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

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.
4. You should show kids how to dribble, and let them try to dribble more than 20 times with each hand, standing still.
5. 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. 
6. You should help your kids take the ball in circles around their ankles and wastes
7. You should help your kids dribble the ball in circles around their back and between their legs.
8. 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. 
9. 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
10. 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
11. 
    
12. 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. 

Links:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball_moves

In an effort to be more realistic than the past, Hollywood now glorifies dysfunction

Reasons to agree: 

1. TV glamorizes dysfunction too much
1. Reasons to agree: +5
1. Homer Simpson chokes Bart. 
2. Many kids grow up only seeing dysfunctional families on TV, and think they want nothing to do with family life. 
3. When I wrote a book report in Jr. High Rosanne was on. I wrote, "In contrast, I recently watched Roseanne. The show started out with three criticisms in a row, between Roseanne and her daughter. Rosseane would say something mean about her daughter's grades. Then the daughter would say something mean about Roseanne's weight. This continued for the whole show. The next day I watched Roseanne again. Roseanne thought that Tom wanted a divorce. She said, "I want the house, he can have the kids, but I want the house." Many kids grow up thinking this is the way marriage will be, and it is not a laughing matter. It seems there is no value placed on children. The number one thing is money. Many Educators believe attitude's about family relationships are formed by "casual contact" with shows like Roseanne."
4. When I wrote a book report in Jr. High I wrote: "Most shows that portray husband and wife relationships, show them constantly bickering. I watched Family Matters recently. I thought this would be an exception to the rule, but the wife and the husband were very mean to each other. In one conversation the wife and husband were sitting on the couch and talking: "Carl can I speak openly?", the wife asks. "Yes,"he says, "You're a Jack---" (Family Matters Feb. 25, 1994). The crowd again erupted with laughter."
5. TV shows often tell kids how to rebel against their parents. The parents are alwasy the stupid ones.
6. In the first Roseanne ever, Roseanne took her sixteen year old daughter, Beckey, to buy birth control pills. At first she did not want to, but a bunch of her friends talked her into it. The show's main theme was; how mean it is for parents to not let their kids have sex. 
2. It is dysfunctional to have casual sex. Hollywood promotes casual sex.
1. Assertion #1: It is dysfunctional to have casual sex. 
1. Reasons to agree: +5
1. Sex addicts have noncommittal sex, in a very dysfunctional way. 
2. It is dysfunctional to make poor choices. It is a poor choice to have casual sex. 
1. Reasons to agree: +5
1. Casual sex is a rejection of commitment,. The ability to make commitments is required, in order to be a functional member of society.
1. Reasons to agree: +5
1. Those unable to maintain long term faithful commitments before marriage, are less likely to stay in committed relationships after marriage. Committed people are looking for different things. They are 2 different types of people. There are people who build relationships slowly, based on common interest, respect, 
2. Commitment is required in order for relationships to last. Those who are not committed to marriage will suffer economically, romantically, and emotionally. 
1. Reasons to agree: +5
1. A study of about 9,000 people found that divorce reduces a person's wealth by about three-quarters (77 percent.
2. Dwindling marriage rates are concentrated among the poor — the very people whose living standards would be most improved by having a second household income.
3. It is dysfunctional to risk having babies with someone with whom you have not made a life long commitment. It is dysfunctional to take unnecessary risks that can alter the wrest of your life, for momentary rewards of having a boyfriend, being "cool", or giving into other people's desires. 
4. The secret that no one wants to talk about is that it is dysfunctional to have casual sex outside of marriage. The upper class of people have less divorce, and get married. The lower class of people are unable to control their genitals, and end up producing unwanted babies, abortions, and have crappy lives that are controlled by their dysfunctional sex lives. Sure, rich people sleep around too. Sure, some poor people are very ethical and committed to their spouses.  But the statistics prove that poverty follows those who are unable to control their sex lives. TV shows that glamorize irresponsible sex, are convincing stupid people (largely the lower class) to live lives of poverty, and slavery to dysfunction. 
2. The study of about 9,000 people found that divorce reduces a person's wealth by about three-quarters (77 percent) compared to that of a single person, while being married almost doubles comparative wealth (93 percent). And people who get divorced see their wealth begin to drop long before the decree becomes final.
3. TV normalizes behavior.
1. Reasons to agree: +3
1. TV is the way we think other people live. 
2. We often don't see inside other people's homes, unless it is on TV. 
3. A section of Superfreakanomics proves this (the section is the unlikely savior of Indian women). Here is a discussion of the research. 
4. Our personal relationships have too much dysfunction
1. Reasons to agree: +1
1. "The divorce rate remains, stubbornly, one out of two. The out-of-wedlock birthrate has tripled since 1970; it is among the highest in the developed world. A nauseating buffet of dysfunctions has attended these trends--an explosion in child abuse, crime, learning disabilities, and welfare dependency, name your pathology."
5. TV glamorizes dysfunction more than it used to
1. Reasons to agree: +1
1. People on Leave it to beaver were pretty functional. They were patient, avoiding extremes of anger, selfishness, and cruelty. It taught the generations how to understand each other, how to laugh at each other, and how to get along with each other.
6. TV characters don't have to be dysfunctional to be interesting. 
1. Dis functional people are boring. 
1. Reasons to agree: +1
1. They always give into selfish motives. 
7. When the TV shows disinfection, they teach people how to be dysfunctional.

