Coaching Youth Basketball with Limited Time (1 Practice a Week)
By Jeff Haefner
We just wrapped up our bonus tele-seminar for customers that ordered the Motion Offense eBook last night…
During the tele-seminar a few youth coaches asked some very good and interesting questions. One question in particular was…
“I coach 5th grade girls. We only practice once a week for one hour. What would you recommend that we focus on during that short amount of time”?
Summarized in my own words, here’s Don’s answer…
In that short amount of time, I would focus on SKILLS, allow the kids some time to play, and give them homework.
To give you an example, here’s a way to work on Skills (fundamentals) and Motion Offense at the same time…
1. First, pick a couple cuts or screens that you think would be good for your team. For example, you could choose down-screens and away-screens.
2. Next, run shooting drills that incorporate those movements. You could have two offensive players (no defense). One player on the wing, another player on the block. A coach or third player could have the ball on top of the key. The player on the wing sets a down screen, the other player rubs off the screen, catches the ball, pivots, and shoots. Now repeat over and over. Your players are working on screens (part of your motion offense), pivoting footwork and shooting (skills).
3. You can do the same thing with away screens, basket cuts, and any type of cut or screen. The key is to choose a couple elements from your motion offense and turn those elements into skill building drills. Your imagination is the only limit to the types of drills you can come up with. It doesn’t hurt to mix things up and make the youth basketball drills fun too.
By practicing this way, you’ll save a ton of time and get a lot more done.
Also, you’re providing drills that your players can practice on their own. Don’t be afraid to give them some homework. Some players will put in the work outside of practice to get better.
Let them play
After practicing skills, I would let them play at the end. It’s up to you how much time you spend scrimmaging. But as an example, you could work on skills for 45 minutes, then scrimmage for 15 minutes at the end. In practice, I think kids need to play at least a little bit.
During the scrimmage, start by showing the kids general spacing. You’ll probably want to put tape on the floor so they know the basic motion offense spots. Then just tell them to play. If they don’t know what to do, just say “Do you remember the down screen drill we did at the beginning of practice? Do that. Sometimes it will work, sometimes it won’t That’s ok. If it doesn’t work, do it again.”
Now you have worked on skills, you have the beginning of a motion offense, and your kids are “learning how to play”.
How productive do you think that hour would be if you spent nearly the entire time teaching them a set play or a patterned offense? It takes a long time for kids to learn and remember patterns and plays. Kids will get VERY little benefit from that!
That’s the great thing about a motion offense. You can work on skills and motion offense at the same time.
You could even practice some man to man defense during the scrimmage. Just have one coach responsible for making minor corrections during the scrimmage. This coach only watches the defense and tries to improve their positioning.
This is how you get the MOST out a short amount of time. Kids need to play, learn skills, and have fun.
If you’d like to hear the actual question and answer in audio, Right Click here and select Save As.
9 Comments
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jim cassaday — November 18, 2008 @ 5:33 am
thanks for the tips-just what i have here in switzerland at the international school
Michael Morgan — November 18, 2008 @ 7:28 am
Thanks for this tip. I have two one-hour practices per week, per the rules of my local Recreation Department. We try to schedule extra practices at local churches, but most kids in rec ball here only get the one or two rec-approved practices each week, so this helps me out alot.
Amanda Miller — November 18, 2008 @ 7:44 pm
I love these tips! I’m a new youth basketball coach for my school. These have just been fundamental in setting up my practices. Thanks!
Joey Cook — November 22, 2008 @ 7:07 pm
thanks for the tips. this website is awesome. I just started teaching basketball for my daughters rec team. You guys have helped me out alot. Thank you.
Tinashe Chimundu — November 26, 2008 @ 10:44 am
Thanx hey. These drills help me a lot at Regina Mundi in Zimbabwe. Dont coach full time so this makes my sessions easier.
Teg — December 14, 2008 @ 2:58 pm
Thanks for this information. I have been searching high and low for an answer to limited practices. I agree that kids need to have fun while learning the basics.
For anyone out there, how do you deal with an assistant coach who oversteps his bounds? Thanks.
Jeff Haefner — December 15, 2008 @ 9:35 am
Teg -
To deal with your assistant you can…
- Sit down with him/her. Review expectations. Talk about your stance on things so you get aligned.
- Give your assistant specific responsibilities. If they over step their bounds, perhaps it’s because they don’t know their responsibilities. If your assistance is really good at defense, put them in charge of defense. Or maybe they can do stats, film, etc, etc.
Just like coaching players, you need to give your assistants clear and defined roles and responsibilities.
Document those roles and review them with your assistants. Weekly meetings will help.
You can also try daily huddles with assistants. This just takes 5-10 minutes. Each day you huddle, you ask each person — what’s your priority for the day? are you stuck on anything? what are your key metrics for the day? Some coaches will have key metrics to review daily (rebounds, shooting percentage, attendance, etc). This huddle should be done very quickly and efficiently. Everyone should stand up the whole time to keep things moving quickly.
Bottom line, set expectations and roles with your assistants. Meet with them on a fairly regular basis. You don’t have to do the huddles or exact meetings above. Those are just ideas and things for you to think about.
Good luck.
makayla — January 2, 2009 @ 6:00 pm
how to you help a player to learn the plays better and speak up if they need help
Joe Haefner — January 3, 2009 @ 5:23 pm
Hi Makayla,
If you are dealing with a youth players, you have to be very patient and I would only teach them 1 or 2 plays, if any. Check out this article for more on this: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/blog/index.php/should-youth-coaches-avoid-plays-and-patterned-offenses/
If you are teaching them to older players, this progression has worked for me in the past:
1. Walk though with no defense.
2. Run at full speed with no defense.
3. Run play with defense.
As for getting players to speak up, it is not in the nature of some players to say something and they never will. If you see they are having trouble remembering plays, talk to them 1 on 1 and ask them if they need help with anything. You could also provide them with a playbook, so they could memorize the plays outside of practice.