Many of us have limited practice time. My team (4th-5th grade boys) only gets one hour once a week on a half court. (league grew 50% - from 300 kids to 450 - GREAT!!!, but court space became limited).

Here are some ideas/tips that have helped:

1. Conditioning - Warmups and conditioning are important but don't waste time simply running laps, lines. Add in a footwork drill - Run to line then jump-stop, or defensive slide, or pivot, or back pedal.

2. Focus on fundamentals. They'll want to scrimmage but kids enjoy drills and are eager to learn. Do a variety of drills to prevent boredom. I do give them a few minutes of "free play" during water break though.

3. Combine 2 different drills/skills. Ex. Dribble down and back - but add in stop and go dribble, or jump stop - pass to next player. Your dribbling drills can also include footwork or passing drills. Ex. During basic 2 line lay-up drill, have the rebounder put back a miss or have them box out the next player in line. Even at our first practice these worked and I can see more possibilities as they progress. The possibilities are endless. Just be creative.

4. Probably the most important coaching tip on this site: Write out a practice plan, and . . . Stick to it.

Good suggestions, we're in a similar boat with a 1 hour practice per week. You're right on about combining different skill sets into one drill. I also have 2-3 dads help, so we break down into groups of 3 to give the players more individual attention and more reps.

I happened to find a smaller gym (reg size baskets on height) next to our reg big gym that I can reserve once a week. We'll sneak in an extra practice using that strictly for 3 vs. 2, 3 vs. 3, etc. Kids love it.

Great ideas, guys!

Yeah, good ideas. Along the same lines you can work on team offense and skills at the same time. This article describes how you can do that effectively:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/b ... ce-a-week/

Having a practice plan for every practice is essential. It must be written, I've coached with other coaches who try to keep it all in their head. This written practice plan should be different for every practice. I actually consult with my assistant coach (8th grade girls) via email days prior to a practice so we both have input on what we should work on. Then it gets documented as a practice plan.
The key to a good practice is to have every line item have a time limit. This helps you stay on task and move from one drill to the other. I've even seen coaches use the scoreclock as their practice plan timer. Set it for 90 minutes, your practice plan will reflect this countdown time (90-80 conditioning, 80-70 layups, etc). Coach and players can glance up and see time left before next drill. When scoreclock counts down to zero, practice is over.

I also keep a couple "filler" drills at the bottom of my plan. Just in case we finish early with the practice plan and have 5-10 minutes left.

Coach A

Hi coach's

I am a new coach this year as well and like everyone else 1 hour is all i get 2 times a week. My problem is our pratice is on Monday and Tuesday, with our games being on Sat. I did before the first pratice look up as much info on drills and way to keep the kids focused and having fun. So after a day I found this site and it gave a unlimited supply of info that i have used in our first 2 pratices. I have a feel of what direction I need to go with every kid. and as a group our main focus and barriers we have to over come for the season thanks to you guys. but we have yet to play our first game, how can i make sure they trasfer what they learn during pratice in to the games as much as possible.
I also had my wife sit and observe a pratice for me, (because I don't won't to leave a negative experiance as a coach for the kids.) She told me that during our pratice another team was actually stopping in the middle of thier pratice at the other end of the court to watch us and our drills. But we have yet to work on any sold m2m off. or def. all we have done is a few races and knock out games but mostly fundamental drills, which I have tried to make as fun as possible.

Second question, I have a list of about 12 to 15 drills and how they go together with what I am tring to teach. but they are just going throught them at a pace that I have run out of things in our pratice. has anyone have that problem before.

Hey Coach,

I'm assuming your team is young...elementary school level.

You don't have much gym time and unfortunately their is a huge gap
between practices with a Monday-Tuesday practice time. Even when your games start, there is a big gap between your last practice and the Saturday game.
See if you can change your practice time to split those practices apart, Monday&Wed or Tues & Thurs. An hour per practice may not seem like enough but with young kids it's about all they can take in for one practice.

You asked how will you know if they can transfer what they learn in practice to real time game environment. Try to end your practices with a 10 min. 5 on 5 full court scrimmage. This way they get the feel of a game, defense, team play and running the plays...even out of bounds plays. Make this scrimmage as real as possible. Call another coach and set up a fun scrimmage vs. his/her team, this is even a better option.

For practice format, for youth players, I've always used the 50-25-25 method.
50% of the practice is stressing fundamentals and proper shooting
25% is structure, plays, defense
25% is conditioning and fun drills

A typical practice plan for me would basically be:

-5 minute team talk (communicate what your objectives are for that practice)
-Warmup ballhandling drills
-Dribbling drills
-Shooting Form
-Shooting drills
-Structure(go over plays)
-Fun stuff
-Scrimmage
-5 minute team talk (review practice objectives)

As for plays at that young age. Keep it simple!! One play vs a zone, one play vs M2M, one baseline OOB play.

If you are stuck with Mon&Tues practice I would try to call around to secure another practice slot at a local gym. Maybe a school or church gym or even YMCA. Another hour practice on a thurs and Friday would help your kids.

As for running out of drills for practice. With just an hour you shouldn't run out of drills with the above basic practice plan format.
This website has a section on coaching youth basketball that has an abundance of drills if you are looking for new ones. Always try different dribbling and shooting drills at each practice.

Good Luck Coach!!

Enjoy the season!!

Basketball should always be FUN for kids!!

Coach A

GREAT advice Coach A!

I was going to post something but you pretty much have it covered.... keep your drills etc short - that way the kids don't get bored... and ALWAYS end your practice on a fun note... that way the kids will want to come back.

Ours was HS boys varsity and we ran "situations" at the end of every practice, the kids loved these mini games and you can set up whatever situation that you want.

As for conditioning... the longer I coached the less running we did WITHOUT a basketball.... a well thought out practice plan will do all the conditioning that you need.... and definately try to find someone to scrimmage later in the week IF you cant find a gym for one more practice. Kids rather play than practice anyway. :-)

I'm not sure if Joe/Jeff have one on this site but I have one on Coaches Clipboard (sorry guys)

Coach Sar

Feel your pain, we get 1 hour per week, but I sneak in a 2nd practice once in a while just for 3 vs. 3 games.

It will become clearer once you play your first game, trust me. I have one of my older sons video tape our games now and then, can't tell you how much it helps me for the next practice. Usually ends up being a few concepts (e.g. lack of rebounds, not enough passing, etc.).

Again, think you'll see what they need to work on after first few games. I'd keep running drills that act as building blocks for specific concepts you're trying to teach.

Keep us up to date.

CRob

I'm from southern California, so my situation is probably very different from everyone else's. We have outdoor courts all over the place here. Every school has several and all the parks have one or two. If you can't get gym time, why not use an outdoor court? I'm guessing it has something to do with the weather in your part of the world. Most of our practices are outdoors. When it rains, we practice in the school cafeteria with no baskets. Those are the practices that the kids seem to enjoy the most. We work more on passing under pressure, moving to get open, no dribble keep away, and we play a lot of games like dribble dodgeball. I guess the point is that you can still practice even if you don't have a gym although I can see how that would be a challenge in some parts of the world.