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Practice Organization Ideas For All Basketball Coaches
By Coach Randy Brown

Coaches are constantly contacting me about how to become more efficient during their practice sessions. Wanting to be prepared and organized, coaches tend to squeeze much more into practice than they should. Players have only so much mental and physical capacity before they level off and become unproductive. Check out some of the ideas presented here to improve your coaching in practice.

1. There are about 100+ things that you WANT to cover in a 2 hour practice. In reality, two hours passes by quickly so you want to be very organized in how you set up those 2 hours. Prepare with the attitude of keeping on schedule with your plan, but realize that making changes is part of coaching.

2. Determine what you want to accomplish in your practice. What "areas" do feel are important to cover. I believe the main areas are:

A. Stretching and warm up (running or ball handling).

B. Fundamental work--stance, pivoting, balance, ball handling, passing, triple threat position, for example.

C. Individual work with guards and post (one group at each end). This could be offense or defense work.

D. Individual and team defense & rebounding. I feel that defense and rebounding go TOGETHER because a good defense always blocks out and takes possession of the ball.

E. Team Offense--I am a huge believer in teaching from 3-on-3 or 4-on-4.

F. Team Play 5-on-5........BUT only after they have mastered the Fundamentals, team offense, team defense AND 3-on-3 and 4-on-4!

I would not move too fast.........go slow and teach the fundamentals first, then progress from there. Players and teams must be taught to walk before they run, not the opposite. The 5-on-5 game is for a player/team that has adequately shown that he/they can do everything in (F).

This is the biggest practice mistake that most coaches make, they are impatient and move "ahead" too fast without making sure that skills and concepts are properly learned and displayed, BEFORE moving ahead. I have seen this at the junior high, high school, college, and NBA level! Don't fall into this trap! Go slow, make your players accountable for what you are teaching them, and demand proper fundamentals within team play. Demand that players are accountable for executing "what you have taught them."

Your goal is to get your team to execute YOUR game, not play THEIR game! I hope this helps you understand a little better how to set up your practice. Remember to keep in mind what you want to accomplish with each practice---that will dictate what areas to work on and what drills to work on.