SMBA recognizes the valuable resource provided by Canada Basketball in its LTAD (Long Term Athlete Development Model) for guiding coaching in properly teaching young players in a safe and progressive manner. View the LTAD document.
Remember 4 of the key qualities to being an all-star coach: sportsmanship, teamwork, positive attitude, and respect
The #1 reason kids quit sports is because it's not fun anymore!
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. Don't focus on the negative. Focus on the way to help them. Let's be positive as coaches!
Sometimes competition is not a motivator for young kids. However ALL kids need to taste success. 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.
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.
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)!
Have a team meeting to start the first practice of the season, or as soon as possible thereafter.
Limit your postgame analysis to positive things that occurred in the game and deal with what went wrong by establishing a specific goal to work on starting at the next practice.
Ask parents to delay or even eliminate the dreaded postgame interview with their child.
When you need to correct a player, use the "compliment sandwich", state something positive the player did well, give a very specific correction, then restate the first positive thing.