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In order to develop a successful basketball team at the youth level, a coach needs to focus on the fundamentals of the sport.
FUNDAMENTAL ONE
The first step toward building a winning team is to condition your players physically and mentally. Each individual should be in top athletic shape and in the correct frame of mind by the first game and for the endurance of the season. Physical and mental fatigue should never be a factor once the regular season games begin.
Every practice and game should begin with a full stretching and exercise workout that focuses on increasing flexibility and injury prevention.
Early season practices should focus on maximizing the cardiovascular status of your players with special drills on and off the court every day. Running exercises and mock games up and down the court ought to be instituted at every practice.
Muscle strengthening should also be achieved through a weight room regimen three days a week for the entire season. Physical endurance is an important aspect of the game of team basketball.
FUNDAMENTAL TWO
At the youth level, kids need as much time as possible to work on the very basic skills of basketball, including shooting, dribbling, passing, defending, rebounding, and moving without the ball.
As coach, you should possess a huge armament of drills that work on these skills regularly, adding a variety of these drills to each practice. There is no substitute for repetitive practice when it comes to shooting the ball, dribbling, and etc.
FUNDAMENTAL THREE
Once the players are becoming adequately conditioned and skilled at the fundamentals, you will want to unify them as a team, a unit that is ready to meet the team objectives.
The major objective in a basketball game is basically for your team to score more points than the opponent. Everything else revolves around this main goal. Accomplish it, and you win the game.
The odds of scoring more points are increased when your team has more scoring opportunities and when those shots at the basket are easy, close attempts.
The only way that this objective can be reached on a consistent basis is for the individual players to become part of the bigger team. Basketball games are won when all five players do their jobs within the unity of the team.
FUNDAMENTAL FOUR
Establishing a strong team defense that is stifling and relentless is an important principle of winning at the youth level.
A great defense sets the tone of the game. A strong defense will limit the number of opportunities that the opposition has to score. A tough defense will frustrate even the best young shooters and put the ball in the hands of your offense more often.
A good defense will inevitably result in more turnovers for the opponent, leading to more fastbreak opportunities for your team and easier shots like running layups.
Layups are a coach's dream because they represent a high percentage shot. More high percentage shots lead to a greater chance of scoring more points, the main objective.
FUNDAMENTAL FIVE
Offensively, the goal is to position your players where they can take the easiest shots. Attempts that are closer to the basket are statistically the easiest shots for almost all young players.
Therefore, you want to develop players who can take the ball to the hole and shoot near the basket. Taking it to the basket will result in closer shots and increase the number of times your team will go to the foul line.
Free throws are another coach's dream... they increase the team's opportunities to score points.
Once the offense has established a strong inside game, the opposition will tend to collapse, opening up the outside realm for your longer-range shooters to take more uncontested shots.
FUNDAMENTAL SIX
The team that wins the rebounding battle wins the game over 60% of the time, another important fact of basketball at the youth level. Therefore, it is important to develop a powerful rebounding element in your game strategies.
Once again, rebounding puts the ball into the hands of your offense and increases your scoring opportunities. Controlling the boards on the defensive end limits the time an opponent has to score. Offensive rebounds increases your ability to put the ball in the hoop, moving you closer to the main objective.
To produce a winning youth basketball team, a coach needs to develop players who are well-conditioned and skilled at the fundamentals of shooting the ball, dribbling, passing, rebounding, defending, and moving without the ball.
In order to bring these players together as a solid and unified team, a coach needs to focus on creating a strong defense that can cause alot of havoc, an offense that can create easy shots close to the basket, and a team that dominates the boards on both ends of the basketball court.
A winning youth hoops team is one whose defense frustrates the opponent's offense by instigating mistakes and turnovers. It is a team that looks for fastbreaks for easy layups, can take the ball to the hole with success, and can clear the boards with power.
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