Same treatment as a made basket. Some of your kids that can't dribble may be able to shoot from particular spots. Passing off a pick and roll is a great way to get an open look for them at that spot. Keep it simple and restricted to stuff each kid can actually do. We spent a lot of practice time on defense and running the court after turnovers/rebounds. Our focus was 1) turnovers, 2) no close shots. Make the other team try to beat you with long jumpers. Long jumpers are not only harder for them to make, but also result in longer rebounds that are easier to generate fast break points off of. Teach any zone concepts by drawing a circle around them in practice and running low speed drills. Guard this circle and don't leave it is much easier for them to visualize than the idea of guarding a zone. Chalk works, but it's slippery. Try a dry erase marker on an inconspicuous part of the court first. You can also use small cones, or something similar to mark out the circle, just run drills at slow speed, so no one slips, or trips. If your kids mostly get the concept of staying in their circle down, you can throw stuff at the other team they have never seen before. I originally wanted to play a 2-3 and make the other team hit jumpers, but the other team usually only has 1 or 2 good players and "junk" defenses turned out to be lethal. We were losing the first game I helped with, so I turned up the press and installed a triangle and 2 at halftime. Even that first time, with no actual practice time running it, we forced more mistakes than we made and ran the other team out of the gym. It's just your 2 best athletes in man against their 2 best, and your other three clogging the paint, defending their circle and not leaving it. Intercept passes when they can, but base assignment is clog up their circle. Your kids in zone can make some mistakes, because you've already locked up the other team's best players in man-to-man. Very few (if any) teams will have a 3rd player that can reliably handle the ball and score. Triangle and 2 also turned out to be a great D to fall back into if they beat your press, because your bigs will have already gotten back to set up in zone and your guards will already be in man-to-man. When we got better at it, other teams completely lost their shit trying to play against it. The other team's best players start to make mistakes and that spirals. We got tons of turnovers setting up fast break points, so we ran it a lot more than I'd originally intended. Once you know the makeup of your team and what they are good/bad at, post again. We'll be able to give more specific advice. Edited March 13Mar 13 by Pods
March 13Mar 13 My daughter is 9. Plays with 3rd and 4th graders Tell them to hold the ball in practice when you're talking. Nothing irritates me more than dribbling while I'm talking. Takes a couple practices but they get the hang of it. We play 6 minute quarters so try to make sure everyone gets the same amount of run. At the 3 minute mark we sub. I needed help keeping track of who's in and who's out. So you might need some help in that department. We play against some teams that don't sub and play their best players most of the game and it's sad. I have no respect for these types of coaches and their egos These are kids. Let them play. This isnt AAU. Stay positive. Smile and have a good attitude. Don't yell at the refs.
March 13Mar 13 Author 6 hours ago, Pods said: Some great advice already on this thread. I started helping my mom with her team of 12-13 year old girls part way into the season and it was really fun. This is going to be long, but some of the stuff I did could be applicable and this will echo some of the advice already given. Be the hype man and make them feel confident. Don't ask them to do something they can't. It's easier to keep their confidence up, than it is to rebuild it. Make sure to praise rebounds, defense, picks and hustle after loose balls just as much as you do assists and scoring. Be loud and excited when they do something well. Your players will notice and start doing the same thing naturally, which gels your team chemistry. Let them know it's okay to make mistakes, as long as they are giving full effort. Frame mistakes as something you are confident they will get better at, rather than something they screwed up. We had 2 good guards, so we pressed every possession until the game was out of hand and I started to feel bad. None of the other 12-13 year old girls teams could handle relentless full-court pressure, your 10-year old opponents are going to have no chance. It's a lot of fun for the kids and we got a lot of turnovers leading to easy baskets. On O, we kept it simple and ran whenever possible. When forced into a half-court we mostly ran picks for our 2 best offensive threats to shoot or pass out of. Get the other kids good at picks and boxing out for rebounds and be vocally proud of them when they do them well. Same treatment as a made basket. Some of your kids that can't dribble may be able to shoot from particular spots. Passing off a pick and roll is a great