This post has a lot of drills and techniques that can help you be a good basketball coach for 7 year olds

Balanced athletic competition in a team environment promotes sportsmanship, cooperation, leadership skills, and the benefits of exercise and hard work.

Definition of "good coach"
  1. You have to define what a good coach is, before you can do a good job of becoming one.
    1. A good coach will:
      1. be trustworthy
        1. show up 10 minutes early
        2. cancel as early as possible in the case of emergencies
      2. respectful to the kids
      3. be fair to the kids
      4. find kids that need a hobby and have the interest and help them apply themselves
      5. help kids enjoy striving for excellence
      6. get different kids to work well together 
      7. help kids set achievable, measurable goals
      8. help kids have fun
      9. not show favoritism
      10. a good coach can find lots of reasons to motivate kids to improve their skills
        1. Reasons to agree: 
          1. A good coach can motivate their kids by showing them that practice can be good social group activity.
          2. A good coach can motivate their kids by showing them that practice can be fun. 
          3. A good coach can motivate their kids by showing them that they can set and accomplish goals that they first believed were impossible. 
          4. A good coach can motivate their kids to apply them selves by telling them about the rewards of being active
            1. Reasons to disagree: 
              1. You are lying if you tell your kids activity levels will make them healthy. Activity is not as important as diet. 
              2. Kids don't care
Good coach

Basketball drills for 7 year olds
  1. The best way to teach a skill is for you to demonstrate the skill in action, and then pick a volunteer to try and demonstrate it. Using their names, you can then kindly correct any mistakes they make and praise efforts to improve. This will let the other kids learn from the volunteer's mistakes. Then you should let them all practice, and you can go around similarly working with other kids. Seeing the volunteer be OK with being corrected, and still have social rewards of attention will let them know it is OK to be critiqued. 
  2. You shouldn't let kids dribble when you are talking, but if they are standing in line it is OK.
    1. Reasons to agree: +2
      1. Kids need all the practice dribbling as possible. Why would you stop them from practicing?
      2. Kids shouldn't get bored at basketball practice. It should be one of the few times that their short attention spans are not exhausted. You shouldn't have them standing in line waiting for their turn very often. If you have more than one basketball hoop you should use it. You can divide the group into smaller groups. 
    2. Reasons to disagree: +1
      1. Towards the beginning of the year, when they are learning drills, they may need to watch the other kids to figure out what to do.
  3. Dribbling
    1. Red Light, Green Light is a good basketball practice
      1. Reasons to agree: +1
        1. This drill helps players learn how to stop suddenly with the ball without losing it, such as if they're being trapped by a defender. Line up all players on the baseline with a ball. Stand at the far free throw line facing the players. Yell "green light" and have all the players start running at you while dribbling the ball. Yell "red light," upon which all the players must stop and dribble the ball in place. Repeat the drill by having the players stop and start again until one player reaches where you are on the court. That player is the winner. 
    2. You should have kids dribble high and slow and low and fast.
      1. Reasons to agree: +2
        1. You have to dribble low and fast to keep people from getting the ball. 
        2. You have to dribble higher to run faster
    3. "Sharks and minnows" teaches kids (minnows) how to: dribble, avoid defense, and (sharks) defense techniques. 
      1. Reasons to agree
        1. Sharks and Minnows has kids who are minnows try to get from one side of the basketball court to the other. One "shark" tries to make the "minnows" loose control of their ball or pick up their dribble. Those kids that lost control, become "sharks" when the remaining kids try to dribble back to the other side. This usually goes a 3 or 4 rounds. The last "minnow" to loose their dribble is the winner. 
        2. Tips. 
          1. Some kids loose their dribble, but try to sneak back into the pack. You need to have them go to the sideline. The kids should also police each other, because it gets a little chaotic. 
            1. My son likes being a shark, and purposefully looses his dribble. Give them swirlies until behavior improves.
      2. You should show kids how to dribble, and let them try to dribble more than 20 times with each hand, standing still.
      3. You need to explain to kids the concept of traveling.
        1. Reasons to disagree: +1
          1. Most 7 year olds don't understand that you can pivot on one foot (like your shoe has been nailed to the floor), but that you can't lift up your second foot. 
        2. Reasons to agree: -1
          1. When you dribble you keep your body between the defense and the ball. You need to be able to dribble with both hands to go both directions. 
      4. You should help your kids take the ball in circles around their ankles and wastes
      5. You should help your kids dribble the ball in circles around their back and between their legs.
      6. You should let the kids "try and get the ball from the coach".
        1. Reasons to agree:
          1. It is a good way to demonstrate defensive dribbling, faking one direction, and going another direction.
          2. As said above, "A good coach can motivate their kids by showing them that practice can be good social group activity." 
          3. Kids enjoy teaming up against authority figures. This is harmless when done in athletic competitions, as long as you let them win, and are careful with them.
        2. Tips
          1. Don't let your ego get to big. Go easy. Parents are watching, and you don't want to hurt the kids!
          2. This probably works best with no more than 3 or 4 kids.
          3. If their are other kids that are very good at dribbling  you can use them as good examples to also demonstrate their skills. 
      7. You should have kids stand in one place while dribbling and pivot, to practice dribbling. 
        1. Reasons to agree
          1. When kids are all running it is hard to watch them all
            1. This is one of the great advantage of basketball, it teaches good hand-eye coordination
        2. Reasons to disagree
          1. They will get dizzy
          2. This isn't something to do very often
      8. You should have kids walk forward, backwards, around cones, around the court to practice dribbling.
        1. Reasons to disagree
          1. Kids will rarely have to dribble backwards

