How to teach 4th grade basketball

Coaching Youth Basketball - What Should You Teach?

By Joe Haefner

Home > Coaching > Coaching Youth Basketball > Coaching Youth Basketball - What Should You Teach?

Many youth basketball coaches don't know where to start or what to teach. Well, we hope to help you out in this area. Below, we provide some advice on what to teach youth basketball players. We break it down between 3 levels. As you perfect each level, you can advance to the next level to teach more skills & concepts.

All beginner players should start with Level 1 no matter the age. We put ages next to the level as a general guideline. Depending on the age and skill level, you'll progress through the levels at different rates. You may notice that you'll spend 4 years working on Level 1 with 7 to 10 year olds. At the same time, you may be able to progress to Level 2 after two weeks working with a group of 13 year olds who are playing basketball for the first time.

I would advise to go back and start at Level 1 every year. A lot of high school and college coaches start at Level 1 every year. They just progress through the levels more quickly than a youth team. It's a great way to ingrain the fundamentals into your players year in and year out.

We advise to take a couple of hours and write up a master practice schedule for the season, so you can progressively teach them the skills mentioned below. It may take a few years to teach all of these skills at one level and THAT'S OKAY! For youth players, we want to focus on the long-term development, not how many games they win when they're 11 years old. If you try to progress them too quickly, it will hurt them in the long-run. You want to have a solid foundation first. You shouldn't try to teach them every dribble move in one year or every option in the motion offense. The same way in which you couldn't teach a person calculus if they did not know how to do simple addition and subtraction.

Important Note: Throughout this article, you'll find many links to other articles on the website to explain concepts that we advise to teach. My recommendation would be to read the entire article first, then go back and click on the links to read the other articles.

You may also want to add this article to your "Favorites" or "Bookmark" it, because there may not be enough time to read all of the links in one sitting.

Level 1 (7 to 10 Year Olds)

Here's what to teach, ordered by priority:

1. Lay ups - You should practice lots of lay ups with both hands. Your goal should be to get all players to make lay ups with their left and right hands equally well!! Teach them to jump off the proper foot. They should jump off the left leg when shooting a right hand lay up. They should shoot off their right leg when shooting a left hand lay up. It will be difficult but work on it. You'll probably need to start really close to the basket, with no dribble, and take just one step to practice the footwork. Once you add the dribble, they should dribble with their left hand when shooting left hand lay ups. And vice versa.
2. Footwork - Teach them triple threat positioning, pivoting on their left and right foot without traveling, jump stops, and to square to the basket as soon as they catch the ball in a triple threat position. You should spend a lot of time on footwork!
3. Shooting form - For this age group, we highly recommend using smaller balls and lower baskets. If that is not possible, allow the players to dip their elbows which will give them more strength. To learn more on shooting, we also have the Breakthrough Basketball Shooting Guide.
4. Ball handling - You should teach your players to dribble with left and right hands equally. Basic dribble moves such as the speed dribble, crossover, protect-the-ball dribble, and back-up dribble.

   Resource: Progressive Youth Ball Handling & Footwork Workouts App - Players can do the workouts from anywhere. The coaching dashboard also allows you to monitor multiple players or your whole team.

5. Athletic & movement skills - Teach them how to run, jump and land, skip, stop, move laterally, squat, lunge and any other basic movements. If you don't know how to teach these movements, ask a professional or PE teacher to show you how. 99% of the time they would be more than willing to help, and they may even come and show the kids themselves.

   Should We Teach Basketball Skills To Players Under the Age of 10? - Useful information for all levels of coaches, not just coaches who work with players under the age of 10.

6. Basic passes - Teach and practice the basic chest, bounce, and overhead passes.
7. Play plenty of 2 on 2 and 3 on 3 games to teach concepts (no dribble keep away). It gets the players more experience and allows them enough space to operate and use the new skills they have learned. Make sure to use plenty of age-appropriate drills & games.

   For more on this, read Could 3 on 3 Basketball Be the Best for Youth Players?

8. Offense - Do NOT use any structured or patterned offenses. First, get them comfortable on the court. They will start to figure things out on their own. Your main concern should be to have them move & not stand still.

