Jeff Haefner's Coaching Blog

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How We Came Up With Our Team Core Values This Season

January 5, 2016 by Jeff Haefner Leave a Comment

We tried something different this year.  We let the players come up with the core values and character values that we want to emphasis this year. Here’s how we came up with them… First we had a meeting to brainstorm ideas.  BTW, this was our 10th grade boys team.   Players came up with ideas and […]

Filed Under: Positive Impact, team management

Letter / Email to Youth Basketball Parents

December 5, 2015 by Jeff Haefner 4 Comments

Here’s an email I send to parents of our YOUTH TEAMS right before our first tournament. Feel free to get ideas or copy pieces of it for your own use. Before getting to the letter, keep in mind I have been coaching various levels for a long time. Things like “unequal playing time” might not be […]

Filed Under: team management

How To Develop Great Spacing On Offense – Spacing Drills For Your Motion Offense

December 1, 2015 by Jeff Haefner 1 Comment

I explain motion offense to our teams in two sentences… “We want spacing and ball movement until we get a good shot. Get all the rebounds and loose balls.” That’s how I explain it to our 3rd graders, 5th graders, and 10th graders.  Everything we teach comes from that.  Those words are repeated hundreds of times […]

Filed Under: Offense

5th Grade Girls Practice Plan #2

November 14, 2015 by Jeff Haefner 2 Comments

This was a really good practice for our 5th grade team.  Worked hard and played really good during the scrimmage…  HUGE improvement from our first practice! Emphasis for Players – Communication, Leadership, and Hustle Plays (Effort) Celebrate successes and effort. Chest bumps, high 5s, fist bumps. Communicate in all drills. Block 1 (6:30) – Shooting, Footwork & […]

Filed Under: 5th grade basketball

3rd Grade Boys Basketball Practice Plan #5

November 10, 2015 by Jeff Haefner 3 Comments

Even though this practice plan is for 3rd graders (8 and 9 year olds), you can get ideas and use these drills for other age levels. I use many of these same drills below in our 5th grade and high school practices.  I’ll post some of those plans too once we start practices for the older […]

Filed Under: 3rd Grade Basketball Tagged With: 3rd grade practice plans

It’s Not Christmas – No gifts for our opponent!

November 3, 2015 by Jeff Haefner 4 Comments

I found this saying in the UC coaching clinic notes that I really like… “It’s not Christmas”. Meaning – No gifts for our opponent. Examples: Layups Free throws Bad fouls Open 3’s for good shooter Turnovers for touchdown This fits my coaching philosophy and seems like a good way to get young athletes playing the right way. […]

Filed Under: Practice Strategy

3rd Grade Boys Basketball Practice Plan #4

October 30, 2015 by Jeff Haefner 6 Comments

Here’s our practice plan for 3rd grade boys basketball. It was a good practice… fast paced. I’ve bee using “blocks” for our practices lately. It’s usually 15 minutes for each block, which makes it easier for me to stay on track… I know I should finish a block every quarter hour. I have a parent […]

Filed Under: 3rd Grade Basketball

Learning About Basketball In Your Car – Listening to Podcasts

October 24, 2015 by Jeff Haefner Leave a Comment

When I’m in the car, I like to listen to podcasts and learn about basketball.  Not only does it make time go much faster (avoid boredom) but I also get to learn about basketball and improve as a coach. Yesterday I listened to Episode #9 – The Magic Words and Workouts That Took An Unknown […]

Filed Under: Tools

New Article and Training on the Edge

October 23, 2015 by Jeff Haefner Leave a Comment

I posted a new article on Breakthrough called 10 Creative Passing & Footwork Drills You Can Do On Your Own – NO Partner Needed. This might be something you can give to your players so they can work on their skills on their own. Train on the Edge! In the article, I mentioned a new […]

Filed Under: Player Development

Our Transition Offense. Super Simple.

October 7, 2015 by Jeff Haefner Leave a Comment

We run a really simple transition offense.  I run this with our 3rd and 5th grade youth teams.  I also plan to run this with our 10th grade high school team this year. In the half court, we run a 5 out motion offense.  I mention this because I think it’s important for your transition […]

Filed Under: Transition

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About Me

I’m a basketball coach, skill development trainer, and Co-Owner of Breakthrough Basketball. I currently live in Marion, Iowa with my wife, two kids, and our golden retriever (Izzy).

Right now I am coaching two teams. I will be coaching... Read More...

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Most Popular Articles

  • 15 Basketball Tryout Drills for Efficiently Evaluating Players
  • Dynamic Warm Up For Basketball – Strength, Athleticism, and Injury Prevention
  • What We Did With Our 4th Grade Youth Basketball Team – Offense, Defense, Skills and More…
  • Trying New Drills – No Dribble is Still One of the Best
  • Coaching Youth Basketball – What We Did With Our 3rd Grade Team and Ideas that Might Help You
  • What We Did With Our 5th Grade Girls Team – Offense, Defense, Drills and Plays

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