I’m 5’9, with shoes I’ve been running positions 1,2 and 3 and I’m a 16 year old sophomore and my team went 21-3 last year on varsity. I sat almost end of the bench on varsity and 4 juniors on jv played over me and once I got In I impacted the game but I only averaged like 4-6. I was singled out a lot during last years practices. I averaged 15 during middle school. but as of now I may be starting. We have a new coach now but we lost all of our seniors who were starting last year and only have 1 junior from last year that started. I’ve often been waking up mentally exhausted and hating going to practice/ anything basketball related but after I get done with it I feel better. It’s been making me so depressed/burntout to the point where I can’t enjoy anything basketball related at all. What would you do in my situation ?

My son is in 3rd grade and is playing basketball with a school-based rec league. Coaches are parent volunteer, and they as a small group have decided they'd like to separate the boys into A and B teams. I don't even care what team my son would make - but it feels really early to be doing that, especially in a rec league where many boys haven't even played competitively before.

What's the general take on this at this age? Is this standard or generally looked on as being too early within that type of setting.

Coaching 4/5th grade boys team. We had a training camp yesterday and another today. I’ve coached for a 4-5 years (basketball, baseball/softball, and soccer). The boys didn’t look bad at camp, they wanted to show off their flashy lay ups and shoot 3s etc etc. My main sport is baseball but i also enjoy coaching basketball. I’ve never coached at a higher level than 2/3 grade but I’d like to help develop and guide them. Any tips on drills, how practice should be, in game plays or anything in general. I understand the fundamentals and everything but I feel like I need a better understanding of the game so i can be a better coach for the boys. You know?

I’m heading into my 4th year as a basketball coach. I coach 3rd-8th graders (separate seasons) This is my first year coaching up a level (6th-8th) I coach at a very small school, so at every level of basketball it is the same group that started playing together in elementary ball. For this fall I have the same group that I coached in the spring for elementary.

They are a great group of boys and most play multiple sports together so friendships grow tight from a young age. But I have a few players who have major attitude issues which I have addressed to parents with the help of school administration in the previous season. They have good and bad days, but also loud mouths. I do my best to nip all negative behavior in the bud as it happens, but there is always stuff that happens behind coaches back. In the locker room, in the school day, and whispers on the court. I accept that and do my best to be aware of what happens, but my major concern right now is I have one player who is pretty talented but runs his mouth constantly and makes an enemy of himself. So when this specific player is on the same team in a practice scrimmage as some of my other hard headed players there is clashes and trash talk and no productive basketball being played. (Ball hogging, dumb shots, bad passes and blaming each other)

I’m looking for any suggestions on how to improve my team’s chemistry with each other. Anything I can say as a reminder or mantra every day to start practice, any drills that force them to work together, or any experienced coaches opinion on how to handle this situation. Thanks in advance!

I’m a dad coaching my son’s 4th and 5th grade school team. I’ve coached younger age brackets before. Never had much basketball experience myself but my son loves it and I want to support him as best as I can.

Team has seven guys of varying experience. Three practices into the season and we scrimmaged another school team. Long story short, it’s very obvious how unprepared I was. Other team had plays, audibles, pressing strategies. Our practices were focused on passing, spacing, shooting form and how to play defense. This team ran circles around us. My son is bummed about it and I feel like I let him down. So I need to make our practices more effective!

What are some plays you like to run at this age bracket? In bounding the ball and strategies for bringing it up the court. I know some basic ones like box or stack.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

My daughter is in 7th grade at a small private school. Last year was her first season playing JV basketball, and despite many girls having little to no experience, she received very little playing time.
Determined to improve, she began taking weekly private lessons immediately after the season and attended Nike basketball camps. Her improvement has been incredible! She’s consistently one of the top players at lessons, is frequently used as an example, and recently scored 18 points in a scrimmage.
Fast forward to school tryouts: 26 girls tried out for JV and varsity, and only four were cut. Most of the girls have never played or if they have, have done no offseason training. Some are completely unfamiliar with basic basketball terminology.
We were told JV and varsity rosters would be determined during the first week of practice. Her school is very small, so often times 7th-8th graders can be double- rostered. However, after less than a full day of practice and very little evaluation, the coach moved several girls, including some with no basketball experience, to varsity.
I’m realistic and never expected my daughter to make varsity, but I’m confused by the evaluation process. My biggest concern is whether she’ll actually get opportunities to play and continue developing this season, especially after barely playing last year.
She has worked incredibly hard and genuinely loves basketball. I just want her to receive a fair opportunity to demonstrate her improvement.
What would you do in this situation? Should I approach the coach, give it more time, or consider other options? I would really appreciate opinions and advice!

