Important Points to Consider When Planning a Basketball Practice
By Michael May
When you think about it, is there anything more
important in your coaching responsibilities and duties than planning an
effective practice session? John Wooden once said, "Failure to prepare is
preparing for failure." Obviously the level of player talent you have in
your program will be one of the strongest determining factors in the level of
success you will achieve. But where the rubber really meets the road in
utilizing that talent to its fullest potential is your ability as a coach to
create the most effective practice plan possible. Of course you can create the
greatest practice plans ever devised but they must be carried out with great
discipline and execution on the practice floor on a consistent basis.
Quite a bit of information has been written on how
to structure a daily practice plan. Keeping drills short, making drills
competitive, and having players move quickly from one drill to another are some
of the important points that can help maintain intensity and productivity on
the practice floor. However, when you look at the big picture, how do you
determine what to practice and when? This requires some serious thought and
analysis because there are a number of factors to be considered. From where do
you draw your information in determining what your weekly practice outline is
going to be? And what about the daily practice plan?
The Master Practice Plan
You are one step ahead if you have a general idea of
what fundamentals you are going to teach your team as well as when you are
going to teach them in practice. It begins with the first day of practice and
ends with the last. A master practice
plan is a schedule of all your practice sessions and an outline of what is going
to be covered in each of those practices for the entire season.
Practice time is precious as you all know, and it is every coach's goal to make
the most of it. A master practice plan will provide a foundation for the
season. It will provide you a reference point in creating monthly, weekly, and
daily practice plans. The master practice plan by itself is too broad and
general to provide the basis for creating a daily practice schedule. It is not
set in stone, but rather it is flexible because coaches have to be flexible.
Here are some benefits of having a master practice plan:
1. Creating a specific playbook--It allows you to be
organized in terms of defining your system of play for the season.
2. Having a better
understanding of your own system--It helps you to analyze and identify all the
individual component fundamentals that you want your players to learn.
3. Using the right tool for the
right job--It causes you to evaluate and update your list of drills that will
enable you to effectively teach those fundamentals that you have identified.
4. Preparing for the big game won't sneak up on
you--It gives you a better perspective of your whole season as it
unfolds.
5. If you are prepared, you
shall not fear--It provides the organization and preparation necessary to promote
confidence in the program to everyone, from the coaching staff to the players.
"I am not a strategic coach; I am a practice
coach." John Wooden
Bringing Technology Into the
Picture
It may sound a bit overwhelming to think about what
you are going to practice in February but February will come around all too
soon. For those coaches who have created a master practice plan and are using
it consistently, you will probably agree that the most difficult part of the
whole thing is creating the first one. But it generally does not change much
from season to season.
Using computer technology can make creating a master
practice plan easier. Using a word processor, calendar-maker, database, or
spreadsheet program can definitely help save time in a number of ways. It is
easy to make changes and modifications to your plan because it is stored as a
file in your computer's hard drive. All you do is open the file and go to work.
You can also make multiple copies of the plan at any time.
Creating a Master Practice
Plan
There
are different approaches to creating a master practice plan. The plan is
generally broken down into three phases: (1)
Preseason (2) Midseason and (3) Conference and Postseason. It is important to remember that what you cover will
vary from one phase to another. The following is a suggested procedure for creating
a master practice plan:
A. Playbook- This is where it all starts. You must have a specific system of
offense and defense in place before beginning any kind of practice planning. It
should include the type of team offense and defense you are going to employ,
special set plays, or special situations, etc.
Using a simple word
processor will allow you to create a playbook that you can edit, update, and
store in a file in your computer for easy access. Word processing programs make
it very easy to create a format that will make your playbook look truly
professional. You can insert charts to help you create categories or topics to
help you organize your system of play. You can even make multiple copies from
your computer to give to your coaching staff and players.
