Practice Planning For Success In Youth Basketball!
"What do I do? Where do I start?"
"How do I incorporate all of these skills into practice?"
"What offense should I run? Motion? Dribble drive? Flex? Princeton? Swing? Shuffle? High-Low? Set plays?"
"What plays should I run? Should I run any? Are these too simple? Are these too complicated? How many out of bounds plays do I need? What about a press breaker?"
"What defense should I run? Man to Man? 3-2 zone? 2-3 zone? Amoeba? 1-3-1 zone? Match up? Full court pressure?"
After your head is ready to explode, you're probably thinking, "I shouldn't have volunteered to do this!"
Almost everybody who has coached youth basketball has had these thoughts and feelings go through their head at one time or another. Because coaching youth basketball can be quite overwhelming.
But don't worry. Take a deep breath and exhale because we're here to help. You can learn from our successes and mistakes.
Here are some ways to simplify it and make things easier for you.
For youth basketball coaches, your priorities should be:
- Character development & making basketball enjoyable
- Athletic development and skill development
- Universal defensive & offensive concepts (Motion offense and man to man defense are the best for long-term development at the youth level, but that's not the point of this article.)
Once you know what your priorities will be and what you should work on, the first thing you should do is develop a long-term plan (two to five years) and season plan.
Here is what I would do if I were starting to coach a team whether it was 7th grade or 2nd grade.
First, what would do you want them to develop and learn before they reach high school?
Here is a list of things I would want my own children to develop.
- Athleticism
- Ball Handling
- Passing
- Footwork
- Lay Ups
- Shooting
- Basic Offensive Concepts
- Basic Defensive Concepts
Second, what should you focus on this year?
I split my practice between offensive skills, offense, defense and scrimmaging. It usually goes something like this:
- Athletic development and offensive skills - 30 minutes
- Defense - 15 minutes
- Offense - 15 minutes
- Scrimmage - 30 minutes
You could also look at it like this:
- 1/3 skills and athletic development
- 1/3 offense and defense (small-sided games)
- 1/3 scrimmaging
Now each year, it is a good idea to have a primary focus and secondary focus for each section of practice.
One of the biggest reasons to focus on one or two things is the coaches and kids will see clear improvement by the end of the year. This motivates the players and makes it fun!!
If you try to do everything equally, you might improve a little but it will barely be noticeable.
If you focus on ball security for example (ball skills - ball handling and footwork) and dedicate 20 minutes to every practice and emphasize the concepts in games, you will certainly see improvement from day 1 to the last game. You can see it on film, show it to players and parents, and everyone feels good about the improvement that was made.
Typically, I will work on the primary focus every practice. I will work on the secondary focus every 2 to 4 practices.
Now, if you do this for 3 or 4 years with your focus shifting and progressing, that's when you develop basketball players!
Here are some examples of primary and secondary focus for a 3rd to 5th grade team:
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Skills primary focus - Ball handling and footwork Skills secondary focus - Lay ups, passing, shooting Offense primary focus - Cutting and getting open - V-cuts, L-cuts, basket cuts (give and go), and backdoor cuts. Offense secondary focus - Introduce ball screens, introduce screens away from the ball, baseline out of bounds play, sideline out of bounds play, press breaker. Defense primary focus - Defensive stance, 1v1 defense, positioning when 1 or 2 passes away, moving on the pass, sprinting to areas. Defense secondary focus - Defending cutters, post players, ball screens, screens away from the ball.
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Third, create a practice plan template and drills to use.
This might take you an extra 2 to 3 hours at the beginning of the year, but it will save you many more hours during the season and beyond if you decide to coach for multiple seasons.
Create a practice plan template for 2 to 4 practices. It will include your primary skills and secondary skills. You are not worried about specific drills and small-sided games here, just the categories of skills and concepts you want to work on. For example:
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Practice 1 Template:
1 v 1 Defense - 5 minutes
Cutting and Getting Open - 10 minutes
Scrimmaging - 30 minutes |
Practice 2 Template:
1 v 1 Defense - 5 minutes
Cutting and Getting Open - 10 minutes
Scrimmaging - 30 minutes |
Organize Your Drills!
After you create a template, you can find your favorite drills and small-sided games.
Next, you organize them. It doesn't matter if you put them in a spreadsheet, software program, or print them out and put them in a binder. You can do all of the above!
That way, you can look at your template before each practice and pick out your appropriate drills. This will save you a ton of time throughout the season. And if you coach multiple seasons, this is an absolute no-brainer.
Now, if I only could get back all of those hours the first few years that I coached and I wasn't doing this.
The Youth Coaching System - Skip All of This Work and Save Tons of Time!
If you'd to skip all of this work and have pre-made practice plans, exactly what to teach, step-by-step drills, and beginner to advanced progressions... for offense, defense, skill development, and more, check out the A to Z Youth Coaching System with Jim Huber!
What do you think? Let us know by leaving your comments and suggestions
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