Pat Colliton's Coaching Tricks from Fairfax Virginia

This is Pat Colliton from 6528 Heather Brook Ct., McLean, in Fairfax VA and I am back with more inside information on coaching youth basketball. My seventeen years of coaching youth basketball in Fairfax, VA makes me a little bit of an authority on the subject.

The first thing coaches need to know when coaching youth sports is that regardless of how much experience you have or don’t have, you almost always know more than your kids, especially in those developmental years (grades 1-4). Hopefully your program has you playing small sided games (3 v 3)with a shorter basket and smaller ball. These are all vital if you want the kids to be successful.

One of the first things you will notice with the young players is that they all want to shoot jump shots. The further out, the better they like it. Basically it becomes a chuck and a prayer with virtually no chance for success. This is just not productive use of your precious practice time.

In order to give these younger kids a chance to succeed, I make a rule at the very first practice. That rule is “You need to make a lay-up before you can even attempt a jump shot.” (practice or games) Once you make a lay-up you are allowed to shoot a jumper, but if you miss that jumper, you need to make another lay-up before your next attempted jump shot.

This rule is actually pretty easy to implement and as long as you don’t get too strict with it, the kids will buy into it. I usually tweak the rule as the season progresses, allowing “bonus jumpers” for offensive rebounds and steals.

My next blog will talk about how you can make shooting drills both fun and productive at the same time. This is Pat Colliton signing off from Fairfax, Virginia.