I’m gearing up for coaching a 2nd grade basketball team this season. I rotate seasons with my kids and coach baseball in the spring, soccer in the fall, and basketball in the winter.

I often have (luck of the draw, grade level kids in the neighborhood) the smallest and youngest kids in the league. We focus on having fun, fundamentals, and experiencing all the positions to learn more about the game. One of my core values for all of my teams is “playing with fire,” meaning intensity. I design drills to teach my kids about playing with contact and going after the ball. I am very clear to teach my kids that we never play dirty, we never intentionally foul, and we expect physical play in return, but play with character and never lose our cool.

This soccer season was the first time I really started to encounter issues where some of the players and parents on opposing teams have had vocal problems with it. We ref our own games. The frustration often comes when bigger players on opposing teams who haven’t had to learn how to appropriately use their size start getting out positioned or maneuvered by my smaller but physical players. In return, because it seems like this is a new experience for them, they will retaliate with inappropriate things (throwing elbows, pushes in the back, etc). If anything, I err on the side of not calling anything too often on the other teams because I know my players are playing a physical game. That said, if it is clearly out of frustration, I want to make sure nobody gets hurt and that emotions stay level. I always give the feedback to kids in a calm and constructive way, being careful about tone and not trying to escalate the situation or embarrass the kid.

I literally had a nine year old pull his hand back from me during the post-game (soccer) handshake line today and then tell another one of my players “You suck,” and last week several opposing parents were giving me grief after I calmly called a spot foul and got a bunch of “He’s just giving back exactly what your players are doing!” and “Maybe you ought to check your own kids first!”

Long context to say, how do you all deal with setting an example for your kids to be physical (box out strong, go for loose balls like it is their’s to win, rebound aggressively, etc) while addressing other parents and players in the league who might not understand that basketball IS a contact sport at times?

Hey, im coaching 4th grade boys basketball and we only play 7 min quarters.. I have 1 really good player whos usually the best player on the court and 10 inexperienced lower skill players, how would you guys do your substitutions while also trying to give your best player a few more mins then the others? When hes off the court we simply cant get into our offense at all.. Im working with the rest of them on ballhandling and not being afraid to take shots but they arent there just yet.. This is a team for his school not aau or anything.. Thank you..

Unskilled & Unathletic U17 Boys Team, playing a pack defense can get more primary breaks? Or should I switch to deny/ on the line defense to get more 1 V 0, 1 V 1, 2 V 1 situation on the transition? Please help coaches.

I got a question Do you think a freshman should play freshman team, JV & varsity especially if good enough for all three

I'm coaching a 4th grade team of only 7 players. All of the competition (neighboring towns) will have more players than we do and mostly like more talent (some way more and some just slightly more) than we do. Coaching youth in the past we have played mostly man-to-man with some zone, but I'm afraid playing a man-to-man with only 2 bench players will run us down and we will get beat in the second half no matter what. 2-3 zone seems like a reasonable option as does a 1-4 zone. Any thoughts would be greatly helpful.

Hey r/basketballcoach

I’m facing a tough challenge in our league, and I could use some in-depth advice. Our team plays incredibly well against man-to-man defense—likely one of the best in our league in that setup. But, the problem is, word has gotten around, and now almost every team switches to a zone within the first two minutes of the game, which seriously disrupts our offense.

One of the biggest issues we have is the lack of a pure shooter to stretch the defense. Most resources I’ve found on attacking zone defenses recommend outside shooting, which isn’t feasible for us. I’m not just looking for simple movements; I’m hoping for advanced systems with precise positioning and role-based setups that we can implement to attack the zone effectively, even without shooters.

If anyone has experience with structured systems for zone attacks that don’t rely on shooting, I’d be grateful for any insights. Specific play setups, player positioning, and in-depth strategies would be extremely helpful. Thanks in advance for your advice!

Background: my son is 8years old 3rd grader playing on 9U AAU team as primary ball handler(PG). He has excellent ball handling, passing, shooting and defense. He is only lacking in rebounding cause he is short. Started playing in aau since 1st grade.

This story is about the second team he is playing for this year, a 3-4 grade feeder team that aim to go to the state.

The team has 3 3rd grader all my son’s teammate. Rest of them all 4th graders.

The best player on the 4th grade is my son’s friend, they started playing together 2 years ago. They still train at local YMCA together and does a lot of 1 on 1 where my son wins 90% of it. Because he got killer cross over, hesi, van finish with both hands and a super good elbow jump shot.

Now with all that out of the way. We had our first tournament in the feeder team, since the game is early morning, only 6 player showed up. During the game, my son and his 3rd grade friend took turn sitting on the bench. Whereas rest of the 4 player played entire game without rest. We won the game 36-21.

