Carlos

I struggle with kids/coach pitching in practice also as they need to get used to facing another kid. The confidence always seems to be a little higher when facing a coach and the coach throws more strikes usually at this age so you get more cuts, but they need to get used to hitting against a kid who may bean them. Anyway, I have started having batting practice where the coach pitches through the first round and then a kid who will not be pitching that week pitches the second round of batting practice. Another tactic that has started to work for me during games is to get the kids to better understand and manage the count. There is much less pressure to swing early in the count and especially on a 1-0 or 2-0 pitch than a 0-2 pitch, I re-inforce over and over at practice not to wait until you have two strikes on you before you swing the bat. At this age I rarely have my players take a pitch even on a 3-0 count. I want them to hit the ball if at all possible.

Thanks for the post. I just purchased one and I can't wait to get it. I saw a few of these on cars at a tournament last weekend in Houston, and have been trying to find one since. Thanks!

One thing that we did to help expand our league was to host boys and girls tournaments. Within a two month period we host 3 tournaments. We brought in a lot of teams during the tournaments which gave us a chance to get to know the coaches and them a chance to see what we had to offer. We gave each coach information about our upcoming leagues during the tournament and we had a very good response.

Excellent idea Indicolt. We too have had success on following the fast break for the put back. Another thing we have found success with against big teams is to always push up the floor quickly even when we don't have a fast break opportunity. We have found that many times the other teams big men don't always hustle down to the defensive end of the floor so we get our low post players to hustle down and get in position to score before the other team's big defender can get set to up.

bballrules, I would say that is because of interpretation. Carrying or palming is really double dribble. A violation only occurs when the ball comes to a complete stop in the dribbler's hand. As long as the ball does not come to a complete stop no violation has occured. Carlos

Peggyball, This presents a good opportunity to teach some life lessons. We are all faced with dealing with people that we may not necessarily like but we have to work together for our benefit and the benefit of everyone involved. I would call a team meeting and let them know that you understand they may not get along off the court and that you can't do anything about that, but while they are on the court they have to work together. Let them know that the ones who make the choice to play together will be the ones who see the benefit of increased playing time. Good Luck!

John, Thanks for posting the information. This should prove to be most helpful.

jnance, This is a tough age to develop any concept of running set plays. I would concentrate more on making a second pass to an open player. Get your point guard to pass to a wing and then always cut to the basket, have your post player slide down to the low block on the ball side of the court. This then gives your wing three options - pass back to the point guard who is cutting to the basket, pass to the post player on the low block, or dribble to the basket. This helps your players learn to move without the basketball and make a second pass rather than just dribbling with their head down.

I have been monitoring this post frequently as I am also interested in purchasing some videos and have been disappointed that no one has responded. Please if you have any insight into good/bad videos please don't be affraid to share it as it would be a in-valuable to us coaches.

I would say this is just laziness and a lack of focus. Invariably it will happen during a game but come on 20 times and 8-10 times by the same player. These guys are old enough to learn more quickly than that. If it was my team they would be doing spints for every time they were called for a three second violation.

JDMAN, If you go to AAU Boys Basketball, there is an article specific to starting an AAU Basketball Team. If you already have a team together then it's pretty easy to move to AAU. If you need to pick-up a few player's AAU usually has some contacts for you.

Not many positives to take out of this situation. I would say that you need to ask your self if your team played their best. If your players gave it their all and the other team was just that much better, you would be best to just move on and forget the games with that team. If you players didn't give it their all then you need to address that with your team.

I am a beginning coach for a 7th and 8th grade volleyball team. If anyone can give me info on the right way to position players on defense when receiving the serve and how to get the players to bump and dig, I would appreciate it. Thanks!