Practice

This post was written for PGC Basketball by Graham Maxwell, Assistant Men’s Coach at Emmanuel College.

I hope you can find a few items to share with your players in one way or another.

This blog post is specifically for those athletes who want to be the best they can be as players and leaders. If you want to be an effective leader it is crucial to first lead yourself.

Learning the following five habits to lead yourself in practice will not only earn the trust of your teammates and coaches but it also will give you confidence in yourself.

WORK ON YOUR GAME OUTSIDE OF PRACTICE

I know this says specifically for practice but I couldn’t let this one slide. If you want to be your best in practice you have to work outside of practice. The best shooters and ball handlers are not made because of the shots or dribbles they take in practice. They are the best at what they do because of the work they put in when nobody is watching. You will never be a great basketball player if you only work on your game during practice. It is also true that if you want to be the best leader possible you have to work on being leader outside the practice facility. You don’t earn the trust of teammates by just showing up and having good practices. You have to put in the work outside of the gym.

Great players are the best at what they do because of the work they put in when nobody is watching.

CHANGE YOUR VIEW TOWARDS PRACTICE

I have been around players long enough to know that the majority of their thoughts surrounding practice is negative. I was once a player too. I know practice at times was not the most fun thing to attend. If you want to lead yourself in practice, you have to change your initial thoughts about it. Instead of saying, “ I have to go to practice” start saying “I get to go to practice.” It takes you from a place of negativity and complacency to a place of appreciation and opportunity. So I challenge you to start viewing practices as privileges and opportunities.

Read More: 4 Ways to Have the Most Fun Playing Basketball

HAVE 1 MAIN OBJECTIVE FOR EACH PRACTICE

Every single day, you should know what you want to get better at during practice. If you are unsure on what your focus should be, ask your coach. Ask them how you can improve as a player, leader, or teammate. Your coach determines your playing time so what he or she values is a good indicator of what you need to work on.

For example, let’s say I have had difficulties turning the ball over in our games. More specifically, my passes keep being deflected or stolen. My next practice(s) will be focused on completing passes. In every drill and every scrimmage, I am going to be the best passer on the team. No turnovers. Nothing high or low. Only goldilocks passes. If I really want to challenge myself, I will tell a teammate my practice goal so they can hold me accountable.

After practice, I made sure to have a thoughtful evaluation of my goal. If I tried to focus on 20 things to improve, during practice, then by the end I would have gotten better at none of them. Focus on one aspect of your game and grow that during your practice time.

IS THE PRACTICE BETTER WITH YOU THERE?

Be honest with yourself and ask “is practice better because I am here?” If practice is not better because you are there figure out why and fix it.  Are your teammates better because you are there? If not, fix it. Do not be disengaged with what is going on around you. Great leaders do not have the luxury of minding their own business.

Take it a step further and ask yourself, “is this drill better because I am in it?” Great leaders and great players are constantly aware of their surroundings. Be aware of what is happening in practice good or bad. Special leaders and special players hold themselves accountable for their environment. If practice could be better or they are not enhancing their environment they do not fade into the background and blame the coach or a teammate, they accept the challenge and fix it.>

VISUALIZATION AND IMAGINATION

A great way to lead yourself in practice is to have a game-like mentality. If you go through the motions in practice, there is a good chance you will not be as sharp for the games. If you throw lazy passes in practice or you have a nonchalant approach why do you expect a different result in the games?

Always imagine anything you do you are playing against the toughest opponents you will face all season. When you are on the sidelines, waiting to jump into the drill, visualize yourself making the right reads on defense or making the right decision on offense.

When those plays happen in a game you want your mind to think it is second nature. So use your imagination to practice the plays you will make in a game and visualize your success. Remember, “In times of most extreme pressure you revert back to your most deeply held habits”. You want your habits to be thought of and visualized so much that a game is actually easier than practice. Put pressure on your self in practice so the pressure of a game won’t throw you off. The best way to practice championship like pressure is to visualize it.

Read More: How to Play in a National Championship

I hope you can take these five keys and put them into practice as soon as you can. Not only will these habits benefit you now as players they will also spill over into your every day life. The more belief you have in yourself the more everyone else will believe in you as well. To be a leader of others you must first lead yourself. Don’t let practice be an excuse for you not lead yourself.

