Basketball practice program

Below is an A-B-C formula for planning a successful basketball practice to get you started. Feel free to substitute in your own basketball drills , or adjust the time frames to suit your own program. Simply click on the image below, it will open up full size, and you can print it out as a reference. The first block, Conditioning Exercises should normally run 10 minutes. This is your opportunity to get your athletes warmed up and ready to perform at a high level. Use plyometric circuits to help build fast-twitch muscle response, "footfire" drills which involve rapidly tapping both feet on the ground while in a defensive stance , or other activities to get the heart pumping and the limbs warm.

The second practice block, Shooting Drills , is often misused by coaches. Instead of taking shots from all over the floor, practice shooting from the locations that usually produce shots in your offense. For example, if you are running a basic 3 out 2 in motion offense, have your players in 3 lines around the perimeter with the ball in the middle.

The ballhandler would pass to one of the lines on the wing, then set a screen for the first player in the opposite line. That player receives the screen, then cuts across the top of the key, receives the ball from the other line, and shoots.

This mimics the type of action you would run in a typical motion offense, and the type of open shot your team would get. Similarly, if you are running a "" style offense, you may get lots of open shots in the short corner area ie. Or, if you play against a lot of zone defenses, practice skipping the ball to an open 3-point shooter at the opposite side of the court. You may also want to split your "bigs" ie.

The phase of your basketball practice plan, Defensive Drills , typically runs for around 10 minutes as well. Again multi task. Man to man is a fundamental that will really help the players and improve their athleticism.

Kobe, Check out the link in the previous comment for some ideas on short practice times. I would spend most of my time on fundamentals in the context of my offense and defense. You can also work on offense and defense at the same time. For example, have one coach watch offense and the other watching defense. You could practice basket cuts and half court motion, while the defense if focusing on positioning, etc.

For fundamentals I would spend most time on ballhandling, footwork, and shooting. I would try to mult-task. For example, work on down screens getting open and a piece of your offense , footwork, and shooting at the same time. So everyone learns the exact footwork and you save a lot of time. Hey, I am coaching a group of year olds, but as I train them straight after school, we only get 45 minutes at best to practice. What are the most important drills to work. Also, I have three guys who are keen to learn post moves, yet as I play guard myself, I am ignorant to any particular moves other than the up-and-under.

Can anyone help me with this? Thankyou for this, it will really help out our team who just want to get better, even with an record. What if you only have an hour an 15 minutes twice a week? Hi, I was wondering where I could get more information on how to do these warm ups you are talking about, such as bear crawl and defensive shuffle.

The problem with youth basketball is three things: 1. The parent or guardian who has no idea what he's doing coaching his son and thinks his son should get all of the shots.

The parent who has no idea what basketball is and thinks little johnny has to take every shot. No certified coaches who teach the fundamentals. I am a 22 year old who wants to be a collegian coach after getting my degree. I have been coaching youth basketball for 6 years now and it always seems like one parent has to question what I do or complain about something. I have compiled a record of about winning back to back county championships and an intermural championship as well I have had about 10 of my players go on and start at the high school level, both Varsity and JV including 1 going on to play Division 1 next year.

I teach nothing but the fundamentals and we spend ZERO time scrimmaging. We get about an hour and half a week so there is no time to scrimmage. I make it very fun for the kids running similar drills to the above article.

The site is very helpful and please keep up the good work. Hi Jeff, I am glad I found this site and appreciate your views to what should be taught at this age. I coach a 7th and 8th grade girls middle school team and find that the girls always respond better when I tell them to ignore the scoreboard and focus on the little successes during the game. Wins are good, but at this level it is seeing the smiles on their faces when they achieve the small goals we set for game regardless of the score.

Thanks again for this site and keep up the good work. Sherrie - You will never feel like you have enough time to teach your players what they need to know. Coaches at all levels youth to NBA have that issue.

It's just part of the job. That's why you need to constantly prioritize and focus on the critical things. I heard this quote from a Dell CEO once and it always resonated with me This was one of his keys to success. Remember, these are just 8th graders and the most important things are to teach fundamentals, prepare them for high school basketball, prepare them for life teach life lessons , set a good example, and have fun. Wins and losses don't indicate the success of your season.

You won't be able to measure how successful your season was until years later and you see what type of impact you had on your players.

