Jr. Pro tips

[KentuckyWildcat]

My oldest girl played basketball for the first time this year. She is in 3rd grade and the league is 2nd/3rd grade. She did pretty well for her first time playing, especially since we haven't practiced basketball much at all. But this post isn't really about her. That is just some background.

Are there any league specific rules you have seen over the years to help eliminate jump balls? Or just make the game flow better? Girls are mean as hell out there and mine can be one of those. But the games are awful to watch because it is jump ball after jump ball after jump ball.

1 issue...the refs have to get better control of the game with fouls. But that probably isn't happening.

[Darrell KSR]

Welcome to the fraternity, KentuckyWildcat. Many of us have been there.

My oldest daughter isn't terribly athletic, so she took it upon herself to become the "held ball" expert. She would seize out moments where the ball was exposed and go put her hands on it, even if it wasn't her person to guard. Probably averaged, conservatively, 3-4 "held balls" per game. I even tried to teach her to rip the ball out of their hands or even tip/bat it to get a steal, but that would have taken more effort than just putting her hands on the ball and she wouldn't do it. Needless to say, all the games were tedious, because she certainly wasn't the only one getting a "held ball" during the game.

We didn't have a solution.

I met with the officials every year as part of being the basketball commissioner at my school and discussed how officials were to call games. We didn't dictate that, but there was sort of a mutual understanding about some of the things. I mean, if you called traveling in first grade basketball strictly, I'm not sure you would ever have a possession. But we did not have a solution for the held ball situation.

Simultaneously, she played fast pitch softball at an early age when pitchers were still learning how to get the strike zone. If you think watching a basketball game with 10 jump balls per game is tedious, try watching a softball game where nine batters walk in a row. I really don't remember how many would do that or if there was ever any solution – those days are just a blur to me. She was actually better in softball and could hit, which was pretty rare at those ages, but would probably get about one pitch to hit every couple of at-bats.

It all gets better. They learn. Basketball players won't have the ball exposed and learn to protect it. Coaches will begin to teach that better. Players will get rid of the ball and pass. Softball pitchers will get better at finding the strike zone. In the meantime, thanks for being a good dad and supporting your daughter.

[KentuckyWildcat]

We probably have 10 jump balls per quarter. The refs calling more fouls would really help us a lot. The last two games have been like UFC basketball.

I'd also like to see 4 on 4 to spread it out more at the younger ages. But that would require more coaches, and that is an issue as well.

[Darrell KSR]

That...sounds excessive. Ouch.

More coaches also means more practice time, which is an issue at a lot of places.

Until 5th grade, we got one official practice on a half court once a week for one hour.

Tell me how you can teach much in an hour with another team practicing on the other end?

I found another gym to use, got a practice time the latest time on Friday night, extended my practice beyond "official" practice times, and coordinated practice time with a similar age group, or an opposite sex age group that's was older/younger so that scrimmage could be included.

[KentuckyWildcat]

It started out bad and is only getting worse. Some thoughts I've had:

Big emphasis on over the back fouls

Call a team foul on the defense when it is complete chaos (free throws with no foul on the players)

Only two players can full court press (This is only the last two minutes)

And just randomly blow the whistle when they all get piled up. Have them spread out some and continue play wherever the ball is at

[KentuckyWildcat]

And I'm glad (I guess) to hear that not much has changed and other areas have these exact same issues. And I much prefer softball, even if 9u is that brutal transition season.

[Darrell KSR]

It started out bad and is only getting worse. Some thoughts I've had:

Big emphasis on over the back fouls

Call a team foul on the defense when it is complete chaos (free throws with no foul on the players)

Only two players can full court press (This is only the last two minutes)

And just randomly blow the whistle when they all get piled up. Have them spread out some and continue play wherever the ball is at

AHHHH...

I forgot something that makes a huge difference.

Our "Toy Bowl" rules forbid guarding outside the 3-point arc in 1st and 2nd grade until the last 2 minutes of the half and game. It's been a minute, and I may not have this right, but I THINK even in 3rd and 4th grade, you could only pick up at half court until the last 2 minutes of each half.

Something like that. I can try to go back and find my rule sheet for the exact rule, but that's probably close enough. Now I understand why you're having so many. Good gracious.

I'm all for teaching kids to grow up in a hurry in basketball, but I had no problem with the "no-press" rules we had for 1st through 4th grade. It resulted in more real basketball--at least, at our level.

