6th grade basketball is the final year of “Biddy” basketball. The tightrope between skill development and winning and losing is starting to be crossed. The players are usually completely engage with every game and are actively trying to win. That is good.
However, as a coach, you need to make sure your focus is still on development. 6th grade championships mean nothing. I have seen too many parents put everything in too winning at this level and cause players to lose interest in basketball because the “coach” is playing to win. That mentality leads to players not wanting to play basketball in junior high and what could have been a nice role player at the varsity level becomes one of the leaders of the cheering block.
Just because the players at this level can usually handle more information and plays does not mean you as a coach should be installing a bunch. Keep the focus on player development by adding a few new wrinkles not seen at the lower grades. Practice speed should pick up more at this age then before. But still at this youth age keep things fun and interesting for ALL players and not just the best 5-10. At this age nobody can predict who is going to be the main players at the varsity level in another 6 years. Players move in and out of schools. Players decide to focus on other activities or sports. And the 11 to 15 players in 6th grade may be a late bloomer and do not start growing until junior high. So the runt of the team in 6th grade may end up being the tallest player in high school. We cannot predict the future therefore the coaches’ focus on helping everybody become better players.
I am of the belief that “Biddy” basketball or pre-Junior High basketball should be focused on player development. Winning and losing should not matter to anybody at these ages. The work I detail in this practice plan speaks to that mindset. The fundamentals of dribbling, passing, shooting and defense are covered throughout the practice and only after those fundamentals are covered is team concepts introduced. The running of plays should be very limited at this age. I would recommend one motion offense and maybe 2 quick hitters is all that should be taught. The majority of the time in practice should be focused on the skill development of each player. With that in mind here is a practice plan for 6th grade basketball.
*Note-These plans and drills can be used for younger and older players.
0-5 Minutes-Dynamic Warmups
5-10 Minutes-Dribbling Drills-Back Dribble out of a trap
10-15 Minutes-Dribbling
15-20 Minutes-J-Cuts to 2 on 0 Offense
20-25 Minutes-2 on 0 to 4 Cuts
25-30 Minutes-5 on 2 Passing
30-35 Minutes-L Shooting-Layups
35-40 Minutes-L Shooting Jumpshots
40-45 Minutes-L Shooting Kickouts
45-50 Minutes-Stop the Cut-Offense and Defense
50-55 Minutes-Stop the Cut
55-60 Minutes-Closeouts-Baseline Passing
60-65 Minutes-Closeouts 3 on 3
65-70 Minutes-Closeouts 4 on 4
70-75 Minutes-Team Offense-Baseline Out of Bounds
75-80 Minutes-Team Offense-Baseline Out of Bounds
80-85 Minutes-Scrimmage 5 on 5/Game Situations
85-90 Minutes-Scrimmage 5 on 5/Game Situations
I am going to breakdown each segment a little more and outlined what I would be looking to accomplish as a 6th grade coach. While each segment is focused on one skill in particular, most of the drills and segments allow for multiple skills to be used in the drill. So even though the focus may be on defensive closeouts, you can let the offense play out the possession so your team is working on offense at the same time you are focused on defense.
0-5 Minutes-Dynamic Warmups
This first segment is to get the players moving and loosened up for the rest of practice. Full Court Layups or some type of full court dribbling would be best. That would get all the players running up and down with a ball in their hands to start practice.
5-15 Minutes-Dribbling-Back Dribble out of a Trap
This is using the back dribble during practice. This is a full court drill. This teaches players how to stay calm and what to do if they start to get trapped. I place cones on the sideline foul line extended on both sides and both ends of the court. One cone is placed in the right off the sideline. A second cone is placed on the inside towards where the dribbler is coming from. The two cones simulate a trapping pair of defenders. I also play two cones on the sides of the jump circle except the 2nd cone is now on the outside instead of the inside.
Each player has a ball. The player starts on a baseline and dribbles down the sideline to the first set of cones. The player dribbles into the trapping area of the cones. Now they are trapped. The player turns their butt into the trap and explodes backwards with two hard dribbles. Once they backdribble then the player uses a change of direction dribble and continues to the next set of cones on the jump circle. They enter the trap, backdribble out, and use a change of direction dribble to continue to the last set of cones on the sideline. They repeat the trap and backdribble. They use a change of direction dribble and go in and shot a layup to finish their turn.
Once they shoot the layup then they can continue on the other side of floor going back down the floor to where they started. 3 sets of cones are set up on this side as well and they repeat the same drill going back. This drill helps to teach players to use a back dribble if they find themselves in trouble during a game. The cones give the visual of a trapping pair of defenders. By doing this drill, hopefully the dribbler stays calm in a game when trapped and muscle memory takes over and they explode backwards with the back dribble and then change direction to beat the trap.
15-25 Minutes-J-Cuts to 2 on 0 working on the four cuts
Now this is where I try to combine different skills back to back to help reinforce some skills a 2nd time immediately after the 1st. Now remove the cones except for the first set on both sides. Have players partner up. The dribbler enters the cones just as before and back dribbles out of the trap just as the previous 10 minutes. Their partner now J-Cuts to the middle of the floor. A J-cut is used when a defender leaves a player to go and trap. The man whose defender leaves to trap should make a J-cut to the middle of the floor every time their man leaves. A J-cut is a cut that looks like a player running a J. They run straight to the middle and then hook back towards the ball. They should place themselves in a sight line between the two trapping players. The dribbler will back dribble out of the trap and then throw the ball over the trap to the middle of the floor to the J-cut. This gets the ball past the trap and should lead to an advantage on the offensive end of the floor. After the J-cut, the 2 players run down the floor and run a 2 on 0 offense. The four cuts on non-ball screens would be a good idea to finish this drill.
