Retired Lakers star Kobe Bryant has taken teaching of the basketball into his own hands: in his first season away from the NBA, he launched the Mamba League, designed to instruct kids and instill the fundamentals in a different manner from most youth programs.

Bryant has been critical of the structure of the American AAU system, due in part to his upbringing in Italy, where he learned the game as his father played professionally. He partnered with Nike and the L.A. Boys and Girls club to run an eight-week program from February to April. There are different rules and court dimensions to help ease in kids to how the sport works.

[youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YngkrG-eaIE&feature=youtu.be]

“Right now, I think we’re putting too much pressure on these kids too early, and they’re not learning proper technique of how to shoot the ball, or proper technique of spacing,” Bryant said. “It winds up eating away at their confidence. As teachers, we need to have patience to teach things piece by piece by piece. Over time, they’ll develop as basketball players, but you can’t just rush it all at once.”

[h/t The Vertical]