   If you use a few basic cuts and maybe screens in your shooting drills at the beginning of practice, then your players will already know how to move in a motion offense. Then you don't have to waste time teaching offense. Just let them play.

   Once players feel comfortable on the court, show them proper spacing.

   As they progress, you can start to introduce them to motion offense situations.

9. Basic cuts & how to get open - If time permits, you can introduce the basket cut and straight cut. I would suggest that you just work these cuts into your shooting drills at the beginning of practice. This will save loads of time.
10. Defense - Teach the basic stance, defensive slide, and basic off-ball principles. Don't worry about spending as much time on defense. As they get older, you'll gradually spend more time on defense. Focusing on it 5 to 10 minutes per practice would be more than sufficient.

    Basic Off Ball Principles:
    - Stay between man and the ball
    - Always stop the ball if it is in front of you!

    For this age group, we are against zone defenses for development purposes.

For anyone coaching this age group, we HIGHLY recommend the DVD The Youth Coaching System (By Jim Huber). You'll gets lots of drills and learn exactly how to teach the most important fundamentals the to kids "right way". We truly believe this DVD should be required viewing for ALL youth coaches.

Level 2 (10 to 12 Year Olds)

You should expand onto more advanced skills for everything mentioned above. But remember, if your 10 to 12 year olds are inexperienced, you should start in Level 1. And at the beginning of each season, you should start at level 1 until those skills are perfected. Then you can progress into the more advanced stuff below.

1. Lay ups - jumping off one foot and jump-stop lay ups.
2. Teach more cuts: back cut, curl cut, etc.
3. Continue to focus on shooting form and introduce some movement for shooting drills (shooting off the dribble and off the catch). To learn more on shooting, we also have the Breakthrough Basketball Shooting Guide.
4. Ball handling & dribbling - teach more dribble moves such as the inside-out dribble (fake crossover), hesitation move, and between-the-legs.

   Resource: Progressive Youth Ball Handling & Footwork Workouts App - Players can do the workouts from anywhere. The coaching dashboard also allows you to monitor multiple players or your whole team.

5. Passing - continue to teach basic passes and introduce some advanced passes (baseball pass and wrap around pass). Use other drill such as machine gun passing and pass and switch.
6. Passing under pressure - you can use pair passing with a defensive player in the middle running back and forth to pressure the passer. You can use this drill to practice breaking pressure: full court press breaker drill.
7. Teach basic screens.
8. Footwork - introduce jab steps and ball fakes (pass fakes and shot fakes).
9. Rebounding - introduce rebounding technique.
10. Basic post moves. drop step and jump hook.
11. Spacing - introduce more basic spacing concepts.
12. Offense - keep playing 2 on 2 and 3 on 3 to teach concepts. You can also start to introduce more motion offense situations and play some 5 on 5.
13. Defense - keep emphasizing and spend a little more time on the defensive stance, defensive slide, and off-ball principles mentioned in Level 1. If you feel that your players are ready, work on more off-ball defense principles.

    In our Man to Man Defense System, we provide step-by-step how to build and teach your defense.

    For this age group, we are against zone defenses for development purposes.

For anyone coaching this age group, we HIGHLY recommend the DVD The Youth Coaching System (By Jim Huber). You'll gets lots of drills and learn exactly how to teach the most important fundamentals the to kids "right way". We truly believe this DVD should be required viewing for ALL youth coaches.

Level 3 (12 to 14 Year Olds)

You should expand onto more advanced skills for everything mentioned above.

1. Lay ups - practice contested lay ups. Also, you could start to teach players, same-leg same-shooting hand lay ups. I know that is against conventional wisdom, but think about it for a second.Your player just blew by a defender or is on a fast break. Do you want them stutter-stepping to give the defense time to recover and contest the shot? So if that means jumping on your right-leg and shooting right-handed on the same side, so be it.
2. Continue to teach basic cuts and add more cuts.
3. Continue to emphasize shooting form (move to big baskets and bigger balls). Practice shooting on the move off of the pass and the dribble. To learn more on shooting, we also have the Breakthrough Basketball Shooting Guide.
4. Ball Handling & Dribbling - teach more dribble moves such as the spin move, behind-the-back. Incorporate some double-moves (crossover followed with a behind-the-back).

