February Practice Fatigue

As we reach February many youth basketball programs have been practicing consistently for up to three to four months and practices may have become somewhat monotonous for both players and coaches.  Below are five potential strategies to breathe some life into your practices.

Situation Games:  Add a 10 minute block to your practice where you play out various situations in one to three minute  mini-games.  These tend to be focused and intense segments that your players really enjoy. Examples can include:

1. Start from a free-throw block out situation and the game is tied with two minutes left and the offensive team is at free-throw line shooting one free-throw to start.  Game is live on free-throw shot.
2. Offensive team is up one and is getting pressed to start situation game with 90 seconds left in game.
3. Game is tied with 45 seconds left.  Start situation game from a baseline out of bounds or sideline out of bounds.
4. Offensive team is down three with the basketball with three minutes left in game.
5. Game is tied and offensive team has ball with 20 seconds left and must run an end of clock action or an entry.
6. Start from a jump ball situation at the beginning of the game to go over positioning and then play a two minute game.
7. Create the situation which needs to be addressed (press, press breaker, free-throw line situation, baseline out of bounds, sideline out of bounds, zone attack,  etc…).

Shorten Practice Time:  Keep practices intense and crisp but shorten them to one hour.  You will be able to keep your players attention better along with keeping the intensity high.  Sometimes less is more especially at this time of the year.  Additionally, by ending practice sooner it may allow you or your staff to work more individually with certain players on specific skills areas following the scheduled team practice time.  Your players will appreciate this individual or small group time.

New Drill, Game, or Set:  Add a new finishing at the rim game, a different competitive shooting game, or set which the players have a say in to give them ownership.  There are hundreds of different drills and games in our library at youthbasketballdevelopment.com or simply go online and search.

End Practice on a Fun Note:  John Wooden, in his book They Call Me Coach says, “End practice on a happy note.”  This could be done by doing your team’s favorite drill or playing some type of game.  For this reason we do not recommend running conditioning drills at the end of practice.  If conditioning is an issue there are a lot of transition drills to get your players up and down the floor with a ball in their hand along with working on team defensive concepts. ​

Cancel Practice:  Instead of having practice, cancel it and go as a team to your local high school or college game.  Emphasizing fun, life-long participation in basketball is important.  Having your team find a positive role model or group in basketball that they identify with and makes them say, “I want to be like them or I want to be a part of this group.” can be a very powerful motivator for long-term commitment and improvement.