Plan a Better Basketball Practice

BY ALLEN GRATTS

THSCA DIRECTOR & ARLINGTON BOWIE HS HEAD BASKETBALL

The main thing, is to keep the main thing, the main thing.

“Failure to prepare is preparing to Fail” is a quote by John Wooden many years ago and should be thought about every time a practice schedule is made. Coming straight out of college and into the coaching world, I thought I knew how to be a basketball coach. I was a good high school player and an All-Conference player in college; however, I quickly learned that just because you can play the game does not mean you can coach the game.

Starting off as a junior high coach in Cleburne, TX, I coached basketball, football, and track. I would work my junior high basketball players out in the morning and go to the high school in the afternoon to assist with the varsity. My mentor and dear friend, Jeff Cody, was the head coach at the time. Coach Cody came to one of my first junior high practices that I thought went pretty well and changed everything the next day. He told me "That’s not what he wants nor what we need at the Junior high level." He said, “These kids need basic fundamentals. They need to know how to dribble, pass, and shoot.”

Changing my practice was the best thing that could have ever happened. If you are a young coach and don’t have a mentor, find one!

For over 26 years as a head coach, my practice has been set in the following order:

• Fundamentals: Ball handling, Passing, Shooting, Individual Offensive moves

• Rebounding

• Individual Defense

• Group Defense

• Transition Defense

• Team Defense

• Team Offense

When looking at these segments, it should be easy to see what the main thing is. For our program and like many others, it is defense. Your main thing will change with your opponent, but always remember what your program is built on. We spend over 50% of our in-season practice working on defense, but you cannot be a good defensive team without being a good rebounding team. Most good defensive possessions end with a defensive rebound.

The order of practice never changes. On occasion some things may get left out, but the order never changes. Players will be in a routine and will always know what is coming next during practice. The only thing that will change are the drills during the segment.

I am still “old school” and write out my practice plan every day. On one side of my practice schedule is my plan, and on the backside is almost every drill that we do (close to 100 drills). Having all of my drills on the backside of my plan makes it much easier to prepare day to day. I never type out my practice schedule because I have to draw out certain drills while planning. Depending who we are playing, a lot of defensive drills are handmade so I often refer back to my drawings of a drill when we are on the floor.

Fundamentals >>>

Practices are going to start with ballhandling. Whether it is two ball dribble, working with tennis balls, dribble push or doing point guard drills, ballhandling is going to be first on the schedule (8min).

Do not take passing for granted! We will do some type of stationary passing: right left push pass, feeding the post pass going both ways, and skip passes (6min). Bounce passes on the perimeter are not permitted. They will only be used when feeding the post and off the break. We will also do one passing drill on the move whether its 3-man weave with weighted ball, 2-man passing slide/run or one of our pregame passing drills (2min). Weighted balls are used during most of our passing drills on the run.

Shooting practice is the 2nd most time consuming segment of practice (minimum 25min). On Wednesday and Saturday, a minimum of 45 minutes. We are fortunate to have 2 Guns and a Dr. Dish that will never collect dust. These machines get used on a daily basis. There are several great drills that you can find online that will fit into your offense with your Gun or Dish. We always start with form shooting, then to Mikan, layups and put-backs and tip-ins if we are doing group work that day. Station work always includes our 3 machines (spot up and penetration kick) with 1 hand form with weighted ball and Mikan or two ball shooting station on the other two goals. Using a weighted ball is one of the best tools for teaching 1 hand form rotation on the basketball.

Shooting practice is the 2nd most time consuming segment of practice (minimum 25min). On Wednesday and Saturday, a minimum of 45 minutes. We are fortunate to have 2 Guns and a Dr. Dish that will never collect dust. These machines get used on a daily basis. There are several great drills that you can find online that will fit into your offense with your Gun or Dish. We always start with form shooting, then to Mikan, layups and put-backs and tip-ins if we are doing group work that day. Station work always includes our 3 machines (spot up and penetration kick) with 1 hand form with weighted ball and Mikan or two ball shooting station on the other two goals. Using a weighted ball is one of the best tools for teaching 1 hand form rotation on the basketball.

Rebounding >>>

Close games are often won or lost on the Boards! You see it all the time. Shot goes up and someone does not block out. Ball is tipped in at the buzzer. The fundamentals of rebounding must be taught first. Not a lot of time is spent on rebounding drills (5min). The focus on rebounding is during team defense and team offense. Anytime during team if a put-back or tip-in occurs, there will be a consequence. Consequences normally occur right before it is time to shoot free throws or sometimes right then on the spot. It could be push-ups, towel pushes or running, but offensive put backs and tip-ins will not be tolerated by the defensive team during team practice.

Defense >>>

Individual defense starts our segment. Any type of mass defensive slide, full court turn drill, playing UCLA cuts, checking cutters across the lane, anything 1 on 1 or 2 on 2 starts our defensive practice (8-10min).

Group defense follows with working on high pick and roll, box-box screens, deny drills, shell drill, and half court rotation drills (12min). Staying in sequence, move on to full court transition drills.

Transition defensive drills may be the most important part of practice. Change drill, 4 on 3 transition, and 4 on 3 rotation to transition. A vital part of our transition drills is to never take the ball out of bounds. During defensive transition, you want the ball to get up the court as quickly as possible. Our two main focuses are to protect the basket and to get the ball stopped (6-12min).

The last defensive segment is team defense. Before we start with team defense, it is free throws and water. I want all players as fresh as possible to starts the toughest part of practice. Team defense always start with any type of press that we run. We normally start with full-court jump trap (8-10min) and then any type of full-court zone press (8-10min). From there, we move into any type of half court zone (10min) and then into half-court man. A lot of time teaching half-court man defense is spent with our assistant coach during team offensive.

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. Whatever your main thing is, do not forget it during your practice.

Team Offense >>>

The last segment is team offense (15-20min). Team offense will vary game to game. We do not normally work on zone offense unless we know our opponent is a heavy zone team. Zone offense is normally worked on first in the segment (8-10min). Our last part of team offense is versus man defense. Pace is the key to this segment. Even though it is toward the end of practice, this is when we want to play fast! Working on transition, secondary break, decision making, getting to the paint and penetration kick-outs. This part of practice also determines our conditioning. If we are up and down the court during team, no conditioning is needed at the end of practice. The length of our offensive practice depends on how much time is left in that practice.

Practice should be a routine with a variation of drills. Our toughest practice is usually the day before a game (Monday/Thursday). Our light practices are usually shooting, video, weights and sometimes team offense (Wednesday/Saturday)

5 Main Keys to a Productive Practice

1. The Head Coach, your Best Player, and your Point Guard cannot have a bad practice (Kelvin Sampson).

2. Know your opponent beforehand and plan your practice accordingly.

3. Prepare players during video so there is less conversation on the floor.

4. Consistent flow of practice day to day.

5. Keeping the main thing the main thing.

“Games are won or lost in practice,” is another John Wooden quote that I see at the bottom on my practice schedule. Take the time to plan your practice schedule daily. Your players deserve your very best every day.

Read the entire October 2024 Issue of Texas Coach here: https://issuu.com/thscacoaches/docs/oct24upload?fr=xKAE9_zU1NQ