Brady Hazen's Practice Plan
Using suggestions from the NFHS Fundamentals of Coaching (2009) class and various websites (which are linked in my practice plan), I have made a jr. high basketball practice plan. I designed this with the thought of developing a template that I could use for future coaching and easily adjust based on the needs of the team. One area I found difficult was giving proper time to each section (which can change anyhow depending on what the team needs), even with the NFHS time suggestions. Let me know what you think!
*all times listed are approximations*
Part 1: Warm ups (20 minutes):
1) Stretches (5 minutes):
Ex: http://www.stretching.name/index.php?filt=basketball
Or: http://www.basketball-plays-and-tips.com/basketball-stretch....
Or: http://www.insidehoops.com/gym/stretching.shtml
Check with students about injuries during stretches.
2) Light jog around the court, with or without dribbling a ball. (3 minutes)
3) Warm up shots: Layups right/left handed (5 minutes); General shoot around (5 minutes). During warm up shots use both ends of the court so more people are doing instead of watching and more reps get in (supervision important; helps to have an asst. coach).
Part 2: Activities (65 minutes):
1) Discuss last game/practice. Present learning objective(s) for this practice. (5 minutes). Remember to emphasize the positives from the last game/practice before discussing what we need to work on.
2) Drills; select based on what the team needs (30 minutes). Give water breaks often throughout practice. Send a third of the team at a time so there are always players working. For drills that only require half the court, the asst. coach runs drills at one end of court while I run drills at the other end; rotate players. Use drill time to teach/reinforce proper form and technique as well as connecting the technique to the tactics that are used by the team.
Ex: (need extra work on passing):
a. Conditioning drill: suicides (with/without dribbling); full court
b. Passing drill: monkey in the middle (1 or 2 players in the key and 2 players out of the key with one on each side); half court
c. Passing drill: the weave; full court
d. Passing/Shooting drill: simulate inbounds pass, dribble to pull up jumpers from various locations; half court
e. Passing/shooting/teamwork drill: 3(offense) on 4(defense); coach can restrict dribbling, require a certain number of passes, etc.; half court
check out the following websites for more examples of youth basketball drills:
http://www.y-coach.com/CD/Basketball_Drills.htm and http://www.degerstrom.com/basketball/drills/youth/
3) Play instruction/reinforcement (10-15 minutes). Can be focused on offense, defense, inbounding, etc. Walk them through the play(s) first, then let them at it. This time will be much greater at the beginning of a season than at the end.
4) Scrimmage (15-20 minutes). Jr. high age student athletes love to scrimmage. Use it to keep practices fun. Don’t over coach during scrimmage time.
Part 3: Cool-down (10 minutes):
Free throws. Again, use both sides of the court.
Part 4: Evaluate (5 minutes):
1) Student athletes are encouraged to communicate their performance in this practice.
2) Review technical/tactical aspects focused on during practice (passing for this practice).
3) Set the stage for the next practice by informing the student athletes what the focus of the next practice will be.
From the NFHS Fundamentals of Coaching course: Ask students to evaluate their own performances; use this time to reinforce what students have learned; do not use this time to criticize an individual; final comments set the stage for next practice/game.
References:
basketball-plays-and-tips.com (2010). Proven Basketball Stretch Exercises. Mining Gold Corporation and Nevada Processing Center, Inc. Retrieved January 18, 2010, from http://www.basketball-plays-and-tips.com/basketball-stretch....
Degerstrom, P. (2010). Basketball coaching and drills: Youth. degerstrom.com. Retrieved January 18, 2010, from http://www.degerstrom.com/basketball/drills/youth/
InsideHoops.com (2010). Basketball Stretching. InsideHoops.com. Retrieved January 18, 2010, from http://www.insidehoops.com/gym/stretching.shtml
NFHS Learning Center (2009). Fundamentals of Coaching. NFHS.
stretching.name (nd). Recommended stretches: Basketball. Retrieved January 18, 2010, from http://www.stretching.name/index.php?filt=basketball
Y-Coach.com (2010). Youth Basketball Drills. Y-Coach.com Retrieved January 18, 2010, from http://www.y-coach.com/CD/Basketball_Drills.htm
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Comments
This looks like a well designed practice. I think that you did a good job of generalizing the things that will occur during the ACTIVITIES period. I thought for a long time about this with my practice plan. referring to my plan, I think that football is a little easier to establish a practice plan because there is so many different aspects to football you must make sure that you allow time for each individual position. In basketball there are different positions but the majority of the work can be done as a group. I think that in any sport the practice plan must be general. We as coaches must be able to adapt and allow more or less time on different activities to allow for adequate work to be applied to what needs it. This may have to occur on the fly during practice and not appear broken up or unorganized.