Tips for coaching instructional sports

oxat622

oxat622

Well-known member
I'm head coaching my son's instructional basketball team this winter. All the players are either in Kindergarten or first grade. We had our first practice last night and... well... one or two kids look like they will listen well, most look like I will need to work to keep them engaged, and one I'm afraid is pretty much off in his own world.

I've coached this age in soccer and had some success with this challenge. The problem though is basketball is so much more procedural than soccer. One of my goals is to have the kids understand the things like what we're supposed to do during a jump ball, where to line up for free throws, throw ins, the job of the point guard, etc.

There are some things I learned from soccer to help - minimize the use of lines and taking turns one by one, use cones to indicate where to start and end a drill, etc., but I'd welcome more tips because obviously making this age run laps is a no-no. I saw online a tip to reward one or two high effort players in practice with a "captain's" sleeve band that they can wear at the next game. I like that kind of thing but also would want to avoid a kid getting discouraged if they never earn it. What other things could I try?
 
 
I’m far from an expert here, but did coach one year of girls basketball. 4th grade I think.

Biggest thing will be them getting dribbling down. That was the biggest hurdle at a young age. Practice it every chance you get.



I don’t remember if we did jump balls.

As far as shooting, teach them the basics but at that age they’ll either get it or they won’t. You’ll figure out quick who is which. You’re gonna have a lot of 5-2 games lol.

I think having them “run” and do like jumping jacks is fine, just make it fun and more of a game. Just to get them into it and to promote excercise.
 
oxat622 said:
I've coached this age in soccer and had some success with this challenge. The problem though is basketball is so much more procedural than soccer. One of my goals is to have the kids understand the things like what we're supposed to do during a jump ball, where to line up for free throws, throw ins, the job of the point guard, etc.
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I wouldn't worry about where to lineup. The official(s) should take care of that during the game at that age. If you are fortunate enough to have your own team understanding those procedures, I'm fairly confident that no other team will.

My opinion, teach them one simple play. Point guard dribbles the ball up the court and you call out a number or player name to come set a pick. Looks like this:

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Let everyone be the point guard. Understand that most kids will double-dribble (or triple, quadruple dribble or more).

Setting this play up lets them know the basic spots on the court.

Don't pull your hair out during the game, understand that you are building a love for the game. The game will be alot of fun if you understand that any success at all from most of the players is a great success for the team. You will have kids that never score during the season. And you will also have that one kid that scores most of your points. Several kids in the league will not be able to get the ball up to the basket even if it is at 8 feet.

Try to use the correct terminology and explain to them what it means. If you tell a player to drive to the basket and kick it to the corner, don't be surprised when they actually kick the ball. (Yes, I saw that happen).
 
Thanks for this stuff guys! My wife says I "bark" a lot trying to get them to do the right thing, from when I did soccer. My son was just on one of the local clubs this past fall and they're big on getting them a chance to self-correct, so I will try to do that better.

What about "crowd control" stuff? Keeping attention from wondering, rewarding effort, curtailing goofing off, etc?
 
At this age, emphasize fun. It needs to be fun first. The non-athletes will naturally be weeded out over time. Are they doing the guard the person with the same color wrist band thing?

Focus on basics. Basic ball handling. Passing. You will need to accept the fact that some of the kids are playing the game more than others and some are getting "coached" at home too.

Have a parent meeting early if you haven't already to meet everyone and lay down some ground rules now rather than later. Common sense things, you would think, like only cheer, don't criticize, don't coach from the bleachers, and ask for people to help at practice. Smaller groups go a long way of you can get good parents.

Will you be allowed to be on the court during games? That helps with some of these things.

If you do the captain arm band thing you better distribute them equally or somewhat equally otherwise you're going to get parents complaining to you or league.

Last bit of advice. Laugh and enjoy the time. Not at the kids to make fun of them but with them. It helps keep things light. A lot of the kids probably won't get beyond JV in HS.

