How to Teach Kids Basketball, According to Jeff Teague and RJ Jefferson
Here’s what kids should really be focused on.
Way, way, waaay too many parents take basketball too seriously.
They put their young kids in all of these clubs and hire trainers for them in their quest to develop the next LeBron James.
As a result, not only is there unnecessary pressure put on these kids, where many of them fall out of love with basketball, but kids are being taught to play the wrong way.
Many of them don’t develop the fundamentals of teamwork and the basic IQ of playing team basketball.
“But what should kids be learning to do?” you may be wondering.
Well, according to Jeff Teague, young kids should just focus on how to dribble and pass.
“The biggest thing you need to learn when you little is how to play team ball,” Teague said on his podcast, Club520. “Learn how to pass and dribble. Like shooting, your jump shot ‘gon change because you ‘gon get stronger. So, you ‘gon quit shooting from the side. So, I always said you ‘gon have handles when you little and you need to learn how to pass -[I] mean like not throwin’ to where a person is, but throw it to where they goin’, you know? See the game before it happens.”
Additionally, Richard Jefferson said on his podcast, Road Trippin’, that former players hate how basketball is being taught by private trainers and many AAU teams because they teach the wrong things.
“Why do you think so many NBA players’ sons are making it?” Jefferson asked. “NBA players are looking at the way basketball is being taught and their like, ‘f—k that. We’re not. No. How many players do you see whose parents played the game? You look at like, Dereck Lively, and his mom played basketball.”
Jefferson added that parents who have played basketball at some high level recognize that many AAU coaches and personal basketball trainers teach the wrong way.
“They know how to teach kids the proper steps versus like, ‘I want my kids to shoot 3s when he’s 8 years old and he’s got this crazy form.’”
However, aside from learning how to play the right way and improving the right skills, Jefferson believes that the most important thing is that the kid is having fun.
“One dad asked me, he’s like, ‘Richard, how are you so calm?’” he said. “I’m like, because no one is losing a job. No one’s gaining a scholarship. No one’s here to watch them other than their parents. The only thing I ask my son after the game was, ‘Did you have fun?”
And this is the mentality parents and kids should have towards basketball because when you’re 10 years old, it’s not that deep.