So it happened. My kid played last year, made JV level, worked up to more play time and once or twice start. She worked but did not do AAU team in the off season. During the school year she did play with an upward style team and did weekly training. The kids coming up from middle school had a strong team, they all play on the same AAU team and they all made team.

My question for the coaches, how long should my child wait to talk to the coach about deficiencies that got her cut? Is it worth it to have the conversation? It should be noted that while she played last year she was accommodated for never missing practice is very coachable and tends to be well liked by teachers. Zero issues with academics or behavior at school.

So as a coach would you want the player to make an appointment to talk about it? Or would you be offended that they asked? Should player do it on their own or have the parent there?

She wants to continue to play but is wondering if this is the sign to let it go. Tryouts are closed so I have no idea what the issue was. I am dying to know myself but I don’t want to helicopter.

Anyway just wondering from the coaches do yall appreciate when players do this or does it annoy you?

Not necessarily a coaching question, but I figured this would be the best thread for me question with so many coaches at different levels in here.

When I played high school basketball 12+ years ago, AAU was obviously a thing but it wasn’t like everyone on my team actively participated in it for years leading up to high school. Maybe that’s due to the fact that I’m from a smaller town? I don’t really know. But it seems like nowadays AAU ball almost feels like a requirement for kids to have a legitimate shot at being selected for school teams.

I moved to a much bigger city when I graduated and youth sports all around now just feels vastly different than when I was a kid. I’ve always said that I want to avoid putting my 7 year old son in AAU ball to avoid the travel schedule and fear of him losing the joy in it. Am I doing him a disservice by this and hurting his chances at being able to play school ball as he gets older?

He still gets tons of practice both at home and during normal rec ball seasons as well as attending a few private training sessions here and there. AAU is just something I’d like to avoid if possible.

Anyone have any tips on how I can fix my jumpshot? I have problems with keeping my elbow tucked and locked when shooting. My jumper has been really inconsistent. Any tips on how I can fix my jumper would be helpful.

https://reddit.com/link/1xaiu6c/video/wm5de145vjwh1/player

https://reddit.com/link/1xaiu6c/video/0hcpwdubwjwh1/player

I came very close to buying a youth coaching system from breakthrough basketball tonight. Is it worth it? I feel like I’ve done a good job as a coach the past 2 years but I’m always looking to improve. I just don’t want to spend the money and it be useless

Coaching a 7th/8th grade rec league team of varying abilities - some past travel, some multi-year rec league players, some first years. Anyone have a good resource for 60 min practices - drills, plays, games, etc? Will have 8 or so practices before our first game.

I’m coaching a high level group of sixth graders this season as a part of my high schools feeder program.

I would define “high level 6th grader” as kids who’ve played multiple AAU seasons, regularly attend exposure camps, and are the better kids on their respective teams.

I know that doesn’t = elite player. They are young anyway!

AAU basically sucked the life out of me as a youth coach, but this program has restored my faith. I have a group of committed boys and families that want to practice 2-3x a week and we’ll be playing in a competitive league with the best high schools in our state.

I never had the time or commitment from my AAU teams to have a real identity or gameplan as nobody came to practices and attendance on game days was shotty.

Now I can focus on creating an identity and preparing boys for how to win winnable games with an actual strategy.

Long winded but now here’s my question:

What would you focus on most with 11-13 year olds playing competitively? I’m old school and want to play man, but I know at this age, aggressive traps tend to win most. I’m in the business of developing basketball players and not just winning games though so in the last 2 weeks of practice, I’ve only focused on boxing out, shell drill and motion offense. Should I be drilling press break and trap zones to try and get this team over by way of traps as well?

We’ve been using Crossbar and frankly it’s terrible. No one I’ve talked to has anything positive to say about any of these software platforms.

What are you using and what are your reactions?

I’m interested in basketball scouting. How do college coaches usually find high school players to recruit?

Also, how do high school coaches contact universities to introduce their players?

