I coach down in Florida and we are able to practice and play throughout the summer. I coach a JV boys team and we are playing in a league, attending a team camp, and have practices scheduled throughout the summer.

I have really been thinking about my practice plans and what my goals are for my team this summer. I will have between 15-20 players at each practice session. I know that the summer is a great time for individual player development but I also want to incorporate some team concepts (man to man defense, secondary break, motion offense). I know that these months are very important for individual improvement and I just want to make sure myself being competitive takes over and I focus to much on team concepts. My practice time will range from an hour and a half to 2 hours. I was thinking about making half of each practice all fundamentals and teaching (pivoting, form shooting, defensive stance, footwork, passing, guard/post breakdown) and the other half where I will focus on team concepts.

Any thoughts on the ratio of 50% fundamentals and 50% team concepts?? I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!

Hey Coach -

Why don't you make a Master Plan describing exactly what you want to accomplish. I like your idea of 50-50..... I don't know the make up of your team is... but remember, you can NEVER shoot too much. Your kids are 15 - 16?

We did pretty much what you are describing except that I had a shooting camp along with the team camp. I was the Varsity coach and our players were required to attend... (the camp was for all ages) they worked the camp teaching shooting to the younger kids while they shot right along with the campers. It taught them how to TEACH and work with younger kids... they had a better understanding of what it was like to coach - made my job easier with them.... and IF you can teach it, chances are you can do it.

You have all summer to get these things done... all the offensive skills, A LOT OF DEFENSE..... and a good understanding of your offense. We only had about 5-6 weeks which was shortened to 26 contact days so we were pretty organized. NO wasted time. After a week or so, you should be able to evaluate your talent and decide what areas need the most work...then make your practice plans accordingly.

Good luck, I hope things work out for you.

Coach Sar-

Thank you for the advice. I am actually running a camp for 3-9th graders as well as a JV Summer Team Camp for our rising 9th and 10th grade boys. We have about 15 practice times set for my JV team in a 5 week span based on the use of our gym (varsity basketball, girls basketball, volleyball, cheerleading, camps) so I just want to make sure I am very organized with what goes on at our practices.

Also, I think you know one of my old coaches; Coach Gels (coaches clipboard guy). I am from Charlevoix, Michigan originally.

Thanks again for the advice,

Jeremiah

Jeremiah,

Dr. J - I know him pretty well, I had the priviledge of meeting him one year. He does a great job with his site ( I have some stuff on there ) hes a good coach and where he finds time to practice medicine and play golf too is beyond me. :-)

That is beautiful country, the harbor right in the middle of town is amazing.

Good luck with your camps and if you have any specific questions regarding your camps... let me us know. I will tell him that I have talked to you.

Coach - Here's an article that might help and give you ideas to consider. It was written by Don Kelbick who lives in the Miami area. He's a really good player development coach and conducts camps too. Might be something for you to consider. Here's the article:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/end-of-season-tips.html

And a another I think you'll like:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/coaching/pre-season-tips.html

Jeff-

Thank you for the response. Those are great articles. I am in the process of developing my master plan as we speak. It is just hard to fit everything I want to do in 90 minutes...

Any recommendations for some drills that I should run everyday??



Thanks,

Jeremiah

Coach Sar-

Yes, Charlevoix is a beautiful area in the summmer...I really enjoy the weather down in Florida though. I am also in the process of putting my youth camp together. I was wondering if you had any suggestions/tips about how to put the camp together as far as format.

I will have between 20-25 3rd-9th grade boys for 3 hours a day for one week. I have a pretty good idea of some things I want to do but am always open for suggestions.

Thanks!

Jeremiah

Jeremiah,

I'm glad the articles helped. Regarding drills I would run everyday (or at least frequently), that's tough to say. But here are the first drills that come to mind.

- Footwork drills. There are hundreds of footwork drills. But each day I think you should incorporate some type of footwork regarding the 5 pivots. You could emphasize a different pivot each day. You can find a few footwork drills here:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/basketballdrills.html#footworkdrills
And here is an ebook that gives really awesome explanation of how to teach footwork (the 5 pivots) and a bunch of drills:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/post-play.html

- Offensive / shooting drills. I would do lots of shooting drills and do them every day. Shooting is the most difficult skill to master and arguably the most important. This game is all about shooting percentage. With that said, I would incorporate pieces of your offense and turn them into shooting / footwork drills. For example, if you run a motion offense and use lots of L cuts. I would create a drill that incorporates L cuts and a player catching a pass after the cut and shooting the ball. This way you are actually building your offense and practicing shooting and your players don't even know it. Plus players are getting confident taking the exact type of shots they'll be getting in games. Here's an article about the concept:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/blog/index.php/coaching-youth-basketball-with-limited-time-1-practice-a-week/

