Practice Organization
(Key Points Listed Below)
Why it is the most essential component to the success of your season!
A lot of coaches know that John Wooden won 11 National Championships. Very few know that it took him 15 years before he won his first one. It was his Mastery of Practice Organization that got him to become a champion. And he always participated in the drills! Right up until he retired. A can think of no better way to commemorate the Wizard of Westwood than to dedicate this post to "The Art of Practice."
Recently, I have been on a rush of attending college basketball practices. There's always something new that I learn at every one of them. Always! For a coach like myself, there really is nothing quite like a great practice - when all things just seem to come together. It's actually very rare. No matter what the level of coaching you are at. But it is my hope that it become more commonplace by outlining the various aspects that make up a great practice, along with illuminating some of the fundamental philosophies that can help all youth, high school, and even college coaches get there.
After attending each of the college practices that I was at, it was funny how each coach came up to me, thanked me for showing up, then almost immediately apologized about how his team practiced that day. It's almost like a courtesy to any respective coach that attends another coach's practice ~ "Coach, thanks for coming. Great to see you. I wish you had seen a better one than that...we're just not there yet... it's gonna take some time..." ~
Outside of what I learned at the practice, and getting my questions answered, I love that moment after a practice. It just let's you know that no matter what level, no matter how talented the coach or the players are, no coach is really ever happy with everything....sometimes anything. In fact, for a serious basketball coach…worry is always on the horizon.
I once had the pleasure of seeing Bob Hurley run a coaching clinic. I distinctly remember him saying, "If it were up to me, we'd practice twice as much, and play half as much." It made immediate sense to me just how this man became a 3 time High School National Champion, and the father of one of the greatest guards to ever play basketball ~ Practice! But it's also about practicing the right stuff.
When I was a young coach, I actually thought I knew more than I think I do now. I have learned (the hard way) how not to run a practice...and I have learned (the hard way) how to run a practice. I guess I illustrate "The Hard Way" as the first teaching point any young, or inexperienced, coach kind of has to face. Every new coach kind of has to learn "The Hard Way." Whether it's because you are unprepared, trying to squeeze too many objectives into one practice, or you end up "Coaching" the Practice Away... It's just going to happen.... You have to learn "The Hard Way" - through experience, and defeat.
Contradictory to what we may tell players after a bad game, I think that it's good to beat yourself up about a bad practice if you're really trying to become a great coach. A great coach knows that the way he runs his practice is going to carry over to games. In fact, I would bet that any coach at the college level (or at least any good one) probably spends about ½ the amount to the same amount of the actual practice time planning the practice. For every 2 hour practice, I bet they spend at least, (at least!) 1-2 hours on what they are going to do that day - reviewing and revising the primary objectives, the drill sequences, what needs to be re-taught, corrected etc. And I have seen some 4 hour marathon basketball practices at the college level!
So the obvious assumption is: You need to have a PLAN! Yes, you should have a written plan of what you are going to get accomplished that day. If you don't, you're unprepared. It's that simple. That doesn’t mean you have to stick 100 percent to it (I’ll address this later), but I can sit for 2 hours before practice and have some great ideas about what we are going to do. And if I don't have it written down - Fughhheddaboudit! It's gone! I have learned "The Hard Way" as a young coach that going into practice without a written plan is like applying for a job without a resume ~ Stupid!
So the first part is obvious... Have a PLAN! The next part is: What's in it?
The first thing (another thing that I learned "The Hard Way") is to BE FLEXIBLE! (Alright, somewhat flexible). I had a very hard time with this early on...maybe cause I am so ebullient, but it was sort of l like... "I spent 90 minutes on this practice plan! We're gettin' it all in! Then I had to realize that the practice plan wasn't really for me. It was designed initially to prepare me, as well as to ease my anxieties....but the practice itself, and thus, the plan ~ is for my TEAM! Not me! And needs to be modified when necessary to suit their needs. Ohhh...
So how do you run a practice? Well, here's the first thing about whether or not you are doing it right... Just like the heightened moment before the ball goes up before the game, you're not really goin' after it if you don't start every practice with that twinge of nervous energy. Therefore, designing a practice should be exciting! And challenging! Ask yourself: If you, as a coach, aren't challenging yourself to run a better practice, why should you think that your players should be challenging themselves throughout practice to get better?
(90 Minute Practices!)
