Customer Reviews

The Baffled Parent's Guide to Coaching Girls' Basketball (Baffled Parent's Guides)

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Well-written book for first time coaches. Organized into chapters that correspond to each part of coaching girls basketball, including practice drills and organization, game prep, offensive and defensive. It's really geared towards intermediate girls play, so that was extremely helpful to me. I coach 5/6th graders. The "Ask The Coach" part was also a nice touch - made it a more interactive read.

This book is a decent starter book for coaches new to youth coaching. The explanations of basketball terminology and the basics of defense and offense are quite good. Coach Hatchell and Jeff Thomas has provided a good, quick primer on the basics of offense and defense, a thorough explanation of fundamentals, and some good sections on "special" game situations -- pressing and press-breaking, in-bounds plays, fast breaks and the like. Coaches totally new to the game may find her concise explanation of the basics very helpful.

Unfortunately, the drills are uninspired and under-explained (though most are so simple that very little explanation is necessary). I am new to coaching very young kids, but I've coached at the high school level before, and the drills I made up are, on the whole, more interesting and engaging to young players than the drill selection Coach Hatchell provides. Working with 2nd and 3rd graders, a coach needs to emphasize fun and active engagement with the game through his drills to maximize player interest and ensure that they will enjoy the game and stay interested in it. I was hoping to find fun and engaging drills like those featured in the excellent soccer coaching books in the "baffled parent's guide" series, but this book didn't deliver them. The drills featured in this book don't fit the bill for very young players.

Overall, I'd recommend this book to a coaching novice, but I will personally keep looking for a book to help me teach young players in a fun and engaging way.