- Ballhandling and passing. I would incorporate some drills that work on the key aspects of dribbling. Here's what I believe are the key parts of dribbling. You could just focus on these key things to save time.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/everything-good-ball-handler.html
You can find dribbling and ballhandling drills here:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/basketballdrills.html#ballhandlingdrills

Personally, I would use Danny Miles ballhandling and passing drills each day. These are oriented more towards passing and taking care of the ball (which is obviously very important). The above are geared more towards dribbling. These drill are fairly simple but very effective if you want a team that can run, pass extremely well, and take care of the ball. Most of the drills are on his DVD but here is one here:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/pridedrill.html
The DVD and rest of the drills are here. In this DVD, you get the drills that he runs every single day for the last 20 years. With 900+ wins, they are obviously working.
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/pr/value-point-system.html

With all that said, I think it depends on what you emphasize and your team. Maybe you are a rebounding team and you want to do that all year. Maybe you are zone defense and want to work on that. Maybe you are press or M2M D. What ever you do, they obviously plays into it. But like Coach Sars said, summer is a good time to play M2M no matter what D you run. Having a really good M2M team makes you better no matter what defense you play.

I hope this at least gives you come ideas when building your plan. And gives you some ways to make things more efficient, since you are pressed for time. Here's another time management tip:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/articles/basketball-time-management.html

Good luck!

Jer,

Joe has given you some good ideas..... You can also ask Coach Gels, I'm sure that you can learn from all his experiences. Think back about when you went to high school there... think of the things you did to make yourself and others a better player.

I ran a shooting camp for all ages, boys & gilrs... here are some of the things we did. It will come in a few parts.



Passing Drills: ( aprrox 12-15' apart ) 2 man drill
* Chest passes - step with left foot and then right foot
* Bounce passes - step left / step right
* Over the head pass
* One hand pass - step out with near foot and pass with same hand / then crossover and do the same

We also started teaching form shooting there.... BEEF ... just form, shooting the ball straight out to your partner - we walked around and checked form, then we had them shoot the ball with an arc - our main focus here was FORM... and making sure they didn't use the guide hand with the shot.

Ball handling drills - I'm sure you know those

Dribbling Drills: (from sideline to sideline)
Straight dribble - right hand one way and left back
Hesitation dribble - right hand one way and left back
Crossover
Between the legs
Behind the back
*** We had them come to a jump stop and do a reverse pivot and into a triple threat position. I would say, shot fake - they would shot fake and come back to the triple threat position... then I would say pass fake, they would pass fake and come back to the T threat position... I would do this a a few times. I taught the REVERSE pivot here because they already know how to front pivot, this gives them another weapon.

Shooting Drills: We taught BEEF ( we called this drill BEEF Check )
This is how we taught shooting.
Balance
Elbow under the ball
Eye on the target
Follow through

We would start going from block - center -block
ONE dribble with guide hand behind the back and shoot from the 3 spots
Then we did the same drill allowing them to have their guide hand NEAR the ball but NOT touching it - shooting from the same 3 spots. We wanted the guide hand to be almost flat emphasizing that it had NOTHING to do with the shot.
Then we did the same drill allowing them to have the guide hand on the ball but making sure that they didn't use it in their shot.

From there we would move from the 3 foot range to 6'. Making sure they were comfortable with their shot.

I will finish this later Jer.

Coach Sar and Jeff,

Thank you guys for all the information. I have purchased almost everything you guys have on this website. I have really enjoyed reading and learning from them.


Coach Sar thank you for the notes about the youth camp. I have a lot of those things down already but just like to reaffirm that I am emphasizing the right aspects. It is crazy how much I have forgotten from high school. I used to work the Saturday clinics with Doc and our Coaches after Friday night games...

As far as with my JV team I am trying to get each player 100 shots in every practice I have throughout the summer.

As far as what I like to do; I am a big man to man pressure guy and love to push the basketball but I was thinking to really focus on M2M defense this summer. I also run motion offense and am going to teach some of the basics with that as well.

And Jeff you may have convinced me to buy Coach Miles DVD too...I love to push the ball and would love to average 80 points per game.

Thanks again guys! I really appreciate your help.

Jer