How To Improve Youth Basketball

"Jeremy Russotti – 1 Percent Club
Make them use age appropriate basketball sizes and hoop heights.

For some reason we have kids training and playing with basketballs that are too large and basketball hoops that are too high. I see kids using full size basketballs and playing on 10-foot rims at the 3rd grade. I think that isn’t age appropriate since the kids cannot shoot with proper form on a 10-foot rim. I believe that kids in the 5th grade would be better off shooting at a lowered basket. In this way, they can learn proper one arm shooting, while learning muscle memory to create a fluid motion where all the joints align.

The way we have it now, most kids turn sideways when they shoot, or shoot with two hand in order to get the ball to the basket. They then go through years of bad habits that are very difficult to fix when they are older. Also, with appropriate size basketball, players will learn to dribble properly, or learn to control the basketball with their appropriate footwork.

Most importantly, kids will have MORE SUCCESS while training with appropriate size basketball and hoop. With success, comes intrinsic motivation and players will then want to train and play more. Right now, kids learn at an early age if they are a star, or if they are a role player. This leads to players losing interest in the sport and moving to other sports."

The full article can be found here.