      10. You should have kids see how fast they can make a basketball go around their ankles, waste, and head both clockwise and counterclockwise. 
        1. Reasons to agree
          1. Whatever team has the most coordinated kids will probably win
        2. Reasons to diagree
          1. Most 7 year olds can't do this
    4. Passing
      1. You need to explain to kids that when they pass they need to send the ball to a place that is easy for the person on their team to get it, but hard for the person on the other team to get it. For 7 year olds, the defense is often supposed to stay within a box, which helps. 
      2. You should explain and demonstrate bounce passes to kids. 
        1. Reasons to agree
          1. Once the kids know the advantage of a bounce pass, they will be more likely to use them at the correct time.
          2. The bounce pass should be used in specific situations. It is good to use because people can't easily reach to the ground fast enough to stop the ball before it bounces up into the hands of your teammate. 
      3. You should explain and demonstrate the chest passes to kids.  
        1. Reasons to agree
          1. The bounce past should be used when you have a direct line of sight. Kids often have difficulty controlling a pass, or throwing the ball in a straight line.  
      4. You should do experiments to see if kids can through longer with a 1-handed long pass or an overhead two hand pass. Explain that if they use the right technique, as they get older, they will be able to through the ball further with a 1-handed long pass, as they take a step, put the ball back further, and have a longer follow through.
        1. Reasons to agree
          1. If you want to win, the 1-handed long pass is the fastest way to make a fast break. 
    5. Shooting
      1. You should explain and demonstrate the different basketball shots
        1. Reasons to agree
          1. Kids don't understand geometry. They think you just have to throw the ball at the hoop. They don't understand that it has to come up above the hoop, and drop down through it. You also should briefly explain the geometry of a backboard shot. 
    6. Rebounding
      1. You should explain and demonstrate proper boxing out
        1. Reasons to agree
          1. It is hard to remember not to hold your opponent
    7. Hand-Ball Coordination
      1. You should try to get kids to get the ball to go around
    8. If they are not motivated you can tell you want to see who can do it best. If this becomes a distraction, don't do it. Let competition motivate, but not be the only motivator. 1/4 competition against other, 1/4 against themselves, 1/4 fun, and 1/4 oversize. 
    9. You should tell older kids that they might be good this year, but they need to practice hard because they will be the young kids next year. Its more fun when you are good. You don't have to be great, but it is not as fun when you are the worst. 
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