way to get an open look for them at that spot. Keep it simple and restricted to stuff each kid can actually do. We spent a lot of practice time on defense and running the court after turnovers/rebounds. Our focus was 1) turnovers, 2) no close shots. Make the other team try to beat you with long jumpers. Long jumpers are not only harder for them to make, but also result in longer rebounds that are easier to generate fast break points off of. Teach any zone concepts by drawing a circle around them in practice and running low speed drills. Guard this circle and don't leave it is much easier for them to visualize than the idea of guarding a zone. Chalk works, but it's slippery. Try a dry erase marker on an inconspicuous part of the court first. You can also use small cones, or something similar to mark out the circle, just run drills at slow speed, so no one slips, or trips. If your kids mostly get the concept of staying in their circle down, you can throw stuff at the other team they have never seen before. I originally wanted to play a 2-3 and make the other team hit jumpers, but the other team usually only has 1 or 2 good players and "junk" defenses turned out to be lethal. We were losing the first game I helped with, so I turned up the press and installed a triangle and 2 at halftime. Even that first time, with no actual practice time running it, we forced more mistakes than we made and ran the other team out of the gym. It's just your 2 best athletes in man against their 2 best, and your other three clogging the paint, defending their circle and not leaving it. Intercept passes when they can, but base assignment is clog up their circle. Your kids in zone can make some mistakes, because you've already locked up the other team's best players in man-to-man. Very few (if any) teams will have a 3rd player that can reliably handle the ball and score. Triangle and 2 also turned out to be a great D to fall back into if they beat your press, because your bigs will have already gotten back to set up in zone and your guards will already be in man-to-man. When we got better at it, other teams completely lost their shit trying to play against it. The other team's best players start to make mistakes and that spirals. We got tons of turnovers setting up fast break points, so we ran it a lot more than I'd originally intended. Once you know the makeup of your team and what they are good/bad at, post again. We'll be able to give more specific advice. My worry is they may press my guards if I press theirs. I watched last year, and I'm not sure these girls can learn a triangle and 2, etc. 4 hours ago, Post Oak said: My daughter is 9. Plays with 3rd and 4th graders Tell them to hold the ball in practice when you're talking. Nothing irritates me more than dribbling while I'm talking. Takes a couple practices but they get the hang of it. We play 6 minute quarters so try to make sure everyone gets the same amount of run. At the 3 minute mark we sub. I needed help keeping track of who's in and who's out. So you might need some help in that department. We play against some teams that don't sub and play their best players most of the game and it's sad. I have no respect for these types of coaches and their egos These are kids. Let them play. This isnt AAU. Stay positive. Smile and have a good attitude. Don't yell at the refs. My daughter's coach last year was a 6'3" 220 lb Jewish dude. Almost beat the crap out of an opposing coach.
March 13Mar 13 I helped coach my son's little league team the first year he played. I'd marry another stripper before I'd do that again
March 14Mar 14 Decent input so far, for the most part. I coached a 7th-8th grade boys "did not make MS team" rec team for DS1. My thoughts... 1 - plan every practice - every minute of every practice - bring in a timeline to follow 2 - dribbling, passing, layups, shots inside the box are 100% the hey 3 - find ways to do drills where there is competition and scoring. Example - if you score, you get N points for N passes MAYBE try to practice free throws, but infrequently, esp at 4th grade. Also - take a couple of breaks - kids will do what they want at that point - jack up outside shots; sit down; talk We did the weave as a part of the layup practice. It worked very well.
March 14Mar 14 11 hours ago, StassneyHorn said: Cheat and find a 10 year old boy to play. Danny Almonte should have a 25yo son by now.
March 14Mar 14 11 hours ago, StassneyHorn said: Cheat and find a 10 year old boy to play. Or a 13 year old girl.
March 14Mar 14 12 hours ago, boilerhorn said: MAYBE try to practice free throws, but infrequently, esp at 4th grade. I think free throws are a great thing to practice especially at that age. Teach them how to play knock-out - maybe move the line up a bit from the FT line - guessing that will be a pretty far attempt for some of the girls. It's fun and will get them to work on shooting, rebounding and lay-ups. Get them to do what we called rocket drill if you can or some form of something like this. Guessing they are playing on 8 foot rims and a smaller court?
