Coaching Youth Basketball - Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3 - TRYOUTS (or your first chance to show your ignorance)
Keep repeating this to yourself, SIMPLE IS GOOD! SIMPLE IS GOOD! So why is simple good? The simpler your tryouts are, the less foolish you will look. What's the old saying, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression?" Start off simply.

Now that you have brainwashed yourself, the next thing you need to learn is control. Either you are going to control your players, or they are going to control you. So how do you take control in a positive manner, without coming across as a screaming dictator? YOUR WHISTLE!!!!

THE WHISTLE - your best attention getter. The secret is not to overuse it. When you blow your whistle, make it mean something. Have you ever known a family that yells at each other a lot? After a while they begin to ignore the volume and yelling doesn't mean anything any more. This principle applies to your whistle. If you blow it too much, it loses it's effectiveness.

Now, how do you gain control from the first moment you step onto the court? Blow your whistle and tell your kids to line up on the baseline. (That's the out of bounds line underneath the basket.) Explain to them that when you blow your whistle and yell, "baseline," they have 5 seconds to get there. If a player doesn't make it in time as you count out loud to 5, then the whole team runs two laps, full speed. Why should everyone run when only one player was late? It promotes teamwork, peer pressure, and puts you in the cat's bird seat. You are in control. You haven't yelled or screamed, but you are in control.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN YOUR TRYOUTS

Ok boss, I took control, the kids are in a line, now what? Now you have the kids do a couple of simple drills for you. I will give you these drills in a bit. The same drills will work for 3rd - 8th grade. I would concentrate on ball handling drills. If you take kids who can dribble and pass, you are light years ahead of the game.

Here's an example: Let's say I have a kid who can hit seven out of ten free throws, but can't dribble or pass. Next I have a kid who can handle the ball very well, but can't shoot. In this situation, most people will say to take the shooter. I say take the ball handler. But the team with the most points wins, right? My question is how do you get the ball down the court into the shooter's hands. I take ball handlers because I can teach them how to shoot. In fact, the odds are I am going to have to teach the shooter the proper way to shoot anyway. So, if I have to teach everyone to shoot, I'll take the ball handler every time.

Another example: I have a girl on my team even as I write this. She out hustles, outruns, out rebounds, and can out shoot every one on the team. So what's the problem? Every time she touches the ball, she walks or travels with the ball. In one of our games she was able to steal the ball 5 times in about a two minute stretch. All five times she got called for traveling. The moral of the story, pick the ball handlers.

NAME TAGS

You number your tags one through whatever. As you pass out the tags, have the players write their name and number on a master log. Also have them put their phone # on this log. They must fill out two tags, one to put on their chest, and one on their back.

BALL HANDLING DRILLS FOR TRYOUTS

1. COUNT THE FINGERS Most coaches will say this is too basic, but it lets you see who dribbles with their head up. You stand on one baseline and the kids stand on the opposite baseline. You hold up your hands and they must yell out the number of fingers you are holding up, while they dribble toward you. If a bunch of kids are doing this, get your wife or husband or a friend to help you see who is actually yelling the right number while dribbling. Every 2 seconds or so, change the number of fingers you hold up. This will also let you know who needs glasses. List on your master log how you rate each player, 1-5 works well. Rate every drill this way.

2. SUICIDES A RUNNING DRILL

There are several different types of suicides. This is a simple one.

A. player runs from baseline to closest free throw line and back

B. then player runs from baseline to half court and back

c. then player runs from baseline to furthest free throw line and back

d. then player runs from baseline to opposite baseline and back

Try running this yourself at full speed, and you'll understand why it's called a SUICIDE. Now the drill is to see who is fast, who is able to start and stop, and who has endurance. Have them all run a suicide, but they must slap the floor when they reach a free throw line, half court line, or a baseline. At the end, rate your players.

3. WATER BREAK 2 MINUTES, BLOW WHISTLE, YELL BASELINE, SEE IF THEY ARE THERE IN 5 SECONDS, IF NOT, EVERYONE DOES 2 LAPS

4. ONE BALL SUICIDE - A dribbling drill - Have them compete in groups, so you can pay more attention to each player. They do a suicide while dribbling a basketball. They still have to slap the floor at the given intervals. This will start to let you see who your ball handlers are.

5. 2 BALL DRIBBLING a fun drill - So far everything has been serious, so you lighten things up a bit. This is where you need your 20 balls. Put 10 kids on the baseline, each with 2 balls. They must do a suicide while dribbling 2 balls. You will see balls flying in every direction. If you warn everyone that this will happen, the kids won't feel so stupid and everyone will end up laughing.

I personally have had my team doing 2 ball dribbling in every one of our learning sessions, for over 4 years. It let's everyone learn to dribble with their left hand. By the way, I don't have practices, I have learning sessions. Even the name announces to the kids why they are there.

6. NO DRIBBLE SCRIMMAGE SEEING WHO HAS THE WHOLE PACKAGE

You divide the kids into teams of five and let them scrimmage. The only rule is they are not allowed to dribble the ball. In order to move the ball down the court, they have to pass the ball down the court. If a player dribbles, the other team gets the ball. What you are looking for is who can pass the ball, catch the ball, move to get open, who can play defense, and who has the ability to see who's open. Again keep rating players on how well they do.

SELECTING YOUR PLAYERS

Go to your master log and count up how many points each player has. If you want to be fair, take the players with the most points. The only exception to this is if you have an extremely tall kid WHO IS COORDINATED. Take this player, because you can't coach height.

OVERVIEW OF TRYOUTS

Many coaches may disagree with my choice of drills because they are too simple and don't allow the players to show you what they can do. Ok, I'll bite off on that. Here's the BUT, but these coaches forget that you are a beginning youth coach. Remember what I tried to brainwash you with in the begiining, SIMPLE IS GOOD. SIMPLE KEEPS YOU FROM LOOKING LIKE AN IDIOT. For a beginning coach what else do you need to know. Can they handle a ball? Can they pass and catch a ball? No dribble scrimmage will let you see if they can play defense. Can they move without the ball? Can they see the floor and who's open? You can answer all of these questions just by using these simple drills. Why complicate life? SIMPLE IS GOOD!!!