Jeff Haefner's Coaching Blog

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Should You Use the Popular “High Ball Screen Play” For Your Youth Team?

March 20, 2015 by Jeff Haefner 22 Comments

I’d like to share my opinion on a popular ball screen play that I see all the time. While coaching my daughter’s 4th grade team, the high ball screen for the point guard is the most common play I see.  Seems like almost half of the teams run a variation of this play. I hope I […]

Filed Under: 4th Grade Basketball, Offense, Player Development, Practice Strategy

What We Did With Our 4th Grade Youth Basketball Team – Offense, Defense, Skills and More…

February 27, 2015 by Jeff Haefner 15 Comments

My daughter’s 4th grade team had a great year.  Tremendous improvement, lots of fun, and lots of life lessons learned… And even though winning is not a measurement of a successful season, or good youth coaching for that matter, we did win lots of games and tournaments without taking any shortcuts and by doing things […]

Filed Under: 4th Grade Basketball, Practice Strategy, Strategy

Helping Others On and Off the Court – Do You Have Any Ideas?

January 23, 2015 by Jeff Haefner Leave a Comment

One of our team’s core values is to “help others”. As a coach, you find lots of opportunities to reinforce this core value in practice and games… You can help your teammates by passing the ball in games, you can hustle to get rebounds in drills so you partner gets more shots, you can rotate […]

Filed Under: 4th Grade Basketball, Positive Impact

Trying New Drills – No Dribble is Still One of the Best

January 21, 2015 by Jeff Haefner 1 Comment

I’ve tried dozens of new drills this year with both our 4th graders and our 10th grade high school team.  I plan to keep using several of them. I’ll start writing up the drills and sharing them with you soon. But I keep going back to a really simple drill that is still one of my […]

Filed Under: 4th Grade Basketball, Drills, Offense

Coaches: What are your favorite drills for the HEAVY training ball?

November 16, 2014 by Jeff Haefner 4 Comments

I’m curious how other coaches are utilizing the Heavy Training Basketball. What drills do you like to use with the heavy ball? Let me know in the comments below.

Filed Under: Drills

Do Your Players Waste Time Before Practice? Give Them a Routine to Improve Skills

November 12, 2014 by Jeff Haefner 1 Comment

Do your players tend to take circus shots and mess around before practice?   Typically, I find that 80% of our players talk and mess around…. while one or two players are doing something productive like practicing their form shooting. To solve the problem, I gave our team a routine to go through if they get to […]

Filed Under: Practice Strategy

Day 3 – 4th Grade Basketball Practice Plan (Had a Great Practice!)

November 6, 2014 by Jeff Haefner 13 Comments

We had a great practice with our 4th grade girls team last night!  One of the best practices we’ve ever had.  Here’s the practice plan… Go over core values. Form shooting with left hand (1 min) Form shooting with right hand (1 min) Footwork, lay ups, and shooting – spin outs (12 minutes… 1 min for […]

Filed Under: 4th Grade Basketball, Practice Strategy

Video – The Race to Nowhere in Youth Sports

October 28, 2014 by Jeff Haefner Leave a Comment

This is a great video that all coaches and parents of athletes should watch.  I have shared the article version of this topic in the past — but the video expands on the article and is a must watch…

Filed Under: Positive Impact

New “High Five” Twist to a 1on1 Drill That I Really Like

October 26, 2014 by Jeff Haefner Leave a Comment

I found a new twist for a 1 on 1 combo drill that I really like.  It’s called High Five 1 on 1. We used to run a similar drill except the lines were usually around the baseline.  I really like the “high five” twist because it provides several benefits. It’s so simple.  The “high […]

Filed Under: Drills, Player Development

New Drill and Basketball Training Aid — The Sweep Stick

July 26, 2014 by Jeff Haefner Leave a Comment

Here’s an interesting new training aid and drill to help your players protect the ball and develop the habit of “sweeping” it: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/sweep-stick-layup.html

Filed Under: Drills, Player Development

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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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