Terrific post! Well done, but where’s the Kentucky Shuffle? My middle school coach drilled us on that, 50+ years ago. Lol@Jre2000 good luck this season! I'm back with my 7th/8th grade boys and we should have a pretty decent team this year!
As @husky429 mentioned, keep the offense simple. I coach at my small school (~20 kids per game) where kids have to play a sport, so most of the kids I coach don't play basketball outside of school, but most of the kids know soccer pretty well.
I play a man D with a lot of focus on what to do in denial and help situations to help clog up the middle, generate turnovers and encourage teams to shoot from deep. Here's a drill I use for that:
A defense that generates turnovers is huge as half-court offense can get pretty ugly. I also will try to promote trapping in the corners and near the baseline.
On offense, try your best not to assign positions, as it makes the kids feel like they have to play like the position you assign them at.
Instead of positions, I assign them numbers and praise over and over again that the only options when you don't have the ball is either set a screen or find open space.
Here are a few simple plays I drew up:
"Thirty-x" and "Twenty-x"
Basically, it's a simple set that promotes movement from three of the offensive players. Any number I call that starts with thirty is this play. Any number I call that starts with twenty is the same play just with the 2 running and the 4 running the baseline an opposite way.
View attachment 82109
"COLOR" play
Another set just to get players moving. Any color I call is this play.
View attachment 82110
Coaching advice
- Thread starter Jre2000
- Start date
- Status
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2015
- Messages
- 8,431
- Reaction Score
- 72,870
Final score: 50-16.
The conclusion: as long as our school remains small, has no tryouts and basketball only 2x a week, we should never be in the top division of our league. Even when we had winning teams, it’s always easy to change the lineup/strategy to allow the other team to breathe.
Speaking of that, the opposing team did a five pass before you shoot rule at the start of the second when we started that quarter 19-0. It was one of those private middle schools that also has a ninth grade so their varsity team was mostly ninth.
They could have scored 80 on us if their coach let them to.
Middle school leagues in the private level is silly. We’re 2-3, lost two games by 40+, won one close one, lost one close one and destroyed one team.
The parity is akin to this years March madness!
The conclusion: as long as our school remains small, has no tryouts and basketball only 2x a week, we should never be in the top division of our league. Even when we had winning teams, it’s always easy to change the lineup/strategy to allow the other team to breathe.
Speaking of that, the opposing team did a five pass before you shoot rule at the start of the second when we started that quarter 19-0. It was one of those private middle schools that also has a ninth grade so their varsity team was mostly ninth.
They could have scored 80 on us if their coach let them to.
Middle school leagues in the private level is silly. We’re 2-3, lost two games by 40+, won one close one, lost one close one and destroyed one team.
The parity is akin to this years March madness!
- Status