25-30 5 on 2 Passing
This is a nice little passing drill that I use at the high school level. It helps with passing but also works on defensive communication and anticipation. The way it works is 5 offensive players are standing in a circle. Two players are on the blocks. One player is at the top of the key. Two players are about 2 feet outside the lane around the mid-post area. The two defenders are in the middle of the offensive players. One ball is used. The offense tries to complete passes while the defense works on getting deflections or steals. The offense cannot move and is only allowed to pass to the 2 players not standing next to them. This drill is fast paced and the defense works on anticipating the pass and filling the passing lane. The offense can pass the ball as quickly as possible to prevent the defense from getting into the passing lane. After a deflection or steal or after a certain number of passes then have the players switch positions and continue.
30-45 L Shooting with Layups, Pullups and Kickouts
L shooting is a drill combining dribbling with shooting. Both sides of the floor are used. Both ends can be used as well. The players start on the sideline at half-court. They dribble down to foul line extended and make a change of direction dribble. The player then dribbles to the elbow and makes a 2nd change of direction dribble. At this point if you draw their path it is in a shape of an L so I call this drill L shooting.
After the change of direction at the elbow, the player goes in and shoots a layup. After one or two layups then the players can start to take pullup jumpers after the 2nd change of direction dribble. And finally you put all the balls on one side. A second line on the other side of the floor is going to partner with the ball line. The player with the ball does the L dribbles to the elbow. Now instead of making a move at the elbow they kick out pass to the 2nd line whose player runs somewhere between the corner and the wing.
Now we have a player using 1 change of direction dribble, a pass from the lane outside to a teammate, and finally a 2nd player gets to shoot. All in this one drill, 3 fundamentals are being used. Dribbling, Passing and Shooting are all taking place within this drill. That is being efficient with your practice time.
45-55 Minutes-Offense vs Defense-Stop the Cut
Now the team can break down and work on 1 defensive movement. This could be pick and roll. This could be post feed and relocation. This can be done with 2 or 3 or 4 players on offense and defense. For this practice plan I have put stop the cut.
One offensive and defensive player will start on the wing. One defender will be in help side guarding an offensive player in the opposite corner. The offensive player in the corner cuts to the basket. The help side defender stops the cut and redirects the player up the lane. The player with the ball passes the ball to the redirected player and then those 4 players play out the possession. Players are switching lines and offense and defense after each possession. These 10 minutes can be used to work on any individual defensive concept.
55-70 Closeouts-Baseline Passing to 3 on 3 and 4 on 4
This closeout drill involves the drill starting with baseline passing. 3 defenders and then 4 defenders line up on the baseline evenly apart from each other. The four offensive players line up around the 3 point line evenly apart from each other.
The ball starts in the hands of the one defender closest to the sideline. He will pass to the next defender, the next defender turns 180 degrees and passes to the next defender until the ball is passed to the last defender. The last defender then passes the ball to the offensive player closest to him. The offensive player then passes the ball around the 3 point to create a swing effect where every defender and every offensive player has now touched the ball. The ball ends up in the offensive player that started closest to the defender who had the ball first.
Now for the closeouts. The first defender runs across the floor to the offensive player who will receive the pass from the last defender. The defender who touched the ball second will run across and closeout to the offensive player who touched the ball second. This continues until the defender who passed the ball to the offensive player closes out to the final offensive player who receives the ball at the end of all the passing. So the defense has crisscrossed the floor to their closeouts.
Once the ball reaches the final offensive player then the 3 on 3 or 4 on 4 plays out a possession. This creates a fun drill setting with every defender running around but still produces 3 or 4 closeouts each possession that is played. Again I am using a drill that is being very efficient with the amount of reps we as a team get in as short of time as possible.
70-80 Minutes-Team Offense-Baseline Out of Bounds
At this age some more plays could be introduced as far as the number of different motion offenses and quick hitters to practice. I would advise keeping the number low. However baseline out of bounds plays are another area to need a couple of different plays to use during game. I have a series on flex variations and stack plays that can be used for your team. Visit those pages using their links.
80-90 Scrimmage-Game Situations
The last ten minutes continues off of the previous ten. Put a defense out there to guard the out of bounds plays. The defense will help the offense learn the timing needed in order to execute the play successfully. It may also give you as the coach a visual that the play should be modified a little bit or completely removed. Sometimes even if a play is good, the team personnel does not match with the play design so the play will not work. If that is the case then remove the play. This little scrimmage time can help you make those decisions.
Conclusion
As a junior high coach, I wanted every player coming into 7th grade to know the following things.
1) How to dribble with both hands.
2) How to shoot layups with both hands.
3) How to pass the ball using the correct pass.
4) And how to guard in a man to man setting.
These four things gave me the ability to put the players into situations for them to be successful. I did not care about if they knew plays or what plays they knew. As the kids get older and stronger then more of the floor can be used for offense.
Most 7th graders struggle with shooting a 3. So, defenses from 7th grade on down can basically not guard the 3 point line. However, at the 8th grade level and into high school the 3 point line becomes more readily available to teams. This maturity of players causes changes to be made.
At the lower grades most kids are about the same height. At the high school level there can be differences of a half foot to a full foot height difference between players. So, the smallest player could shoot close to the basket in 3rd and 4th grade. Now that same player is a full foot shorter than other players and is not able to shoot the ball in the paint because they will get blocked. Since we do not know how players are going to grow, we need to make sure we as coaches are setting them up for success no matter how much or how little they grow.
The only way to get them ready for success at the higher grade levels is to get their skill level as high as possible. This means more focus on skill development and less focus on team concepts. I hope you take that advice seriously as a potential coach. I can promise you in 2 years, 6 years, 20 years down the road nobody will remember nor care about their 6th grade basketball record.