Coaching Basketball Bob Hurley Uptempo Practice -

A few takeaways from some of Bob Hurley’s thoughts on practices. You might already do a lot of these things, and some you won’t agree with, but it is always good to see what the great ones do.

Shared by Victor Sfera as a part of Coach Scott Peterman’s bundle of Greatest Basketball Coaching Notes Collection
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These competitive basketball drills from Coach Bruce Weber come from Coach Scott Peterman of the Men’s Basketball Hoopscoop Coaching site.

Bob Hurley Uptempo Practice

I. Practice Essentials

‐Put it Down on Paper
o Can’t wing practices, plan in advance!
o Hurley keeps practices for several years to compare current quality of practice
o Stick to what you write down!

‐Alternate Hard and Easy
o Hard parts of practice shouldn’t last more than 5 minutes
o Alternate hard and easy parts of practice

‐Practice the Way You Play
o St. Anthony’s practice mostly in the fullcourt since they are an up and down team

‐2/3 time on individual skills, 1/3 team
o Work on individual skills to improve the overall team

‐Practice to Improve Team 1st
o Treat every game the same (Kids notice when something is different)
o Focus on your opponent 2nd

‐Breakdown Work Daily
o Have 1 coach with big men, 1 with guards

‐Shoot 20 minutes Daily
o Everything else you practice is worthless if you can’t take advantage of scoring opportunities

‐Shorten Practices as Season Goes On But Keep Intensity Up!

‐Special Situation Practices Regularly

o Hurley has 1 special situation practice per 2 weeks (1 1/2 hours goes over 20 different
situations)

‐Shorten Practices Pre and Post Game
o Before: focus on things you want done in the game but leave time for legs to recover for game
o After: If team has bad game, don’t take it out on your team (they didn’t intentionally lose.) Teach instead

‐Start and End Each Day with Meeting
o Starts positive
o Ends positive (reminders for what’s coming up and tomorrow’s focus)

II. Daily Practice Tips

1. Players are responsible for the mood and correcting mistakes
a. Leaders on team need to be held accountable for getting it going
b. Coaches just make a suitable situation for learning
2. Team Meeting at Beginning and End of Practice
3. Early Drills
a. Players call out names of teammates and names of drills
4. Head Coach uses each player’s name within first 15 minutes
5. Earn Maroon Shirt
a. No such thing as a game player (come to practice and work)
b. Designate 5 players who have maroon shirts at beginning of season (starters)
c. Each day the 2nd unit (Gold Unit) fight to earn the maroon shirts and the starters fight to keep them
d. 5 players who finish a practice with maroon shirt will start the next day’s practice with them on; if next day is a game those 5 will start
6. Change Practice Partners Regularly
a. New faces help push players instead of settle
7. Keep stats on drills
a. Have something to shoot for
8. Listen to Practice
a. You can find out a lot about your team by closing your eyes for a few seconds in practice
9. Use a variety of drills
a. Identify where you got them from
b. Makes players feel like they have the edge
10. All Conditioning with the ball
a. Don’t run just to run unless punishment
11. Utilize assistants and gym space
12. End Practice on Positive Note
a. Reward practice players for effort

III. Warm‐up Drills

• 3 Man Weave (5 passes, 4 passes, 3 passes)‐ Up and Back x2
• 3 players pass back and forth (there) Breakout 1 pass for layup; opp. Wing covers backboard
• Chase the Point Guard
o PG has 4 dribbles to take length of the court
o 2 players on defense chase the point guard once the first dribble hits the floor
o When defense comes back for 2 on 1: Inbounder baseball passes to wing
• Chase the Point Guard‐ Drill B
o PG has a teammate; pass back and forth
o 3 defenders chasing
o Coming back: 3 on 2‐ outlet pass

III. Shooting

• 4 ball shooting
o Baby hook
o Smart shot
o Curl @ Elbow rip back to middle
o3 point shot; big men shot fake jumper

• Follow the leader (Partner shooting)
o Group of 2; possibly 3‐‐‐1 ball Lead shooter, follower
o Whatever the lead shooter does, the follower(s) does

IV. Rebounding & Finishing Drills

• Superman drill
o Throw ball on opp. Side of the glass and go get it, landing outside the paint
• Tip Drill
o Throw off glass and tip it in (finish everything)
• Throw off glass, rip to chin, and score
• Rip, fake, and power up
• Rip, fake, and reverse layup

V. Ballhandling

• Quick change partner drill
o Start with right hand facing partner
o When arms length away from partner, switch hands
o Works on being quick in small spaces
o If you don’t call out which hand you are using, a collision is likely
Crossover
Through the legs
Behind the back
Spin

VI. Combination Drills

• Foundation for passing
o Restrictions:
Offense can’t dribble
6 passes=1 point
Post pass=1 point; Must put priority on feeding the post
Basket=2 points
12 passes=2 points
Defense scores on a stop
15 point games
o Start out by having 2 down screens and then flowing into a motion‐type offense
• Foundation for defense
o Promotes communication, positioning, and rotation
o Starts out like a shell but with 5 vs 5
o On “switch” defense goes to offense
However, no one can guard the same person
• Most important to guard immediately: Person with ball
• 2nd most important: 1 pass away
• Least important: Weakside wing
This is where communication comes into factor
“we don’t talk, we have no chance.”
o On “double” we double team the ball
Help defense needs to take away the next 2 passes
One protector of rim
Giving the offense a cross‐court pass (gives defense time to regroup)
o On “change ends” offense goes to the other side of the floor and is now on defense; while the other team is in their offensive transition downcourt