Have fun
 
oxat622 said:
Thanks for this stuff guys! My wife says I "bark" a lot trying to get them to do the right thing, from when I did soccer. My son was just on one of the local clubs this past fall and they're big on getting them a chance to self-correct, so I will try to do that better.

What about "crowd control" stuff? Keeping attention from wondering, rewarding effort, curtailing goofing off, etc?
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I think that’s an area to engage parents at that age.

At that age they are naturally fonn on g to get distracted or run to the sidelines to see their parents. I’d encourage the parents to help “discourage” ( more like don’t enable) that and assist in getting them back on track.
 
My tip: Anyone coaching a diamond sport from 1st grade to a Sr in HS, know a lot of good dad jokes. Especially for visits to the pitcher When things are not going well.
 
It may be a little early for this tip, but with grade school boys I always found it helpful to run the excess energy out of them right at the beginning of practice. They can pay better attention once that happens. One tip I always gave in coaches clinics is to get a sore back and knees from bending over to explain things to the kids. Get down to their level.

I coached kids up through the 10th grade then had enough. My last experience was starting up a kids basketball program for little kids like yours. It was a great way to end it all, going back to where the small mistakes like a kid dribbling the basketball off of their foot was cute rather than the end of the world for some parents. Enjoy it and make it fun for the kids, it all goes away far too damn fast.
 
First of all - GOOD LUCK!!! 🤣

Plan on the first game being a train wreck. You'll get into a nice flow with practices, just you and the kids, maybe an occasional parent. But come game day one, lots of fans, officials, a clock, score and all else, just survive that day. I know alot of people like to be fair and equal and let all kids play all positions, but you have to be a little careful with that. If you have a couple of stronger players who dominate the ball, there's little you can do to stop that. One thing we've learned along time ago is that "free play" was taken from kids a long time ago and just letting the kids kind of figure some things out on their own is almost a foreign concept. You'll find out pretty quick who wants to play and who doesn't. Kindergarten/ first grade seems really young to start basketball. I think that by 4th, 5th grade is plenty early. Soccer is the first sport for most kids because everyone can run and kick. I wonder if even going to half court 2x2, 3x3 makes more sense for youth development.
Anyway, good luck!
 
All some great advice.

Kindergarten? Ugh. Soccer maybe, but basketball? With kindergartners? Good grief and good luck. I remember watching the travel sports circuit start younger and younger. Watching a 6U/7U "travel" baseball/basketball/soccer game is a special experience.

Organized chaos. Like everyone else has mentioned make it fun so they keep coming back. Make sure you have some booze around the house for post practice. ;)
 
We had our first "game" this weekend and it went overall great. Not as much chaos as I thought it would be, even with coaches on the sideline and not on the floor with them. I have eight kids on the team and one of them was out sick. Another came out early and didn't return (more on this later) so we played mostly with just six players. I was really happy that five of them scored, and it wasn't just one or two. Even the kindergarten girl who is the smallest person on the team ran down a long offensive rebound and drove all the way back in for a layup. Girl was beaming ear to ear all the way back down the floor. The one kid who didn't score just doesn't have much strength to shoot but has surprisingly turned out to be an extremely active defender - maybe even the best on the team.

One thing I'm making sure to do at games is give everyone some kind of "job", whether it's handle point guard duties for a whole quarter, handle all throw-ins for a quarter, or counting off "1-2-3 TEAM".

The kid I said is off in his own world is a little bit of a wildcard. He's the only one who gives me "Yes sir" when I tell the kids to do something, and I don't even ask for that. He picks up fundamentals and the "why" of things faster than anyone. But he also kind of wants to do everything. Before the game I told him he could handle point guard for the entire fourth quarter, but he spent the whole game demanding to be passed the ball on all throw ins from the back court. I had to remind him several times to be patient; he'd have the job to end the game. He's an interesting challenge.

