Our best coaches should be working with our youngsters. Teaching youth basketball is so important for the overall state of our game. But many times these positions have to be filled with moms or dads that love the game, love the kids, but are forced to fill the position because no one else will. Even if these moms and dads once played the game, there is a big difference between knowing how to play, and teaching youth basketball skills at a high level. So, without stating the obvious like, “be sure to teach youth basketball fundamentals,” I want to offer some big picture guidelines that might help the youth basketball coach. (If, however, you are looking specifically for how to teach the fundamentals of basketball, I strongly suggest our youth basketball coaching videos and DVDs, which are available from this site's home page. Click here to learn more about them.)

Moving on, kids can’t learn and grow in the sport if there is a constant fear of making mistakes. And mistakes characterize this level of basketball. If kids are going to attempt anything new, then they’re going to make a ton of mistakes. Of course the coach must show them the right way and use youth basketball practice drills that will allow them to work on the proper techniques.

But consider this: for every mistake, there is an attempt by the kid to do something right! Find a way to compliment the player for this courageous attempt. I fear too many kids are being discouraged from continuing to play the game because of their negative experiences in youth basketball leagues.

Kids develop at different rates and at different ages. For every Lebron James that can be spotted when he’s 10 years old as a future NBA star, there’s a Michael Jordan who was cut from his high school basketball team. Lucky for us that Michael persevered and stayed with the game long enough to develop his youth basketball skills into the great player he became. I'm sure that his development had a lot to do with his own personal drive and the terriffic youth basketball instruction he must have received, but he also must have received some positive reinforcement from a pee-wee basketball coach somewhere along the way.

An example of the “different” kind of coaching mentality that I am getting at can be illustrated with this example from a youth basketball practice - Billy is trying to dribble the ball up the court for his team. Alex steals the ball from him. Instead of the coach ripping into Billy for not taking care of the ball, the coach can praise Alex for the great defense, the steal, the effort, etc. Another example: If Elizabeth missed her fast break lay-up, she can still be praised for running the floor. Or if Jeff gets beat on defense then your praise can be for the one who beat him rather than pointing out how horrible Jeff’s defense was. Trust me, the kids know when they’ve screwed up and the younger they are the weaker their ability to cope with failure.

My next major major piece of instruction for coaching youth basketball is that players learn by doing, not standing and watching. It’s very easy for coaches to run off at the mouth and over-coach the game. Instead, keep as many players involved in practice as is possible. Here are four examples of tailoring your youth basketball coaching drills to keep more of the kids involved...

A typical youth basketball drill for ball handling I see involves 2 or 3 players, each with a ball dribbling down the court and back, practicing their crossovers or whatever, while 10 other players wait in line. My suggestion to improve this type of youth basketball coaching drill is to put a dummy defender on each ball handler. Make the defender step slide and drop step ahead of the dribbler all the way down the court and back. Now you’ve involved 6 players instead of 3 and you're teaching defense as well as ball handling.

2nd, a typical lay-up drill involves two lines, two balls, one player shooting at a time, and 12 teammates standing in line. Try something like this for your lay-ups: Place 6 players on one basket with 2 balls. 3 on one side and 3 on the other. Player must pass to a teammate, cut toward the basket, receive the pass back and shoot the lay-up. The previous passer becomes the next lay-up shooter. After a few minutes, have the groups switch sides. Now instead of only lay-ups, the players are practicing passing, basket cutting, catching while on the move and making the lay-up without being distracted by the lay-up from the other group.

Or, let’s pretend you’re working on your offense: Five players on the floor running through your youth basketball plays. You can always double the involvement by having 5 dummy defenders “shadow” each offensive player. The defense can’t touch the passes. They simply have to be in good defensive position at all times and they must move in a defensive stance. When the offense takes their shot, the defense cannot hinder or block the shot, but now the defense can block out and rebound the ball. Suddenly you're working on defensive positioning and blocking out, as well as your youth basketball plays.

Finally, sprints at the end of practice? Why not have your players run their 5 man fast break with the ball. They can’t stop running until everyone on the team has made a fast break lay-up. That’s a minimum of 5 continuous trips up and down the floor. You’re getting the conditioning but you’re also teaching the fast break, passing, catching, speed lay-ups, who takes the ball out of bounds on a made shot, etc.

Have a written practice plan, even if it’s only on a 3X5 note-card. Over-plan: script out the most detailed youth basketball practice plan that you have the time to write. Move quickly from one youth basketball drill to the next. Have a " whistle-rule" that states: When you blow the whistle, everyone must jump into a triple attack stance and face you while you give instructions. No talking, no dribbling, no moving; just give the coach eye-contact and when the instructions are finished and the coach say’s “Go!’, everyone must sprint to the drill.
   When you don’t have the whistle around your neck, then you can be their “friend”. But when the whistle is around your neck, practice rules are in full force and it’s time to go-go-go!

Good luck with your youth basketball training,

Rick Torbett