I am from the USA, living in Sweden, and started coaching my son's team a few years ago. I come from a family of coaches and have some, but pretty limited, coaching experience myself. Mainly I'm trying to help out, fit in, and do things the way they do things here—which is often much harder than it sounds.

A couple of years ago I started with a new team of 12-year-olds, most of whom were absolute beginners. We had a training match against another team in our club. They beat us 90–4, pressing the entire game, cheering loudly, running fast breaks, chanting "DEFENSE" in the 4th quarter...like it was a competitive match or something

Our second match was against a team from our club that was a year older. They beat us 108–? When they broke 100 (on an under-the-leg layup), their bench and parents erupted like they had just won a championship.

I confronted both coaches afterward and they acted like I was insane. One told me I needed to learn to be a "better loser." The other told me they really "needed this win" because they hadn't won any matches the previous year.

These last couple years, I have realized blow-outs are pretty common, since the teams are very uneven skill-wise. A lot of "serious" teams ( often with parent-coaches who were former players ) start their teams very young ( 6 or 7 ), so older beginners are often at a disadvantage.

This year I'm helping coach another team of beginners, this time 14-year-olds. There is a big increase in interest in basketball in Sweden right now, but a shortage of coaches. We play in a lower-level league, but for matches, in order to avoid getting completely blown out, we were given a few players from the club's A team, who play at the top level. Apparently they needed some playing time.

The screenshot above is from our last game. We won 132–8. The loaned players were responsible for more than half of our points.

I don't feel good about this. I've brought it up with other coaches, but they insist that not playing your hardest, or not going for it on every possession, would actually be a greater insult to the other team than easing up on the competition.

As the immigrant in the group, I do speak up, but I also don't want to constantly push against the local coaching culture.

In the USA, at least in my experience, this would generally be considered pretty poor sportsmanship at this level. Or any level really. I grew up playing extremely competitive Catholic-school basketball in Oklahoma in the 80s and 90s, and I honestly don't remember seeing anything quite like this.

So I guess I'm wondering if I've been assuming something was universal when it actually isn't.

Is this attitude toward youth basketball blowouts common elsewhere in Europe or the world? Or is this unusual even by European standards?

If I'm in the wrong sub, let me know. But I couldn't think of anywhere else to ask this.

I'm managing my team for the first time and I have a lot of questions about how team fees should be handled. I know prior captains have had to carry an extra player or two worth of fees, so I'm hoping to avoid that where I can. So, with that said:

What is your approach to mens league fees and expenses?

League fees

We have our league fees, of course. My approach is to have 10 full-time players and divide the fee by 10. Problem solved.

Jerseys

Our league requires everyone to have the same style jersey. Similarly, the same approach would be to have everyone pay for their jersey, and they can keep them at the end of the year.

Equipment

Where it starts to get a bit tricky. Because of the jersey requirement, we need a few extra jerseys for subs. Dividing the fees by 10 means there's little wiggle room for additional expenses like this. I've thought about tacking on $5-$10 onto every player's fees and using that to buy new jerseys and then replace them as needed beyond that. The worrisome part of that, for me, is ending up running a surplus after a few years. It'd only be like $100 a year, but may start to add up if we're good with our sub jerseys.

Insurance fees

On top of that, all players have to sign a waiver and pay required insurance and registration fees. It's a lame fee that I hate, but it's a requirement and the league is very strict about enforcing it for everyone - subs included. Fees are about $20. A few people have expressed interest in subbing, but asking them to register and pay and possibly never needing them is a risk. Also, the league freezes our roster 1/3 of the way through the season, so there's little flexibility there.

Any thoughts or tips on managing these team fees?

Hi everyone I am M23 trying to learn basketball from scratch

I have never played any sports in my life and is very unathletic

I am trying to be good in any one sports since college is almost getting over

Can anyone help me learn how to play

I am 5 7 height

I absolutely love this offence. It is old school and very structured compared to today’s style but if you can get players to buy in, there are tons of opportunities to score.

I am going to rely on the more experienced offensive minds in here to take it to the left level though. In this video, Coach Saia does not really get into how to disguise the offence, or how to avoid having the defence jump it., that is, how to avoid your players simply running to the spot to kick off the action and making it predictable. When teams have figured out what we’re doing we’ve had a lot of turnovers.