To all the coaches out there: I know for a fact that my son will kill any one of them in a 1 on 1. He is the primary ball handler in his 9U AAU team where he plays 35 minutes a game, where the coach had to tell him, stop passing the ball, if you see 1 on 1 opportunity take it, no one can stop you in a 1 on 1( just to note he is not selfish and he like to pass to open man under the basket… but at this age more than half won’t turn into points even wide open).

How do I communicate about playing time? I know he is shorter cause he is younger by 2 years but he is the fastest and by far the best 1 on 1 defender on the team. Every parent with eyes can see it too, I see 3 kids that keep making mistake, dribbling into 3 and lose the ball. But they are taller and 4th grade so they can play 40 minutes? I see the taller dude slacking off on defense, we gave many wide open layups since he is just standing around, but he is the tallest of the 6 kids so he gets to play 40 minutes too….

Jr.NBA has developed a free school curriculum https://jr.nba.com/jr-nba-instructional-curriculum/, consisting of 4 modules:

-Rookie

-Starter

-All-Star

-MVP

https://jr.nba.com/jr-nba-instructional-curriculum/

However, it does not indicate what age each one should be used for. We are in the afterschool industry and usually break our classes into two age groups Gr. K-2 or Gr. 3-5. I would really appreciate it if someone with great experience in coaching elementary students could tell me what age groups are most suitable for using each curriculum.

Hello all,

I posted earlier this week about prep for practice and today, my son’s U15 team had their third game. We were “mercy rule’d” before half time - meaning the other team was up by 40+. My young group of learners is starting to feel really disheartened after multiple 30+pt losses (it’s one thing to lose, it’s another to be non-competitive). The players are starting to blame one another and aren’t recognizing their own efforts or play.

We played today with everyone looking out for themselves and making singular efforts versus working as a team.

Any suggestions from experienced coaches as to how to approach next practice on Wednesday? Do I have them recall how it felt to lose that way? Do I call out the positive efforts and moments from some players (which I do through the game still)?

I am kind of at a loss at this point…The team we played against was 0-2 coming into today and we probably lost by 60+ at the end of the game as we only scored 10pts.

Thanks!

Coach of an u13 girls team, who are struggling atm. How can they learn man-to-man or some sort of zone like system (zone isn't allowed in this league)? Any suggestions for videos that we can study??

Im coaching 12/13 year olds, and while I haven't assigned set positions yet, the players who often find themselves playing pf or center aren't sure what to do in that position. I've always played pg or sg, so I don't really how to teach them the big man role. I can teach them to bump and dropstep, or bump into the hookshot. But not much more than that. Things like positioning in the dunkerspot, or when to post up.Where can I learn about the role of the big man? Are there any resources out there? Help!

Hi all, first time coaching a state league boys u14 teams and first time having an assistant coach. What advice do you have with dealing with your assistant? I've don't know the guy, he was just assigned to the team. Seems easy going but don't really know. Just want to get off on the right foot and not have issues. Undermining my authority, doing things behind my back etc. Extra tip bit, his son is on the team.

Hey y’all, I’m looking for the best continuity zone offense to get the absolute most out of a dominant big. D1 level athlete, not the most reliable shooters around her but I wouldn’t say they’re horrible. Got another one with size that is automatic from the high post. I coach girls if that changes anything for you.

Hello all,

I am coaching my son’s U15 community team this year and I am eager to create a space for the kids to grow and experience those “ahh ha!” moments. We have had five practices and two games. The team consists of mainly new players who want to learn the game for fun.

We have gotten smoked the first two games with losses of 30+ pts. In evaluating our in game performances it is pretty clear that a few things stand out to work on (and have been identified by the team): understanding man-to-man defence, rebounding, and finishing at the rim.

For context:

• During our games, players routinely lose contact with their matchups, and swarm towards the ball or ball handler, leaving players open around the basket or other areas on the floor.
• Our tall players decide to match up with short guards and I have to redirect them.
• We are out-rebounded significantly.
• The players are learning and working on their layups but struggle under game like scenarios to finish strong.

Strategies and approaches so far:

• CLA games and drills focused on rebounding (“King of the Paint”, half-court 3v3 and fill-court 4v4 with points awarded for offensive and defensive rebounds, rebounding circle to push each other out).
• CLA games and drills focused on layups and finishing (hot potato to layups, “Bump” game, scrimmage types with emphasis that only layups count), as well as regular line drills for layup technique and finishing.
• Walk-through and repetitions on man-to-man defence and strategies such as “calling out your man”.

We have practice this evening and I was hoping for some suggestions from more experienced coaches on how to effectively combine traditional and CLA drills to work on these concepts, especially the defence. An additional thought, in helping the players understand positions on the court, is to move to naming positions with numbers 1-5. If someone knows they are a 4 going onto the court, they know their positions and roles and hopefully doesn’t get caught guarding a quick player on the periphery.