So don't get too caught up in wins and losses. Good luck!. I am coaching 8th grade girls basketball. Recently we had two scrimmages; we blew out the first, but lost to the second team. My girls revealed more confidence in effort in the first scrimmage, but looked defeated in the second one. After reviewing your plays and advice, I found some helpful tips for success in this coaching season, but I still feel as though im missing something.

I feel like I dont have enough time to teach all that my girls need to know. What can I try to improve upon? If you want to include speed and agility exercises. Go through the left-hand menu and you will find plenty of helpful information. Hi, My name is Sabrina and this will be my second year coaching. I was an assistant coach for a high school boys team and a head coach for a boys middle school team.

I am about to coach a rec team for 17 and under boys and I have a couple of questions. The reason for these questions are because I do not want my practices to seem elementary to my guys but at the same time I do not want to miss an opportunity to help develop certain players in all areas assuming that at this point its certain things they should already know.

TL - 1 hour is tough to get everything in and with kids this age its even tougher because fundamentals are so important now. Make a weekly plan of what you need to work on and then separate them to daily tasks. Terry - That coach should be laying brick somewhere and NOT working with young kids. Its his job to teach them HOW to play, teach fundamentals and especially at this age Good luck, I hope you can find a better situation for your son.

Hello Joe, This is a great site! I live just outside of Toronto and I can't believe some of the stuff I see from coaches at tournaments for young kids. My son is 9 and a few weeks ago his coach actualy yelled at him for taking a jump shot from 10ft. It made him cry and when I heard about it from my wife I was furious. There is far too much emphasis on winning and not enough on skill development. You see the same players bringing up the ball time after time even though there is a half court rule on defense.

Imagine at the age of 9 you are already telling 8 or 9 kids that we don't think you are good enough to handle the ball. That is pretty much the message when a kid is told to play the wing shift after shift and barely touches the ball during a game. Our system dictates that coaches go through a certification process before they can coach at the rep level but the problem is the coaches don't have accountability for their behaviour.

It's no wonder kids quit and move on to other activities. Have agreat day! I'm coaching a 12 and under boys team and our practices are limited to 1 hour. I really love the drills and ideas but, how can I fit all of these into our practices? The players will start to become disinterested after that time.

Keep them short and fun! Team strategies are the least important component of a youth basketball practice. If you decide to use this section of practice with your team, dedicate only a small amount of time to it.

Too many coaches steal practice time from skill development and spend half of practice helping athletes memorize set plays. Remember that we want to teach our players how to play basketball, not give them a couple of spots on the floor they have to run to each possession. Scrimmages and small-sided games are very important to include in every basketball practice plan.

Technique is important, of course… but allowing kids to practice when to use it is just as important. Another thing I love to do in scrimmages or small-sided games is incorporate rules to work on different skills. The cool down section of your training should consist of a couple of minutes of slow jogging and walking up and down the court and then a few minutes of static stretching.

This allows the body to decrease in temperature and begin to flush out the waste products lactic acid , amongst other things. The stretching part of the cool down is a great time to talk to the players. If so, I still recommend only spending the listed amount of time on it. The following is how I generally divide up the minutes depending on the length of practice time you have.

This structure combines the technical learning of the skill with the practical application of the skill. Disclaimer: This training session has been designed for a half-court, as most teams this young only have access to half the court to train on. Grape Vine — Face side-on, step with the front leg, alternate stepping in front and behind with the rear leg.

High Jumps, Quiet Landing — Run forward, plant with two feet, jump as high as you can, land as quietly and softly as possible. Zig Zag — Run to the right diagonal for a few steps, plant your outside foot, push off and cut to the left diagonal. Lunges — Take a large step forward, keep the back upright and the hips straight, slowly drop down until your rear knee is just above the floor.

Squats — Take a few steps, stop with feet wider than shoulder-width apart. Keep the back straight, stick out the rear end, and squat down until the thighs are parallel with the ground. In to Out — Take a few steps, lift right knee to waist height. Keep the hips pointing forward, and bring the knee from pointing forwards, to pointing sideways. Drop the foot back down, take a few steps, and repeat with the left knee. Toe Grab — Take a few steps, put your right heel on the ground out in front of you, keeping your right leg straight.

Bend down and grab onto your toe. Hold for two seconds, stand up, and repeat after a few steps with your left foot. Pair the players up similar skill level. One basketball between two players. Spread out around the court. They are only there to help show the offensive player when they should be making this move.

They are helping the offensive player learn. Pair each player with a similarly skilled teammate. Split the court into two playing with an imaginary line between the baskets otherwise known as the split line, use cones to mark if you wish.