Effectively Utilizing Practice Time

Ask the Coach -Q2

Dear Coach: I have been coaching 5th and 6th grade boys in a suburban town youth basketball program. The program is designed to develop the players skills, confidence, sportsmanship and is designed primarily as a league in which all players must play. It is geared more toward having fun and learning rather than competition. My dilemma is that the league has very limited space and time available to devote to each team. So therefore, as a team we only get one practice a week and only 1.5 hours to work with each week. My question to you is: How do I as a coach make the best of my limited time?

I have found that since I have precious little time to work with, I cannot institute offensive or defensive systems that are complicated in any way. Most of my time seems to be devoted to just the basics of basketball, which is important. However, I feel my teams are being held back in their development because they are not learning more involved components of the game. I know they could handle it if the time was available.
I was wondering if you had any suggestions as to how to maybe budget the time more wisely, or work around the time constraints that hinder my teams and my coaching.

Coach, Massachusetts

Your question is an extremely good question. One of the things that most young coaches aren't taught during their apprenticeships is how to utilize limited time and gym facilities. I faced this dilemma really for the first time when I went overseas to coach professionally. Many clubs around the world are restricted to one gym, and in one case we had 28 different basketball teams that had to split the same gym over the 5 days of the week. Needless to say, you learn quickly how to utilize your time.

First, you have made a wise decision in keeping your practices to the basics. Invariably modern youth coaches want to teach and run the same systems that Coach Calipari, or Lenny Wilkins might run. This is unrealistic and actually does most young players a disservice. I haven't seen too many 5th and 6th graders who are fundamentally sound in all aspects of the game. These are the formative years for young players. By jumping too fast past these basic skills your players will most likely learn them at a superficial level at best. By encouraging them to become fundamentally sound, you are honestly giving them their best shot at succeeding on the higher level. I have coached many talented players who were very one dimensional and only on the higher level were confronted by opponents who had practices those fundamentals for hours on hours.

My suggestion for making good use of your 1.5 hours is to be very organized. You should always have your practice fully planned and written on a 3x5 card or notepad. Since you are so limited with your time you can best take advantage of this combining drills. The more skills you can combine into one drill the better use of your limited time. For example; use your warm-up phase (perhaps ten minutes) to practice your fastbreak offense, rebound outlet passes, fastbreak dribbling, bank shooting, and get some good conditioning in as well.

Every week your practice should include elements of ball handling, shooting, passing, defensive footwork, rebounding, and team offense and defense. Here might be an example practice.
3:00 pm (10 minutes) - Fastbreak
   3 Man weave or 5 Ball Russian Drill (5 min)
     (see our Drill file)
   Your Fastbreak System (5 min)
                          (begin your break with a rebound drill)
3:10 pm (10 minutes) - Shooting from Team Offense Options
     (shooting from the elbow off a down screen)
            (lay-up drill off of a flex cut, etc)
3:20 pm (10 minutes) - 1 on 1 full court defense
     (offensive players work on dribbling skills
        such as crossover dribble, stutter step, etc)

3:30 pm (10 minutes) - 2 on 2 Half Court Help Defense concluding with boxing out.
            (the following week or in two weeks go to
                           3 on 3 Defense and eventually to 4 on 4 Skeleton)

3:40 pm (15 minutes) - Team Half Court Offense
     (first 5 minutes half teams divided running
                            5 on 0 to review patterns)
                          (second 10 minutes scrimmage half court with
       each team getting 5 possessions and then
              changing)
3:55 pm (5 minutes) - Free Throws and waterbreak

4:00 pm (20 minutes) - Scrimmage but with emphasis on Defense and
   Rebounding.  Team that scores gets to keep the
   ball and run a half court offensive possession.
   Good defense resulting in a score is rewarded by
   extra offense.
4:20 pm (10 minutes) - Game Competition (with this age I feel it is important
   to always include a fun game to end practice.
   If you need conditioning, have the losers run
   extra.  Shooting contests are usually a good idea
   because you get to practice shooting under pressure
   late in a practice when you're tired.  We always
   play against a clock or deadline (10 made baskets).
   It teaches young players how to deal with individual
   pressure).

You can help yourself a lot by meeting your team a half hour before their 1.5 hour practice time, and have them do some simple isometric exercises to increase their body strength and stability. This age is probably a little young to be doing any extreme amount of weight training, however basic muscle tone and strength can be significantly improved through isometrics. Do you stretching prior and after practice outside the gym. Any team talks you have should also be done outside of this practice time.

In that half hour you should also discuss with your team any specific technique in practice you want to teach new or to concentrate on. This will save talking time in practice. I have generally told my youth teams what they are going to practice, and that I need their help to accomplish this. Always keep your drills less then 10 minutes, even if they aren't getting the technique too well. If you have 3 or 4 days of practice a week you can afford to take more time. You don't have this luxury and you'll accomplish a lot less by getting bogged down in one drill.
Here are some other things to consider to help you with time as well. Why not meet your players off the court on a non-practice day and simply work on passing. Create passing games they might find fun. Got a tennis court close by...have them play two on two tennis with a basketball for example. And keep score just like tennis.

Many teams in Europe work with this age group teaching them good running technique. How about contacting a local track coach and having them teach your players how to run properly on one the days at a field nearby. As a professional coach, every single team I coached had two or three days a week of running and jumping technique training aside from regular practices. Learning a variety of athletic skills at this age is a definite plus for the development of motor skills.

How about having your team play soccer one day a week on a field. Soccer is a great conditioner, teaches good defensive footwork, and has many of the same passing concepts in terms of passing and moving, creating 2 on 1 situations as with basketball.
These are only a few ideas. Make sure you have a season plan (including pre-season, early season, late season, and post season), and you build your skills by early teaching basics and building to 2 on 2, 3 on 3, and 4 on 4 situations as the weeks progress. It will also be crucial to have your young players focused and concentrating. If any one player gives you a hard time send them home, for the day. It should be a privilege to play and not a distraction to other players. I have found with this age group that if they are not playing, while their friends are, their behavior improves pretty quickly.

You will find out very quickly if you can be a good coach and utilize your time by combining many drills to accomplish the teaching or learning of two or three skills at a given time. It takes a great deal of thought and organization but it can be done.

The Coach