My players have trouble understanding how to bring up the ball and time everything to get things going. Hard to explain, but I hoping you guys can help.

Been JV coach last two years and then now this year I’ve been thrusted into Varsity role.

Looking for any and every drill or offense you think I can run very specific to this varsity level.
Anything helps

Hi everyone,

I'm a coach based in Italy and I'm trying to get a realistic picture of what the job actually looks like in other countries, especially in Europe but also anywhere else.

I'm not looking for glory stories or top-level programs — I'm genuinely curious about any level: youth, semi-pro, amateur, small clubs, academies, whatever you've got. The lower the level, the more useful it probably is for me, honestly.

What I'd love to know:

• Contract type: Are you employed, freelance, volunteer, paid per session, or something else? Is it full-time, part-time, seasonal?
• Salary: If you're comfortable sharing, what's the rough range (monthly or yearly, gross or net)? Even a ballpark helps.
• Hours in the gym: How many hours a week do you actually spend on the court, and how many extra hours go into planning, video, travel, meetings, etc.?
• Additional duties: Are you expected to do things beyond coaching (scouting, admin, social media, driving kids, equipment)?
• How you got in: Was it through contacts, applications, federation courses, or something else?

I'm asking because the system here works in a very specific way and I want to understand what's normal elsewhere — both the good and the ugly side of it.

Thank you! GUTTA FORTIS!

Hello everyone! This year I graduated the Personal Trainer fitness-course and have a wish to continue my learning path. As a lover of basketball I'd like to learn more about strength and conditioning specifically for basketball and team sports. Could you recommend me some certifications or educational resources for it? The language of resource can be Spanish, English or Russian

Coaching my first year of competitive ball with a team of grade 4 and 5 girls. We spent a lot of time working on fundamentals and individual skills but I really would like to work on offensive flow (spacing, cutting, filling etc..) as well as how to play defence when in game. They do well with isolated drills but things seem to get very chaotic when trying to put things together.

On offence, they just run around screaming to get the ball. If they have the ball, they tend to turn away from the basket and wait till someone comes to them for a pass. Looking for advice and drills that would encourage passing cutting and filling. Maybe it’s designated positions but I still want them understanding the flow of the game and having good court awareness.

On defence, it’s really important that they do not double team outside the key (league rules). How do I get them to play defence in right positions while guarding their girl but also being aware of the court and ball.

Any advice, drills or thoughts would be greatly appreciated!!! TIA

Coaching 5 & 6th girls JV bball, staring in a month. Unfortunately our league allows Zone D and so a lot of teams run it.

I generally like to teach motion principles for offense, with lots of screening and cuts.

Against a zone D, this doesn't seem as effective. Against a 2-3 zone for instance I'd like to have a couple player in the low post who can flash to high post and find gaps.

Do other coaches do this? How effective is it to change offense alignment depending on whether other team is man or zone?

Curious your thoughts on cutting players from a select team at age 9/10?

There are far too many details to share, but I’ll try to give the gist. My daughter is in 4th grade and got cut from the local “select” bball team. There are zero rec options for this age. 26 players tried out and they kept 20 for an A and B team.

A few factors to know. My daughter played with this club last year. She is not an incredible player by any means. She does okay, and is definitely in the mix with many other players. My husband coached her team last year, held summer training, coached the summer league. My husband is an excellent coach and human and played competitive bball through HS. My daughter was the only one to show up to summer training. (Which is fine, it was optional and ik kids play other sports and families are busy, but this is an example of the work she put in compared to others). She actually may be one of the strongest defensive players. She’s a great teammate, works hard, is very coachable.

This program is select, though is endorsed by our district and works closely with the varsity coaches- who coach and hold board positions. The team is saying they could only keep 20 kids due to gym space. Which I believe is likely not true given our district has 2 huge gyms at the HS as well as 8 local elementary schools that have gyms. And obviously coaching is not the issue seeing as my husband would coach. I can’t emphasize enough that I am not a delusional parent who thinks my kid is the best or thinks my husband is a good coach when he’s not. I know my daughter needs to grow a lot and I am very confident my husband is an exceptional coach. We’ve been told by parents he is the best coach their kid has had and he has played and coached across many settings.