Reasons to disagree: 

1. There is no such thing as Hollywood. There are hundreds of writers, producers, etc. 
2. Hollywood just does what sells. It is our fault for watching all these TV shows. 

Books that agree:

1. Hollywood vs. America: The Explosive Bestseller that Shows How-and Why-the Entertainment Industry Has Broken Faith With Its Audience

Webpages that agree:

1. http://www.freakonomics.com/2009/11/02/introducing-the-superfreakonomics-virtual-book-club-meet-emily-oster/

Interest of those who agree

1. Improving society. 
2. Teaching good behaviors 
3. Patting themselves on their back for how good they are.
4. Identifying themselves to their circle of friends as part of the "good guys", the conservatives
5. Not wanting to come off as too accepting

Interest of those who disagree

1. "Keeping it real". 
2. Exposing bad behaviors
3. Pushing boundaries. 
4. Patting themselves on their back for how cool, hip, counterintuitive they are.
5. Discussing difficult topics
6. Making money. 
7. Identifying themselves to their circle of friends as part of the "good guys", the conservatives. 
8. Proving how open minded they are. 
9. Not wanting to come off as too judgmental

Its alright to let your young kids chase geese +5

Reasons to agree: +7

1. Young kids will never catch geese.
2. Geese can bight back. They have sharp teeth. 
3. Geese are overpopulated. For instance here in Chicago they put chemicals on eggs to prevent them from hatching, because their are too many, and they poop everywhere and create environmental problems.
4. The lack of predators have allowed geese to overpopulate. 
5. If you eat meat you are guilty of more violence against animals than chasing geese. 
6. Geese may get chased by wild animals. They are violent against each other. They rape ducks (google it, it is a fact). You can't apply people ethics to animals. Animals chase each other. Cats chase mice and play with them. If you don't want animals tormented you will have to kill all cats. 
7. Its cool to watch birds fly. Letting kids chase birds until they fly gives kids an awe, and an experience, and an appreciation for animals. It is possible to love animals, and hunt them, as native Americans taught us. Chasing them, and smiling at them as they fly away is not bad. The French who force feed geese in a cage are bad. But little kids who chase them, and make them get some exercise are not. See image below for evidence to support this belief.

Reasons to disagree: -2

1. From "Auguries of Innocence by William Blake": A robin redbreast in a cage Puts all heaven in a rage. A dove-house filled with doves and pigeons Shudders hell through all its regions. A dog starved at his master's gate Predicts the ruin of the state. A horse misused upon the road Calls to heaven for human blood. Each outcry of the hunted hare A fibre from the brain does tear. A skylark wounded in the wing, A cherubim does cease to sing. The game-cock clipped and armed for fight Does the rising sun affright. Every wolf's and lion's howl Raises from hell a human soul. The wild deer wandering here and there Keeps the human soul from care. The lamb misused breeds public strife, And yet forgives the butcher's knife. The bat that flits at close of eve Has left the brain that won't believe. The owl that calls upon the night Speaks the unbeliever's fright. He who shall hurt the little wren Shall never be beloved by men. He who the ox to wrath has moved Shall never be by woman loved. The wanton boy that kills the fly Shall feel the spider's enmity. He who torments the chafer's sprite Weaves a bower in endless night. The caterpillar on the leaf Repeats to thee thy mother's grief. Kill not the moth nor butterfly, For the Last Judgment draweth nigh. He who shall train the horse to war Shall never pass the polar bar. The beggar's dog and widow's cat, Feed them, and thou wilt grow fat. The gnat that sings his summer's song Poison gets from Slander's tongue.
2. My wife says we were geese bullies. 
3. Animals are cool. Leave them alone. 

Idea Score: +7 - 2 = +5

Images that agree:

Me in Idaho Falls with my brother. An old man came and yelled at us.

I had a good childhood +6

Where much is given much is expected. I was given a lot. If I turn out to be an OK person, I owe it to my family and the good start they gave to my life. We all stand on the shoulders of giants.

