Jr. NBA unveils interactive practice curriculum for youth coaches

Imagine, just for a moment, that you're a first-time youth basketball coach. You have some general knowledge of the sport, but the X's and O's are a foreign concept, and you have no idea how to effectively teach a group of kids how to play. Your first practice is tomorrow night.

Thanks to the new instructional curriculum released by the Jr. NBA Tuesday morning, there's a solution to your problem, hypothetical or not.

The free, easy-to-use curriculum — which can be found at JrNBA.com — is made up of 48 practice plans and 250 videos designed to help parents, coaches and kids learn the game the right way. It's separated into four levels — rookie, starter, all-star and MVP — to tailor to everyone's needs, from the less experienced recreational league players to the AAU stars.

"We see our mission as the Jr. NBA is to grow and improve the youth basketball landscape overall, and it's clear that one of the most impactful ways to do that is to improve the quality of coaching," NBA vice president of youth basketball development David Krichavsky told Paste BN Sports. "So we undertook an extensive project to develop free, turn-key resources for youth basketball coaches, primarily to help them run effective practices."

What sets the curriculum apart isn't just that it's backed by the NBA, but that the instructional videos feature NBA and WNBA players and coaches, including Hall of Famers Dominique Wilkins and Isiah Thomas, Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum, two-time NBA champion Shane Battier and four-time USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year Teresa Edwards, among others.

"These videos feature among the best players in our game on both the men's and women's side, so whether you're a player or coach, it adds a level of credibility that really no one else can provide," Krichavsky said.

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