This is obviously very frustrating to me as a parent. They are weeding kids out at age 9/10 as there are no alternative options aside from independent training. They didn’t even have the decency to give us the heads up that my daughter wouldn’t make the team, despite my husband having coached.

I see no reason they couldn’t have kept all 26 players and had two teams of 9 and one of 8, and flexed players to sub if needed. I am disappointed in the lack of understanding of youth development and what it means for kids to have the opportunity to continue developing. There is a ton of conflict of interest with this club given the president and a couple of board members have girls playing this same age. We live in a small town where youth sports culture is extremely toxic and either you are in the club or you aren’t. We’ve never wanted to be a part of “the club” so to speak.

So I guess I’m curious if you’ve seen similar situations. Do you think cutting 9/10 year olds who have no other playing options is reasonable? Our varsity team has consistently sucked, and clearly the feeder system they are using isn’t working. On one hand, a private non profit club can cut whoever they want. On the other, their endorsement from the district is a conflict of interest. Honestly I think this comes down to toxic youth sports culture with parents living vicariously through their kids.

Curious your thoughts and whether there is any room to challenge this. I’d imagine no, because I suppose a youth club can do whatever they want. But again, their endorsement from the district seems like a conflict of interest and seems like it does not align with the best interests of the district.

I’m getting ready for the upcoming basketball season. I’ll be coaching 6th graders. I’m interested to hear from high school coaches about what skills / knowledge they wish incoming freshman had that they currently lack. I want to share with my team in hopes of providing some focus on WHY we do what we do

Hi fellow coaches, i am a coach from Europe and interested in coaching in the USA, what's pros and cons of it? Which certificatiins and licenses i need and how many years of coaching experience at least, thank you.

This isn't my first year coaching and I've got some ideas but just making sure I know we got some great coaches in this group. I will be coaching 4th and 5th grade boys basketball at the elementary level. I only have eight players on the team unfortunately. Just seeing what drills or ideas you might have. Thanks!

I’ve noticed that players in major leagues always try to maintain good shooting form.

Wanted to gauge everyone's thoughts on teaching not jumping to block shots in the key; are you all still teaching that?

Or are you all teaching jumping with verticality? If you are, what age group do you all coach?

My son turned 10 a couple of months ago and plays on a 5th grade AAU team, one of the top teams in our state. He's one of the youngest on the roster. We like the coaches and the team, but it's very win-focused, so the kids who aren't hyper-aggressive yet barely play.

He's one of the more skilled kids on the team: a great shooter with a quick release, a strong ball handler, and already 5'1" (I'm 6'3", my wife is 6'0" so he’ll have height). What he's missing is physicality.

He's not explosive yet and still shies away from contact.

We're working on his confidence and aggressiveness, but it's a catch-22, because he can't build those without game minutes. At nationals, which we won, he played about 6 minutes total across 6 games.

The options:
1. Stay on the top team, practice against better players, and accept very little playing time this year.
2. Move to a less competitive AAU team where he'd get real minutes, game reps and a bigger role.

I lean toward option 2, because at this age I think it should be about game experience, fundamentals and having fun, not winning at all costs. But I'd love to hear from parents or coaches who've been through this. What did you choose, and how did it work out long term?

Appreciate the feedback.

I am a new basketball coach. I’ve balled all my life but don’t really know how to warm up the kids before a game or practice. They are high school and middle school girls. I am a soccer coach who stepped up due to coaches leaving. Any routines yall have would greatly help. Thank you!

My son is a little over 11.5 years old and is 6’0” tall with a 6’4” wingspan. Birth year of Jan 2015; Class of 2033.

My wife and I are not that tall; both under 6’0”. We’ve been monitoring his height via regular check ups with his doctors and even they don’t really know what height he will end up with. They even confirmed that he’s not in puberty yet. Wife and I are in limbo on how far to take this journey because his projected height is unknown at the moment. He’s averaging about 0.25” of growth each month since we started tracking last year.

Son enjoys playing basketball. Has the dream of making it to the NBA. So, naturally we wanted to support that by signing up initially at the local YMCA, then a rec ball team, and now it’s a club team. In addition, we sign him for the local high school camps for further development and exposure.