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These are some of the notes presented by Dean Lockwood. Dean is currently the Associate Head Women’s Coach at Michigan State. He was an assistant in the Tennessee Women’s Program for 15 years. He was also an assistant in their men’s program for 5 years. In between those stints at Tennessee, he has been the men’s head coach at Saginaw Valley State, and Northwood University.

It takes more time and thought to plan practice to make it as competitive as possible.

Players must be held accountable for competing, but it is the coaching staff’s responsibility to set the tone.
The UT staff will not accept a player not competing–it is one of their non-negotiables
What do your players say are the most important things in your program? At Tennessee one of those things is competing.
Competition is valued highly at UT because we all compete in life almost every day.
Competitors are harder and harder to find and to create.

Establish competition in practice early and be consistent.
Tennessee starts competitive drills and games the first day of practice
Emphasize supporting the players through the competition
Be precise and demanding about how you want your players to compete–specific time and score
Your entire staff must know what you are looking for

Competitive drills help to keep players from hiding in practice
Have something on the line a lot
Competitions keep the coaches from always being the “Bad Guy”
Don’t stop a competitive drill to correct a mistake.
Don’t stop the masses for the one–you can get that on player with a coach for your teaching

Competitive drills promote “readiness.” There is a difference between readiness and preparation
Always recognize selfless acts made for the benefit of the team–example a screen that leads to a shot. Show
appreciation and respect for outstanding efforts. Include those types of plays in your film breakdowns.

Utilize peer pressure within your team
Have no more than 2 areas of emphasis for a drill. Everyone runs on unmet goals of emphasis. It is a team thing.
No missed lines on sprints.
Place a time on all running
Put pressure on seniors and veterans when their team loses in scrimmage or drills
If the first team is beating the second team in a scrimmage, switch scores and force the first unit to play from behind.

Put your best player with the 2nd team. Helps your first team practice playing without him or her, makes the scrimmage more competitive, and raises the level of play for your second unit.
Every competitive game is charted and winners get marks on a scoreboard in the locker room.

Some ideas for competitive drills.

Warm Up Drills: set a standard of execution. For example, if you run 5 star passing or a similar drill, set a specific number of passes that must be thrown and caught correctly and with no fumbles. If there is an error, start over. In layup drills, each player must make 2 from each side so that there are no misses–12 player team must make 48 consecutive layups or start over. You can come up with similar standards for your drills.

50 Pass Drill: Drill is to work on passing, catching, spacing, cutting. Defense can do anything regarding denying, switching, trapping. Players cannot make consecutive passes back and forth to each other except for a give and go. The offense is not allowed to dribble. No shots are taken except layups. The offense scores 1 point for each completed pass and 10 points for a made layup. With a turnover or the rebound of a missed layup attempt, the teams change who is on offense and who is on defense. The first team to 50 wins.

Spurs Drill: Starts 5 on 5 Half Court. If the offense scores, they keep the ball in the half court and play against the same defense. If the defense makes a stop, play it out in transition to the basket on the other end of the court. If that teams scores in transition, they get the ball in halfcourt and if they score, they keep and stay in half court. Play to a specific score that you establish.

Attack Cut Throat: Play Cut Throat, but the team coming on to offense sprints to half court. Tennessee plays it this way to promote an attacking offensive mentality and to prevent a back it out and set it up mentality.

Start at 2 Drill: To work on valuing each possession. It is a short, but intense game. Half court offense. The score starts at 2. Each basket or foul is a plus one for the offense. The defense gets a minus one for a stop. If the score of the drill gets to 4, the offense wins. If the score gets to 0, the defense wins. There is a consequence for the losing team such as running.

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These are some of the notes presented by Tyler Coston at this past spring’s PGC/Glazier Basketball coaching Clinic in Chicago.

Practice What Wins

There is no excuse not to examine every aspect of your practice and why you do what you do.

Transition and change is the thing that happens most in games.  Not just transition from offense to defense and defense to offense, but from ball side to helpside, during an offensive possession, a player is a cutter, a screener, a rebounder.  Basketball is a game where the players current responsibilitites are changing.

Most games are won in transition.

That is why Tyler believes in ending everything in practice with a transition

Pick 3 things that you want your team to be great at to develop a clear and narrow focus.

