What Skills Should Your Players Learn

The past couple of weeks have been one of great observation to narrow the focus of training for various age groups.

Generally, we want all of our players to master the basics of ballhandling, defense, shooting as well as knowledge of the game. Wouldn't that be the ultimate player at any age?

As we very well know, it takes time to mold a complete player.

That is why have broken down my observations into 3 age groups.

1) 6-9

2) 10-11

3) 12-14

Today's posting will concentrate on the 6-9 age group.

What I have found is as follows:

Players ages 6-9 need to learn the basic movements, not just of a particular sport, but footwork and stances that will assist them many sports. There is a posting on this site about the magic position as a starting point for many sports.

From this position take them into many activities that incorporate running, jumping, stopping, changing directions.

For basketball specific fundamentals, if you begin in the magic position with a basketball, you are now in the triple threat position. This is where you have the option of passing, shooting, and dribbling.

Primarily, with this group you spend most of your time teaching ballhandling skills which includes dribbling, passing, and receiving.

Right now I can stop and say this all they need to learn. Many times we get caught up in looking at the whole rather the parts. In youth basketball, most points are scored within 5 feet of the basket because a player who has tremendous footwork and ballhandling skills usually is attempting quite a few layups. Notice I said attempting, not making.(There will be a posting on this later)

Certainly, you want them to learn how to shoot properly, especially layups. What you will find is making layups is mainly a matter of having proper footwork.

While having proper footwork is important on the offensive side, it’s more significant for defensive purposes.
Usually a quick fix for lack of footwork is play zone defense. If any of you have been reading the previous posts, you will know I don’t consider zone until age 14. That’s just a matter of opinion.

The next post will cover some cool drills you can implement for this age group.