First practice, show up a minute late, walk in and say, "All eyes on me! Gentlemen, we will be successful this year, if you can focus on three things, and three things only. Your family, your religion and the Green Bay Packers.”

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I coached youth basketball all the way up to High School seniors. I loved it and yes I had a big mouth. Overall though,I rooted just as hard for the "10th kid" as I did for the star kids. Here's a tip,find the best player in the league and ask his dad if you could put him down as ast. coach. This is how guys "cheated" the system in the Arlington Heights league. I used to have someone keep stats. This turned out very embarassing for some kids who thought they were great. (HS level) I loved coaching and I do miss it. One great drill is have your kids scrimmage (halfcourt) but no dribbling. There are all kind of drills but you usually just have an hour a week (not all the kids show up) so don't expect miracles...Good Luck. Lots of great advice from RFDC and BMR & others on here.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

Most kids in high school can't pass, dribble or shoot either.

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If you have 12 year olds who are still in 5th grade make sure they are enrolled in U of I's remedial program.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

speed>size

lots and lots of fast breaks at that age. Big kids tend to collect fouls and ride the bench anyway.

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Is Efrem Winters still there too?

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

from what i have seen i disagree - a team with one skilled big kid who has even one basic post move down and can finish a layup, and gets any kind of position on the boards is very hard to beat. actually, this year is the first year i have noticed where size has such a big advantage.

Draft the kids with the tallest parents teach them some fundamentals (left, ball up, etc.) hope he gets really good one day and thanks you.

Give them cash envelopes!!!!

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Anyone else who coaches have an opinion on this? The size/speed thing is one of the factors I was thinking about when going to the evaluation. I figured it would be optimal to obviously have a good balance, but my inclination was to favor speed over size given the kids ages.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

league should have a mandatory playing time. i coach 3rd-5th and 6th-8th grade teams. league rule is everyone has to play a minimum of 12 minutes a game.

do not worry about winning. last week in the game before mine a team was up by 30 pts in the 4th. a player on the losing team clearly traveled before taking a 3. kid made the shot, refs let it go, coach on the winning team went nuts calling for the travel. he looked like a major ass-wipe.

stress defense. offense at this age is inconsistent. if your team can score 20 pts you have a great team.

good luck

If you are only practicing one day a week, I lean more towards kids with speed than a big kid. Unless that big kid shows he already kinda has a clue in the tryout. Most importantly have fun, make sure the kids have fun and don't let the douchebag parents get to you that you will eventually deal with. As was said earlier, if all else fails go with the kid who has the hot mom.

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Like others have said, make sure the kids have fun.

As far as what to teach, just concentrate on basics. Dribbling and passing.

And as far as size vs. speed, go with size if the kid is coordinated. At that age, the kids all just run around anyway.

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Just got my team. Lucked into the first pick out of 8 teams, and got the clear-cut unanimous best player out there. Should be a good season.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

So how is this going?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Funny, I just got back from the first practice an hour ago and meant to bump this but got distracted.

It went pretty well, so far so good with all the parents and kids showing up on time, and none of the parents giving me attitude. The kids are slightly worse than I initially expected, but I knew going in that I didn't have a good idea of their skill level. One kid cant hit the rim from the free throw line, so that's sort of a problem. Got ten kids on the team, two of which are head and shoulders above the other eight. The practice was for an hour and a half and for the first hour and ten minutes I just had them doing various drills and last 20 minutes I let them scrimmage. I have a pretty good general idea of the strengths and weaknesses of each kid and will try to work more on that in the next few practices.

I was sorta surprised that 4 of the 10 parents stuck around for the whole practice, I guess since my parents never did that for practice I didn't expect it. One of them came up to me afterward and said she already likes me better than her last son's coach, but I'll wait til we actually have games to see if she holds to that opinion.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Sounds like a productive first practice. How often do you guys practice and when do you start playing games?

