Developing The Practice Plan

Things to Remember

1. Don’t give too much. Keep things simple.
2. Have players stretch on their own. This saves time.
3. Start with a warm-up drill. (Shooting: Spin outs or offensive routes)
4. End with a team drill.
5. Vary the setup of your drills from day to day. This prevents monotony. It’s a good idea to have two or three drills to teach the same skill.
6. Make your drills competitive
7. Start and end practice on time.
8. Use the clock and the 45-second clock.
9. Don’t run your drills too long. A good guideline for a team drill is no longer than 10 minutes and for an individual drill, no longer than 7 minutes.
10. If you need to emphasize a drill longer than 10 minutes, do it in two sessions. Example: A 20-minute drill can be split into two 10-minute segments.
11. Teach new things early.
12. Repeat new things daily until the results are satisfactory.
13. Follow harder drills with easier ones.
14. Have shooting drills after running drills.
15. Practice a 5-minute overtime daily.
16. End practice on a positive note. Summarize the practice.
17. Keep all of your players active. (break lines up, shorten wait time b/n reps)
18. Name all drills and make sure players know the names.
19. Take anywhere from 1-2 hours to plan your practice.
20. Involve all your coaches in the planning.
21. Provide each coach with a practice plan to use on the floor.
22. If you can’t get it done in 2 ½ hours, you are not organized enough.
23. Shorten practice as the year goes on.
24. Utilize the whole, part, whole method of teaching.
25. Must use constant repetition in your teaching.
26. Present material to your squad at their level of understanding.
27. Run a closed practice. The gym is your classroom.
28. Run your practices the same way you coach in a game.
29. Don’t use a whistle. Your players need to learn to respond to your voice. You can’t use that whistle in a game.
30. You must stress perfection of the small details of the game.
31. Explain to your players what your drills will accomplish.