The one kid who came out early just froze and panicked shortly after we started, unfortunately. I subbed him out and he didn't want to return to the rest of the game. At practice he says "can't" a lot and I overheard him say to his parents at the game he didn't know what he was supposed to be doing. I gave him the job of doing the jump ball to begin the game and get him engaged early (he actually won the tip!) but I still wonder if that was too much pressure for him. Gotta do something to simplify things and build confidence. Even if it's just on offense, stand at the block and get rebounds and put backs - defense just follow your man and go after rebounds.
 
Something I've learned with more time around sports is that the best coaches say less. The goal for all coaches should be to do less "active coaching" during games and rather train your players to react correctly to situations on their own.

Obviously, this is more difficult with younger kids but the concept still stands. That's the goal you are working towards. True "understanding" of the game for the kids. I like your concept of giving each kid a job. That gets them thinking out there.

Unfortunately, many parents are clueless and if you aren't actively yelling at the kids what to do they think you aren't doing your job
 
Instill in them now that there are winners and losers and you don't want to be associated with losers. lol

On a serious note, just make it fun and be fair in your "coaching". From the parents perspective, make sure you are harder on your kid than theirs.
 
Give them all nicknames. I did that with my sons soccer team. They think it’s cool to have a nickname and it’s easier to remember who you’re talking to, especially if you have a couple kids with the same first name.
 
I salute you for doing this. I don't have anything useful to add on the athletic portion of it, but yeah, keep it simple. Have a few "games" to keep it interesting. I like the nicknames idea. And have plenty of dad jokes and puns on hand to keep them guessing if you have a few "mature" jokers on the squad.

On the plus side, you should have some very funny moments coaching kids that age. Make sure you jot them down and have a favorite memory for each kid and their parents to treasure at the end of the season. :cool:
 
Well our "season" is over and I will happily do it again next year when my son is in second grade. We had eight "games" against the seven other K/1 teams in our community. By my observation each team had exactly one stud player who played with advanced skill, assertiveness, and an understanding of tactics. Hopefully most or all of these guys get to play together in a couple years on the community's "A" team for their grade. That will be a fun group.

Seven out of eight players on my team scored a basket during the season. I'm very pleased with that. This includes the kid who froze after the jump ball in the first game as well as the kid I said didn't have much strength to shoot.

My kid I described as a wildcard turned a corner for the better in the middle of the season. He bugged me a lot about playing point guard, not wanting to come out of games, despite me repeatedly telling him everyone else needs a fair chance. One game he looked pretty disengaged so I told him and his mom at the following practice that at the upcoming game, I would allow him to play the entire fourth quarter as point guard as long as he got me a combination of five rebounds, steals, or blocked shots before the fourth. Well, message heard. He got those pretty quick. I told him "You did it man, maybe I should have said get me 10." He also had the habit of standing in his teammates' way when they had the ball demanding them to pass to him. I would bark and bark in scrimmages to move to a spot that will help your teammates and he just flat out asked after practice if I would show him how to do it right. WOW! So we spent just a few minutes one on one demonstrating passing angles, find space, sealing your defender. He was a totally different player from then on.

One game during a break I described their rebounding as a "bunch of baby birds waiting for momma bird to come feed them". Like most players that age, they'd just stand under the basket, hands extended to the sky, not even jumping. They thought that was pretty funny, but I think they'll remember the message.

Question for the group. I said before that making kids at this age run is an obvious no-no. At what age/skill level do you think running for discipline is no longer inappropriate? This would be only for things like being disrespectful, interrupting, repeated disobeying, low attention/effort, NOT making basketball mistakes. This was the consistent challenge at practice, but my only recourse is positive reinforcement for good behavior.
 
Try to have a ball for each kid and just work on simple ball handling the first 20 minutes of practice. Mix in some running - small kids actually like to run. Go no more than 45 minutes and use the last 10 minutes to break up in 3x3 teams. Keep it low level.
 
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