re: Middle School Basketball Rec League Offense Coaching Tips

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100% but those kid would be much better off working on pivoting, jump stops, and cutting than pressing and trapping. Fundamentals are under taught to our youth. Rec league and AAU are both guilty of it bc the coaches would rather win that develop.

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I understand that. I’ve coached teams that have had one ball handler and 9 deadbeats up to all-stars.

My point in Rec is you can only do so much. You can’t really teach fundamentals in 30 min. Those kids have to a) want it and b) work in it at home. I can’t get a kid that has no desire and zero skills how to run a motion offense.

I can teach them how to hustle their asses off and play defense and create turnovers.

The kids that are good and/or want it will get their coaching chance on better teams. Unfortunately for Rec, you have to dumb it down to the lowest common denominator.

I want to edit to add this:

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those kid would be much better off working on pivoting, jump stops, and cutting than pressing and trapping. Fundamentals are under taught to our youth.

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I fight with this in our Rec league. We get 2 hour long practices in half a court then we start our 10 game season. The first 30 min is trying to figure each kid out.

I would much rather have 7 practices and 5 games. You can teach something in that. Even someone with no skill. Court time was at a premium so what I would do is look at the entire league schedule and if any courts were unused during the season, I would schedule a practice.