Wise move not taking the parents praise too seriously. If you don't play her Johnny enough in the first couple of game she may be ready to tear your head off

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Practice is every tuesday from now on, except xmas, 730-9. Games start January 5th.

She said that it was impressive that twice I went up to her son and gave him individual instruction on how to improve what he was doing at the drills, and she said the last coach never addressed any of the players individually at all during all last season. I almost find that hard to believe but I just thanked her and told her I welcomed any feedback... hopefully didn't open Pandora's box with that comment.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Yeah I would find that hard to believe that as well. Who knows she maybe completely sincere and will not give you any problems. Or she maybe trying to get on your good side hoping that will influence you to play her child more. You definitely want to give her the benefit of the doubt.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I'm really hoping the playing time thing isn't an issue. There's ten kids on the team, and they all are supposed to get an equal amount of playing time, so it's going to be two quarters a piece. I told all the parents that at the beginning of practice and they all seemed pretty agreeable. Im really not gonna deal with any bullshit on the playing time issue.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

It's not some just run practice. I forget how old FF is, a young coach giving direction might suprise some.

Im 26.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I don't think his age has anything to do with it. In fact, from my experience the younger the person the more hands on they are at practice. They have an excitement about wanting to see the kids actually learn the game and improve. I have seen some older guys who could care less and just sit back and bark out orders. IMO that is one of the great things about basketball compared to baseball and football. You generally have a smaller group of kids to work with so you can give each one more personal help and work on things to help them improve.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

So how much stuff is FavreFan running?

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Sorry I am late to the thread, but I just noticed it hitting the active list. It is so funny you mention a 5/6th team because that is what my son plays on. He used to play park district but now he plays through his school. The talent pool is small because his class only has 9 boys, and the 6th grade class is not much bigger. The majority of the team has no aggressiveness. At least in the park district the talent pool is large enough to get a few good players.

At that age, the sport is more about effort than anything else. You need kids to be aggressive in getting rebounds and playing defense. Most shots are going to be misses, and most baskets are going to be lay-up put backs after a rebound. You need to have a few kids that can dribble. The majority have weak ball handling skills at that age. I have found that working on lay-ups off the dribble are very important. Most kids can't dribble and then shoot a lay-up. Those that can will cut through defenses like swiss cheese as few kids move their feet on defense.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

A would guess slightly less than a ton.

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I don't know about that, but right after the game, FavreFan goes to a bar and gets ripped and will tell anyone who will listen every secret about the team. Then he drinks coffee and checks his mail.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Where are the games at, FF? I'm going to show up and heckle you.

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I really hope FavreFan just stands the entire game and yells, "ICE ICE ICE" all the time.

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Yeah the one thing I noticed that 8 of the 10 kids did constantly was they would completely stop right when they got to the basket and then launch the ball at the backboard. 2 of the 10 kids were pretty smooth with layups, but the other 8 will definitely take a lot of work. One of the kids complained to me that it was "too hard" to shoot a layup without stopping to set up the shot. I wasn't even sure what to say to that, I just told him that like everything else if he kept practicing it he would get much better and I showed him how to do it a couple times and he said the only reason I could do it was because I was tall. This was at the beginning of the practice so I figured he would complain a lot but he didn't really much after that.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I don't coach, but I have watched these games for several years running. I have observed that basketball is only for three types of kids (not rocket science here):

1) Very athletic, naturally talented/coordinated kids that are fast, can jump, etc.
2) Tall kids who have that natural advantage of being able to grab rebounds, shoot over others, and block shots.
3) Kids that are gym rats and practice hard/play hard.

This is not soccer where you roll the balls out and everyone runs after them. Unlike football, there are not positions for everyone. It takes an inherent skill level no matter the position. On any given team, there is only 1-3 kids that really know what they're doing. The rest are always out of position, will travel, hack, not move their feet on defense, dribble above their heads or hunched over, and shoot awkwardly.

I wish you the best of luck. It is a great sport, and kids need the exercise.

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Hawaii (fuck) You