Thank you!

Coach S

I’m looking for an offensive set for a team that isn’t particularly skilled. I am considering 5 out and focus on mainly screen and cuts. What’s a set you have had some success with? I coach at the middle school level. Preferably something that can be taught and learned quickly. Our first game is next Monday and we had our first practice yesterday..

I have issues with girls who are a little too slow to make the pass to a girl until they are already open, which then gives the defender time to adjust and then make an easy steal. Basically they're too worried about passing into traffic, but then their player is already closed down by the time they do pass it, easy steal, layup the other way, and then confidence is drained and anxiety is high. Rinse and repeat.

We do work on off ball movement a lot (4 out motion offense), and I do not think this is much of an issue with them.

Any suggestions? I've already thought about a "pass into the space" drill, to help them pass before their teammate hits a spot on the floor. But this doesn't help with the defenders and other bodies causing chaos part.

This is U14, B team. Basically they're all decent athletes, but just haven't had much basketball experience, but are good athletes in other sports.

Hi, coaches!

New 7th grade boys basketball coach this season and super excited to get going. I played basketball through high school and lacrosse in college, so I’m competitive and love being around competition, but this will be the first time coaching older kids (I’ve coached various U8 and U10 sports).

I have an assistant that has been helping with the 7th/8th programs for 10+ years now and is an experienced coach — having coached AAU as well as some lower-level school programs. I know he’ll be a great asset to me, yet I can’t help but feel incompetent and that I have so much to learn still in terms of seeing the game from a coach perspective. I’m sure it’s a confidence thing more than anything since it’s a step out of my comfort zone, yet has anyone else been in this position? Tips to offer?

Also, I’m wondering how many structured sets are appropriate at this age. Offensively, we’ll run some variation of 5-out/4-out 1-in. I want the boys to learn about continuous motion, cutting, screening away, proper spacing, etc. more than set plays. However, I’m more talking about BLOB/SLOB. How many is too many? Any advice would be awesome!

Hi all - 4th grade, 'competitive rec' team.....

Last year my 3rd grade team struggled all year to internalize the very limited team concepts we taught in practice...each practice, it felt like starting over from square one. I'm talking simple as possible: 1 BLOB, 5-out pass-cut-replace offense, man D principles. Not only unable to execute in the stress of a game, which I totally get, but like there was a memory wipe that occurred after every practice :)

I'm gearing up for this year, where we're going to need to account for a press-break as well...I'm toying with the idea of giving each boy a small folder/binder with diagrams, etc they can use at home. Again keeping it simple....1 or 2 BLOBs, 1 or 2 diagrams showing the basic O and D principles, ideas for 15 min practice sessions at home....5-8 pages tops.....give them a physical reminder and reference that they can (hopefully) look at once or twice a week and keep the info a little more top of mind between practices. Who knows, might even be fun for them to have a real 'playbook'....

Before I do that....curious if anyone has had success using something like that at this level? Am I crazy or out of touch thinking 4th graders will respond favorably to this? (This isn't travel ball, it's local rec league, albeit with solid athletic kids who genuinely want to win)

EDIT: Thanks all for the feedback, a ton of great ideas and tips down there which I will take on board. Appreciate the thoughtful responses

Hey coaches 👋

Long-time lurker here. After getting permission, I wanted to share something I’ve been working on for the last year that might be helpful to you all. It's an iOS app called Elite Hoops, the easiest way to describe it is that it's a recordable whiteboard. So you record and share plays, drills, SLOB/BLOBs, etc and export it as a video to your team.

Basically, my son has played AAU for a long time - and he had issues learning a diamond press. You know how it goes: write it out on paper, then a whiteboard, try to find an app that isn't awful to do it, etc. Since I'm a software engineer, I figured I could do better and made this. Today, a few Division 1 schools use it (which is insanely cool for me personally), several D2s/, High Schools and most of the user base are youth coaches.

I’d love to hear any feedback on it. Most of the app can be used for free, and I’m always open to suggestions from coaches on what would make it even better for your day-to-day. The subscription/paid parts of it are recording and sharing videos, a few court design tweaks + options.

Feel free to DM me with any questions or thoughts! I love talking ball and tech.

PS: I'm close to releasing an entire practice planner inside the app - preview here. And, I have a completely, totally free practice generator available on the website here (you can even share these!).

I've talked to 30+ coaches this 2 weeks! Thanks for all of you who participated our study. I got lots of great advice and feature requests and we're trying to implement those asap. Big Thanks!

We're still looking for more coaches to join our innovative study! If you're interested in using AI to create NBA-level clips for your team, please reach out. This is an opportunity to elevate your team's training and game with new technology.