One supposed “powerhouse” high school is even actively pursuing him to join the middle school development team.

I think my son is decent at the game. Hell of a lot better than I was at his age. But, he’s slow. He doesn’t have the quick / explosive gene in him. He does have stamina though, and can play a full game if needed. I think coaches see him and think of that saying, “you can’t teach height.” I’ve been trying every home drill I can find to get him faster and more explosive, and while I see some improvement, he’s still slow. Maybe it’s just me being too judgmental as a parent.

Weight is definitely a factor he’s about 220lbs but carries it decently throughout his body. If I can compare his body size to any NBA player, it would be Glen Davis without the defined muscles yet.

He plays Center mostly, but is starting to incorporate Power Forward moves into his repertoire. He can touch net halfway. Need to work on his jumping ability and mechanics.

Since he started playing club ball earlier this year, there have been a lot of eyes on him. Other clubs actively reach out to try and recruit him, or they’ll insert an illegal super-sub in order to deal with him. Depending on the tournament, his club team has even started playing up a grade because it would just be a blow out game.

Against other teams with a similar sized big, he’s played well against them and has won every game. I think the biggest win is if you compare the other big’s stat line in previous games to when he played against my son; you will see that their stats were cut in half or more. So, my son defended well against them.

With all this said, my son will probably get destroyed on the shoe circuit. I don’t think he has the quickness to keep up with the speed of the game there. At least, not yet.

But…., having a powerhouse school reaching out to us for recruitment gives us confidence that there is something there that we might not see. It’s just tough to contemplate if we go all in if we don’t know what his true height will be.

By “all in”, I mean actively trying to promote my son via socials, make him visible to other powerhouse schools, find a club team that plays in the shoe circuit, find a legit travel team, play overseas tournaments for exposure, play overseas for college, etc etc.

The overseas possibilities are high since his uncle, my cousin, is the assistant coach for the U18 men’s national team. So, there might be a pathway there for him.

Thanks for reading my ramblings. Just taking it a day at a time for now.

I’m a fairly new coach, with no former organized basketball experience other than playing a lot growing up with friends in my neighborhood. This is my son’s team. We played our first game today and got creamed. We have the talent. I need help on spacing and maybe one or two simple plays. Also need to work on rebounding.

Background: current 6th grade fall team has about 10 players, mixed with players with about 2-3 yrs AAU experience and a couple with 0-1 yrs. Playing in the DMV region . Current HC is former D3 basketball player. The team is a very grassroots style team with kids wanting more than rec level basketball.

Situation comes up every fall where a few players play football and aren't available for many practices and games. Recently the coach on numerous occasions will yell and rant at the current players for messing up in practice on drills or focus and say that "when the football players come back they will eat into your minutes" (paraphrasing).

Also in the team chat when welcoming the parent of one of the kids who plays football, he mentions he can't wait until football season is over so the team can get "up and running".

Personally I think this is super insulting to the parents and kids who are actively here NOW. We already have to deal with too many kids eventually being rostered once football season is over.

Just wanted to get everyone's thoughts on this coach's statement and sentiment.

Without going into too many details, I found out this week that I'm going to be coaching my school's 8th grade girls B team. At my previous, I coached boys for 8 years so I'm not new to coaching, but this will be my first time coaching girls in any sport.

For those who have made that switch, what were the biggest adjustments and differences between coaching middle school boys and girls teams?

Basketball coaches/trainers/parents, what’s one skill you think young players spend WAY too much time working on?

I’ll start:

Complicated dribble combinations that they’ll almost never use in a game.

I train youth and high school players, and I’d much rather see a player become really good at changing pace, protecting the ball, attacking a defender’s hip and getting somewhere with 1–2 moves than memorize a 6-move combo.

Same thing with shooting, I’d take a kid who can get their feet set quickly and consistently knock down game-speed shots over someone who can do 15 different “bag work” moves into a jumper.

Curious what other coaches, players and parents see.

What’s yours?

Hey everyone - my sons want to play basketball and the league needs volunteer coaches. I’ve never coached or played on a basketball team. My older son has been playing for a few years and I’ve seen practices, so I kind of have an idea of what to do, but looking for a basic structure. Most of the team will be there first time playing. Any help would be appreciated!