[Darrell KSR]

OK, I found the rule we used.

1st/2nd - Guard inside the 3-point arc until ball crosses the line. At that point, can guard anywhere. (We had a shot clock of 15 seconds after crossing midcourt to move the ball inside the 3-point arc to prevent "stalling.")
In last MINUTE of the game (plus overtimes), could pick up at half court, UNLESS the team had a lead of 5 or more points.

3rd/4th. Change 3-point arc to halfcourt. Eliminate shot clock thing (not needed, since you have 10 seconds to cross midcourt). Last minute of game (and any overtimes), full court pressure allowed, again, UNLESS the team had a lead of 5 or more points.

5th/later-no rules that prohibit full court pressure, other than cannot do so if your lead is 10 or more points (to prohibit humiliating teams).

7th/8th - change 10 points to 15.

(Edit--I will add one more thing. We did not have a 3-point basket for 1st/2nd grade. Seemed ridiculous to allow a pretty good sharpshooter to take shots outside the arc without being able to guard him, AND it count for 3 points. So you could take a 24-foot shot and not worry about anybody blocking it, assuming you did so within 15 seconds, but it only counted for 2 points, not 3.)

[Darrell KSR]

Oh--your softball experience is WAY different from mine. Mine was not travel ball with the really good players. It was "rec" ball, so you can imagine how the talent thinned out at pitcher tremendously. The pitchers I saw would not have made any of the teams you played or your team.

Picture all the players who were not talented enough to play for you. Then spread them out among various teams. That's what I saw when my daughter played. Tedious!

[KentuckyWildcat]

Oh--your softball experience is WAY different from mine. Mine was not travel ball with the really good players. It was "rec" ball, so you can imagine how the talent thinned out at pitcher tremendously. The pitchers I saw would not have made any of the teams you played or your team.

Picture all the players who were not talented enough to play for you. Then spread them out among various teams. That's what I saw when my daughter played. Tedious!

LOL yeah, we do Rec ball as well. Because we need it and it allows us to sanction as an all-star team.

9U is similar to rec ball. 9U is new and considered to be a transition instead of mixing with 10U. They are first year pitchers and they are all scared to get hit. We were on both sides of 20 run walk innings. Fall ball was rough. I'm hoping Spring is better. Our pitchers have gotten better for sure. Catcher is our MAJOR weakness but that is another issue.

[Darrell KSR]

Gotcha. Well, at least you can relate and have good and bad.

Good luck with the basketball. They'll adjust to it, I'm sure, but I don't think the age appropriate restrictions on full court pressure are bad rules and something to at least look at.

[Padukacat]

I have some trauma as well as regret about how all of youth basketball is done, but the best situation my daughter played in which really helped was a city league in Paducah ran by a local church organization and it was called Rightway Basketball. What you're describing is more of what our school league developed into and even worse what upward basketball usually is at an early age. Rightway was i believe developed locally by a lady who is still around and her name was Jan Godwin. She happened to be college roomates and on the basketball team with a lady at UT Martin which you may have heard of by the name of Pat Summit. Obviously Jan was tired of seeing kids wrestle and wasting 3/4 of the game clock and developed a league which allowed to teach the fundamentals and didnt allow for stealing the ball until they were at the proper age. It was Marvelous. Now the Caveat is that she ran every game and was there to stop the game and teach during the first few years of play like K-1st i believe. The referees were the same people who committed years to doing the same and were on the same page with her. Once they hit second grade there was more freedom and less stoppage to teach. Then 4th or 5th grade they were on their own to play normal basketball and steal and such, but the refs still called the game a certain way to keep it clean and would talk them through it. Beautiful thing and no doubt the way to learn the game.

Here is a link to what i believe is her old rules as she retired long ago but i believe the city kept the format and just called it REC way. Go to the youth basketball page and scroll down to rules and you will see a set for K-1 and 2-4th grade.

https://paducahky.gov/departments/pa...n/sports-youth

https://paducahky.gov/files/2024_REC...st_Grade_0.pdf

https://paducahky.gov/files/2024_REC..._4th_Grade.pdf

Actually the last two links are the pdf for the rules.

[KentuckyWildcat]

Thanks guys.

The good thing is that we have a new director. And he seems to be willing to listen and make changes. Larry Vaught got our old director in Danville. I hope that works out for Danville...