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Best Books for Coaching a Winning Youth Basketball Team

Coaching a youth basketball team can be difficult.  Typically, many of the players have not yet fully developed their basketball skills and fundamentals.  In addition, many of the players may lack basic basketball techniques which can help them to win games and championships.

Although coaching a youth basketball team is difficult, it is certainly not impossible.  In order to develop your youth basketball team, though, you are going to need to bring it back to basics.  Below, we’re going to review the best books for coaching a winning youth basketball team.

These books are a great way to bring it back to basics and help you teach your youth basketball team about the importance of basketball fundamentals.  In addition, these books will guide you on coaching and mentoring your youth team to be more successful both on and off the court.

Disclaimer

Please note, we here at Ball Are Life are a member of the Amazon Affiliate Program.  This means that we may receive a small commission from any purchases made via our Amazon links.  While we certainly appreciate the small commission, it in no way impacts our ratings, reviews, or recommendations.

Below, we’re going to provide you with our recommendations for the best books for coaching a winning youth basketball team.  These recommendations are provided in no particular order but are simply a collection of some books we’ve read that have been helpful in developing our younger players through their basketball careers.

Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Basketball

Where to Buy: Paperback or Kindle

You volunteered to coach the basketball team, but are you really ready? How will you teach the fundamental skills, run effective practices, and harness the energy of your young team? Fear not: Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Basketball has the answers.

Yes, the wildly popular and entertaining coaching guide is back in a new, updated, and expanded second edition. Longtime coaches Keith Miniscalco and Greg Kot return to share their experience and provide advice you can rely on from first practice to final shot. From evaluating players’ skills and establishing realistic goals to using in-game coaching tips, it’s all here—the drills, the plays, the fun.

Develop your team’s dribbling, passing, shooting, and rebounding skills with the Survival Guide’s collection of the game’s best youth drills. For plays and sets that young teams can actually run, flip to the Survival Guide’s offensive and defensive playbook. And to get the most out of every practice, follow the ready-to-use practice plans.

So, worry not, coach. Survival Guide has helped countless coaches have rewarding and productive seasons—and a lot of fun along the way!

The Baffled Parent’s Guide to Coaching Youth Basketball

Where to Buy: Paperback or Kindle

David G. Faucher shares his successful “full-participation model” of coaching youth basketball in this Baffled Parent’s Guide. Faucher, the head coach of the men’s basketball team at Dartmouth College, covers creating good habits, offensive skills, and defensive basics, dealing with parents, first aid and safety, and game rules.

Coaching Youth Basketball:  Offensive Strategies

Where to Buy: Paperback

You’ve purchased your whistle, coach’s clipboard, and a couple of basketballs, but how ready will you be once it is time for tip off on game day? What fundamentals will your team need to know to have fun and be successful on the court?

What offensive strategy will you teach your team in practice and what kind of drills will your team need to master? Let Coaching Youth Basketball: Offensive Strategies assist you this basketball season.

In Coaching Youth Basketball: Offensive Strategies, long time point guard, avid fan, and experienced coach Jordan Lyons explains common basketball terminology as well as shares some of his favorite drills, offensive sets, and tips. 

Develop and hone your players’ passing, dribbling, screening, and cutting skills with a collection of “skill drills.” Then, you’ll be be set up for success as this book walks you through written and visual descriptions of four basic youth basketball offenses that your team can run no matter the age or skill level.

In this book, you’ll find advice on practicing basketball staples like:

  • Pick and Roll
  • Give and Go
  • Man to Man Offensive Sets
  • Zone Offensive Sets
  • Cutting
  • Screening

Run to Win: The Mongoose System

Where to Buy: Paperback

The Mongoose System is not only a possible way to coach middle school and youth basketball, but the optimum way to coach at this level! This book has been written to teach you how to coach the System to middle school and youth basketball teams.

Other books on the system have been organized for college and high school level teams, and we wanted to provide the lessons we have happily learned to you for your kids at the middle school level. We have written this book for you. You picked this book up because no matter how much you already know about basketball; you know there is more to learn.

If you are a parent or teacher just starting out in coaching, you have picked this up to begin to learn to coach. If you have already coached for 5 years, you may be looking for a new approach to the game. If you have coached 10 years or more, you know that the more you know about the game, the more there is to learn.

201 Drills for Coaching Youth Basketball

Where to Buy: Paperback or Kindle

Coaching Youth Basketball is challenging in many ways for the adults who undertake the task. While many club and youth league coaches have a good understanding of how to play the game of basketball, these same coaches often struggle to find ways to teach the skills, tactics and strategies need to have success in the sport of basketball.

201 Drills for Youth Basketball provides the solution to this challenge. Included in this 400+ page manual are drills for:

— Man-to-Man Defense
— Competitive Rebounding
— Lay-ups
— Free Throws
— Shooting Drills
— Fast Break Drills
— Drills for Essential Fundamentals

Illustrated with extensive diagrams, each drill is described in as concise a manner as possible. Use the drills as described in the book, adapt the drills to your own specific team and the requirements of the players or use the drills as a basis to design your own drills.