So a friend of mine who runs the Hanover Park league talked me into coaching a team this year. It's a 5th/6th grade park district league, one practice a week, one game per weekend. It's my first time coaching. Next Tuesday night is a tryout night where all the coaches scout the players and then pick their teams. I think I know the game of basketball pretty well, but I dont remember a ton about what it was like when I was 12 years old and still learning the game. Anyone here coach this age level or a similar one before? What's some not-obvious things to look for in the tryouts to look for that might otherwise be overlooked? Can you just slip the best couple kids $20 each to ask to join your team? Are parents usually a problem to deal with at this age? My buddy runs the league and he said one of the only requirements is that every kid has to play at least a couple minutes each game, you can't Thibodeau your rotation. I figure since it's a park district league splitting the minutes fairly equally is more important than winning and losing the actual games.

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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

Some coaches find it most beneficial to draft kids based upon the level of their mom's hotness.

(Edit: simple rule of thumb is just to look at kids' level of enthusiasm, coordination & basic athletic skills at that age. The rest will work itself out)

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

Nice job, working with kids is great. I have coached several teams over the last few years. I would pay attention to those who can handle the ball. If they can handle the ball and move decently they will probably excel at that age. And it is easier to help kids at that age shoot better than it is to help them become better ball handlers.

Will parents be a problem? Oh yeah. They will be a pain in your ass more than likely.

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

Without 2 all stars you have no chance of winning. Find the kids like a young Danny B that can dunk tennis balls and by the end of the season they will be slamming home dunks while you scream on the sidelines. Billy Simpson get out the way!!! Did you not get the memo?!?!


Or find the kids with hot single moms and to hell with winning a championship.

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Don't show up to the first practice in a Penn State jacket.

Now that's what Im talking about RR. I probably wouldn't have thought about that, and it's now my #1 factor in filling out my draft board.

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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

(too soon?)

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

I would attempt to get to know the parents during tryouts. You can teach kids to dribble, shoot, pass, and be part of a team. It's much more difficult to get their parents to stop being asshats.

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He's in jail now hopefully getting tickled himself so I think it is OK to laugh again.

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parents suck. The one time I coached kids basketball I had a meeting with my team, mandatory for parents to show. I named my basketball experience and said, if anyone's got more coaching experience than me here, you're allowed to question my plays and coaching. Luckily no one did.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Yikes. If this seriously has to be taught at this age I could never coach. Maybe it was because I lived and
breathed basketball when I was younger. I can't say I have seen a game with kids this age in a long time.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

i have never coached basketball, but my son is in a 6th grade league this year, and there have been a lot of problems with certain coaches being VERY over-the-top in the intensity department. my recommendation is to have a lot of fun with the kids, smile and laugh and enjoy yourself and dont get all caught up in the bullshit. the super-intense coaches come off like real douchebags. let the kids have fun and shoot the ball. make sure they all get good playing time. believe it or not, this is the age that some parents (a lot of them) are worrying about playing time for their little Dr. J's and Larry Bird's and start griping when they arent in for the entire game.

coaching basketball looks like a tough gig when it comes to dealing with parents.

FavreFan teaching basketball is like kujoe teaching English.

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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!

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

I taught my little brother to play when I was in high school, he's 10 years younger than me. But yeah I havent seen a lot of kids play at that age recently and am somewhat unfamiliar with what their expected skill level should be. I actually am really looking forward to coaching the basketball aspects like dribble-pass-shoot-defense. Im just not sure how I am going to handle having an asshole kid or over-the-top parents.

_________________
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

Thats sorta the only thing that worries me. I dont really have an intense personality and definitely wouldn't be one of those d-bag coaches you're talking about. I just wont like dealing with parents who dont understand that there's other kids on the team, not just their kid. I also figured the age group might be difficult because like you say they are sorta in between little kids and high schoolers, so there will be more competitiveness than with 8 year olds, but it'll still be more important to coach the sport and instill the team concept rather than solely focus on wins and losses like my HS coach did.

