January 11, 2002, Newsletter Issue #40: EFFECTIVE PRACTICE PLANNING

Tip of the Week

A good practice should be well organized and well run. One of the best ways to achieve this is through the use of practice plans. Decide what you want to accomplish in your practice, how much time you will devote to each thing you want to do, then the drills you will use and how much time you will need to complete them.
Always take every practice seriously because the way you practice is the way you are going to play. If you don´t put much effort into practice, those habits will show on the court during the game. Practice hard and you will play hard in the games.
As often as possible, make practices competitive. Games are played to be won and lost, so the more competition you can have in practice, the more used to competition your players will be. Winning then becomes a habit.
When running drills, break your team into groups and spend no more than five minutes on a drill. You want to keep practices fast-paced and this will help. By breaking down into smaller groups, you keep everyone active and give them several repetitions in the exercise. By keeping the drill time short, you keep their interest.
Practices should rarely, if ever, last longer than two hours. Players have a difficult time maintaining focus beyond that time. You will end up accomplishing less by going longer
You might want to try doing your teaching of new plays during a pre-practice walk thru before the team is stretched and loosened up. Their minds will be more focused on learning. If they stand and listen too long after warming up, they will get tight and it might be hard to get them going again.
GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR COURT TIME. As we all know that it is invaluable. If you are going to put in a new offensive set and a new out-of-bounds play next practice, then at the end of this practice - distribute both sets to your players in hard copy to go right into their Playbook, and for them to know tomorrow. When tomorrow arrives, you call out your starters and toss your point guard the ball - and have them walk through it. In a matter of just a couple of minutes, you are now working 3/4 speed and discussing KEY components of execution such as timing, floor spacing and the sequence of options, as well as any decoys. You are now already running "live" against a defense working on the "new" set. This kind of time savings can happen with every single "NEW" set that you put in if you utilize your playbook properly. You will save at least 10 minutes of court time per new set or play. Add it up over the course of a season...
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For more info about practice planning , go to -
http://www.coachlokhoops.homestead.com/practiceplanning.html
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