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Practice Planning

March 11, 2008

The way you approach practice planning depends on your philosophy, priorities and time availability. I believe that it is important to have a balanced practice, one which emphasizes each area of the game. I have broken my practices down into seven different sections that work together to provide the team with a comprehensive understanding of the game. Each section gets roughly the same amount of time each day so that no part of the game gets neglected.Many coaches believe that giving more time to offense than defense in practice is necessary because good offense requires more skill development since it includes the ball. I agree with this philosophy, and offense does receive more overall attention over the course of the entire practice. I try to give each section 15-20 minutes of attention every day, though times might change day to day depending on which areas need work and time concerns because of gym availability, player fatigue, and where we are in our season (practices generally get shorter as the season goes on). Here is each section and the general focus of each:

Pre-practice (10-15min):

This is usually a light warm-up that precedes actual practice and focuses almost exclusively on the “big 3”; shooting, passing and ball-handling. Basic footwork such as jump stops, pivots, and cuts are also emphasized.

Warm-up (10-15min):

After stretching and some light jogging we warm up with both half-court and full-court drills that usually emphasize cutting, passing and shooting. Though it is a warm-up, we treat this time seriously and with full effort because we believe this sets the tone for the rest of the practice. We constantly emphasize getting into a “practice rhythm” by being sharp, working to improve and giving a full effort.

Transition (15-20min):

We begin the meat of the practice with transition work. I believe that this is the most important area of the game at the high school level. We break down our fast break into parts and work on getting back and setting our defense. We will usually try to include at least one competitive drill that emphasizes both the offensive and defensive phases of transition. Most of our transition drills also serve as excellent conditioners.

Defense (15-20 min):

They say that defense wins championships. I agree with this because the most important aspect of both defense and championship level play is desire. The defensive portion of practice is intense
and requires hustle and effort from each and every player. A variety of drills are used to break down on-ball defense, off-ball defense and rebounding (Rebounding could very easily warrant its own section in the practice plan, but we put it with defense because it is so central to defense.) Man to man defense is the primary focus because its principles apply to any defense. This is also where we teach our team defensive schemes.

Offense (15-20min):

Here we break down our offense into parts. Basics such as footwork, screening, cutting, and 1 on 1 moves are constantly taught and re-emphasized. Though it isn’t competitive, we will also dry run (5 on 0) our sets to keep them fresh in our heads.

Press (10-15min):

I strongly believe in utilizing pressure defenses. A team’s ability and personnel will dictate which presses we use and how often we press, but I strive to make the press a central part of our defensive game plan. I believe strongly in the term: “To err is human, and pressure causes errors”. This statement is especially true at the high school level and below, where team ball-handling is often suspect and teams often lack either the patience or recognition to defeat intelligent pressure. To effectively and consistently use the press, though, it must be broken down and practiced daily. In this section we will break press rotations into parts, work on ball pressure and trapping, and perfect transitions from full-court presses into half or quarter-court defenses. This section can include any press that a team wants to use as a strong weapon, including full-court man-to-man and zone presses, half-court presses, or trapping techniques out of standard man-to-man or zone schemes.

Scrimmage (15-20min)

Here is where we try to “put it all together” and apply the concepts worked on earlier in practices into game situations. I do not define scrimmaging as merely 5 on 5 and do not coach them by simply “rolling out the ball”. While scrimmages are usually the most fun part of the practice for the players, to be effective the coach must continue to teach. Oftentimes we will play some 3on3 or 4on4 in this section. Smaller scrimmages like this are essential teaching tools. They allow players more open floor space, which gives them the opportunity to develop fundamental skills that the team offense might not allow. It also teaches players to “think the game” and read their teammates better because they don’t have set plays to run. We also run controlled scrimmages that help focus on certain area of the game. For example, if we need to focus on our zone offense we might run a scrimmage in which no fast breaks are allowed so that the offense faces a zone on every trip down the floor. Or, to teach great movement without the ball, we might allow only one player from each team to shoot so that the team can focus on screening to set him up. DEVELOP VERBAL CUES to reduce thinking and stopping.

Stations (5-10 min):

Stations are particularly valuable because the offer one or more of the following 3 benefits:

1. They allow for concentrated “skill-set” work that is often tailored to players positions. Quickness, agility, and versatility are so valued in basketball that post play is often neglected by coaches, even on teams with promising big men. Stations offer a quick way to include this type of work regularly.

2. Development of muscle memory through repetitive movement. Muscle memory is a critical factor in almost every facet of the game and cannot be developed by taking shortcuts. The needed time has to be invested.

3. Concentrated stations (short in both duration and rest intervals) develops skills and also aiding muscle development for strength and injury prevention through anaerobic conditioning, which tends to be much more difficult to develop but which occurs constantly due to the stop-and-go rhythm and changes of speed and direction that recur so often in basketball.

Shooting (10-15min):

I consider shooting so important that time is allotted for it each day. We try to get at least one hundred shots up during this time. The primary focus is on rhythm shooting in pairs or groups of three, depending on the drill. This provides necessary repetition and also serves as a conditioner so that players practice shooting with fatigue. We also include shooting competitions, shots that come out of our offense, and sometime utilize stations to focus on different types of shot

Practice Planning



Written by Coach Stinson · Filed Under Practice Planning | Leave a Comment