Coaching Frustration

[NKYSportsfan41]

Your goal at the end of the day is to make these young men better basketball players and better gentlemen. At the 7th grade level, they tend to forget plays, make silly mistakes, goof off, etc. I think that is part of the fun of it. Trying to accomplish things that people didn't think possible.

 

Keep your head up, keep your energy level up and positive, because they feed off of that more than anything.

 

Good luck the rest of the way.

[malachicrunch]

I do agree that twice a week is not enough. You didn't mention that amount of plays you work on in the 40% of your practices. At this level you do not need more than a couple of sets. I ran about 3 against M-M defense, and normally only 1 against a zone. I ran two press breaks. One OB entry under our basket, and two sideline inbounds plays. We put much more time into defense and rebounding. On D we ran a Diamond press, M-M, 2-3, and occasionally a 1-3-1 half court trap. We pressed after every made basket or FT. We also incorporated out FT shooting with running at the end of paractice. Better to shoot the FTs with tired legs. But we practiced every night. I also had an itenirary for every practice and kept to it to maximize the time we did have, which was usually an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half. As far as fundamentals, we ran some dribbling and passing drills to open paractice and warmup at the same time. 7th graders should possess these skills, and it should be reiterated to them that these need to be worked on, on their own time. You simply cannot teach fundamental skills twice a week and expect marked improvement. Good Luck:thumb:

[Reality Check]

Sounds to me like a lot of your kids are just not fundamentally sound. They should know this stuff as 7th graders but they don't and you have to figure out what works best for them as players. I would argue to work more on the fundamental part of the game, if they can understand those aspects they will be fine. Remember the KISS method (Keep it simple stupid!) We have a tendancy to want to run everything if you can execute your offense well a simple offense will work, it comes down to execution. Good luck!

[Beechwoodfan]

I had a coach tell us once that the problem with teaching younger kids to play is that, in many neighborhoods, kids dont play street ball anymore. You have to teach them things that previous generations picked up just from playing in the neighborhood. If you are working with the same kids, do you encourage a blacktop league in the summer, or just pick up games?

[cooperstown]

It's probably safe to say that you're not going to turn this team into an offensive juggernaut in the near term. But defense can be improved upon fairly quickly and a very good defense can help generate a few extra points. I used to love taking my top defender and having him pick up their PG at mid-court. It throws teams out of their offensive rhythm and running set plays and helps get the ball out of the hands of their top player (usually the PG at that age). I used to give out weekly awards for defense (top rebounder, top steals, best play, etc..) - anything to encourage them to get fired up about defense.

[Clyde]

It's probably safe to say that you're not going to turn this team into an offensive juggernaut in the near term. But defense can be improved upon fairly quickly and a very good defense can help generate a few extra points. I used to love taking my top defender and having him pick up their PG at mid-court. It throws teams out of their offensive rhythm and running set plays and helps get the ball out of the hands of their top player (usually the PG at that age). I used to give out weekly awards for defense (top rebounder, top steals, best play, etc..) - anything to encourage them to get fired up about defense.

 

I am guessing that the ol' adage that "coaches who stress defense never had any offensive skills when they played" is true in your case.

[SouthernSportsFan]

I'd resign.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just kidding.

[cooperstown]

I am guessing that the ol' adage that "coaches who stress defense never had any offensive skills when they played" is true in your case.

 

Very true. Though in my defense, I'd say my defensive skills were also rather lacking.

[doubledeuce]

Please remember it is about teaching the game of Basketball at that age. My advice is spend 75% working on the basics and 25% on everything else.

 

If you can't dribble, pass, and catch you can't play the game not matter what offense you run.

 

I think you are use to coaching kids with skill. Some of my favorite teams I have coached are teams that lacked skill. I was a better coach because I had to teach the basics. A lot of coaches forget the basics.

 

 

I have a limited amount of experience coaching basketball but here goes.

 

When I did coach we did a lot of working on skills over and over. We had two plays.

 

We really, really, really practiced defense and really really really practiced rebounding. I made the rebounding drill competitive as possible, this helped to teach them to be aggressive as well.

 

The next thing we worked a lot on was fast breaks, filling lanes. When we were on defense we "cherry pick" on the shot. I would designate one player every quarter to take off to the other end of the court as soon as the opposing team shot the ball. I would never use my PG for this.

 

As soon as we got the rebound we would pass the ball out as fast as possible and LOOK UP! Even if the other team scored we would inbound the ball as fast as possible and LOOK UP!

 

We practiced never passing the ball backwards if we did not have to.

 

The amount of points we would score was awesome but the best thing is, is that we were very good by the end of the season at the fundamentals. The kids learned real fast that good defense and rebounding leads to easy points. Plus the biggest key is that it is very SIMPLE. The kids do not have to think, they just play!!!

 

It is a very fun way to teach the game and the kids love it.

 

You can have your worst player be the "cherry picker" and he will score more points than you ever imagined.

 

It worked for the girls teams I coached as well.

[Qryche11]

Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals...dont worry so much about plays. Get the ball out and have them run and have fun.

[jmoore33]

Wow! you have just ask for the definition of what it takes to be a great coach.

 

Of course you teach fundamentals. But you have to teach the kids to learn the game. If they have no concept of the little details of winning then all your fundamentals do not mesh. It sounds like you are missing an identity as a team. What are you best at? Ever heard of the 80/20 rule? You get 80% of your results from 20%. Sometimes as coaches we make it harder than it has to be. Find out what are you best at and try to incorparate a plan around it and let the kids know too. They will feel empowered by the inclusion. If you are a bad shooting team but athletic then full court press when you have the lead to force TOs to make the other team feel the pressure. Not sure of your situation but just find your teams identity and stick to it.

[NKYBOY1487]

FRUSTATION UPDATE:

 

We've playe 3 games and today will be our 5th practice since I first posted about my "frustration". Im learning to let it not bother me as much. Buts its getting even more difficult. We've lost 3 more games. All by less than 12pts. All against teams I know we can beat. Last night we trailed at halftime 8-3 and had missed 12 open shots or layups in the first half.

 

Last week I held a team meeting and talked about getting better. Working harder. And what I was going to expect of the boys in the 2nd half of the season. I asked for any input or any question the boys might have. Of course they are kids, no one has anything to say.

 

I've incorporated some different drills at practice and things to work on fundamentals but at the same time keeping it fun. The kids seem to enjoy practice more. Were doing a lot more drills and working on man to man defense and rebouding rather than working on plays and sets.

 

I've seen improvement in our team defense. I see they are starting to understand "help defense" and what "weak side defense" means. We aren't allowing very many pts, but we don't score very many either.

 

But my biggest gripe now is the effort. The effort just isn't there. Only a few guys seem to be hustling at practice and games. I've tried making some run more than others when they don't hustle. I've tried making the whole team run as punishment for 1 or 2 guys. But nothing is working. I've still got different guys slacking and dogging it when they should be. And its carrying over to the court.

 

I've come to the conclusion that playing time for everyone is important to get better. But I've identified 5 of my 10 players who give good effort. No matter how small it makes our line up, I'm going to reward these players by starting them in the next couple games. Maybe this will help make others realize how serious hustle and effort is.

[Reality Check]

Thanks for the update! Glad to hear they are making some progress. As I have always said the best motivator for a kid is the bench. Good luck coach.

[ADopted ADmiral]

Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals...dont worry so much about plays. Get the ball out and have them run and have fun.

 

 

I agree 1000%%%...

[NKYBOY1487]

8 straight losses and counting.......its going to be a long Jan and Feb!!!!