First off - I love 90 minute practices! I used to hate them…. I would think 90 Minutes! C’mon! No way that’s enough time to get what I need to get done! But I was wrong. 90 minute practices made me so efficient as a coach. And the team was receptive to that, too. They knew they weren’t going to be hangin’ around all night takin’ it slow. 90 Minute practices FORCE you to get it done! That’s why I love ‘em. Once I learned to adapt to them, I was actually able to get more done in 90 minutes, as the intensity of my practices, and the focus of the players improved significantly by knowing that we were going to start and end on time and we only had 90 minutes in the gym together.
First 3rd of Practice
First 15 (Lock in)....
As a coach, we're in our own head a lot. But once practice begins, your job is to get into their heads. So the first thing you gotta do is 1). Get em goin', AND 2). Get 'em locked in! (Not often easy to do with sluggish teenagers...) BUT the types of drills you do to start practice are imperative to the overall “getup” of your team. This is why I always start off practice with full court drills (no layup lines!).
By starting every practice with a series of full court drills, this allows the players to separate from each other – showing who is going at it with a fully charged battery, and who is draggin’ you know what. This also helps you, as the coach, get a gauge on who needs a boost, and if it is the usual suspect(s) not giving it his/her all.
Also, I have learned that it is helpful to engage each player by using his/her name in the first 15 minutes of practice… a “Let’s Go, Kevin…Pick it up, Jermaine” lets them know that you are engaged, and…you are watching – as well as it affirms their presence at practice to them – so that they are not thinking about something other than getting better at basketball!
Toward the tail end of that first fifteen minutes – (the last 6-8 minute) – I always incorporate a series of rotating station drills. They are usually very high intensity and very demanding, but allow the players to work on 6 very important fundamental skills that are all relative to what they would be doing in the course of every basketball game. Most importantly, This Approach Combines Various Fundamental Skills with Conditioning!!!
In summary: 15 minutes in, and the players are dying for a breather and a water break. That’s the way that I love to start practice. Of course, I always let them know that we can go through the entire cycle again, if they aren’t working every bit as much as they can be throughout the remainder of practice.
Next 15 (Inclusion)
I don’t like people standing around at my practices! That’s why I often set up full court drills on the side baskets and break down players into “Team Competition” groups and/or continue to beat our “Team Best” with regard to a setting up a series of full court team drills; i.e., Completing a certain number of 3 Man Weave Layups in 2 minutes. Or I’ll even do full court 7 on 7 no dribble drills (which forces players to cut, keep a pivot, ball fake, make decisions – pretty much the most important skills you will ever need to play basketball!
Oh, and by the way, this is a great way to FORCE players to learn how get open, space the court, cut, and even screen away before they even think about dribbling – which, in most cases, is a turnover waiting to happen anyway. Or we’ll do team passing (outletting) drills in to a transition drill, where each team has to complete a series of “clean touches” while cutting, moving, and coming to the ball. (You’d be surprised how much running drills in practice where players have to come to the ball will reduce your game turnovers).
Using a Stop Watch!
This is often the point in practice where I use the stop watch! A stop watch at practice is critical! And you should get used to using one if you don’t already. If your practices are starting to get boring, or are low energy, I promise you – bring a stop watch to next practice and start timing the players on drills and team competitions. If there’s one thing I know about kids – they hate to lose. So they will start to bring more and more of their best effort the more they hear…. “Get one more! 3…2…1…Switch!”
I’ll also often rotate players through a series of fast paced drills at each basket during the 2nd 15 minutes of practice. After you take the time to teach these drills early on in your first few practices, they’ll pretty much know what they are supposed to do. This is where you build in training partners throughout the practice – designating certain players to work in either groups of 2, 3, or 4 at a basket. This also allows you to get a handle on the makeup of your team. Do certain players push each other to get better, or do I have two goofballs in the same group? Are they trying to beat their personal best for “Mikans” or “Elbow Layups” in 30 seconds?
Create Your Own Drills!
I create most of the drills and group pairings that each training partner is to work in. This way, for the player to be successful at beating their personal best, they need to be reliant on each other. Just make sure you rotate your partners frequently – don’t let anyone get too comfortable with one or two partners. Just give ‘em enough so that they can work together and trust that they will be there for each other when the clock is ticking down – then switch up the partners.
This also keeps two players from dominating team drills (such as the number of “Mikans” in 2 min/rotating players ever 30 sec). These drills may require you to “rack your brains” a bit – but there are enough out there that you can steal if you have to. Try to create your own drills, though – even early on in your coaching career. This kind of growth can only be helpful to you as a coach. Personally, I like to design a fair amount of my drills. It FORCES me to work and be creative…(But I steal, or tweak a fair amount of them, too).