   Resource: Progressive Youth Ball Handling & Footwork Workouts App - Players can do the workouts from anywhere. The coaching dashboard also allows you to monitor multiple players or your whole team.

5. Passing - introduce some other advanced passes (dribble pass, behind-the-back pass, pick and roll pass).
6. Passing Under Pressure - You use Pair Passing with a defensive player in the middle running back and forth to pressure the passer. You can use this drill to practice breaking pressure: Full Court Press Breaker Drill.
7. Teach Basic Screens.
8. Footwork - continue to work on jab steps, pivots, and ball fakes (pass fakes and shot fakes).
9. Rebounding - put more emphasis on rebounding technique and spend more time on rebounding drills.
10. Post moves - keep practicing post moves mentioned above while introducing a few more when the players are ready drop step counter and up-and-under move.
11. Spacing - advance to higher levels of spacing drills.
12. Offense - introduce more motion offense situations. You should start to notice that your players are becoming much better at reading the defense.
13. Defense - Emphasize basics from previous levels and move on to rotations and situations.

    In our Man to Man Defense System, we go into great detail about rotations and situations.

    For this age group, we are against zone defenses for development purposes.

Sample Practice Plan for 7 to 10 year olds.

Sample Practice Plan for 11 to 14 year olds.

Do you have any questions or suggestions? Let us know by leaving your comments...

Coaching Youth Basketball -- Tips, Drills, Plays, Philosophy, Tactics

You'll be teaching habits that will stick with these kids for the rest of their lives. And whether you like it or not, you'll be setting an example and teaching kid's lessons about life (good and bad). Kids are impressionable. They pick up on things.

You have an obligation and responsibility to teach them the right things - in both basketball and life.

When you think about it, teachers would do anything to get the enthusiasm that you get from your players. Kids actually like and want to play basketball.

Your players look up to you. They listen to you. And you have an amazing opportunity to make a POSITIVE impact on their lives!

You have a very important and rewarding job!

In this section of our website, we'll provide you with links to a variety of youth coaching tactics, plays, drills, and tips that will help you become a better youth basketball coach.

The articles discuss very important concepts to help you succeed. So read through each article, starting with the first one at the top.

If you don't have our free eBook yet, the first thing you should check out is our FREE Basketball Drills ebook. It includes 72 of some of our favorite basketball drills and it includes youth section so you can easily find the drills that apply to you.

We also offer videos with 60+ Youth Basketball Drills and Tips For Coaching Youth Basketball.

When working with young kids and running basketball drills, there are three very important concepts you need to consider:

1 - Kids need to be highly active!

Just by using fast paced drills and keeping things moving, your players will have more fun and get in better condition. Your kids should be breathing hard and their hearts should be pumping. It's good for them!

Avoid standing in lines as much as possible and keep the ball in their hands as much as possible.

2 - Kids want to feel successful!

With very youngs kids, competition doesn't always serve as a motivator. You should always provide activities that help them build their skills and confidence. Strive to focus on the learning process instead of measuring up to those around you.

You'll want to avoid adding pressure and competition until the players have developed their skills, confidence, and become proficient with the basics.

Put them in situations where they can succeed.

3 - Kids want to have lots of fun!

This is an important stage for young players and your actions could determine whether they enjoy sports or not.

It's important to make things fun so they can improve and become confident.

Youth basketball drills don't have to be boring. Almost any drill can be modified to provide high activity, high success, and high enjoyment.

Youth Basketball Offenses

I believe that using a very simple motion offense is the way to go for youth teams because it teaches them how to move and the players will begin to learn how to get open and play the game.

Motion offense also allows you to spend more time teaching fundamentals and skills (which is very important for young players).

The challenging part about motion offenses is that there are SO many options that it's hard for players to know what to do. But you can easily solve that problem by making simple rules and starting with the basics.

