Winter basketball just ended for our team of first graders. Everyone on the team was brand new to the game except for the one kid who was way better and all the kids knew it. We were lucky to have a Mom head coach who has loads of experience working in education. I assistant coached. Assisting a capable person is the dream for parent coaches. You don’t have to do anything but show up and help. No planning, no emails.

Here’s what to do:

• Keep the goal the goal. The goal is to have kids who look forward to going to the court (and hate to leave) - last part stolen from Brian Boyle from One Time All Stars.

• Basketball is more physical than I expected. Let the kids know that other kids will crash into them and step on their feet. Balls will ricochet off the rim and thunk off their skulls. When this happens, they will cry and run into the crowd for a hug from mom or dad or grandpa.

• Twenty minutes is the right length for practice before the scrimmage. After 20 we started to lose them. All of their learning will happen during practice time. Get a ball in every kid’s hands. Lower your expectations. Things will look shitty. It’s fine.

• Talk to the kids about being good teammates. Help your buddy up when they fall on the floor. High five when someone scores. HAND the ball to the other team or a ref on a stoppage. Yes, we are all here to learn and have fun, AND it is fun to win.

Tips and Drills:

Make sure the adjustable hoop is low enough.

Every kid wants to shoot. When they arrive, let them have a 5 minute shoot-around. It will be ugly. People will get drilled by basketballs on the court and in the stands. Get the rebounds and distribute the ball. Direct traffic.

You’ll need to endlessly demonstrate things. Everything is new. Try John Wooden’s, “like this, not like that, like this” format for demos.

Drill: “Small area” high fives. Every kid has a ball. Confine them to a small area marked by lines on the floor (the “key” is a good spot). Tell them which hand to dribble with. They dribble and walk/shuffle around the small area with their eyes up trying to high five coaches and teammates. Have them keep track of their high fives. Stop the drill after 30 seconds. Ask every kid how many fives they got. They will lie. Have them switch hands and go again. Do a few rounds.

Drill: “Self toss” rebound practice. This one gets dicey on a crowded court. Each kid finds a space and tosses their ball up in the air [a gentle 10 inch toss is plenty, but they will try to hit the rafters]. They’ll need to track the ball with their eyes and catch it with their hands. Catching with their hands will take lots of time. They all want to trap it against their torsos. They get bored of this one quickly but it’s worth a couple minutes.

Drill: Red, yellow, green light [like the playground game]. Two groups if you can, lined up on a sideline. Coach calls out a color. Yellow is walk and dribble, green is run fast and dribble, red is stop on a dime and be in a good passing or shooting position.

Drill [spend lots of time here]: Two lines for shooting drills. One coach runs each line. Have the kids get their own rebounds. Good habit to install early. Coach will bounce pass to a kid to start every rep. Always bounce pass.

• Four variations: uncontested shot, lightly contested shot so that they need to evade a little, uncontested layup, contested layup. Coach is the contester.

Final thoughts:

Coaches ref in our league. Don’t be afraid to blow the whistle but let most things go. [Kids barely stepping out of bounds, light contact, travels, double dribbles]. The kids will maul each other in the paint if you allow it. Get ahead of it early. If it gets rough, call both teams in for a chat and a breather.

The dream is to play 4v4 and have eight kids show up to play. You can just whistle and yell SUBS! every few minutes. An odd number put me in a sweaty, mental pretzel where I was overly focused on everyone’s playing time.

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