However, don’t show up to practice and try to run 5 drills that you’ve never done before in succession. Familiarize yourself with drills that you are comfortable with – simple drills that force players to be on the move – then build in your drills one or two at a time throughout each practice. And keep ‘em short (3-5 minutes to teach; 3-5 minutes to run). If they work, great. If not – move on to the next one you know well – that way, frustration levels are low, and practice keeps moving. The ultimate goal is to have practice, for the most part, begin to run itself! Where the players are in their own zone doin’ their thing, and all they (and you) hear is sneakers squeakin,’ your voice in their heads, and each other’s chatter throughout the course of the drill sets.
You can actually test how well of a self-sufficient practice you are running quite simply. Just by taking a step back and closing your eyes during a multi-dynamic (fancy word for a bunch of players doing different things at different baskets) drill set, you will be able to know how well you have “trained” your players. If you can’t take a step back from practice and do this – because your players need you 100 percent of practice – then you aren’t running the most “player based” practice that you could be.
If you feel the kids aren’t getting it (which is always a great site –15 kids lookin’ at you like you’re speaking a foreign language) then either the drill is too complex, OR (and most likely this is the case) you haven’t done a good enough job of explaining it. Often you won’t have to scrap the entire drill for next practice, but you can look at the various components of the drill, and see if there are certain aspects that are easy for the kids to get…then build ‘em in a step at a time throughout next practice, or over the course of the next few practices. But if the drill stinks – get rid of it.
The worst thing you can do is stick with a drill that either the kids aren’t getting, or is not being run correctly (Remember – BE as FLEXIBLE as you can be without compromising tempo or intensity). If you gotta stop 6 times to re-teach it, shut it down. Just say, “Ok, we’re not ready for that one today – let’s move on to….” But the middle 3rd of practice (30-60 minutes in) is the time to build in some new drills – when the kids are still fresh, alert, and excited about being at practice. Lastly, go back to the drawing board, and configure a way for tweaking or changing the drill so that it can be implemented. You build in a new drill every practice that focuses around of the fundamentals of your game strategy, and you defeat monotony, while having 20-30 new drills that you know either work or don’t work by the end of the season.
Middle 3rd of Practice - Next 15-30 - All about Objectives!
(Rotating and Combining Offensive and Defensive Drills)
In order to get better day to day, week to week, month to month, season to season, you should have a few (Not 10!) primary offensive and defensive objectives that you are going to address for that day or week – and then design (or steal) a series of drills so that your team can address those specific game situations that your team needs to be rock solid in – such as seeing the ball help defense, calling and showing on screens, closeouts, box outs, etc.! *(Remember – it’s better to go into great detail on 1-2 objectives than to skip through and just touch upon 10-20 concepts). This ensures retention and carry over to individual and team specific skills carried out by the players in games!
So once the team reconvenes, and since they are all reasonably fresh, I let them know what exactly we are focusing on…This way they also know what is expected of them. And they know the exact reason why we are going to run if we violate whatever objective we are putting in place that day. Things such as not calling out a screen, not dribbling loose balls, turning your head on the basketball, slipping behind a screen instead of fighting over the top, not looking inside immediately after we catch on the perimeter, not boxing out, etc.
Rotating Offensive and Defensive Drills
I will often rotate every other drill; i.e., a high intensity Defensive Drill with a lower intensity Offensive Drill. Defensively, you can’t really ever go wrong with man to man help defense (Hedge Drills, Rotations on Dribble Penetration, Ball Movement Principles, etc) as long as you are teaching principles and giving adequate reps so that the players know the expectation, and so that they know when they are doing it right or wrong. Offensively – this is where you work on your Press Break, Transition, Man to Man and Zone Offense. Lastly, one of the great things about Creating and Designing Your Own Basketball Practice Drills is that You Can Incorporate and Combine So Many Fundamental Aspects of the Game Within Just a Few Drills!
Using the “Tell-Show-Do” Method – (The method that all great coaches use)
If a player is to do something in a particular drill and they don’t do it correctly, then Tell ‘em what to do, Show ‘em what to do, and let ‘em do it – *MORE THAN ONCE! This kind of goes back to my experience with teaching individual skill drills. I have to remind myself that every time I go out with a player – no matter how many times we’ve worked out – that they often have no clue that they are doing something wrong. They think they are doing it right. They’ve been “executing” a certain skill movement wrong over and over for years. Then they say, “It doesn’t “feel” right. And I say, “Of course it doesn’t feel right! Because you’re used to doing it WRONG!”
