Youth basketball coaching

[Jeff Lebowski]

Originally Posted by jay santos

A lot of it is personal preference and I'm sure full court zone press can be effective, and I've seen some deadly ones.

1) I don't like zone anything just because I want to teach my kids fundamentals of one on one defense.

2) depends on the level, if it's competitive league you can teach it, if it's city league you won't be able to teach it to young kids because they'll forget where they're supposed to be and what they're supposed to do--stick with something easy.

3) full court, yes it tires you out, plus exposes yourself to fast break buckets which I try to eliminate at all costs. The other thing I teach is to get your a$$ back fast when they get the ball to stop their fast break. Then you can turn around at half court or further back and cut off dribble and get into passing lanes for steal.

We only do a zone press after a basket where the other team has to inbound the ball. We did man press last year but the zone press is much more effective. Coaching books seem to advise that strategy also. You basically teach the kids to force the ball to either sideline and set up traps on the edge. All you need to do to break a man press is set a pick for the dribbler.

Of course, it helps when the girls aren't strong enough to throw the ball very far downcourt.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Originally Posted by jay santos

On the fast break, I get the ball immediately to the point guard I don't care who steals the ball or gets the rebound first pass is to point guard because he can get the ball up the court the fastest without a TO. You see a kid get a steal and then travel with the ball all the time because he's not used to running up the ball with the court. So I get it to my point guard as fast as possible and then tell everyone else if you want to score you get up the court first and pg will get you the ball. Nothing too complicated. Then you also look for early scoring opportunities even if they get back fast and cut off the break if you might have a mismatch to drive or post up.

Gotcha. Bottom line is nothing can substitute for a good, quick point guard.

One of the things I like about the 3 on 2 - 2 on 1 drill is that it simulates fast breaks pretty well.

[jay santos]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

We only do a zone press after a basket where the other team has to inbound the ball. We did man press last year but the zone press is much more effective. Coaching books seem to advise that strategy also. You basically teach the kids to force the ball to either sideline and set up traps on the edge. All you need to do to break a man press is set a pick for the dribbler.

Of course, it helps when the girls aren't strong enough to throw the ball very far downcourt.

You're probably talking about a level that's a little higher than I'm talking about as far as brain power and practice time. When you get older or talking about a competitive team where you have more practice time, you start to mold your philosophy more around your available talent.

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by jay santos

How to dominate youth basketball.

1. In your draft, try to get the best point guard as the highest priority. Big man that can defend and possibly score in the paint, second priority. Third priority is athleticism, favoring speed over height everytime.

2. Scoring in the half court set is difficult no matter how good you are. Especially when jerk coaches run a zone and pack it in. You have to score on fast breaks. So spend nearly all your time in practice on how to generate fast breaks and scoring on your fast breaks, see #3.

3. Defense: attacking defense. Best athlete point guard is on their point guard. Stop the dribble, and everyone is aggressively cutting off passing lanes. Wait until they get to half court to jump on them. Practice this over and over.

4. Half court D. If they get past you and into their offense, front their post players, harass the perimeter players, and force them to make perfect pass over the top to get it to their post man.

5. Rebounding. Spend almost half your practice time on rebounding drills and boxing out (and firing it out to the outlet point guard to run the fast break).

6. Half court offense. Depending on the age, you can get more complicated, but simpler the better and fewer passes the better. High screen pick and roll is about all you need through 6th grade. If you have to pass more than twice, good chance you'll turn it over and never get a shot. You need quick hitting plays and shoot the ball quickly--at least you get a shot in and a chance for offensive rebound, plus you're quicker into your real scoring opportunities which are on D.


Teach fundamentals and all that and try to develop basketball players, but the way to win games is this strategy.

Excellent advice, though I ignored your comment about the PG in today's draft. The best available PG in this draft is also the kid with the worst attitude, is a black hole for the ball and has the biggest pain in the ass parents.

I appreciate you posting these tips because it did help me put together what I think can be a competitive team.

My goal as a coach - no matter the sport - has always been to help each kid to be better by the end of the season than when the season started. This is only the 2nd season I've coached basketball - compared to 18 seasons coaching youth baseball - and I've found that winning is a byproduct of helping each kid get better, which is why I emphasize fundamentals, fundamentals and fundamentals more than anything.

[MikeWaters]

I tried to teach my boys a zone press. I gave up after one session.