I am an assistant coach to my daughters 5th and 6th grade team. This is not an "advanced/tryout" type of league. We are a few weeks in and I feel that the coaching philosophy is all wrong. Let me give you first a breakdown of our players. 3 girls have been playing for a long time, also on the competitive league, for 3 other girls it is their first time playing at all on a team and 2 of them are not naturally athletic. The other 2, my daughter included is somewhere in the middle. These two are the short girls that play ok but don't have the experience due to their height (self aware of height limiting their ability). By the way we have one 1hr practice a week and one game on Saturday. My problem is that since the first practice and 90% of the later practices the head coach (father to one of the 3 good girls) has spent the entire time on either sideline/base line inbounding plays or long pass/fast break plays. These plays always include the 3 best players. I can see that this may give the best option for scoring with limited talent, but there is so much fundamental work to be done, besides that the 3 rookies mostly just stand there looking like deer in the headlights. I should note too that we have not won a game yet and I can credit the losses on poor shooting and lack of rebounding. To add to the problem is that the head coach is also a director of the league (that age/gender segment). I want to find a way to convince him to change up his strategy but not overstep my bounds. Any thoughts?

You are in a difficult spot. With these types of leagues there isn't enough time or talent to do anything well.

What is your relationship to the head coach? That could determine your approach.

Now, if you are saying that some of the girls are not getting to participate in the "plays" and learn them, then surely mentioning that fact to the head coach might be advisable. It is only in the "better players" best interests to have the less experienced players know what to do.

For what it is worth, I have changed my approach this year with 7/8th grade boys. I used to focus the initial practices on fundamentals. We wouldn't hit "plays" until one or two practices before our first game. That was very difficult because some kids just don't have the basketball IQ to tell them to do something -- it needs to be shown and repeated. This year, we started on our offensive system day 1. We worked only offense for several of the initial practices and always made time for scrimage so they could play. Then we added defense. Up until our fist game, we did not run a single fundamental improvement drill. Then once the games started, we now use about 20-30 min. of a 1hr practice on a fundamental drills -- ball handling, shooting, etc. This allowed us to a lot of time to drill in the concepts of pass, cut, help, etc. into their brains. My point is that the head coach may have method to his apparent madness. Good luck.

Woaaaah Mark -

I would tread lightly on this if I were you. I don't know either of you... but, you have to ask yourself... will he be open to my suggestions? With one hour practice a week, there isn't a lot you can accomplish.... but maybe your drills should be multi tasking... passing & catching on the move etc.

There is so much to teach this age group and the bottom line is... it should be FUN, they are 10-12 years old and aren't D1 prospects. (yet) :-)

Again... this is going to be tough.. its HIS program... but just maybe (?) you can sit down with him and discuss a few things that you believe that the team should be working on? Come in with a short list, because if you have a ton of things you lose right from the get go! AND, you might add that all the kids should be working on these skills.

If he is just worried about winning.... then I don't think you will be successful bringing this up... but, you have nothing to lose.... as long as you do it in private. Good luck