Need help on fundamentals

Perhaps you can help- or even have a Guide that will provide this information. I will be coaching an 8th grade travel team that has both considerable athleticism and size (our big man is a 13 yr old 6'5" 240 lb'er with a size 19 shoe)- but lacking in proper fundamentals. Last year, the travel program's philosophy was one that made it difficult to provide meaningful individual instruction- 28 games in 10 weeks,plus two tournaments- and only 1hr to 1:30 minutes of practice weekly. As a result, I have some players still shooting from their navels, with two hands; poor shooting form etc. This year, my plan is to offer a high intensity, 10 week program focusing on fundamental and playing a "travel" game every other weekend, with the opportunity to play more tournaments later in the season. Practices will be twice weekly for either 60 or 90 minutes, depending on gym availability. Since the travel program we are associated with does not keep standing nor hold playoffs, scheduling is easily adaptable. Do you have a Coaching Guide that can help direct practices to fundamentals, proper shooting form etc in a very organized, pyramid-like structure?

Thanks in advance.
Greg Ammirati

Hi Greg,

First of all, I'm happy to see that you realize that your players need more skill work. Very few coaches recognize this problem at the youth level. Games are important to use as tests, but not where you were playing 2 or more games to 1 practice as you had mentioned.

I'm not aware of a product that can give you what you want. To be honest, I think it is nearly impossible. Every player and every team will have different weaknesses and strengths they need to address. Your team may be an excellent ball handling team, so you would not need to spend as much on ball handling versus another aspect such as shooting. While another team may be below average at ball handling and needs to spend a lot more time just working on the technical skills of ball handling.

We do have a page that lists skills that you should be teaching: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/c ... youth.html

We also have a sample practice schedule that may help you develop practices as well: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/c ... tice2.html

I would recommend to spend a high percentage of your time on skill work while also incorporating some games and scrimmages that allow players to take their newly-learned skills to a game-like environment.

You can also feel free to take a look at our products at this link: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/s ... oducts.asp

If you need anything else, just let us know.