My 6-YO is doing basketball for the first time this year. I'm coaching his team. We had our first game yesterday. I knew going in that the refs would have to go easy on the kids with travel and double dribble calls, but I was shocked at how easy they seem to be. They seem like they will NEVER call double dribble. Also, it seems like they will let kids get like 5-6 steps before a travel is called, and that's usually after a warning too. "YOU HAVE TO DRIBBLE, KID, WHEN YOUR FEET ARE MOVING WITH THE BALL!"

Given these rule modifications, I'm wondering if it'd be bad of me to teach some of our better dribblers to take advantage of this rule. For example, teach them to pick up their dribble instead of trying to fight through it when going through traffic. Undoubtedly, they could win more by using techniques like that, but I don't want to teach them bad habits that they'll have to unlearn in later years in later leagues.

My kids really like to win, though. And they are all a lot shorter than their competition, it seems, so I feel like to win, they'll need to use advantages that they can get.