Coaching Basketball for Ages 4-5

Some kids are playing. Some kids are doing side quests. I had a 5 year old boy completely distracted by the cheerleaders during the game. Picture 12 small mammals and a ball.

If you’ve never coached ages 4–5, here’s what you need to know: it’s not “basketball” so much as a basketball-like substance. This year I'm coaching another little kids season.

At the hoop at our house, I like to cross my daughters really hard (going Kyrie on a kindergartener). They'd have no idea which way I'm going. But then I would still let them steal the ball, or foul me and I would flop. Throw a tantrum on the floor for exactly seven seconds.

Teaching kids basketball is deep in my parenting instincts. Because I spent so many hours playing when I was a kid. However, I wasn't in structured sports so much as just playing with a dirty ball in the rain with friends or by myself. My goal with kids is just to spark that interest in the game and they can run with it if they want.

My mental model of the game (so I don’t overthink it)

• Basketball: getting the ball in the hoop feels good. Winning feels good. Running around feels good. Being with friends is great. Missing shots and losing games feels … suboptimal (but not that bad, unless you have a Mamba Mindset).
• Kids: they like to laugh, they can handle challenge, and their emotions can spike to “best day ever” or crater to “I quit” with basically no warning.
• Me: talking with kids is easy. Organizing chaos is taxing but fun. Talking with parents is … a separate sport. (We’ll get to that.)

The only gear you really need

• Cones
• A ball per kid
• A plan that lasts 5 minutes (be ready to switch it)
• An assistant coach - a parent or friend ready to help catch loose balls, manage side-quests
• Whistle + stopwatch timer
• Optional: a real cookie jar with cookies (see Week 1)

The season is only 6 Sundays

• Each Sunday: 45 minutes practice → 45 minutes game
• My real goal: keep them moving, keep it fun, sneak in one “real” fundamental.

A dead-simple practice plan (45 minutes)

The league hands out official practice sheets on clipboards. They’re well-intentioned. They’re also usually way too wordy for the current chaos, so I end up improvising and keeping only the spirit of it.

I watch some coaches run those sheets like a Broadway show—kids lined up, crisp rotations, everyone doing the exact thing. Respect. I might not have that kind of discipline as a coach. Or maybe I do, but have to find it.

There are shoe-tying delays, water breaks, snack chaos, and at least one kid who needs a quick pep talk. So I only remember this:

• Chunk 1: a fun drill (everyone moving)
• Chunk 2: the “real skill” of the day
• Water / snack break
• Chunk 3: a game-ish drill (cones / keep-away / sharks)
• Pregame talk (1 minute)
• GAME
• Postgame talk

Sunday 1 — shooting mostly

• Chunk 1: Rocket Ship
  • Everyone starts close.
  • “Squat deeeeep… 3–2–1… BLASTOFF” and shoot.
  • Celebrate makes and good tries. Get everyone to high-five eachother.
• Chunk 2: Cookie Jar / BEEF
  • I’m bringing a real cookie jar and holding it above their heads.
  • Cue: “Reach up into the cookie jar” for follow-through wrist action.
  • BEEF = Balance, Eyes, Elbow, Follow-through - Eyes at the back rim, Elbow square.
• Chunk 3: Zig-zag cone drill (zig-zag → sprint → “layup”)
• Pregame talk: different starters this game.

Sunday 2 — dribbling without a lecture

• Chunk 1: Mirror drills (do what I do: dribble, switch hands, freeze, silly moves)
• Chunk 2: Red light → green light
  • Start in triple threat, then dribble on “green”
• Chunk 3: Sharks and Minnows
  • I’m the shark trying to steal the ball

Sunday 3 — defense / “don’t crash into people”

• Chunk 1: Cone on head dribble - keep a cone on your head. Forces head up and back straight. Last cone-head wins (I can try to steal ball if they're too good.)
• Chunk 2: Keep away
  • Four kids in a wide circle of cones, one kid in the middle; keep it away
• Chunk 3: Zig-zag cone drill

Sunday 4 — passing (sort of)

• Chunk 1: Mirror drills (include “show the ball” / “protect the ball”)
• Chunk 2: Keep away (the passing sneaks in here)
• Chunk 3: Tug of war
  • Two kids’ hands on the ball → let em fight it out → call jump ball after a few seconds

Sunday 5 — “handles” + confidence

• Chunk 1: Red light → green light
• Chunk 2: Cross me over
  • They cross side to side while I defend, then I “break my ankle” and fall for them
• Chunk 3: Rocket Ship again

Sunday 6 — repeat favorites + vibes

• Chunk 1: Kids vote (Rocket Ship / Sharks and Minnows / Redlight, greenlight / ?)
• Chunk 2: Cookie Jar / BEEF
• Chunk 3: Zig-zag cone drill
• Pregame talk: subbing + “run back”
• After the game: medals / high fives / “you improved” moments

The zig-zag cone drill (my default)

Cones in a zig-zag from the baseline, around 3 point line, up toward the top of the key.

Kids take turns:

1. Zig-zag around cones
2. Sprint to the hoop
3. “Layup” (which at age 4-5 on a 7 foot hoop isn't always an easy layup)

This drill is perfect because it has:

• Clear boundaries (start here, go there)
• Continuous movement (no long lines and waiting)
• A tiny solo moment where the whole world is “me + ball + hoop”

What you’re actually coaching

Half the job is basketball-ish.

The other half is:

• One kid doesn’t want to play today (their reward function is just to get this over with and go home)
• One kid will never pass (nothing you can do about that)
• One kid will shoot from wherever they currently are (love it!)
• Someone is crying (sometimes because they fell, sometimes because they didn’t get the ball, sometimes because their water bottle is “wrong”)
• Shoes untied

I had one kid who could make tough shots, but also traveled most of the way down the court and never passed. Ever. These kids are a "black hole", a force of gravity that will never release the object given to it, unless it's toward to hoop-singularity. They might also win you the game, but it's not as much fun for the others.

Also: I learned I need to teach the screen (or at least the kindergarten version of it).

One game we had a small girl totally boxed up by a bigger defender. She couldn’t move or pass for what felt like minutes. If I had taught a screen, her teammate could’ve come over and become a “wall” for one second so she could scoot around and get free.

The awk part: parents

Coaching in front of parents made me nervous at first.

One-on-one with kids? Easy. I can talk to kids all day.

I personally act strange around my kid's coaches ... I don't know why. I call other adults “Coach”. It’s a responsibility handoff: “For the next hour, you’re in charge of my kid and their feelings, and I’m going to sit over here and pretend I’m not watching every interaction.”

The MVP trophy

The best kid on the team—call him Clay—who could actually get the ball into a seven-foot hoop. His whole family came to games and cheered and was incredibly supportive. He had older brothers that played, which explained his drive.

At the last game, I gave out medals to everyone. Same medal, equal, because that’s the deal at this age.

But I also gave Clay an “MVP” trophy, which was just an extra of the same medal. Two medals. That’s it. I called it the “MVP season trophy.”

He cried. His family was thrilled!

And that’s the thing you forget when you’re trying to run drills and manage chaos: for a 5-year-old, a tiny gesture lands like a statue. I hope he remembers that season.

So if I had to summarize coaching ages 4–5:

• Keep it simple
• Make every kid feel seen at least once per practice
• There's sometimes nothing you can do about a kid who doesn't want to play

Basketball is the excuse. The real game is confidence. Ball is life.