dadofkash

Basketball Beginnings

So, I was a hyperactive kid growing up in southwest Mississippi. My parents got divorced when I was six and my mom moved us from sunny Southern California to the country town of Fernwood. It wasn’t a big shock to my system because all I wanted to do was play outside, and it seemed like there was nothing to do in Fernwood besides playing outside. My grandparents owned several acres of land and our trailer home sat a few feet away from their nice big house. The yard was the size of a football field in my six-year-old mind. I loved it all, right away and I had plenty of cousins that were around my age to play with. I honestly wouldn’t trade my preteen years for anything. The teen years are another story but I’ll get to that later.

There was a homemade basketball hoop in my grandparent’s backyard that I naturally gravitated to. The hoop had a huge wooden backboard with a cast iron rim. The nets were red, white, and blue, and I thought they were so dope. The pole that the backboard was connected to was a tree that my uncles had cut down from behind the house. Once I started shooting I could barely get the ball to the rim but I was determined to make as many shots as possible through those fancy nets.

Shooting for Beginners

To steer beginners in the right direction, it’s essential to focus on building a strong foundation. Here is a key area to prioritize in their training:

Teaching Basic Shooting Techniques

Beginners should start with mastering basic shooting techniques, such as proper hand placement, body alignment, and footwork. Practice sessions can involve simple shooting drills and repetition to develop muscle memory and accuracy. Nothing too crazy as far as drills are concerned, just the basics.

The difference between beginners and intermediate players( Just in case you weren’t sure which one your child was)

In the world of basketball training, it is crucial to recognize the varying skill levels and abilities of players. Let’s be honest, some of you think your 9-year-old is already better than Lebron. Slow your roll and bring it down a notch. I’m here for all of you to understand how to get your 9-year-old to one day battle with Lebron James.

So, training beginners and intermediate basketball players require different approaches to optimize their development and enhance their performance on the court. Whether you are a coach, player, or enthusiast, understanding these differences is essential for designing effective training programs and fostering continuous improvement. This post will delve into exploring the key areas of assessment.

Evaluating Beginner Basketball Players

Beginners, bless their hearts, often need extra guidance and patience as they navigate the intricacies of the game. They may struggle with basic shooting techniques, have limited dribbling skills, and need assistance in understanding the fundamentals of passing and receiving. Defense might feel like a foreign concept to them, so it’s crucial to start from the ground up and lay a solid foundation.

Assessing Intermediate Basketball Players

Intermediate players, on the other hand, have a grasp of the fundamentals and are ready to take their skills to the next level. They may already possess basic shooting techniques and dribbling skills, but need refinement and more advanced strategies. Their understanding of passing and receiving is solid, and they may be looking to enhance their court vision. Additionally, intermediate players should focus on improving their defensive techniques and agility to become more effective on the court.

Basketball Tryouts

So your kiddo has tryouts coming up in a few weeks and you’re not sure how to help. Well, I’m here for you as long as you keep reading.

If your mini-me is a straight-up baller, then you’ll be okay skimming the rest of this masterpiece. But if ole’ junior doesn’t know right from left and can’t hit the side of a gate, then you may want to pay attention. Here is a step by step guide to make the coaches running the tryouts notice your baby.

1. Tell your mini-me to hustle the entire tryout. If they give the kids a water break, hustle to the water. If they have to run the bleachers, try to finish first. Any running drills, try to be first and or run as hard as humanly possible. HUSTLE, HUSTLE. and then more HUSTLE.

2. Learn how to use their left hand. The other left. This is true for layups and dribbling mostly. They do need to be able to pass with their left hand, but that’ll come later.

3. This is the last one for today(this a blog, not a novel). Make sure your kiddo has decent form on their jump-shot. Form shooting helps a bunch with this. If little Johnny throws the ball at the rim with two hands behind his head with one eye open, then you should definitely Google “form shooting” and head out to the nearest gate and fix that jump-shot.

