That Basketball Life

I've been coaching youth basketball for many years and the one thing that I've seen is that some kids naturally know how to run while others are so inefficient in their running style that you can't help but wonder how much better they would be if they simply worked on their running form.  The purpose of this post is to help kids improve their running form and thus help increase their foot speed. Problems with Inefficient Runners Relax - The main problem that I see with most kids who seem to run slower than they should is that they tense up.  The main key to running is that you stay relaxed.  You need to stay relaxed in the face, the shoulders, the arms, the hands, and you hips.  Tightness in any of these areas can cause you to run slower than you are capable of. Foot Strike - Many kids are plodders.  They run by slamming their feet on the ground instead of focusing on being light on their feet.  Their heels make great contact with the ground and this serves as a brake...

I've been coaching kids for many years and one of the things that always amazes me is the difference in confidence from one kid to the next.  On the same team you will have kids who no matter what they do wrong they can bounce back immediately and others who can get shattered by making one simple mistake.  Confidence is a very fragile thing and can be lost even in the best of players.  Take a look at sports on TV.  How many times have you seen an extremely confident player at the beginning of the year turn to be just a shell of himself by the end.  Along with confidence comes aggressiveness.  A player will not be aggressive if he is not confident.  This is why I think that some of these drills that you see on the internet as drills that help your team become aggressive are questionable.  I'm all for having kids get comfortable chasing loose balls on the floor but to have these kids beat up on each other in practice so they can "build aggressiveness" is somewhat suspec...

I have been coaching 5-6 year olds for the past few years. During that time I have been able to see first hand what kids at that age thrive on and what they need work on. The one thing kids that age really love to do is run. At this age, kids will run all day. This is especially true if they are having fun while doing it. You may be asking how does running help kids get better at basketball. The answer to that question lies in the fact that at this age kids are still working on perfecting their fine motor skills and coordination. Running helps with both coordination and fine motor skills as do many other basketball related footwork drills. I like running the following drills in practice: Stance Running sprints forward Running backwards Defensive slides Hopping forward/backwards over line with 2 feet Hopping side to side over line with 2 feet Hopping forwards/backwards over line with 1 foot Hopping side to side over line with 1 foot Standstill jump 2 feet Standstill...