March 14Mar 14 Me and my wife did my son's 9 year old team otherwise they weren't going to be able to play. It really is going to depend on the skill level of your team. It ranges wildly at least in my son's league. You could only press in the second half. Without that rule there are teams that flat out couldn't cross half court otherwise, not that they would do much once they did anyways.
March 16Mar 16 On 3/12/2025 at 9:51 AM, Im_smarter_then_you said: This thread ……has met my expectations Do what Vivek Ranadive did with his daughter’s team. Take your findings directly to JJ Redick and get him to play 5 on 4 for 48 minutes. Can’t see what might go wrong.
March 16Mar 16 It's fun. I coached my son from 4yo to 7th grade. All rec league. Had teams that finished last and a few that finished first. Stay positive. Don't coach like fan and hang your head or yell at mistakes. Go easy on the refs. Make it crystal clear to parents to cheer for the team and not much else. Make a sub chart each game. Some rec leagues have rules about it. Good advice to chart out each practice. Force the use of the off hand for dribbling and layup; even if they suck. They will get better.
March 17Mar 17 On 3/12/2025 at 11:04 AM, Im_smarter_then_you said: They need volunteers and this way I get to be near her. How difficult is it at that age? Are you running offensive sets? I feel like they're too old for sharks and minnows at that point. full court press, constant yelling and arms going crazy pick and roll is pretty damn easy to teach / execute
March 19Mar 19 On 3/16/2025 at 1:58 PM, gyroprotagonist said: It's fun. I coached my son from 4yo to 7th grade. All rec league. Had teams that finished last and a few that finished first. Stay positive. Don't coach like fan and hang your head or yell at mistakes. Go easy on the refs. Make it crystal clear to parents to cheer for the team and not much else. Make a sub chart each game. Some rec leagues have rules about it. Good advice to chart out each practice. Force the use of the off hand for dribbling and layup; even if they suck. They will get better. There was a guy in my hometown that recently passed away. When I was a kid he coached his three sons in basketball. His sport in college was baseball (UH 63-66), but basketball was his first love and he coached it in the early 70’s at a small school (won a district title) and then at Alvin long before their school system got big. He got out to move back to my hometown and went into private business. He kept coaching his kids. One became an all-state basketball player in the early 90’s. He never really quit “coaching” though. He and the high school basketball coach did not much care for one another because he would sit a center court opposite the bench and yell all game. The coach he did not like that coached his youngest son finally had enough. My senior year of high school I remember that he wanted to quit because he was not the football/AD’s hire and because of this one parent. They asked him if he would at least coach through the rest of first semester. He said if (player’s dad’s name) says one more thing to me I’m walking right across the court and I’m going to beat his arse in front of everyone during the game. This was a guy from Graford, same hometown as Billy Gillispie. It was not an idle threat. Needless to say he never coached another game and that parent stayed at center court almost another three decades. Hopefully he calmed as he aged. Edited March 19Mar 19 by UpperWestside
March 20Mar 20 On 3/12/2025 at 6:41 PM, gsoda3 said: At this age if you want to win, teach defense and layups. Have them run a havoc defense and run out on the break. Absolutely this. When I coached my daughter's team at this age, we had one offensive play -- pick and roll at the foul line. Girl with the ball would choose the pick setter by just calling out the player's number. One of the other coaches said something to me at the end of the season about we beat his team because "y'all had eight different plays."
May 4May 4 My daughter was 3rd grader on 3rd/4th grade league that was way more serious than I thought. Some parents acted like if their daughter was being scouted by UCONN. Even as serious as parents were, I did not see one purposeful pass the whole season so check your expectations. League was 100% pick and roll based and winning team had the better pg and defense. So yes to advice above about layups and defense. in this league, you could not double anyone whatsoever unless they were in paint and you couldn’t guard a girl in backcourt and no zone. Rules meant to allow some fluidity in game so I hated them at first but then grew to understand once I realized that without these rules, over/under would quite literally be 0.5. With these rules, over/under would be probably 40.
May 4May 4 On 4/20/2025 at 6:47 AM, Im_smarter_then_you said: Ass kicked. 🤬humbling Just make sure they have fun and learn to be good teammates. That sounds gay but that's your #1 job. Losing is good for everyone, too.
