Mini-Basketball, A Guide to Teaching and Coaching written by Martin Spencer is the MBE approved teaching and coaching manual, available from:

Val Sabin Publications & Training, 125 Harlestone Road, Northampton, NN5 6AA.

Tel: 01604 580974.

Visit the V.S.P&T website www.valsabinpublications.com

The Guide describes in detail the programmes and activities to support the following guidelines.

The Aims of Mini-Basketball

Specifically Mini-Basketball aims to:

• Teach basic movement skills and skills of basketball in an environment suited to children’s needs and limitations.

• Maximise opportunities for participation for children of all levels of ability.

• Provide opportunities for recreation.

• Instil values of fairplay and responsibility

• Show that sport can be fun and for all.

Rights of Children in Mini-Basketball

• The right to participate in Mini-Basketball activities, games and competitions.

• The right to participate in activities, games and competitions at level suitable for the age and ability of the child.

• The right to be supervised, taught or coached by a qualified leader, teacher or coach.

• The right to play as a child and not as an adult.

• The right to take part in the making of decisions about their involvement in mini-basketball.

• The right to practice mini-basketball in a safe and healthy environment.

• The right to receive appropriate preparation in order to play mini-basketball.

• The right to be treated with dignity.

• The right to have fun in mini-basketball.

Mini-Basketball Equipment for Children

Mini-Basketballs are similar in design to basketballs with the following sizes of ball recommended for games play involving passing & catching, dribbling and shooting:

Years 1 to 4 Key Stage 1 size 3 (circumference 55-58cms)

Years 5, 6 & 7 key Stage 2 size 5 (circumference 68-73cms)

However where Mini-Basketballs are not available size 4 or 5 netballs or footballs could be used. Also general play balls can be used although they are not always appropriate for learning the specific game skills at Key Stage 2. Soft touch balls can be introduced at the early stages and for children with specific learning needs.

Larger and lighter balls can be used to make catching and throwing easier for younger children.

The goals in Mini-basketball have backboard, ring and nets. The recommended heights of the basket are:

Year 1 to 4 adapted through 1.5m to 2.1m

Year 5 & 6 2.1m through to 2.6m

Year 7 2.6m through to full adult height 3.05m

The backboard must be a flat surface. It can be rectangular or fan shaped.

A small rectangle is 0.5m horizontally and 0.45m vertically.

In teaching and coaching Mini-Basketball it may be necessary to use a variety of targets to improve the skill of shooting or to give alternative scoring objectives.

It could be that targets above head height are marked on a wall. In some Mini-Basketball activities the objective of a game could be to pass the ball to a goal catcher who stands behind a line, in a ring marked with playground chalk or on a mat. Also the objective of the Mini-Basketball activity might be to knock over a skittle.

Mini-Basketball should be played on a hard, safe, non-slip surface with no obstructions. The court can be marked on an outside playground or where possible inside a sports hall, school/community hall or gymnasium. The court as shown in the diagram is 22m x 12m but it can be scaled down in size providing the variations are in the same proportions: 20m x 11m, 18m x 10m, 16m x 9m, 14m x 8m.

Other games markings can be used for Mini-Basketball activities. For example, a grid area with a number of squares or rectangles marked out on the playground area is useful for a variety of invasion games.

Developing game skills

Children find many of the adult skills of basketball impossible to reproduce. They are also not able to learn skills in full game situations.

Basketball coaches may find this frustrating but children will always learn and play as children.

They like to learn by trial and error in an unthreatening environment that allows them to experiment.

They learn more and remain motivated when the activities are challenging, exciting and fun.

A child does not pass, shoot or dribble the ball in the same way as an adult so we need to remain patient and wait until they are ready later on in their development for specific technical correction.

Our approach to learning skills is through introducing carefully selected Mini-Basketball activities that are developmental and progressive rather than using isolated repetition of technical skills.

The Mini-Basketball A B C

It is important to stress that at the Fundamental Stage developing the Mini-Basketball ABC; Agility, Balance &Coordination is a greater priority than working on technical skill proficiency.

Please note that the FUNdamental Phase – Movement Skills in the Long Term Athletic Development model includes Speed as part of the ABC’s of Athleticism.

Movements that help develop speed should be included in the Mini-Basketball activities.

Children’s skill learning is always related to their physical development and maturation. Each child should be treated as an individual. Mini-Basketball activities should allow every child to develop.

Children should be taught to learn skills while developing their understanding in the context of how the skill is used in a game. Children should be encouraged to learn for themselves and understand how to solve the problems in a game.

The game selected should always be appropriate for their stage of development. For example this may mean selecting an individual challenge game, a follow-my-leader activity, a chasing game or 1v1, 3v1, 2v1, 3v2, 2v2, 3v3 games.

Mini-Basketball activities are selected to develop their knowledge, skill and understanding of an invasion game as part of the P.E. National Curriculum.

The children should experience opportunities in the lesson to plan, perform and evaluate their performance.

Introducing game rules

Using the Game

A player’s first experience of a new game is often the deciding factor of whether they want to continue to play the game.

Our aim is to ensure that players, teachers, coaches and helpers all enjoy a positive experience as they are first introduced to organised competitive mini-basketball. We also need to ensure that the players’ enthusiasm continues as they go on to play basketball.

The Mini-Basketball game rules are introduced as part of introducing movement skills and fundamentals of the game. They are not taught in isolation but are integral to skill learning.

Children are encouraged to apply the rules and learn to be game ‘officials’ from the start.

