by J@3 on Sun Mar 12, 2006 8:36 pm
I coached under 12's/14's/16's, the main thing with the younger kids is to just make sure they have fun. I guess I'd suggest:
Lay up drills... it's easy for the kids to understand and they enjoy it, but also vary it a bit, i.e make them do the same drill, only with jump shots instead of lay-ups.
1 on 1 or 2 on 2 games... make a little tournament or something out of it, actually 3 on 3 would probably be ideal.
Simple dribbling drills... make them dribble from half court in for a lay up with their right hand, then dribble back to half court with their left hand. It's like an extended lay up drill only with the dribbling emphasised.
Rebounding games... i.e throw up 15-20 shots, whoever gets the most rebounds wins something (buy them something from the canteen or something, they seem to like that). Don't go into boxing out or anything like that just now, they won't understand it and they'll probably just end up getting hurt.
Defensive stance... they won't use it in a game, but it's good to run a simple defensive stance drill with them.
Passing drills... not 4 corner or the star passing, but just simple things like 1 kid on the FT line, 1 kid on the baseline and throwing simple chest passes to each other.
REALLY simple motion play... just show them where to stand on the court, how to run a BASIC offence. Don't get too complicated because they'll forget it, but just emphasise ball moment and court positioning.
The netball drill... just make them play a 5 on 5 half court game, but with no dribbling. It'll teach them to look for their teammates more on offence, but don't use it all the time.
If you need any more let me know, I'm sure I could think of a few.
Edit: One more thing, DO NOT get them to do 3 man weaves... that is an absolute disaster, so avoid that one.