Reasons to agree

1. I don't remember my parents ever yelling at each other.
2. I argued with my Dad when I was in high school, and he just put up with me.
3. I was never spanked. I know people who spank are often also great parents. I'm not saying their are not. I'm just saying, for me that is one area that my parents were really great about.
4. My parents lets us have water fights. My older brothers didn't beat me up for squiring them (see image below, for verification).
5. My parents let me where weird aqua-man masks (see image below, for verification).
6. My parents took us camping, even when I was young, which is not easy (see image below, for verification).

Images that agree:

My squirting my brother Steve. My shorts are almost staying up.

My dad walked me up the narrows in Zion National Park

My Brother Steve, My Dad, my Brother Brian, and I

Big Wheel and Banana Seat Bike. Me sporting my aqua-man mask.

Chicago and Chicago Land are good place to raise a family

Background, definitions, and assumptions

• For a place to be considered good, it must be better than average. 
• Chicago land is, of course, Chicago and the surrounding suburbs.

Reasons to agree: +10

1. Chicago has lots of stuff to do, that don't cost too much money. 
2. Trips to the zoo are good for kids (+1). Chicago has good zoos. 
3. Chicago has good mass transportation (+2). 
4. Chicago has good architecture (+0). Its cool to live near good architecture. 
5. You can leave near Chicago, and still have a back yard. Despite criticism of suburban sprawl kids have fun in their back yards (+0).
6. Bolingbrook, a typical suburb of Chicago, has pretty good parks.
7. Kids like fireworks, and there are often good fire works shows around Chicago. For instance Navy Pier has free fireworks during the summer, their are good firework shows across the suburbs on the 4rth of July, and the Chicago Air Water show has good fireworks.
8. Numbers are what matter, and on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being best and 10 being worst) Bolingbrook, a typical Chicago suburb, is a 4 on property crime, and a 5 on violent crime, which is about average for the USA. 
9. You should make wherever you are home. 
10. Chicago has a lot of stuff to do.

Reasons to disagree: -6

1. Hiking is a good pastime. Hiking is only fun in the mountains. There are no mountains in Illinois. There is no good hiking near Chicago. City walking is not as cool as hiking in the mountains. Sure, Boise is hot during the summer, but its cooler in the mountains. It is hot everywhere in Illinois in the summer. It is too humid in the summer to hike. There are too many bugs, and the forest have too much undergrowth. 
2. State Parks in Illinois are anticlimactic (compared to Idaho).
3. There is a culture of corruption in Chicago, that rewards people based on who they know.
4. In Illinois kids from worse neighborhood go to much worse schools than those who are from better neighborhoods. 
5. A good place to raise a family is close to extended family. It is hard to go from a place you grew up in, and then just live somewhere else. It may always feel unlike home. 
6. Shooting is fun, but you have to pay to go shooting around Chicago. 

Total Score:

• Reasons to agree: +10
• Reasons to disagree: -6
• Net reasons to agree with reasons to agree minus reasons to disagree: +1+2
• Total: 

Images that agree: +3

Chicago has good mass transportation +2

Assumptions:

• Good means low cost, and high quality. Transportation includes parking. Not all transportation facilities are "public". For instance privately owned parking garages are part of the equation.

Reasons to agree:

1. If you are lucky you can find parallel parking for free around Lincoln Park Zoo.
2. Parking is $1.00 an hour, if you can find any, near Northerly Island. I drove there with 2 bikes in  my car, and my 7 year old son, and we rode to Millennium Park and back. 
3. Kids ride the Metra free on the weekends. 
4. The Water Tower Place Mall does parking validation. 
5. It costs $7 per adult to ride to Chicago Union Station (week-end passes, kids ride free). From there you can walk to a number of places:
1. Millennium Park. 
1. In the summer, kids can play in the fountain. Bring towels, and a change of clothes. It is sort of white trash, but they can change in the bathrooms. 
2. Each time you go down the kids will probably want to look at the bean, and get their photo taken.
3. I should probably walk the whole park once. Their are some statues on the south end I have never seen. 
2. Winter
1. Kris Kringle Market Chicago 
3. We walked, with 3 kids, and 2 strollers, all the way to the Hancock Building. It was a pretty long walk. When we got back to Navy Pear we took a water taxi bat to Union Station, to save our legs, and to make a train.

Reasons to disagree:

1. Sales tax is high in Chicago.
2. It costs $20 at a minimum to park in Chicago. 
3. It cost $7 for a weekend pass. So if you want to go in as a couple it costs $14 just to get there. 

Score: 

• Reasons to agree: +5
• Reasons to agree: -3
• Total: +2

You will probably face many setbacks

Images that agree: (stolen from Megan's Website)

People will take and publish unflattering photos of you

You will get sick

Nothing Last forever

Phil went on vacation, and the mosquitoes like him.

We lost power on vacation and came home to this.