Thanks for checking out my blog and good luck to little Susie at tryouts!

Is your child using the correct sized basketball for their age and size?

Fitting a round peg into a square hole doesn’t work. Sorta like how an 8-year-old kid with 8-year-old hands uses a ball that high school players use. It just doesn’t work in the long run for the kid. It burns me up to see so many teenagers with really bad shooting form playing basketball. Smaller kids should use smaller balls so that when they shoot the ball, their form won’t suffer. There are different basketball sizes for different age groups. My nine-year-old son used to cock the ball behind his head before shooting when he was in diapers, now he gets compliments on his form all the time. Mainly because I made sure he had the right size ball for his size and age. Other factors helped with his form like the fact that I’m a pretty decent coach. He’s also very coachable so that helps.

The height of the basket plays a role as well. I’ll be doing a blog post on hoop height very soon.

Here’s a breakdown of all the sizes for your child’s basketball needs courtesy of breakthrough basketball.com:

0-4 year-olds should use a Nerf ball or micro-mini ball.

4-8 year-olds should use a 22” mini basketball. They can also use a 25.5” ball if they’re a bigger kid.

9-11 year-olds use a standard 27.5” youth-sized ball.

12-14 year-old boys and girls should use a 28.5” ball. This is also the size for girls high school, college, and professional basketball.

Boys 15 and up should use a 29.5” ball. This is the official size for high school, college, and the pro game.

So the next time you have to go out and buy a ball for your child please make sure to refer to this blog post. It will save you a lot of time and it will help your kid become the best shooter he or she can be. Have a great day and take care.

https://ganon-s-school.thinkific.com/courses/basic-level-shooting?ref=a6fcf7

Hustle

The definition of hustle according to dictionaries worldwide is to play a sport with a lot of energy and effort. Hustling helped me make a few teams as a young player. Kids need to realize how much coaches love players that hustle(they really, really love it). This is even more true at the middle school level, where the skills of most players aren’t as high as they will be. So, hustle to separate yourself from the other players during tryouts and once you make the team. After you make the team be sure to continue to hustle and play as hard as possible. Take care and don’t be afraid to tell your kids to always hustle hard!

https://ganon-s-school.thinkific.com/courses/basic-level-player-workout-list?ref=a6fcf7

Please ask your kids coach about form shooting

Parents, make sure to ask your skills coach about form shooting. They will think you know a lot about basketball if you ask them right off the bat. Also, if they don’t think it’s important or have any ideas about it, it’s one hundred percent time to find a new trainer. Let me explain, so form shooting is the backbone of any good basketball workout. All players should do some form shooting before getting into the meat of a workout. It helps get the player’s shooting form down for the day and also for the future. Form is critical for accuracy while shooting. Hand placement, foot placement, the eyes, follow through, etc., are all things that can keep a player from reaching their potential as a shooter. Shooting and making shots is the name of the game, so form shooting for ten minutes is worth it for your kids. Feel free to click the link below for more tips on shooting for your kids.

https://ganon-s-school.thinkific.com/courses/basic-level-shooting?ref=a6fcf7

Warm-ups

Make sure coaches warm your players up before the actual workout

Always warm up before working out. We do different ball handling drills to get the players ready for the workout. This normally takes up the first 15 minutes of an hour long session. Warming up prepares the body for whatever work you plan to do in your session. This is an absolute must for basketball players. When I’m in a rush and skip the warmup, my players don’t have the same type of energy during the session. We start off with stationary drills and move on to more drills like the one in the video. Repetition is important, so I try to make sure they do at least 20 of everything. The number of reps also depends on the skill level of the player. The amount of time I spend in warmups is usually no more than 15 minutes, I also try not to go under 10 minutes for the warmup. I add finishing at the rim at the end of the warmup if they do a good job with ball handling. Lastly, younger players need to be trained in this way because when they reach higher levels of basketball, coaches expect the players to be ready to warm up.