Hi gents, Coach Sar......don't think there's an easy way to answer this........had first session last week with 25+ there, and this week am expecting more. I want them to be as active as possible and will need to make cuts soon...without spending much of the night on fitness, just wondered what you'd recommend with one full size court and a further 4 baskets going across.

I have ideas for what I want to do but now find I may have 40+ coming this week.

Help please

How old are the players?

DW -

This is tough.... Out of the 25+ players... how many would you say are a definate? Take those out of your equasion and spend more time looking at the rest.

I would be looking at all around skills first before you say that kid is a great rebounder... ( not to say that you don't want that kid because you do )

Do things that can tell you IF they can handle the ball with both hands, can pass and catch on the move, can see the floor well. Look for shooters too..... this is tough because of your numbers but a short 3 on 3 game to see how they handle themselves in a game situation.

Look for that great rebounder and point guard... and a couple shooters - build your team around them,.

Forget fitness right now, you need to find the best players.... you can get them in shape after you pick your team by having a well laid out practice plan. I hope you have some assistants that can help you. Break them down in small groups at each basket, each group doing something different... like stations.

What are your thoughts on this?

Hi Jeff, players will all be U17

Coach Sar, what you suggest sounds pretty similar to what I had in mind just need to speak to another coach who can hopefully help me out with running a group at a couple of baskets. I think I will get them playing 3 on 3 cross court and try and rotate as much as possible so I get more of an idea and then make cuts next week once I've decided on how many I want to keep on. Then I can hopefully spend more quality time on what I want and how I want us to play.

Out of the 25+ I'd say that I probably have say 15-20 who I want to see in more depth but only saw them for just over an hour last week so will have to start identifying them this week and thinking who can do a job at each position.

Many thanks again.

Good luck, I hope it helps, let us know how it goes.

I can't say that I've been in that situation before, but I think it was Don Kelbick that said for tryouts just start your practices. Do real drills, offense, defense, etc that you are going to do this season. See who does well and who doesn't.

Now having 40 kids makes that a challenge. Since I have done quite a few clinics and our team practices are fairly unique, it wouldn't be too difficult, especially if there were a couple assistant coaches to help. But I don't know how to explain that in a forum.

One option is to break them into groups... Group A does ballhandling (don't need baskets for that), Group B does shooting / offensive drills at the basket, Group C does defensive footwork and position drills (don't need baskets).

Then the last third of practice put in your half court offense and defense. Assuming you have 4 assistants, with 40 kids you can get 4 games of half court 5on5 going. They can practice shell drill and your offense at the same time. You roam around taking notes while assistant run each 5on5 controlled scrimmage. You can also get feedback from each assistant.

Those are just ideas, some of which might not be feasible. Hope it helps.

For the first session, I would have them scrimmage 3v3 half the time and 5v5 the other half.

For the next session, cut it down to your top 15 or 20. After that, have a real practice with 30 minutes of scrimmaging at the end. That way, you can tell who is going to have a good attitude, work hard, etc. and who you want to keep around.

Jeff, Joe, really appreciate your comments as gives me much more of an idea what to do with such a large group. Depenedent on assistants I will have groups working on different fundamentals and also 3 v 3 and 5 v 5 for the last part of the sessions then hopefully will be able to cut the groups down after this.

Will let you know how it goes.

Thanks again

Well last week didn't go as I expected. Numbers dropped down to 22.....and I have an idea now of who I will keep and who are the definities. I want a squad of 10 eventually so will probably cut it down to 15 or 20 the next time I see them. After the first cut I will be working more on the fundamentals I want, introducing my man/zone defence and some basic offenses. I do appreciate your input from before as it's been helpful in deciding what to do next. Would any of you have preferences on making the first cut to 15 or to 20....obviously would mean more quality time if I make the cut to 15 players and then more competitive to make the final 10.

Thanks again

Two things here -

First of all, I would get rid of the ones you definately know wont make your team, guys that cant help you.

Second... you might think about keeping 12 players... that way you know that you will always have enough guys to run your offense and defenses against each other. 5 v 5. IF you only keep 10, 1 gets sick, hurt or cant make practice, that throws an iron in the fire. JMO