Basketball for Dummies

There may be some kind of infringement on the title of this article. But I think you get the gist of it. Nuts and bolts, what is this game all about? Simple, put into lay terms, if you score more points (by putting the basketball through the basket) more times than your opponent, your team wins the game. There are a number of different tactics or schemes that can get you to this point, but a good defense will be a good start to your offense. As much as possible, I’d encourage you to examine different philosophies on how to teach the game. Our number one goal is to teach life lessons while including some basketball in between. There is so much more to life than basketball or sports. So the first place to start is sportsmanship within competition. Have I always been the best at sportsmanship, nope, but I also haven’t claimed to be. I’d encourage you do consider what level you are helping coach or parenting and keep that in mind throughout the year.

What we teach, in order, is dribbling, layups, shooting and free-throws. It’s more fun to use the ball when possible, but we would occasionally mix some defense in there. as for defense, I will get to that in a minute, to start, let’s consider offense. If you can get every player to have a basketball at practice, this helps. The younger they are, the more they need a ball in their hands longer. Start with easy things like dribbling with one hand (Right, then Left) for a while. Then have them move while dribbling. Eventually have them dribble with their head up. One thing you can do to encourage better dribbling is have a relay race by splitting your team into 2 teams and they have to dribble the ball. Then have them do it without the ball.

Next, I’d do some layups by having them dribble to the goal, jump stop and shoot a short shot. Have each child do it a few times on each side. One other thing we work on is catching the ball off the backboard and shooting it. It teaches them (subconsciously) to go straight up when they get an offensive rebound. So if the ball falls in their lap under the goal, they are prepared to shoot it back up. The team that gets more shots at the goal, usually wins. So, encourage your kids to dribble and shoot and try to make it fun.

Back to defense. Once you have your players, you will probably want to help them understand that the bigger players guard each other, the faster players guard each other so everybody understands they want to guard somebody with an equivalent skill level. The main teaching point is that every player must have a man (and remember who they are guarding). They also need to understand the difference between offense and defense and the goals of each. After they understand that, you may want to encourage them to learn how to guard the ball while on defense and how to help if one of your teammates loses the person with the ball (help defense). The number 1 goal on defense every time, at every level, is to STOP the ball. In other words, keep the other team’s point guard from going the length of the court without having to pick up their dribble and pass before shooting. If you make it difficult on the other teams guards, it will make their offense flow less effectively.

We highly encourage really teaching defense and not selling out to a zone defense so the kids can guard an area. Most leagues require you to not pick up the defender until half-court or if young enough until the three-point line. This is to help kids and ball-handlers gain confidence and allow them to be able to pass the ball without it getting stolen every time. One of the more frustrating parts about “itty-bitty basketball” is their inability to get the ball to the goal or get shots up. The best thing to do is keep encourage them to shoot from close in and try to use the backboard. For more information or to ask specific questions, please contact our coaches.