Coaching Youth Basketball: Practices, Games and Parents

Coaching youth basketball means teaching players from about age 6 to 14 so they get better and want to come back next season. Coaches from movement-first programs to Canada Basketball's player-development stages agree on the core: fun first, a win for every child, movement before basketball, skills taught inside games, man-to-man defense, no fixed positions, and far more practice than games.

They part ways on details such as session length and when zones belong, and those differences are shown below by what each approach stresses.

Coaching Youth Basketball Starts With Fun and Success

Fun is the first test of a youth season:

• A free choice. The real win is a child who picks basketball when given a free choice.
• Count the tears. A session with more tears than smiles has missed the mark.
• Five coach values. FUNdamentals, then learning, activity, success and respect.

Success has to be possible for every child. Success is not a layup or being the best player, and a child who could not dribble in October and can now has succeeded. If success belongs only to the best player, most of the team never feels it.

• Track skill progress. Track each player's skill progress and ask players what they have improved.
• Keep success above 60 percent. Keep players succeeding more than 60 percent of the time but not every time.
• Move on at 80 percent. USA Basketball's guidance, in its triple-threat example, moves on when 80 percent of players show the correct stance and gives the other 20 percent extra time or an assistant.

Make every child's progress something you can name.

Coach the Child in Front of You

Six to eight year olds are self-centered, short on attention, able to handle one task at a time, with no sense of pace and a high center of gravity.

• Short, clear directions. Give every child a ball, run several short activities, add water breaks and keep sessions to 45 to 60 minutes.
• Five minutes a skill. Spend no more than 5 minutes on one skill or drill with young children.
• Games for kindergarten. A kindergarten plan is 30 to 45 minutes of games with no laps, lines or lectures.
• No structured drills at 6 and under. Children 6 and under are too young for structured drills, and 7 to 9 is when they learn to dribble and can join a team.

Movement comes before basketball. Teach agility, balance, coordination, running, stopping and jumping before stance, handling, passing and shooting, and only then the simplest decisions. Canada Basketball gives its FUNdamentals stage 60 percent movement skills, 20 percent basketball skills and 20 percent individual decision making.

Fit the session to the child, not the child to the session.

How to Structure a Youth Practice

Pick the practice shape that fits the age:

Plan the practice in writing:

• Write the plan. Planning is the number one key to a fun practice: each drill 3 to 5 minutes, a fun game between hard drills, and always ending on a positive note.
• New skills early. Put new skills early, when players are fresh, and close with a debrief.
• Fill in a three-column plan. Time, drill, coaching points, the night before.

More templates are in the basketball practice plan guide and the practice plans section.

• Load the drill already running. Add difficulty such as a defender, a second ball or a constraint, instead of losing time to a new setup.
• Use the same loads on every activity card.
• One concept, the same cues. Teach one concept per practice and use the same cues every time.

Keep the plan simple enough that every child can follow it.

Teach the Skill Inside a Game

Sharks and Minnows. Every minnow dribbles a ball across the half court while the two sharks try to knock the dribbles away.

Games are the teaching tool, not the reward at the end. Sharks and Minnows teaches heads-up dribbling and Monkey in the Middle teaches the fake before the pass.

• Play, discover, teach, play again. Play a modified game, let players discover what they need, teach the skill, then play again.
• Skip analytical drills at 6 and 7. FIBA's youth guidance says to avoid breaking fundamentals into analytical drills at ages 6 and 7. The coach watches the game, fixes what the children cannot do with a drill-game, then goes back to the game.
• Stop and reload. If players lack the base skill to succeed in the game, stop, revisit the skill and reload the game.

Monkey in the Middle. 1 and 2 pass over or around X1, who tries to deflect. The passer fakes before throwing.

• Dribbling games. Sharks and Minnows, Dribble Tag and Dribble Knockout, Red Light Green Light, Musical Hoops and Wolves and Sheep.
• Passing games. Monkey in the Middle, Ultimate Basketball, Hot Potato and Full Court No-Dribble, and Ten Passes.
• Shooting games. Knockout, Around the World, Team Shootout and Hotshots. Move form shooting from no ball, to a wall, to a hoop.
• Reads. Catch and Face with Backdoor, Crazy Cuts and 3v3v3, 4-on-4 with no dribble and 3-on-3 Touchdown.

Catch and Face with Backdoor. 2 V-cuts to catch and face at the first two baskets, and at the third the cut becomes a backdoor cut for a layup, the read when X2 overplays the wing.

More game-based ideas are in fun basketball drills for kids and basketball drills for beginners.

Choose the game that fits the skill, then let the children play.

The Fundamentals at Every Age

Four non-negotiables run through every age:

• Ball handling. Eyes up, both hands, under pressure.
• Passing. Step to the target, snap it.
• Shooting. Elbow in, fingertips, hold the follow-through.
• Footwork. Jump stop, pivot, cut with purpose.

There are separate drill lists for grades 2 to 4 and 5 to 8.

• Footwork first. The Go, Stop drill teaches the jump stop in four steps: the landing stance, no ball, after a dribble, then on a catch. Cone lines start with triple threat, the jump stop and front and reverse pivots with no ball.
• Ball handling every practice. Run a leader-led circle routine of 30 to 60 seconds per move. Hold up fingers so dribblers keep their heads up. Enforce double dribble from the first day.
• Shooting. Use Pizza Waiter (palm up, elbow under the ball) and Cookie Jar (fingers down at the top). Set rim heights of 8 feet for ages 7 to 8, 9 feet for 9 to 11 and 10 feet from 12. Shoot no farther from the basket than your age in feet.
• Passing and catching. Ask for two hands, two eyes and two feet on every catch, and never assume players can pass.
• Layups in stages. Go one-step, two-step, one-dribble, then several dribbles. Spread the layup over four practices, because made shots are not the early goal. Drills are in layup drills.