_________________
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

Favre Fan is a real damn coach. I remember the night I was lucky enough to spend sitting on a barstool next to him at Bungalow Joe's. I learned more about basketball and life that night...

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

With 5th and 6th graders, you can probably run a basic motion offense. Teach them 3 out 2 in. Teach them spacing. Teach them man to man defense. I would not try any plays just to move the ball.

Pick who the two or three best players are and have them start and end the game. Then, just have everyone else sub in and sub out. Don't have the same starting lineup every game because it's a thrill for the kids to be a starter and do the jump ball.

Your most important thing to do is start teaching fundamentals as much as you can. That is really the best thing you can do for the kids. That is the kind of long term help that will make them better later on. I'd spend the first 50% of practice doing dribbling, passing, shooting drills. You may be able to do post up drills, such as teaching the Elgin Baylor move and the drop step.

Scrimmage for the second half of the practice, and then play knockout to finish up the practice.

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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!

Very good advice.

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

That's mostly what I had in mind already but it's good stuff. That's mostly what I remember doing at that age in leagues. Good tip on the 2 best guys playing the first and last minutes.

_________________
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

Just tell them you are more interested in every kid improving fundamentals and game activity helps doing that. You are laying a foundation for every kid, including their kid, to improve during and after the season. The extra 5 minutes of playing time they would get won't really matter. You want the kids to be better because they are on the right track.

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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!

Isn't that common sense though? I figured the parents most likely to bitch about 11-12 year old's playing time are also the same parents unlikely to listen to logical reasoning.

_________________
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

Also, at that age, be careful to not teach them differently based on size. The tallest guy on the team may be the shortest one two years down the road and vice versa. Every single player should be doing the Elgin Baylor move(post up, turn to the right or left, and shoot straight up). Every player should be doing the dribble between your legs and around your back.

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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!

Some parents are going to bitch no matter what you do. A couple years back I was coaching my oldest daughters 5th and 6th grade team. At our last game of the year we only had 6 girls show up. We played a pretty bad team and we were winning by 25 points at the half. So I sat my daughter the entire 2nd half to let all the other girls get plenty of playing time. One of the fathers catches up with me after the game and complains that his daughter was too tired and he wished I would have given her a rest in the 2nd half. You have got to be kidding me... bitching to be bitching

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

Bench or get on the cherry pickers quick, lazy asses are out there. No matter how many lay-up drills you do, on a fast break kids will still try and shoot lay-ups running at full speed and miss horribly.

How many on each team? If is was 10 it would be perfect to platoon a couple groups during each
half and then cobble together the better players at points during each half as well but that may be
a bit much. At least that way the kids who weren't as good would all be getting equal time out there,
at least 5 minutes a half or something. I have never coached so this may be the dumbest idea ever.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Yeah.. see that's where all my initial hesitation for doing this came from and why my buddy had to talk me into it a bit. I figured the parents might be more of a headache than would make the whole thing worth it.

_________________
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

Many parents will think "more playing time = getting better" when it's not really true. They'll still probably be mad he's not playing 32 minutes a game, but they'll understand your reasoning and be happy that you have a plan to make them better so they can live vicariously through them in high school.

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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!

Moms, moms, moms should be your only concern.


Also, not all of the parents will be a pain, but you will have 1 that you will want to strangle. It happens every sport I have coached. Also, I have always had a 24 hour rule for the parents. Which means after the game don't come up bitching about something, because you might truly not like what you hear. Give things time to settle down and after 24 hours you still have concerns come talk to me or e-mail me. Have a parent meeting your first night of practice and outline specifically your goals and expectations for the kids.


Did I mention moms?

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Good idea. I was thinking of having some type of initial meeting/1st practice with all the parents and kids and like you said just outline what my goals are and what I expect and what they can expect from me, etc. so we are all on the same page.

_________________
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