For Tyler’s teams his three things are toughness, shot selection, and hard to score on

The three things are not the same for every team.  Each team’s system of play is unique. Pat Riley did closeouts every practice.  The Seattle Storm does not help or rotate on defense, they stunt.

Technique on closeouts–lean in the direction of the drive you want to take away, hands up and form a diamond with index fingers and thumbs.  Take away 2 of 3 things (drive left, drive right, shot) and battle to take away the 3rd.  He works on angles of closeouts and technique at least 2 or 3 minutes each practice.

The three games within the game, offense, defense, rebounding

He believes that everyone has the same chance for every rebound

One season, he had a team that needed to become a better rebounding team.

He instituted a rule in every practice and every skills training session.  If the ball hit the ground on a missed shot, they ran.  Someone had to rebound it before it hit the ground.

He did a survey and found that 72% of the rebounds in his team’s games were 2nd touch rebounds.  He used that to instill not giving up on the rebounds.  Even if the percentage isn’t that high in your team’s games, why wouldn’t you use that to motivate players to be tenacious rebounders?

Tyler assigns rebounding roles to his players:
Chaser–They don’t block out, they just go after the ball.  These are players who are guarding the players on the other team who get back to defend transition when the shot is taken and don’t look to offensive rebound
Eraser–They block out, but hold their blockout and don’t pursue the basketball
Spacer–They use the chuck and go (get the ball) rebounding technique

They wedge under the basket rather than blocking out right at the basket

It is not only what you do in practice, but more importantly, how you do it.

Their motto is that they are going to do everything with more energy and higher standards

Coaches must constantly be asking themselves, what can I do to create a competitive advantage for my team?

Here is an example from Carlton University in Canada

They play “Lock Left” defense

They force the opponent to enter the ball to the left on every possession

The player guarding the dribbler forces the ball to be dribbled to the left side

They guard in an open pack line stance to force left dribbles

All defenders to the right of the ball deny one pass away so that they don’t allow the ball to be revesred.

They full front on ball side post ups

That idea might not work for your team, here are some ideas that you might use to find your way to give your team a competitive advantage:

What do most of the teams in your league do?  Can you do the opposite of that?

Can you do intentional cross matching with who your players guard to give you a window of oppourtunity for an advantage in transition as your opponent scramble to find their matchup?

Can you find ways to win the foul game?  Stan Van Gundy practices getting fouled on drives, ball screens, rebounding, and by taking charges.

Can you double team bad post players and create turnovers?

Basketball is often beautiful chaos, good looking layups nver won a game, practice layups the way your players will shoot them in games.

Most of the game is played in chaos, so find ways to practice that so your players are ready

Most players make between 20 and 30 “mistakes” per game including turnovers, missed shots, errors in judgement, etc… (Maybe you can come up with a description other than mistake)  Elite athletes take 7 to 10 seconds to return to their concentration and flow after each mistake.  Your athletes probably take longer.  If you can get them to recover much quicker than your opponents recover from theirs, that gives you a competitive advantage.

This post was written by John Carrier and originally posted on his Coaching Basketball Blog

I hope that you might be able to use these thoughts to put together a similar system to get the most out of your spring improvement season individual skill workouts.

The diagram below is one I use on a daily basis when structuring practice.

It’s a great way to ensure the activities you are doing in practice meet the current needs of your team.

I’m not sure where I got it from, but I am confident I stole it from somewhere. Apologies to the person who didn’t get credit.

The triangle is used in two ways. First, I use it to analyze WHY I am doing a various practice activity.

I try to be very systematic about planning practice and using the right tool to teach a given aspect of the game.

To me, ANY team activity outside of warm ups fall into one of three categories:

1. Teaching
   • When you are showing the players how to do something, you are in the teaching phase of practice.
   • This is usually categorized by instruction, demonstration, and players doing the action at a speed of 75% or less.
   • I know it’s time to move past the teaching stage when players can verbalize or explain the action you are teaching and can also show you how to do it correctly.