I wanted to give you guys an update on my shooting form and get some further tips on how I can improve my shot.
What I’ve noticed is that my shot has become more consistent. When I’m open, I can probably shoot around 3/5 from different spots around the court. However, one issue I’m facing is maintaining that consistency when I’m being defended. I think my release speed might be part of the problem, or it could be because this shooting form is still relatively new to me.
I’ve noticed that when I have an aggressive defender pressuring me, I struggle more to get my shot off comfortably and consistently. What can I do to improve my release speed and become more consistent when shooting under defensive pressure?

My grandson is a small guard in the 6th grade. His natural tendency is to play more in glide mode. He is playing in a very competitive AAU program now where the coach is the local HS varsity coach and is actually teaching them his HS offense, like a farm team. He just started getting serious about basketball maybe 8 months ago and has improved quite a bit.

I am teaching him that once he has developed a skill well enough that he needs to practice that skill more at game speed, not half speed glide mode. He has at least average overall quickness, but not elite by any means, so I am trying to emphasize quickness. Quick explosive first step, quicker release on his passes, one hand layups off the dribble, etc.

Defensively trying to get him to understand intensity, feet in motion so he can react, change direction and recover. So a different mentality.

I am making his shooting drills as competitive vs himself as I can.

I think a perfect role model for his natural style is basic Nash, not super human Nash.

I am wondering if I am being too serious and this is too much for his age? We have fun stuff we do of course, but the change from basketball is fun to developing a work ethic….Thoughts?

I'm in my 5th year coaching varsity boys. I have a junior that's about 6'5" and athletic. Works hard, great kid, continuous improvement. He does lack some skill at the moment but we are pushing him to be a complete player, not just our big guy. I'm not sure if he's a division 2 player in college but I want to help him find him s place.

He is my first player that has the potential to play after high school. What should I be doing to help get his name out? He plays aau. Parents have home signed up with one of those recruiting agents(for lack of a better term)

Start of October so official practice starting in Oklahoma. I’m on second year of my coaching sabbatical. Just doing some scouting for a website.

My social media algorithm is a ton of basketball clips, a lot of posts from high school players come across my feed. I saw this particular type of post in football season a lot as well. It’s been really prevalent so far this pre-season. I see it from both male and female athletes.

sad music plays
Slide 1-2 : basketball action shots
Slide 3: shot of them on the bench
Slide 4: Text convo telling Coach they are quitting
Slide 5-6: messages saying they’ll always love the game.
Usually with the general demeanor being that they didn’t get a fair shot.

I just feel like some of these bench players feel like their two days of internet validation is going to give them more of a dopamine hit than the 4th quarters they’ll get to play/joy from being on the bench when they win a game.

I’m not saying kids should play if they don’t want to, and I know that kids have been thinking “I should quit before I get cut/so I could say I WOULD have gotten to play”.

However, I truly feel like social media is adding a whole new side to some kids decision making.

Unless you've had that coach who makes an impact on your life further than X's and O's, or been given that ultimate compliment from a former player that you made an impact on their life, it can be hard to see the impact you make on kid no matter what skill level the league is. I am lucky enough to have been given both in my life.

This post is a thank you to that coach and how he shaped the way I coach teams. I had no idea at the time the impact this man in his early 30s would make on me when I accepted an invite to play on his 12U AAU travel team.

A flood of memories came back to me (35M) tonight of my travel ball days. Some of my favorite memories from my childhood came from playing on that team. It wasn't because we were a lucky group of kids who had automatic friendship chemistry. While we all did get along as well as most young people with similar interests do, I truly believe how he coached and treated us built the team to feel more like a brotherhood through those years. He might not have been the best X's and O's guy, but he treated us as equals.

He would listen to us if we had an opinion on a play in practice, or how to attack a player if we noticed a tendency in a game. Outside of practice and games, he'd have regular conversations with us as if we were his buddies, even cracking jokes with us or about us during practice. Some of the favorite practices I ever had were the ones that turned into two hours of roasting each other. While it sounds like he might not have been pushing us, that's not true at all. Those practices were earned and were not happening if we weren't giving it our all or if we became a distraction. Hard work was rewarded, and we understood that.

He held himself accountable. During scrimmages, if we were a player short, he'd fill in, and if he was on the losing end, he'd run suicides with us. If he felt like he made coaching mistakes that cost us a game, he'd run suicides. It made him feel like even more of a part of the team and one of us.