May 4May 4 Author 21 minutes ago, Hornbeliever said: My daughter was 3rd grader on 3rd/4th grade league that was way more serious than I thought. Some parents acted like if their daughter was being scouted by UCONN. Even as serious as parents were, I did not see one purposeful pass the whole season so check your expectations. League was 100% pick and roll based and winning team had the better pg and defense. So yes to advice above about layups and defense. in this league, you could not double anyone whatsoever unless they were in paint and you couldn’t guard a girl in backcourt and no zone. Rules meant to allow some fluidity in game so I hated them at first but then grew to understand once I realized that without these rules, over/under would quite literally be 0.5. With these rules, over/under would be probably 40. Exactly like our rules. Man only. Yep PG and defense 6 minutes ago, ztejas said: Just make sure they have fun and learn to be good teammates. That sounds gay but that's your #1 job. Losing is good for everyone, too. It’s a weird age in that it’s still about having fun but this is competitive as well
May 4May 4 12 minutes ago, Im_smarter_then_you said: It’s a weird age in that it’s still about having fun but this is competitive as well I get it. That mindset is why we dust the Olympics every 4 years. Also - it's always about having fun. Players don't age out of that 😉
May 16May 16 On 5/4/2025 at 11:36 AM, Im_smarter_then_you said: Exactly like our rules. Man only. Yep PG and defense It’s a weird age in that it’s still about having fun but this is competitive as well For young and/or lower skill level folks, I think “man only” is a great rule. I coached my son’s 7th/8th grade rec team, which was composed of a bunch of kids who were not good enough to make their MS teams. At the preseason coaches meeting, one coach proposed that we allow zone. I countered, “these are kids who did not make their MS teams. We need to focus on fundamentals. Learn to dribble, pass, make layups, play base defense, hit free throws, etc.”. The guy was adamant and I lost the vote. Our team went undefeated in the regular season and that guy’s team won one game. His team won the league tourney, as every team’s shooting went cold and the zone finally gelled. His team’s fundamentals were flat from tryouts, but they got a trophy - and learned to play half-court zone. Edited May 16May 16 by boilerhorn
May 20May 20 Spend 60% of your practices on dribbling , passing and defending. Maybe even schedule some practices on a tennis court so there is no distraction of chucking shots, which todays generation of kids all want to do because of the current NBA game. Spend 30% on rebounding(blocking out) and positioning for offensive rebounds/put back points. Spend the other 10% on layups.
May 21May 21 Aside from knowing the fundamentals, make sure you set realistic expectations from the start. If you go into this telling kids they're gonna kick ass and they lose every game I promise you'll lose half the team and will never see them again. If they're not having fun, don't be surprised if they don't show up for the last game of the season. I speak from experience both as a volunteer and a player.
May 22May 22 Also at the age of the OP the single biggest thing you can do is get your worst players to embrace movement and quick passing when they receive the ball. Just got through this age for the third time and its a constant that the ball ends up in the hands of a weaker player and they just freeze are quickly surrounded and it’s a turn over or jump ball.
June 3Jun 3 5 years ago I was dating this woman that volunteer coached some kids basketball team at the boys & girls club she worked at, I think they were 6-7 year olds. After she broke things off with me I had this fantasy of assembling an all star team of 7 year olds and just stomping the fuck out of her basketball team. /csb
June 4Jun 4 6 hours ago, Im_smarter_then_you said: Over. There is a God after all Did our advice work? J/K. Hope you did not lose all hope. My youngest is 20. Never thought we'd all survive to today.
June 4Jun 4 Author 26 minutes ago, boilerhorn said: Did our advice work? J/K. Hope you did not lose all hope. My youngest is 20. Never thought we'd all survive to today. Most of it did. All in all it was fun. Not sure I’d do it again
June 5Jun 5 On 6/3/2025 at 8:33 PM, Im_smarter_then_you said: Most of it did. All in all it was fun. Not sure I’d do it again It is 100% thankless. And I felt the same way after some seasons. Most of the time, the $25 post-season coach gift card to academy and the team photo was an adequate salve
June 5Jun 5 Author 17 minutes ago, boilerhorn said: It is 100% thankless. And I felt the same way after some seasons. Most of the time, the $25 post-season coach gift card to academy and the team photo was an adequate salve And they all think their girl is the next Caitlin Clark
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