Skill Development During Team Practice
Basketball season is here and I know coaches are concentrating on offensive and defensive philosophies and getting the team prepared for upcoming games. One thing that often gets neglected is skill development. Coaches often feel they don’t have the time to incorporate skill development in practice. Well, I beg to differ. If you are organized and plan out your practice you can get in about 20 minutes of skill development in your practices. I have a few tips below that will allow you to incorporate skill development in your practice.
1. Incorporate a drill or two to start practice – The drills to start practice don’t have to take a lot of time. They could take up a total of 10 to 12 minutes of practice. This is a great way to emphasize an area of improvement. If the team didn’t shoot the ball well in the previous practice or game, start with a shooting drill. If your team didn’t rebound the ball well, you could start with some rebounding drills.
2. Offensive breakdown drills – Before you get into your offensive dry run it will be a great time to have your team run some offensive breakdown drills. Whether you run a motion offense or flex, breakdown the offense into actions and split your team up on opposite ends of the floor or at different baskets. Have the players simulate offensive situations while getting shots they will get in the game.
3. Defensive breakdown drills – If you need to fine-tune your defense you can breakdown your defensive philosophy. Players not putting enough pressure on the ball, rotation is slow, or the ball is entering the wing to easy, you can easily break it down and work on each aspect of your defense individually. This can be done in 1 on 1, 2 on 2, or 3 on 3.
4. Transition drills – Transition offense is much like your half court offense breakdown. Break your transition offense down into actions and have players execute those actions or simulate parts of the transition for different shots.
5. Turn on the clock – Every team has a time limit and a small window to incorporate skill development into practice. To make this effective you have to be organized and have your practice well planned. One way to do this is to put a time limit on everything you do. This will keep you organized and you will be able to transition smoothly from one drill to the next.
CLICK HERE for sample practice plan.