   

2. Technique
   • Technique accounts for most traditional “drills”. Anything where players are performing a given aspect of the game and really focusing on technique.
   • This category is identified by it’s focus on performing a single action repeatedly between 75% and full speed. It’s also identified by it’s lack of game like environment and randomness.
   • I know it’s time to move past technique when players can correctly perform the action in a drill setting, at game speed, over and over again (85%-100% correct).
3. Training
   • Training is any full (5 on 5) or small sided game in practice with rule modifications used to focus the game on the skill you are using. Also can be any small sided or full sided games in general that allows players to APPLY the skill in a realistic game setting.
   • This is the type of activity to use when players can perform a skill in drills, but seem to “forget” or not be able to perform it in a live game.
   • This is where you get the carry over from practice to games. 

The key here is to look at everything you do in practice and understand why you are doing it. If your players can’t tell you how to do something, then you need to teach (or re-teach) it. If they can correctly explain the skill, and preform it at game speed in a drill, then they need to spend time in training activities. At the same time you can’t jump into training activities before players can perform the movement correctly. It’s a important balance to strike in your practices, and is important to understand where your players are in regards to the skills you are trying to teach them. As a rule of thumb if they don’t know – I teach. If they know, but can’t do it – we drill technique. If they can do it correctly in a drill but not a game – we train.

I will use defensive slides as an example. At the beginning of the year I spend 5-8 minutes TEACHING the footwork. I demonstrate it (or have a player demonstrate it), then have everyone do it in slow motion. We might break into partners and do it in slow motion until everyone has a feel for it. I’ll even ask a few players how to perform the movement to see if they at least KNOW what they should be doing. After that we go through some traditional drills – mass stance, 1 on 1 dummy cut offs, etc. Once we see players doing it technically correct, we move into training. In training we play variations of 1 on 1 and 2 on 2 that force them to defend the ball constantly. As they play, I watch their form. If they start to develop poor technique, we move back to technique. We alternate between technique and training as needed, with the occasional “reteach” thrown in when warranted.

This post was written by John Carrier and originally posted on his Coaching Basketball Blog

Whether you agree or disagree, I hope there are a few ideas that you can apply to your practices.

I Drilled It, What Happened? 
Like most coaches, including myself, I am sure you’ve had the following scenario happen to you. Your team needs to work on some aspect of the game. You spend a good chunk of time in practice drilling that aspect. Your players look great in the drill. Then comes the game, and the wheels come completely off the wagon. It’s like they never practiced the aspect of the game you devoted so much time to. You can’t believe it and are left wondering “What happened?!”.

Well, what happened was that your players spent a lot of time that practice mastering a drill and not really learning how to execute the skill you wanted them to. It happened to me more times that I care to admit, but recently I’ve found the solution – using a games based approach to teaching basketball.

For the last number of years I’ve been using the idea of teaching games. For a while now I’ve been reading Brian McCormick’s work and loved it. I started to incorporate a lot more games into my practices with good results.  Last season though, I took it to the next level. I was lucky enough to spend last season working with Art Errickson. Coach Errickson pushed me to use a more games based approach and it has really changed how I teach the game. Teaching the game using games may be the single most important thing I’ve learned in my career in terms of the actually on court coaching.

Why Drills Alone Don’t Work
Drills alone don’t work because they lack specificity. They are not specific to the real game that is being played. Players learn a skill or action out of the context of the game. What they are really learning is the pattern of the drill and not the skill within a game. So what happens is when a real game occurs players are not used to doing that skill within the specific context of the game – thus not performing the skill correctly, or many times forgetting to do the skill at all. Players who are trained using drills are not learning when and how to use the skill, which is as important as the movement. The end result is that you don’t get the transfer that you desire.

Drills are also block practice, and not random. Block practice is doing the same movement, the same way, in the same environment. You are memorizing a drill pattern, not a game skill. Random practice is practicing a skill in an ever changing environment so the player needs to adjust how they perform the skill. Anyone can do something in isolation, but those skills learned in isolation quickly disappear when you add defenders, other teammates, etc. It’s important that your practices consist of activities that are both specific to the game and random in how the skill is practiced.

If you are going to have successful carry over from practice to games, how you practice needs to change. You need to start “Training Ugly” which is my new favorite term from Trevor Ragan. You need to train your pl ayers on the skills you want within the context of an actual game. It’s about creating came like environments and using the game to teach the game. That’s where the games based approach comes in.