For example, you might want to just with just a couple simple options for your motion offense. You could start by teaching the players proper spacing, away screens, and v-cuts. Once they master those skills and get VERY proficient at cutting properly and setting good away screens, then you can start adding more options and building on your foundation.

You can add ball screens, rolling, and so on. Just don't go too fast! Make sure they have good fundamentals before you start adding stuff.

You can learn about developing motion offenses by looking at these resources: Offensive Theory & Introduction to Basketball Offense

Teaching Basketball Motion Offense

5 Out Cutters Offense - Easy to teach and it is a great building block for the motion offense.

You can also try this very simple patterned offense that you can use as a play or your entire offense:
Youth Offense - Michigan

Press Breaker Offense - Breaking the Press in Youth Basketball

3 Critical Player Development Tips For Your Offense

Youth Basketball Plays

When it comes to teaching plays to youth basketball players, it is typically better to teach them concepts on how to play the game of basketball.

• Triple Threat - How to get in triple threat position every time a player catches the ball.
• Footwork - Quick stops & pivoting
• Cutting - Basket cuts & back cuts
• Screens - Off the ball & On-ball
• Eventually, reading screens.

To read more on this topic, please read:

Youth Coaches: Destroy Your Playbook and Do This Instead

Should Youth Coaches AVOID Plays and Patterned Offenses?

Here are some very basic plays:

1-3-1 Cutters

Rolling

Swing Variation

Zone Shallow

Zone Overload

Quick Hitter Vs. 1-3-1 Zone

Best Overall Advice for Youth Basketball Coaches

1) Keep things fun!
Did you know that the #1 reason kids quit sports is because it's not fun anymore?!? It's very important to play plenty of games and keep a positive attitude.

Be positive and make things fun. Even if the kids get cut from the team or decide not play basketball at an older age, they'll still have a positive image of basketball and may continue to play it recreationally when they get older.

If you act like a drill sergeant when coaching a bunch of 10 year olds, the kid will get a negative image of basketball and have negative emotional feelings when thinking of basketball. Kids will also get sick of basketball if they play TOO many games each year. As a result, they will not likely play basketball when they get older. It can even affect their feelings towards fitness in general. If a person dislikes fitness and becomes inactive, they are more likely to be unhealthy!

60+ Youth Basketball Drills and Games

2) Be Positive & Do NOT Correct Every Mistake!
Don't be too critical and stop them to make a correction on every mistake. Let them play and learn themselves. If you stop or correct them on every mistake, you'll get a basketball player with low confidence that is always unsure of what to do, instead of a confident player that reacts to the defense.

Now, if they continue to make the same mistake over and over and over, show the player a better way to do a certain thing. For example, if you see one of your players stand straight up every time they touch the ball and a defender crowds them and causes the offensive player to travel. Say to the player, "Way to hustle, Johnny! Let me show you something that will help you when the defender crowds you. When catching the ball in this position, keep your hips back with your knees bent, and pivot. Be ready to attack. Then if the defender comes to crowd you, it will be easy for you to dribble right by him!" Notice, I did NOT focus on the negative and say "Stop bringing the ball up!"

Don't focus on the negative. Focus on the way to help them. Let's be positive as coaches!

3) Allow your players to be successful!
Sometimes competition is not a motivator for young kids. However ALL kids need to taste success (and hopefully lots of it). Now this doesn't mean winning. It means getting better and succeeding in practice. Allow your players to run drills that they can succeed at and feel good about. Celebrate small accomplishments and successes with your players.

4) Teach life lessons in your practices!
Read this article about teaching life lessons and improving team bonding.

5) Don't worry about winning!
You don't have time to worry about winning. There's only time to do the right thing... If you do things "right", winning will eventually be a by-product of your actions. Be patient. True success takes time to do things right. It doesn't happen overnight.

You must first build a SOLID foundation for these kids to build on. Taking the time to build that foundation will cause you to sacrifice winning some games. Trust us. This is better for your players in the long run.

