The Progression

Learning is a process.  Just as a child must learn to add and subtract before tackling multiplication and division, a youth athlete must master the ability to move in certain ways, control their body and balance before mastering the key fundamentals in basketball.

The job of a youth basketball coach is challenging in that he / she must incorporate training on movement, specifically footwork, while also allowing his team to participate in the “fun” activities of basketball like shooting the ball.  Especially with the younger players, coaches have to take a methodical approach towards introducing the skills required or they risk missing out on the most important part of their job – to make sure their players fall in love with the game.

Youth coaches will inevitably begin to feel the pressure from parents, and even their players, to focus their attention more on winning the next game instead of continuing to spend their precious practice time on skill development.  Just last week our team played a game against a team that is taking a different approach.  As a result, they won the game but their individual players aren’t better for it. The competitor in me wanted to call timeout, give our boys a few strategic pointers that would shut down the other teams offense, but in doing so our boys would have taken two steps backwards with their understanding of how to play defense.

In teaching the game of basketball, or any youth sport for that matter, taking the youth players through a progression of skills is necessary to ensure they have a foundation for advanced learning.

Here’s what we teach, ordered by priority:

1. Lay ups – You should practice lots of lay ups with both hands. Your goal should be to get all players to make lay ups with their left and right hands equally well. Teach them to jump off the proper foot. They should jump off the left leg when shooting a right hand lay up. They should shoot off their right leg when shooting a left hand lay up. It will be difficult but work on it. You’ll probably need to start really close to the basket, with no dribble, and take just one step to practice the footwork. Once you add the dribble, they should dribble with their left hand when shooting left hand lay ups. And vice versa.
2. Footwork – Teach them triple threat positioning, pivoting on their left and right foot without traveling, jump stops, and to square to the basket as soon as they catch the ball in a triple threat position. You should spend a lot of time on footwork!
3. Shooting form – For this age group, we highly recommend using smaller balls and lower baskets. If that is not possible, allow the players to dip their elbows which will give them more strength.
4. Ball handling – You should teach players to dribble with left and right hands equally. Basic dribble moves such as the speed dribble, crossover, protect-the-ball dribble, and back-up dribble.
5. Athletic & movement skills – Teach them how to run, jump and land, skip, stop, move laterally, squat, lunge and any other basic movements. If you don’t know how to teach these movements, ask a professional or PE teacher to show you how. 99% of the time they would be more than willing to help, and they may even come and show the kids themselves.
6. Basic passes – Teach and practice the basic chest, bounce, and overhead passes.
7. Play plenty of 2 on 2 and 3 on 3 games to teach concepts (no dribble keep away). It gets the players more experience and allows them enough space to operate and use the new skills they have learned.
8. Offense – Resist using structured or patterned offenses. First, get them comfortable on the court. They will start to figure things out on their own. Your main concern should be to have them move & not stand still.If you use a few basic cuts and maybe screens in your shooting drills at the beginning of practice, then your players will already know how to move in a motion offense. Then you don’t have to waste time teaching offense. Just let them play.Once players feel comfortable on the court, show them proper spacing.

   As they progress, you can start to introduce them to motion offense situations.

9. Basic cuts & how to get open – If time permits, you can introduce the basket cut and straight cut. I would suggest that you just work these cuts into your shooting drills at the beginning of practice. This will save loads of time.
10. Defense – Teach the basic stance, defensive slide, and basic off-ball principles. Don’t worry about spending as much time on defense. As they get older, you’ll gradually spend more time on defense. Focusing on it 5 to 10 minutes per practice would be more than sufficient.Basic Off Ball Principles:
    – Stay between man and the ball
    – Always stop the ball if it is in front of you