What is a Games Based Approach?
A games based approach is using different games to teach players the skills/aspects of the game you want. The games should always be random, and specific when possible. There should also be a competitive component where the team or player is playing against themselves (personal records), time, score, or other teams. The key is to modify the number of players, advantages, rules, surface, etc to create an environment that stresses the habits you want taught within the game setting. Below I’m going to give some examples of how you can modify games – and you can use multiple modifications within the same game:

Number of Players
Play 1 on 1, 2 on 2, 3 on 3, and 4 on 4 are great ways to teach skills.  They are better than 5 on 5 because you get more reps and touches than a traditional five on five game. Some skills such as ball handling are best done in small (1 on 1 and 2 on 2) numbers to maximize reps. Passing can be done in any number 2 or above, and I think team related drills are best done 3 on 3 or 4 on 4.

You can also play Cutthroat where you have 3-4 teams of 2, 3, or 4 playing. Two teams play one possession. At end whoever lost the possession is out and a new team comes on. You can play until one of the teams achieves a mile stone of your choosing.

Size of the Court
Everyone plays half court, which is a good way to do it, but have you ever played 2/3 court where they can only work half court and from a step off the opposite block to the ball side sideline? That makes players LEARN how to be creative in space. Have players play 1 on 1 from the free throw line where they can’t go outside the lane lines – then you will see players learn how to straight line drive well. Why were NYC guards so good back in the day? Because they played primarily on narrow street courts and had to really get good at navigating tight spaces, you can create that same environment with your games.

Rules
You can have all kinds of rules. The rules should shape the game to teach the habits that you want. And as in any game, there are penalties for breaking the rules, usually turnovers or loss of turn on defense. Below is a great list to start with that you can add or subtract from games of 1 on 1 to 5 on 5.

• Dribble Rules
  • No dribble
  • Only “attacking the basket” dribbles (my favorite)
  • Limit number of dribbles – don’t like this as much
• Movement Rules
  • Being in the right spots on defense
  • Being in the right spots on offense
  • Moving on offense – pass and watch
  • Screening a DEFENDER
  • Cutting hard
• Ball Clock
  • This is one Coach Errickson put me onto and I love it.
  • Player has X amount of seconds to make a decision with the ball or it’s a TO.
    • I like 2 seconds but might want more to start and with younger ages.
  • Player has X amount of seconds with the ball or it’s a TO.
• Dribble Hand Rules
  • Doing dribble tag or rodeo? Have them use their weak hand only.
• Time Rules
  • Play with a shot clock
  • Play with a ball clock – mentioned above
• Foul Rules
  • What do you call a foul?
    • Want offense to be tough, don’t call anything.
    • Want defense to stop fouling, call everything!
• Really any other rules you want to make up as you go.

Advantage/Disadvantage
I like using disadvantages more than advantages. You can do several different things to create disadvantages that help players learn a skill or concept. You can take away the dribble. You can add extra players on offense or defense. You can officiate differently to create situations you want. And so on.

Some Sample Games
Below are some sample games I use and have used in the past.

Teaching Ball Handling and 1 on 1 Skills

• Dribble Tag
  • I know it sounds juvenile but it’s fun, competitive, and it’s random practice. Kids have to apply the skill in a random setting that’s always changing.
• Rodeo
  • Groups of 3. One player has the ball and 2 other players chase them and try to force a turnover or the dribbler to pick the ball up. You can play in the half our quarter court.
  • You can play for X number of seconds each player (and track if they turn it over or not +1 for not and play to 2-3 points). Or you can just have them play whoever gets it goes and try to keep it the longest.

One of the best ways to work on ball handling and 1 on 1 skills is to play 1 on 1. In all these 1 on 1 games I would play to 3 scores and have something for the losers (2 pushups, clap for the winners, don’t care really).