6) Avoid year-round basketball and play other sports!
There is a reason that NBA GM's don't like their ELITE, PROFESSIONAL basketball players competing in the summer World Championships and Olympics. It's been scientifically proven that playing a sport year-round leads to tired muscles and a tired muscle has a much HIGHER chance of injury. Now, if these PROFESSIONAL athletes with proper nutrition and training are supposed to avoid year-round basketball, don't you think that a DEVELOPING, young athlete (most likely without proper nutrition and training) should be avoiding it as well?!?

If you force your child to play, it can also lead to burnout, injury, and resentment of the sport or fitness altogether. People are much more driven when they choose to do something they enjoy, rather than being forced to do it. If you want your child to enjoy basketball, play GAMES with him when they want to, and watch basketball-related activities with them. 9 times out of 10, kids enjoy sports that their parents enjoy if approached the right way.

At this age, it is best to improve overall athletic ability which is done by playing multiple sports, such as gymnastics, baseball, soccer, martial arts, football, track, volleyball, softball, swimming, and so on. Keep in mind, that you want to have seasons for these sports. Avoid playing 2 or 3 sports at once and multiple practices on the same day. If you want to focus on one sport at age 16 or 17, GREAT. Not at age 10 or 11. And who knows what your child will take an interest in or show talent in at age 10? Most of the time, things change a lot in the next 6 or 7 years!

7) Don't press or play zone defense!
You can read why and get advice here.

8) Use small basketballs and lower rims!
Using rims that are too high and basketballs that are too big will RUIN your players shooting form. They are NOT strong enough yet.

Do we send 6 year olds to Yankee stadium and start throwing from the big mound? No, we start with tee-ball, then parent pitch, then little league (close bases), and move up.

It's ridiculous to throw 5-10 year olds on a full size court with 10 foot rims and youth basketballs that are way too big! It's no wonder so many kids have horrible shooting form when they get to high school!

9) Teach the right things!
Just keep in mind that if you can teach your young players the following skills, then you should feel good that about what you accomplished and know that you're teaching your player the right things (that they need to be successful)!

Your young players should be able to:

• Dribble with their left and right hands equally well.
• Make lay ups with their left and right hands equally well -- and jump off the proper foot (left foot when shooting with right hand, and vice-versa)
• Perform a jump stop without traveling.
• Pivot on their left and right foot without traveling.
• Perform accurate chest, bounce, and overhead passes.
• Perform a defensive slide (feet wide, good balance, staying between the offensive player and the basket).
• Shoot a basketball with proper form.

These simple skills should be your number priority and your goal should be to help your players master these skills. Once they have truly mastered these skills, you can start building from there.

Breakthrough Bonus: Download this "Youth Basketball" article as a FREE PDF! (Download Now!)

Questions & Answers

If you have any questions about coaching youth basketball, post your questions on our forum.

A group of very experienced and knowledgeable coaches monitor the forum and answer questions.

Recommended Youth Coaching eBooks, Books, and DVDs

Here are the books and DVDs that we recommend to youth coaches:

The Youth Coaching System (By Jim Huber)

60 Fun Youth Basketball Drills

Motion Offense

Basketball Shooting Tips & Drills

M2M Basketball Defense Tips & Drills

Simplified Post Player Development

Basketball lesson, 4th grade | Outline of a lesson in physical education on the topic:

: Basketball elements. 4th grade | Outline of a lesson in physical education (grade 4) on the topic:

Purpose: the formation of universal educational actions while learning to play basketball

2. To learn the ability to drive the ball without visual control, to promote the development of dexterity, coordination. Improve communication skills through group work, regulative skills: determine the goal, the ability to determine your level of physical capabilities to pass the given test, plan your activities, reflect, cognitive skills: the ability to read diagrams and prepare a place to perform the given work.

3. To cultivate attention, discipline, will, perseverance when performing complex exercises, responsibility for each other;

Forms and methods of work, work in pairs, in groups, frontal work; game, competitive and heuristic teaching methods.

Teacher: Sizova Irina Petrovna, teacher of physical culture of the highest qualification category.

Equipment: basketballs, volleyballs, skittles, hoops, medicine balls, cards, tokens.

6 666

To create conditions for the inclusion of students in educational and cognitive activities

To ensure the initial organization and psychological readiness of students for the lesson.