When the children are ready, we would start with these basic rules:

• To win the game you must score more baskets than your opponents

• You need to keep yourself and the ball inside the playing area (player out of bounds & ball out of bounds rule)

• You cannot walk or run while holding the ball; so in order to move on court you must dribble (travelling rule)

• You cannot dribble with two hands at the same time or dribble again after catching the ball (illegal dribble)

• You cannot make unfair contact (personal foul)

Competitive experiences

Competition is an intrinsic part of sport that involves measuring performance against an opponent, oneself or the environment.

Competition provides stimulation and challenge as well as the opportunity to apply, test and further develop skills in a game situation. Properly managed competition should be seen as a healthy and desirable part of sport.

Playing with a ball is a natural activity enjoyed by many children.

Competition can be developed from play but it is not necessarily instinctive. It is more likely to be learnt in response to environmental or social factors.

Cooperation is an important pre-requisite to successful competition.

Competition is neither good nor bad in itself but varies according to how it is introduced, organised and treated by the organisers and participants.

If children are not yet ready for competition or experience a stressful competitive experience they may prefer to just play or give up the game.

Some activities involve self competition rather than competing against others e.g. to beat own record, to improve own score.

• Children learn by playing
• Children learn how to compete
• Children learn more about themselves in competition

Purposes of Competition

Success and failure may be measured by:

a) Comparison with others – competing.
b) Improvement in skill = personal achievement and progress

Competition occurs when children compare themselves with others. Children learn to be competitive through constant comparison with others. Sadly those who don’t compare well are more likely to give up.

Using personal progress to set attainable targets for all children is a way of measuring achievement, which can give a sense of satisfaction and worth, even when they lose, and encourages them all to continue.

Playing games of Mini-Basketball provides opportunities for children to:

• Participate in a competitive situation where one team may win and the other loses.
• Experience the emotions of winning and losing.
• Be encouraged to accept winning with dignity or losing gracefully.
• Work with their peers as a team.
• Develop self confidence, enjoy sport and demonstrate their ability.
• Individually demonstrate their personal achievements.
• Raise their awareness of other cultures and develop a greater understanding and empathy with children of other cultures.

It is essential that children should be coached in these competitive experiences by teachers, leaders and coaches who fully understand the needs of children and are knowledgeable and caring in the craft of coaching.

Aims and Objectives of a Competition

Participants should be taught that winning and losing are merely results of all sporting competitions.

There should not be an over emphasis of winning as this can lead to dissatisfaction with sport in general.

Competition is a test of ability and potential, with the pursuit of excellence a desirable outcome as in other forms of human endeavour.

Participants should be encouraged to achieve, to do their best and to develop their full sporting potential. Challenging competition is only one element of the developing process.

The emphasis should be on the quality of the experience and its appropriateness to the age and ability of the participant. All participants should be given opportunities to succeed and do their best through competition.

It is possible to help children see competition as chances to succeed by selecting the correct level of competition for them and presenting the competitive experience positively.

Level

Organise the competition so teams are not mismatched, emphasising the weaker and stronger.

Children are more likely to enjoy the games and stay in the sport longer if they play at a level that they can do well but not too easily.

Children that play in teams that constantly lose will probably get fed up. Losing all the time can mean no fun and children will not want to play. Nobody likes to lose all the time.

This may mean seeding or ability grouping the teams before they play or even picking up new teams.

Where the ability level is unknown prior to the competition keep the games short so that huge differences in score are not recorded.

Presentation

If children think that they can only succeed if they win they will be under more pressure and may find competition stressful. But if they think that they can be successful if they play as well as they can, then they will know that they can be successful even if they lose the match.

Playing well is more important than winning. Each competition can be presented as a test of their skills and improvement at that moment in time rather than a final examination.

Coaching for achievement

In the competitive situation teachers, leaders and coaches should

• Give a sense of support and security to all players
• Encourage all children to assess their progress by comparing their performance to their previous efforts of their own performance targets.
• Reward all children for their efforts and progress they have made.
• Use different children as examples of good performance.

Things to avoid:

• Habitually comparing players with others.
• Rewarding only for ability.
• Competitions which are unevenly balanced.

The Mode of Competition

Organisers of competitions should first give considerable thought to the objectives of the proposed event.

Some might argue a case for a competition which concludes with a clear final ranking of the participating teams

However in Mini-Basketball it is more about providing the opportunity for teams to play others of comparable ability with no final ranking publicised.

It is more important to just give children the chance to play with and against children from other environments. In this case the organiser may even mix the children up into new teams.

It is important that special consideration be given to:

• The age-grouping i.e. 9 year olds, 11 year olds, or 8 & 9 year olds, 10 & 11 year olds. Children should play in competitions of more than two years age range.
• Are the age-groupings by school year or calendar year?
• gender grouping – i.e. boys and girls in mixed teams with or without a set ratio or girls and boys playing in separate teams.
• Opportunities for the participating children to get to know and enjoy the company from other teams i.e. ice-breakers, other social and sporting activities, mixing at breaks, mixing the teams.
• The chance for children to officiate – referee, timekeep and score
• The format, length and rules of the games.

All competitions should be run adopting the ‘Rules of Mini-Basketball’ so that the spirit and philosophy of the game is not prejudiced.

Some rule modifications may be necessary to suit the format selected e.g. the length of games may be shortened or there may be central timing with a running clock.

Competition between Teams

Children learn to cooperate as a team as they become more skilful and less egocentric. It is easier for them to make decisions and cooperate in a small team in the early stages. They can cope with smaller numbers. Fewer opponents makes decision-making easier. Children accept teams that are selected fairly. The numbers in a team can be developed as follows: