Chanhassen Basketball

Coaches Handbook

Grades 1-3

2017-2018

Coaching Expectations

Focus on the 3 F’s

  1. Fun: Your goal is for each kid to like basketball more at the end of the season than they did at the beginning of the season. Inspire the love of the game, and teach them that hard work is synonymous with fun.
  1. Fundamentals: Everything we do is rooted in the development of fundamentals. Fundamental work should make up at least 70% of your practice.
  1. Fast: We want to play fast, and we expect the girls to do everything in practice at game speed.

Practice Philosophy

  1. Repetition is the mother of skill. Don’t worry about reinventing the wheel every practice; continuity and familiarity are important.
  1. Be aware of your nonverbal cues. Kids pick up body language; an eye roll and especially tone of voice, matter much more than the words you say.
  1. Focus on fundamentals. At least 80% of practice should be spent on them. Start with the basics and don’t leave them. Work on shooting, dribbling and passing every practice almost exclusively.
  1. Use key words when emphasizing key points. Develop common terminology.
  1. Keep your drills short and intense. Keep the tempo fast and upbeat. Do not spend more than 10 minutes on a drill.
  1. Mix in a game or competition to add variety and excitement into your practices.
  1. Avoid constant scrimmaging. When scrimmaging, stop constantly and teach.

Grade Level Objectives

Grade / Rules / Fundamentals
1st/ 2nd /
  • Players will understand out of bounds
  • Players will know what constitutes a foul
  • Players will have a general knowledge of travelling and double-dribbling. These shouldn’t result in a turnover, but if they are egregious or constant, game is stopped and player corrected.
/
  • Players will use front and back pivots
  • Players will come to two-foot jump stop
  • Players will dribble with fingertips and waist high
  • Players will make proper chest and bounce pass—one step and thumbs down on pass
  • Emphasis is avoiding overhead and “rainbow” passes
  • Players will have basic shooting form: one hand behind ball. Follow through high. Players should be corrected for chucking ball against backboard. Emphasize soft shots

3rd /
  • Travel and double-dribble corrected at beginning of season. Results in turnover at end of season
  • By end of season, jump ball to start game
  • Players understand over and back. Stop and correct at beginning of season. Turnover by end of season
  • By end of season, throw ball in bounds at every dead ball
/
  • Players will dribble with proper hand. For example, when driving left, player will use left hand
  • Players will utilize crossover dribble. Focus is on changing direction of body when crossing over
  • Players will bounce pass correctly—jump stop, rear down, ball should travel ¾ way in air
  • Strong emphasis on stepping and pivoting while passing, not passing with both legs planted
  • By end of season, players will shoot layups off of one leg
  • Players will have an understanding and comfortability of shooting up to 10 feet away. Knowing to use backboard on angles and to not use backboard in front of basket
  • Avoid ball screens. Pass, cut and move

Coaches are expected to focus on these skills throughout the season. The players should know what their skill objectives. While we understand not every child will mastery these skills by the end of the season, it is the board’s expectation that the coach will make these objectives his/her primary focus.

Coaches are expected to provide a skills progress report, which will be sent to coaches electronically, to each player at the end of season.

Practice Drills

Ball-handling

Baseline objective is head-up, using fingertips and keeping ball at waist. Once mastered, next objective is using off-hand effectively.

  1. Stationary Single Ball: V dribble, crossover, push pull, between legs, behind back
  1. 2 Ball Stationary: dribble together, alternate, cross over, push pull
  1. Ball handling lines: Use cones or the lines on the court. Have players work on both hands. Start with a jog. End with a sprint. Include crossover, fake crossover, between the legs, behind the back.
  1. Cones or human cones: Same as above, but use stationary defenders instead of cones. The defenders stand still but reach with their arms as the dribbler makes his move.
  1. Red light, green light: start on baseline. Stop when coach yells red light and dribble low in place. Start again on green light.
  1. Sharks and minnows: Minnows have the ball on the baseline. They have to make it to the other baseline without the shark tipping their ball away. Those who get ball tipped away become sharks.
  1. Dribbling Race: Two lines on the baseline. Each line is racing against the other. Dribble down, jump stop, pivot and dribble back.
  1. Knock out:Every player has a ball. Use half the court. Dribble and try to knock the others’ ball away. Shrink the court as more kids are eliminated until there is one winner.
  1. 2 Corner Dribbling and pivoting: 1 line in each corner of half court. One ball in each line. Dribble to middle, reverse pivot and pass to next person in line.

Passing

Teach your players to pass and catch correctly. The receiver should always show a target hand, and the passer should always hit that target hand. The passer should snap thumbs down to create backspin and take a step forward with the pass. The receiver should catch the ball with a small hop to create rhythm and balance. Avoid soft, rainbow passes at all levels. Bounce passes, especially, at the younger levels should be mastered.

Passing drills are a great time to work on pivoting. At the younger levels, do not allow kids to stand with two feet on the ground and pass. Constantly work with them on using their pivots to create space and improve passing angle.

  1. Partner Passing: Line up kids across from each other. Work on receiver having target hands. Work on Passer stepping
  1. Drive, jump stop, bounce pass: Two lines. One with ball at one wing. The other on the opposite block. Dribbler drives to middle, jumps stops, and bounce passes to teammate. An evolution of this by making teammate start on opposite wing and cut to basket.
  1. Line passing with coach defender: Two lines opposite each other. One girl is passer, the other receiver. Coach guards passer, makes passer uses fakes and pivots to deliver ball to receiver.
  1. Give and Go Lines: When possible, try to incorporate multiple skills in one drill. Give and go incorporates cutting, passing and layups.
  1. 2 Player Passing Full Court: Chest pass back and forth while shuffling. Jump stop at free throw line and bounce pass for layup.
  1. Zig-Zag Passing: This is a team game. Position girls at zig zags with the first player at half court and the last player in front of basket. Start ball at half court. Goal is for ball not to hit the ground. The first player passes to the second, the second to the third, last girl shoots a layup.

Shooting

Younger players should be kept close to the basket. If they can’t shoot their normal shot with good form, it is too far. Emphasize one hand behind ball. The other hand on side is just a guide. Focus on getting their power from their legs and lead hand following through.

  1. Shooting lines: Pick a spot on the floor to shoot from. Break team into separate lines at separate baskets. Make it a competition. First group to 10 makes wins.
  1. Partner Shooting: Two players and a ball. Take 10 shots while the partner is rebounding. Move after each shot ad catch the ball in a different spot. Then rotate. Rebounder becomes shooter.
  1. Hot Shot: 1 kid at a basket at a time. They get one minute to shoot. 1 point for a layup, 2 points from a spot a little farther away and 3 points from even farther. Keep track of total points in a minute.