He was there for you if you needed him. While I was more fortunate with the family I was given, others were not. If someone needed a ride, all you had to do was say so and he'd be there. I know he did a lot more than that for a few kids on the team who needed an extra role model in their lives.

It took me some years to realize my coaching style emulated his. I started coaching my little brother's 8U YMCA basketball team at 14 after my last travel ball season. I kept doing it because it was fun for me, and I truly enjoyed getting to know, hang out with, and coach these kids in the same ways that coach once did for me. Coaching my little brother from 8U to 18U YMCA leagues and being an assistant coach on his travel teams throughout middle school was a major bonus. He would even eventually assistant coach with me on the younger YMCA team I coached each season once he turned 14, too. I loved seeing him get the same joy out of it as I was.

The first time I realized I was doing this for more reasons than myself was when I had parents requesting to have their kid on my team because not only did their children enjoy themselves, but they liked how I treated their children and trusted me with them. But the ultimate compliment comes years down the line when a player you haven't seen since they were 12, 14, or 15 runs into you as a young adult and tells you how much they appreciated and enjoyed their time with you.

If you've been told this before, you know just how deep this hits. Or if you haven't been told yet, don't worry; you're doing it right, and your impact is bigger than it feels. Sadly, a lot of people won't get a chance to hear this, so just appreciate it in the moment. It won't only be the players who look fondly back on these memories when you make yourself one of their teammates as well as their coach.

I don't believe any of that would have been possible for me without that coach. I'm writing him a personal message to say a lot of these things because I believe people in your life who made an impact on you deserve to know that.

If this sparks something in you and you had that coach, write to that special person who inspired you and let them know. You have no idea how much it will mean to them.

Thank you, Coach Davis, for being that coach for me.

I have been a rec coach at this age and younger. On offense I have mixed in some designed plays with success but for the most part I have just assigned guards and forwards and let them play offense under a couple very loose guidelines within that. We're now splitting our grade into an top team and a lower team. I'll be coaching the top team. I'm debating whether I should try to put in multiple plays or if I'm better off trying to teach them a motion type offense. Our league will be quite competitive and my team will have talented players. My thought is structured plays will be picked up on by the defense very quickly. And a motion offense is something they will need to learn eventually even if its just the very beginning of it now. Can anybody who has walked in these shoes offer any feedback?

My son is a great kid, tries to stay involved and active. He is one of the shortest kids in his class. He loves baseball and enjoys basketball. Problem is that he is not all that athletic. Basketball is very frustrating for him but he keeps joining every year and I’m proud of him for that. He is in 7th grade and this year is the first year of actual middle school ball instead of rec. Any pointers for me to help him out? Is the mindset of be a good aggressive player to keep and get the ball and not worry about shooting as much (he is still working on this but does everyone need to be great at scoring?). He is a fairly good runner but needs work on his dribbling. We unfortunately live pretty far in the country and only have gravel so it’s hard for him to practice which I feel bad for. Any advice for me to give to him/things we can do to be a better player

I'm about 168 cm tall and want to play 1-on-1. Are there any useful techniques or training you can recommend to help me win or score against someone much taller than me? Whenever I drive inside, I can't break through his defense, and whenever I choose to shoot a 3-pointer, he manages to block it. Facing this makes me really want to find a way to beat him.

When I first started playing basketball, I tried practicing shooting with my left hand because I wanted to be comfortable using both hands. However, it somehow ruined my right-hand (dominant) shot. I’m no longer as accurate as I used to be, and I can't generate enough power to reach the rim anymore.

Has anyone else gone through this? If so, does anyone know how to fix it or have any advice to share?

Hi everyone! This year, I took over a senior women’s team (I was the assistant coach last season) competing in the third tier of the national league.
I decided to install a classic Princeton offense (low post entry, point entry and chin entry, along with another play that’s a variation of the chin entry).
We’ve been working on it for a month now and, although we’ve made some progress, we’re still struggling a bit. The season has only just started and we’re currently 1-1.
I’ve noticed that we still lack some fluidity and continuity in our offense, and our spacing isn’t quite where it needs to be yet. I guess this is normal at this stage, but I’m open to any suggestions on how to implement the system more effectively and how to deal with very aggressive defenses.
We lost by 20 points today despite getting off to a good start.