Teach one fundamental at a time and rep it every practice.

Offense, Defense and Positions

Pistol defense. X3 is off the ball, so he points one finger at the ball with 1 and one at his own player, 3.

Teach how to play, not plays.

• Limit reads to two choices. Shoot or pass, dribble right or left.
• Drop robotic set plays. A roundup of 52 coaches names them as the most repeated youth mistake, and set plays are unnecessary under age 10.
• Run a youth 5-out. Three rules: cut after every pass, fill toward the ball, back cut when denied.
• Allow no plays beyond a basic out-of-bounds play.

Man-to-man first. Teach only man-to-man, with the Pistol cue in the diagram.

• Player-to-player at Learn to Train. The Learn to Train rules call for player-to-player defense, and the long-term development plan and Canada Basketball both keep zone defense and zone presses out of the first phase of Train to Train.
• Zones win for the wrong reason. Zones beat young teams only because they cannot shoot from outside or throw the skip pass, so the win teaches nothing.

See the best defense for youth basketball and man-to-man vs zone.

No fixed positions early.

• Ages 7 to 12. Positions barely exist.
• Ages 12 to 14. Tendencies can be leaned into.
• Ages 14 to 18. Real specialization fits.
• Never lock the tallest child in the post. It is the biggest youth mistake, because height at 12 does not predict height at 18.
• Teach the game, not a position. Canada Basketball's line is that players need to learn the game, not a position.

More is in basketball positions explained. Teach children to play, and the plays and positions can come later.

Games, Playing Time and Small-Sided Play

3-on-3. Three on three in the half court gives every child more touches and simpler reads than 5-on-5.

Practice far more than you play:

• Four practices for every competition. The Learn to Train benchmark, and Canada Basketball repeats that 4 to 1 ratio.
• 70 to 30. USA Basketball's ratio at its Foundational level.
• Play 3-on-3. It gives more touches and simpler reads (see reasons for small-sided games).
• Pair an even game with a lopsided one. Play 3 on 3, then 3 on 1, so players can succeed.

Everyone plays, and the rules can enforce it:

• Keep no score. Play eight 5-minute periods, or 4-minute shifts.
• No tryouts, no cuts. Every player plays at least half of every game.
• Start everyone once. Give every player at least one start across the season.

For school games, the middle school rules by state are on middle school basketball rules, and club and school minutes on AAU vs high school basketball. Make playing time a rule, not a favor.

Feedback, Parents and Safety

Feedback.

• Shout praise, whisper criticism. The rule for every correction.
• Praise, correction, praise. Don Meyer adds a praise, correction, praise sandwich and warns that false praise erodes trust.
• Correct at once. Corrections are immediate, specific, short and encouraging.
• Skip reward and punishment. They are more harmful than helpful because behavior reverts when they stop.

See also over-coaching.

Parents.

• Hold a pre-season meeting. Treat the pre-season parent meeting as coaching work. A full agenda is on basketball parent meeting.
• Set expectations before the first complaint. Set them by meeting or letter, use a 24-hour rule after games, ban sideline coaching, route concerns through the coach and bring the player into playing-time conversations.
• No tips on the ride home. Ask parents for none.
• Name four roles at a game. Player, referee, coach and spectator, and most sideline trouble comes from stepping into another's role (see the four roles at a youth game and youth sports parents).

Safety and attendance.

• Watch every player. A coach who cannot see the players is not supervising them.
• Name emergency roles in advance. Name players to call 911, get the trainer and fetch the AED.
• No suicides. They are not youth conditioning.
• Write an attendance policy. Have it before the season, applied to stars and bench alike (see players missing practice).

Settle feedback, parents and safety before the first practice.

Where Youth Coaches Disagree

Coaches split on three questions.

When can zones come in?

• After the first phase of Train to Train. Player-to-player at Learn to Train, then no zones or zone presses in the first phase of Train to Train. Canada Basketball allows no zones early in Train to Train, with zones near the end of that stage.
• Around junior varsity. About age 15 or 16, citing a survey of coaches.
• A simple 2-3 by 8th grade. With a simplified matchup press for younger teams.

How long is a practice?

• Kindergarten, 30 to 45 minutes. Of games.
• Ages 6 to 8, 45 to 60 minutes.
• Ages 5 to 8, 75 minutes. Then 90 for 9 to 12.

Can a coach yell?

• Shout praise, whisper criticism. Don Meyer teaches it too.
• Yell in practice, never in games. Yelling is acceptable in practice to make players compete, never in games or in front of parents.

Decide where you stand on each question before the season starts. For more on running a program, see building a youth basketball program and the coaching and program section.

Questions Coaches Ask

More Guides From This Batch

• Post Moves Basketball: Seal, Read and Score From the Block
• Basketball Finishing Drills: Read the Defender, Then Finish
• Basketball Fouls List: Every Foul, Penalty and Limit by Level
• Illegal Screen in Basketball: Rule, Examples and Calls

Back to Coaching and Program and every Coaching page.

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