It takes time (and continued reps!) for players to progress. That’s why I think Wooden was so enamored with his drills and Practice Organization. His outlook was always to be poised within games (what a thought!). He figured, if I prepared you well – then you should be ready. He didn’t blame players for screwing things up. He put that on himself. What an amazing concept for any coach! The simplicity of this thought process doesn’t make it any less challenging to Master. But to carry what you do in practice into games is always the most challenging aspect of coaching – and the disparity often exists due to inadequate repetitions in the practice setting.
Last 3rd of Practice
Next 15 – Breakdowns – Offensive REPS! (small groups)
Skill Work (15-20 Minutes)
So you’re an hour into practice, and it has flown by! You have met your objectives for the day, and the players have been working their butts off. IF there’s one thing I know about coaching basketball, it’s that 99% of all players stink at the fundamentals. They need work. They need reps! I have heard that it takes about 20,000 reps before you can do something without thinking. Well, as a coach, I have to build in these reps all season long, or else individual skills aren’t going to really improve, and ultimately – you need to be able to put the ball in the basket if you are going to be good at this game. Players tend to stay focused also when they are given extra offensive reps. So after they have been working hard to develop and understand our new daily/weekly team objectives, this is a great time to give them the extra individual reps that so badly need.
Having players get back in their groups of 2, 3, or 4 is something that they always enjoy doing – because it allows them to get the “Me Time” that they need in practice. It also allows me, as the coach, to take another step back and watch what each player is doing with their skill drill regimen – as well what each player in their group is doing.
Last 10-15 Minutes - Brief Scrimmage(s)
Scrimmage Situations
First off, we never just roll the ball out and scrimmage. There is always a situation – i.e., 24 sec. down 1, 1:30 left and up 4, Tie score with 1 minute left and no timeouts, etc. This allows me to address so many varieties of circumstances that might occur throughout the course of a game and throughout the season – and keep the players on their toes. This way, I am still teaching and they are still learning; I am still coaching and they are still playing – as opposed to being some arbitrary witness to some low energy meaningless game at the tail end of practice.
Wrap-Up
I try to stay as “Locked in” throughout practices as possible. And I make it a point to try to have about as much of my feedback be a ratio about 3:1 Positive to Negative. The more positive I tend to be, the more positive my players tend to be. And I want them to leave practice with a positive attitude. That Practice wasn’t just something that they had to endure, but that they really got a lot of great feedback and were an essential part of the practice going as well as it did. It doesn’t always work that way, of course. I have thrown more than a few players out of practice at the high school level for poor attitudes, giving less than their best effort, violating our team rules, etc. But that is quite often the exception. ‘
Most always, when we come together at the end of a practice, everybody is feeling good – like they did something important today. And they were part of something important today. As a coach, having my players feel good about themselves for giving their best effort, and continuing to challenge them to do that, is the most important part of coaching to me – and I try to reinforce that at every point possible throughout practices.
Getting to this point requires me, as a coach, to challenge myself to organize the best practice that I can. By Organizing a Better Practice, it not only helps me become a better coach, but also allows my players to have the opportunity to become the best that they can be, too. Therefore, as a head coach, it has become certain to me that Practice Organization is the most essential component to the success of our season. And that all has to begin and end with me.
The Art of Practice Organization
(Summary of Key Points)
1). Learning “The Hard Way”
2). Practice Organization
- Having a Plan
- Be Flexible – but Start and End on Time!
3). 90 Minute Practices
- Broken into 3rd’s
- Improved Intensity and Focus
1st 3rd (30 minutes)
First 15 – “Lock in”
- Use ALL Players’ Names
- Full Court Drills!
- Rotating Station Skill Work
- Condition with a Purpose
Next 15 – Inclusion
- “Team Competitions”
- Basket Breakdowns
- Rotate Partners
4). Using a Stop Watch!
5). Create Your Own drills!
- When and How to Build them in
- Player Based Practice
- Force yourself to “Step Back”
7). The Worst Thing You Can Do…
8). Objectives - Middle 3rd (15-30 Minutes)
- Organize Drills Around Your Objectives
- Details, Details, Details…
9). Tell-Show-Do!
- Adequate Reps!
10). Last 3rd (30 Minutes)
- 15/20 Skill Work
- 10/15 Scrimmage Situations
- Wrap Up (Positive/Negative Feedback)
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