This season we often find ourselves in the gym with one or two coaches and over 30 kids. This can be a real challenge and requires some creativity to stay productive. I think it’s important to keep as many of your players busy (and improving) as possible. How much can a player improve when they […]
Cutting Down Turnovers, Improving Defense, and Objectively Analyzing Your Game Results
We lost our first game of the season. It was against my old team that I coached the last couple years. So it was bitter sweet. I was happy to see the players I worked with last year play really well. But at the same time I wanted to win the game with my new […]
New Favorite Drill for Our 3rd Grade Team – Fun and Improves Passing
Here’s a passing drill we have been using with my daughter’s 3rd grade team. I also plan to use it with my high school team as a passing and conditioning drill. It’s called Pass and Switch. For our 3rd graders, it’s their new favorite drill and they have been asking if they can run this drill […]
Sweet Basketball Coaching App – One of My Favorites to Improve Shooting
Coaches Eye is a pretty sweet app that I use to analyze players shots. It’s great because I can record their shot with my ipad or iphone, and then a few seconds later show them in slow motion what they are doing. Almost every single time… the player looks at the slow motion video with […]
Simple Way to Define Shot Selection and Improve Offensive Efficiency
This season we added a new wrinkle in how we present our offense. We believe it will help improve our shot selection and overall efficiency of the offense. It’s all based on this simple premise… We only take two kinds of shots: 1) WIDE open jump shots. 2) Shots within 9 feet of the basket. […]
10 Ways to Keep Injured Players Busy and Productive During Practice
As coaches, we all at some point have players attending practice but can’t participate in regular drills because they’re injured. Of course, it depends on nature of the injury, but you should almost always be able to come up with ways for players to work on their game and improve their skills during practice. The […]
Day 3 – Practice Plan and Drills
NOTE: This practice plan is based on specific strategy we have developed for this team and this season. Your strategy and philosophy might be different based on age level, skill level, number of players in the gym, number of baskets available, etc. But hopefully the practice plans and drills give you some ideas. I highly […]
Day 2 – Practice Plan & Drills (Sophomores 2013/14)
Here’s our practice plan from Day 2 (10th grade boys)…. Intro Explain you have to learn 3 pivots and 3 counters on your own. Hand out pivots doc to those that need it. Review core values. Read and hand out “hard working” doc. On Ball Defense Defense lines – Stance, mirror, push step, dig, contest […]
Day 2 – Developing a “Hard Working” Team
After our first practice, it’s clear that players don’t understand what “hard working” means. I think many of them are trying. But they don’t know what it takes yet. To me, “hard working” is a skill and a value that you must teach, develop, and continually refine… So here’s what I did on our second […]
Day 1 – Practice Plan & Drills (Sophomores 2013/14)
As our team agreed on during our pre-season player meeting, we will be focusing on the following this season: 1) Defense (man to man) 2) Rebounding 3) Ball security (take care of the ball / minimize turnovers) 4) Offensive scoring fundamentals and skills We believe that by focusing on these 4 areas and putting the […]