Nerves before a junior game are normal and usually a sign the child cares about it. They become a problem only when the child can't do the basics because of them. What helps is a predictable routine, one specific job to focus on in the first two minutes, and adults around them who aren't quietly adding to the pressure.
Written by Cameron James, founder and head coach at Liddicoat Basketball. Over a decade coaching junior basketball in Melbourne, including at Big V level, and rep teams from Under 12s through to Under 18s.
Last updated September 2026.
A child who is nervous before a game is behaving normally. Something is about to happen that they care about, in front of people whose opinion matters to them, with an outcome they can't control. Nerves are the correct response to that, and telling a child not to be nervous is asking them to stop caring.
The thing worth paying attention to isn't whether they're nervous, it's what the nerves do to them. Some kids get sharper. Some get quiet for ten minutes and are fine by the first whistle. The ones I watch closely are the ones who freeze, who stop moving, who won't take an open shot, or who are visibly relieved when they get subbed off. That's when nerves have tipped from ordinary to unhelpful.
They rarely look like fear. In junior basketball, nerves usually show up as one of a few disguises. A kid who suddenly doesn't want to go, and whose stomach hurts half an hour before the game. A kid who goes very quiet in the car and then talks non stop in the warm up. A kid who gets angry at a teammate in the first minute for something small.
The anger one catches parents out most. A child snapping at a teammate over a dropped pass is very often a child who is wound tight and looking for somewhere to put it. Treating it purely as a behaviour problem misses what's driving it, although the behaviour still needs addressing afterwards rather than in the moment.
Nerves need somewhere to go, and a routine gives them a shape. Same time leaving the house, same food, same warm up in the same order, same two minutes of shooting close range before the buzzer. It doesn't matter much what the routine is. It matters that it's the same every week.
The reason it works is simple. A child with a sequence of small familiar tasks has something to do with their attention. A child with nothing to do will spend the twenty minutes before tip off looking at the other team, working out who is taller, and imagining what might go wrong. The routine occupies the space that the worrying was using.
This is the most useful single thing I've found. Before the game, agree one specific job for the first two minutes, and make sure it has nothing to do with scoring. Get one rebound. Call ball twice on defence. Sprint back every time the other team gets it. Get one deflection.
It works because it's controllable and it's measurable. A nervous child who is trying to play well has a huge vague target and no way to know if they're hitting it. A nervous child who is trying to get one rebound knows exactly what to do, does it, and is now in the game rather than standing outside it worrying about whether they belong.
Parents underestimate how much of the pressure comes from the twenty minutes in the car. It's rarely anything obvious. It's a comment about the other team, a reminder about what the coach said last week, a question about whether they're going to start. None of it's meant as pressure and all of it lands that way on a kid already winding themselves up.
The most helpful thing you can be on the way to a game is boring. Talk about anything else. The drive home is the same. Ask if they enjoyed it before you ask anything else, and be genuinely willing to stop the conversation there, which most of us find harder than we expect.
I know that's not what most parents want to hear, especially the ones driving forty minutes each way and paying rep fees. But the child can't separate your investment from expectation, and the quieter you're around the edges of the game, the more room they've to play it.
There's a difference between a child who is nervous and a child who is miserable. Nerves lift once the game starts. If your child is still distressed in the third quarter, is crying before games week after week, or is telling you they want to stop and can't say why, that's worth taking seriously rather than pushing through.
That conversation is bigger than basketball and it's outside what a coach should be handling. Talk to them properly, talk to your GP if it's persistent, and be open to the possibility that this team, this level or this season isn't the right fit right now. Stepping down a grade has saved more junior careers than it has ended.
It's common and it usually settles once the first whistle goes. If it happens every week or it doesn't lift after tip off, that's worth looking at properly rather than pushing through.
As little about basketball as possible. Talk about something else entirely. A child heading into a game they care about doesn't need reminding what's riding on it.
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There are no outside sources on this page. It is written from Cameron's own coaching, from over a decade of junior basketball in Melbourne including rep teams from Under 12s through to Under 18s. Coaching is a matter of judgement, so treat this as one experienced opinion rather than the only way to do it.
This page was last updated September 2026. Think I have this wrong? Tell me.
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