Question from the parent of a BasketBall fan.

[caddad]

Hi All,
First time posting here. I’ve just been wondering something and thought it would be a good idea to reach to the Basketball community. I’m a father to two boys, my youngest(aged 7) is crackers about basketball. I don’t know how it happened or where it came from, he’s never been pushed and it’s a sport I’ve never really followed, but he loves it. We’ve got a net out the back and he’ll just spend hours out on his shooting, dribbling, over and over. He learned about Lebron James so we bought him a top and now we have to check in his room every night to make sure he hasn’t changed out of his pyjamas to sleep in it. I’m just telling you all this so you get my drift.
I did some research and discovered that unbeknownst to me we had a local basketball club. Quite a good one that does coaching for 6-10 year olds so obviously I signed him up. He was excited to go but he’s 7 and struggling with it and beginning to get disheartened. He plays for hours in our back garden but he only uses a small ball and a reasonable height net.
On to the question, in football if you’re teaching kids the game you take them to a 5 a side pitch with smaller goals and let them learn the game that way. Why don’t they have something similar in Basketball? Lower nets and lighter balls would make the game more accessible to the younger crowd and perhaps help to grow the sport.
I’m new to this so I don’t know if this has been discussed before but I was hoping to start a discussion if nothing else.
Thanks.

I

[baldeagle]

Whereabouts are you based?

There are various formats of mini-basketball using smaller ball/ lower baskets around so it should be possible to find something that doesn’t dampen your lad’s enthusiasm.

[mac]

Caddad, welcome to the blog, well done for your lad. It'll be quiet on here apart from the NBA lads. As Baldeagle intimated it would help if we knew your location, a town name would do.

At his age all he should be doing is having fun and learning the basics imo. I do know about the Newcastle Eagles CVL program. On this under 10s train with a smaller ball and an 8 foot high hoop. They play 4 v 4 across a half court. When they move up to under 12s they stick with the 8 foot hoop but play on the full court 5 v 5. No league tables are kept until under 14s when the hoop height is raised. Emphasis on fun.

[SamH]

You could try speaking to the coach who runs the club and ask about making it easier for them. I remember at age 14 I started to play and even then struggled with shooting the ball from 3 point range using correct technique. I had to shoot from the stomach in order to get the range. So definitely 10 and under should be learning on shorter hoops and maybe a size 6 ball instead of the standard size 7.

[hayesboy]

Any decent junior club should be mainly coaching u10/u8 age groups on 8ft hoops and shortened courts. Some facilities have the side hoops that can drop from 10-8 but most don't. In those cases the club needs to use portable versions and even that is reliant on being able to store at the facility.

U10/U8 age groups should be using a size 5 ball (in fact so should U12). Size 6 is for U14 or women's basketball.

All of these things should be known to the club you have taken your son too if they are, as you say, "quite a good one".

What I can tell you from long experience coaching that age group and many others is that it can be very difficult integrating new players into an established group with basketball. That is because unlike football, that is well taught in schools, most newcomers to basketball are really starting from scratch. Also due to relatively low participation levels the age bands are bigger than football. There is a huge difference between a 7yr old beginner and a 10yr old who has been playing for 3 years or so and may be the child of a basketball player for example.

I hope your club is able to provide the right equipment to allow your son to enjoy learning the sport in a progressive way. Good luck.

[SamH]

Also, does he play at school at all? Might be worth asking them what equipment they use, although a lot of schools don't spend much time on basketball sadly.