• Post 1 on 1
  • Play 1 on 1 from the post. Have another player feed and work on post feeds too.
  • Work on the 1 on 1 post play live – move and a counter move.
• Iowa 1 on 1
  • Groups of 2-5. Offense starts on the FT line. Defender starts under the rim with the ball. Defense throws to the offense and sprints to close out. As he closes out, reads the closeout and attacks. The lane lines are out of bounds which teaches straight line drives. They can shoot it or drive depending on the defense.
  • Teach players to drive in a straight line, attack with shoulder to hip, and read the defender’s close out. Teach players to use different ways to finish around the rim.
• St. Joe’s 1 on 1
  • Groups of 2-5. Offense starts on the baseline in a line about 2 steps off the lane line toward the side line. The defense starts on the baseline about 2-3 steps farther toward the sideline from the offensive group. Each line has a chair across from it at half court. On coaches or defender’s “Go” call, the offense dribbles as fast as they can out to the chair, dribbles around it (outside to inside) and attacks the basket as quickly as possible. As that is happening the defender is racing around his chair (outside to inside). They play 1 on 1 form there.
  • Work on attacking the rim and making dribble moves (cross over) based on the position of the defense. If the defender is straight up, attack hard if cut off change hands and attack again. If the defender is shading you ball side, attack and change. If the defender is shading you not ball side blow by or fake crossover and blow by. Work on finishing off of two different ways at the rim. You can add double moves as well.
• Attack 1 on 1
  • Defender starts under the basket. Offense starts at half court. On defense’s go, offense takes off dribbling at the rim as hard as they can. Defense sprints out and guards them. Offense reads the defense and attacks.
  • Work on attacking the rim and making dribble moves (cross over) based on the position of the defense. If the defender is straight up, attack hard if cut off change hands and attack again. If the defender is shading you ball side, attack and change. If the defender is shading you not ball side blow by or fake crossover and blow by. Work on scoring off of 2 at the rim. You can add double moves as well.
• Johnson 1 on 1
  • Got this when we were preparing a few years ago to play our section opponent St. Paul Johnsonm who is very good defensively and amazing on the ball.
  • Start with an offensive player with the ball at half court. One defender starts on him. The other defender starts under the basket. Offense must rip and attack the first defender (who can push and hack him). Once he reaches the top of the key extended the first defender must leave him and the second one runs out, the dribbler then attacks the second one to score.
  • Work on handling the pressure and physical play, attacking defense, protecting the ball, scoring at the rim.
• Catch and Go 1 on 1
  • Passer starts at the top of the key. Offense and defense start in the corner. Offense cuts up and defense follows. Passer hits the cutting offense. On/before the catch the offense reads the defender (who is tight on him) and attacks. If the defender is trailing the offense just turns and goes. If the defender is ahead of him (getting into denial) the offense rips and goes the opposite way.
  • Work on peaking to read defender, attacking off the catch, finishing at the rim.
• 1 on 1 From Different Spots
  • Play 1 on 1 from corner, elbow, short corner, top of key, wing, etc.

Teaching Passing

I have always felt that it is also important to add as much variety as possible to help players stay focused.  Additionally, I feel that our players have the responsibility to push themselves to get the most out of practice, but as coaches, it is our number one job to make sure that we are creating practices that are as engaging as we can make them for our players.

Even if you already do the things listed in this post, I hope you take some time to think about how you can make those segments even better in contributing to the improvement of your players as individuals and to your team as a whole.

This post contains practice ideas from Texas A&M Women’s Assistant Bob Starkey. His Hoop Thoughts Blog should be on your regular reading..

The following is a great passage from the book “Toughness” written by Jay Bilas which speaks to the mindset of a player in regard to practice.

How many players start practice with the intention or goal of simply “getting through” practice? Instead of “getting through” a workout, players need to “get from” a workout-to get the most from it, and the most from themselves. No player ever got better by just getting through something. True toughness is competing through the end of a practice or workout after having prepared yourself mentally to compete. That is a key mind-set of the toughest players.

A key question for us as coaches is how can we help our players with this process? There are several things that have served me well and here are a few.

INDIVIDUAL PRACTICE GOALS

Something I started last here with our freshman post player Khaalia Hillsman was to have an individual practice goal.  I created some cards for her and placed them in her locker.  Each day she has to pick something that she wants to give extra concentrated effort on.  I let her pick it…she writes it down…she gives it to me when she first comes to practice.  I then make sure I am watching her to see how she is doing.  I compliment her when she is successful and remind her when she falls short about her goal.  After practice, I give her a grade on her goal and from time to time support that grade with video.

PRE-PRACTICE

This is a short period at the beginning to do position work.  It’s also quality time between a coach a small, select group of players.  I was even more impressed to find out that it was done on a daily basis each practice of the season — all the way to the completion of the year. As a coach, you can set the tone in terms of what needs to be accomplished as a player and a team for this particular day.

