There is a way to teach grade school basketball well while keeping it fun. Some coaches focus on one of those two, and something is missing. When we combine the two, our players want to keep playing a game in which they are being effective. This article identifies three basketball areas in which you can teach well while keeping it fun for your players to learn and advance.

The first is for your players to catch and pass the ball. Players like to touch the ball, to feel involved in the action.When you emphasize that all 5 players on the court are to touch the ball and pass it around, all are more interested in playing ball. Nobody is going to just stand around and watch the others play. All your players become eager to catch the ball and do something with it. This is where passing comes in. Passing is sharing the ball. Players become popular when they share. When you encourage sharing the ball through the pass, all your players benefit. They feel good that they are including their teammates in possession of the ball, the most valuable item in the game. Completing the pass becomes an outcome very favorable to both the passer and the receiver and to your team because now the opponent defense has to work harder chasing the passes.

Grade school basketball players like to move their bodies. They like to see what they can do with their bodies. You can teach them all different kinds of basketball moves which they can try and do. Basketball is a game of movement, not standing around. This is the 2nd area of basketball to emphasize: move. Move to open spaces on offense, move to help a teammate on defense, move quickly to start a fast break, move smartly to stop the opponent from scoring. When in doubt, move. Then you can teach your players how to move. They will be interested because they want to see what happens when they move in different ways.

You probably can guess the third area that grade school basketball players like: shooting the ball. Everybody likes to make a basket. It is a thrill for grade school players especially if they are looking for their 1st basket or if scoring does not happen that often for them. Scoring a basket is like the ultimate reward after all the catching, passing and moving. So, you will have a very interested audience when you teach shooting and especially when you teach how to get makeable shots. Isn't that what basketball offense is all about: getting in position for makeable shots and then making them? When you teach your players how to catch the ball, pass the ball, move to get to spaces for makeable shots, you make the game fun for them as they become effective players.