Here
is an example of a basic playbook that you can create using a spread sheet
program:
Offense
|
Half-court
|
Set
Plays
|
Full-court
Pressbreak
|
Half-court
Pressbreak
|
Man to
Man
|
Motion
UCLA Hi Post
Delay
|
#1 Fist
#2 Lob
#3 Cross
#4 Clear
|
4 Across
Drifter-Gap
|
21
32
|
Zone
|
Runner
Rover
Spread
|
Split
Stack
Diagonal
|
50
54
|
21
32
|
Defense
|
Man to
Man
|
Zone
1-2-2
|
||
10- 1/4 Ct.
20- 1/2 Ct.
30- 3/4 Ct.
40- Full Ct.
|
12- 1/4 Ct.
22- 1/2 Ct.
32- 3/4 Ct.
42- Full Ct.
|
B. List of Fundamentals: Once you have your system of play in place, it is
important to identify all the necessary fundamentals that your players will
need to know to execute that system in a game. Both team and individual
fundamentals need to be taken into account. If your offense against man-to-man
defense requires a screen-and-roll to be executed, then that involves two
players. This would be considered a team fundamental. You should also consider
physical conditioning such as weight training. Your ability to break your
system down to its component parts and identify the necessary fundamentals is
crucial in determining what you will eventually cover in practice.
You can compile your list
using a word processor. It is just a question of organizing topics and sub-topics
for categorizing the fundamentals. Using a database program is an even better
way to do it. A database allows you to create fields or categories to
specifically organize information. You could break the list down into
individual fundamentals and team fundamentals. Within the individual
fundamentals category you could create post and perimeter categories, etc. This
provides you an easy way to be highly organized and very specific in
identifying the fundamentals of your system.
C. Drill Directory: Earlier it was mentioned that having the right tool for the right job
is important when it comes to the use of drills. Identifying the type of drill
you are going to use to teach the specific fundamentals to your players is
crucial to your success. There are a number of factors to consider in choosing
which drills to use such as the number of players it will involve at one time,
the number of baskets necessary, etc. Once you decide on your list of drills,
you can then organize them into meaningful ways much as you did with the
fundamentals list.
Again a database program
will allow you to create categories such as two-man, three-man, four-man, and
five-man drills. You can categorize your defensive drills into zone and
man-to-man. Within the man-to-man drills you can create sub-categories such as "on
ball" and "off ball" defense.
D. Practice Calendar: The practice calendar will provide important information to you in
determining your overall master practice plan. The amount of practice you have
before your first game, stretches where you will be playing a number of games with very little practice time, and
the amount of practice before your conference opener are all important factors
to be considered. You also need to take into account practice time during
holidays, mid-term exams, etc.
A calendar-maker software
program is a valuable tool in laying out the entire season's schedule. You
could actually do it on a word processor but you would not get the same visual
effect as seeing the months, weeks, and days in a calendar format. The program
allows you to enter text in any specific day to indicate practice times, game
times, etc. After entering all your available practice times, you will then
have a better idea of what needs to be done in terms of covering specific thing
in practice.
Putting It All Together
Using the calendar maker program, you can now begin
to lay out a general plan of what you want to cover in your practices
throughout the season. Using your list of fundamentals, drill directory, and
practice calendar as references, you will have a much better idea of what you
want to do and when. Some coaches will put down the specific fundamentals to be
taught along with a few of the drills to be used. For example, December 12th-
On Ball Defense: Zig Zag Drill, Around the World One on One, etc.
An important point to consider when you are
allocating time for different aspects of your system is to decide what
percentage of time during a game you will use the things you are trying to
teach. In other words, it is important to spend the majority of time on the
areas that are used a majority of time in a ball game.
It is also important to remember that the master
practice plan is a general outline of things and can be and will be updated and
modified as the season goes on. That is the advantage of using computer
technology in your planning. It is very easy to update your drill directory,
practice calendar, etc. You are just a click of the mouse away to keeping your
program organized and on track. If it were only that easy with our players!