Simply stated, it is a period of time before practice where you work on parts of the game that can sometimes be overlooked once the season begins and you are preparing for an opponent.  The majority of the time we break our team up into post and perimeter players and work on specific areas in relation to their positions.  I’ve been on staffs that have broke the group up into 3’s when space permitted.  At times, we will have half perimeter and post on each end when we want to work on areas that incorporate them both.

While we want focus and concentration in these areas, often it is a time where the coach might do a little more talking to explain and correct.  We can continue to work on fundamentals such as ball handling, passing, screening, dribbling and defense.  We can also work on a phase of the game that maybe we feel the need to improve upon from the previous game.  Possibly we did not do a good job of feeding the post so we can break it down in our pre-practice portion.  It could also be that we can focus on something of importance for an upcoming game.  If we are playing a team that drives the ball baseline from the wing well, we can look at are positioning and talk about and work on that fundamental.

Almost always there will be a drill or two that will relate to our Emphasis of the Day.  If our emphasis of the day is screening, as shown in the practice plan below, then we will have a few screening drills in our pre-practice session.  In the practice plan below you see “1/0 DS w/2nd Cut” — which is a 1 vs. 0 Down Screen situation.

I also like the opportunity to communicate with the players during this period.  We will spend a little more time explaining while also allowing the players to ask questions they may have.

While staff size can be a factor, I would have a Pre-Practice period even if I was the only coach.  Monday I would have the perimeter players come in early with Tuesday being for the post players, etc.

The length of time varies…generally pre-practice last between 15-30 minutes.  When we get into the meat of the season, especially in February, we will cut back on practice time but still have a pre-practice period.  Again, it makes sure that we never veer to far away from fundamentals and teaching.

EMPHASIS OF THE DAY

We believe this is a great way of focusing a team’s attention for a practice.  Picking a phase of basketball or an intangible and making that a special focus for that day.  We will have specific drills to highlight it as the “Emphasis of the Day.” It’s a simple way to make sure that your team improves in one area each day. That sounds simple, but think about it. If you could do something that would ensure that your team improves in one phase of the game each day, wouldn’t you jump at the chance?

Well, we’ve had that type of success with this concept and here is how it works.

First, you must pick what you want to emphasize each day in practice. We have a couple of schools of thought in this regard. The first is obvious—pick something that you struggled with the day before. Maybe on Monday your team didn’t do a good job of blocking out. So on Tuesday you make blocking out your emphasis of the day.

The second way of choosing an emphasis is to look at your upcoming opponent. Maybe the next team on your schedule does a nice job of running with the basketball. Your next practice might have transition defense as your emphasis of the day.

Choosing the emphasis of the day is just the beginning…now it’s time to start emphasizing! This comes from several different means and they all need to be a part of the process for it to be successful.

First, when the players come to practice, they will find a sheet of paper with the emphasis of the day in their locker. On the way out of the locker room they will see that same sheet of paper on the bulletin board. When they walk on to the practice floor, they will see it taped up at each basket and at the water cooler. There will be no doubt in their mind that the coaches are going to work diligently that day to improve that area.

We start each session with a “Pre-Practice.” In this segment, the team is broken down into smaller numbers for some individual attention and part-method teaching. Some of these drills will be devised to work on the days emphasis.

Following Pre-Practice, we will start regular practice by huddling up, at which time I will mention the emphasis of the day and why it is important. We will generally start practice with a drill that is specific to the emphasis of the day. Throughout practice, the coaching staff will constantly mention the emphasis in all drill work. The majority of the time, the emphasis will be related to a basketball fundamental: Blockout, Low Post Feeds, Shot Fake, Contest the Shot, etc. On occasion, it will be a mental emphasis: Concentration, Communicate, Listen, Intensity, etc.

We have also on occasion tied our video into the emphasis of the day. Before going to the floor for Pre-Practice, we might watch some video clips of what our emphasis of the day will be.

PRACTICE STATS

If its going to be important, find a way to measure it.  We keep practice stats everyday.  We might keep a special stat on a specific day to compliment a particular emphasis — and we share it with our players…often in the middle of practice to let them know how they are doing.  Here is an older post about the topic of Practice Stats.

Click here for information on the basketball practice e-book “130 Great Ideas to Get a Lot More Accomplished in Practice”