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.

We believe that for ages 12 and under no zone defense should be played as a player to player or man to man defense better develops the individual skill related to guarding a player both on and off the ball.  Attached with this link are 18 different team defensive games for ages 9-12 that can be utilized to teach the core defensive concepts of proper stance, vision, anticipation, communication, and toughness.

Youth basketball State Tournaments and rankings have become widely prevalent over the last 10 years in multiple states.  If you have ever been at one of these events, coached in one of these events, or have been a part of a youth association board meeting where State Tournament participation and rankings have been discussed you realize quickly that parents have come to hold these events and rankings with some importance.  At Youth Basketball Development we believe these “State Tournaments” and rankings of youth teams ages 9-14 are detrimental to long-term development and participation in sport and have little bearing on future success.  We understand this may anger some but feel strongly that it is the truth for multiple reasons.

Research
Current research has shown that overemphasis on results and short-term success in youth sports (State Tournament Championships and rankings) may limit the benefits of participation, and could increase the risk of injury, burnout, and disengagement from physical activity.   Additionally, emphasizing short-term results at the youth level has been shown to lead to early single sport specialization and highly intense overtraining during childhood years.   State Tournaments and rankings are results and winning oriented.  As such, State Tournaments and rankings inherently put results and winning ahead of development and ahead of participation.  Research also shows that competitive success at the youth level correlates modestly at best or not at all to success at the senior level.

Parental Ego
State tournaments and rankings at the youth level are created by business organizations looking to generate revenue.  For a lot of parents we tend to value ourselves by how well our children do and that our children’s behaviors and accomplishments are a reflection of us.  Because the results of our children’s actions can sometimes be outside of our control such thoughts and actions can be toxic for ourselves and our children.  Additionally, children are very preceptive at picking up on our verbal and non-verbal energy and aim to please their parents.  If your energy as a parent or coach is tied to qualifying for or winning a state championship and improving team ratings our children will pick up on these cues and tie their own self worth to these results.  This leads to fear of taking on challenges, anxiety, and greater dropout rates.

Is it actually a true State Championship?
The short answer is no.  The State Tournament is used to determine the best team in a particular state and by definition is considered to be the top achievement in the state (again, this is heavily results oriented which at the youth level has been shown to lead to multiple negative long-term effects).  For a true State Tournament to occur all similar sized schools and associations in the entire state would participate.  In the vast majority of cases this is not the case as in order to participate a large entry fee may be needed, which inhibits lower income communities from participating, schools and parents may choose to opt out of participating due to travel and expense concerns, and in some cases your team may have needed to participate in a certain amount of prior tournaments owned by the organization running the State Tournament.  A youth State Championship is a championship by title only and not a true State Championship of importance.

Winning
Youth sports is about improvement, positive core values and relationships, playing with great effort, and fun.  Winning is important but not at the expense of long-term development.  Parents and associations that focus on small improvements and developing a work ethic versus results and winning tend to have competitive, growth mindset oriented, and high performing children.

Team Rankings
Businesses that are in charge of youth rankings do so in order to promote competitive balance, seed tournaments, and drive traffic to their websites.  These rankings are based on winning.  As previously noted a heavy emphasis on winning and results at the youth level is to the detriment of development and participation.  There are also many other ways to promote competitive balance.
When signing up for youth tournaments there can be different levels of competition of which to participate (A, B, and C or highly competitive, competitive, recreational, etc…) or tournaments based on school size (large school and small school divisions) which would not involve rankings.  Also, youth basketball associations have become heavily reliant on outside tournament organizations to run and organize tournaments due to organizational ease.  We recommend supplementing a few of these tournaments with “jamborees” by inviting two similar sized or competitive teams to your school and playing two games on a Saturday morning.  Parents and kids love it because there are less negative parental and coaching behavior concerns related to outcomes, they do not consume a full day, are cost-effective and easy to organize, and are competitive and developmentally based.
​
Summary
If your youth association does make the decision to participate in a youth State Tournament remind your coaches and parents that it is not a true State Championship, has limited bearing on future success, and we are emphasizing great effort, improvement, our core values, and fun over winning a youth tournament.  This should lead to a positive experience for all involved and greater long-term success.

​
References:
1.  Güllich A, Emrich E. Considering long-term sustainability in the development of world class success. Eur J Sport Sci. 2014;14(Suppl. 1):S383–97
2.  Moesch K, Elbe AM, Hauge M, Wikman JM. Late specialization: the key to success in centimeters, grams, or seconds (cgs) sports. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2011;21(6):e282–90.
3.  Moesch K, Hauge ML, Wikman JM, Elbe AM. Making it to the top in team sports: start later, intensify, and be determined. Tal-ent Dev Excell. 2013;5(2):85–100.
4.  Van Rossum JH. Deliberate practice and Dutch field hockey: an addendum to Starkes. Int J Sport Psychol. 2000;31:452–60.
5.  Güllich A. Developmental sport activities of international medalists and non-medalists—a matched-pairs analysis. J Sports Sci. 2017;23:2281–8.
6.  Cathey RM. Retrospective practice histories of expert and nov-ice baseball pitchers (Doctoral dissertation). University of South Carolina, Columbia. Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. 2010. [UMI No. 3413286].
7.  Barreiros A, Côté J, Fonseca AM. From early to adult sport suc-cess: analysing athletes’ progression in national squads. Eur J Sport Sci. 2014;14(Suppl 1):S178–82.
8.  Schumacher YO, Mroz R, Mueller P, Schmid A, Ruecker G. Suc-cess in elite cycling: a prospective and retrospective analysis of race results. J Sports Sci. 2006;24(11):1149–56.
9.  Brouwers J, De Bosscher V, Sotiriadou P. An examination of the importance of performances in youth and junior competi-tion as an indicator of later success in tennis. Sport Man Rev. 2012;15:461–75.  95.  Davids K, Güllich A,
10.  Ford PR, Ward P, Hodges NJ, Williams AM. The role of delib-erate practice and play in career progression in sport: the early engagement hypothesis. High Ability Stud. 2009;20:65–75.
11.  Elferink-Gemser M, Visscher C, Lemmink AP, Mulder T. Mul-tidimensional performance characteristics and standard of per-formance in talented youth field hockey players: a longitudinal study. J Sports Sci. 2006;25:481–9.
12.  Ford PR, Williams AM. The developmental activities engaged in by elite youth soccer players who progressed to professional status compared to those who did not. Psychol Sport Exerc. 2012;13:349–52.
13.  Haugaasen M, Jordet G. Developing football expertise: a foot-ball-specific research review. Int Rev Sport Exerc Psychol. 2012;5:177–201.
14.  Ward P, Hodges NJ, Williams AM, Starkes JL. Deliberate prac-tice and expert performance: defining the path to excellence. In: Williams AM, Hodges NJ, editors. Skill acquisition in sport: research, theory and practice. New York: Routledge; 2004. p. 231–5​
15.  The NBA and Youth Basketball: Recommendations for Promoting a Healthy and Positive Experience.   Sports Medicine 48(1) · June 2018

The practice of incorporating a dynamic warm-up routine for youth basketball players for ages 9 and up has become common practice.  However, there is wide variance in what is actually performed.  As coaches we want our dynamic warm-up routine to be simple and efficient.  Below, based on our literature review, are common concepts to incorporate in a dynamic warm-up along with two sample routines.  These routines could be done in a hallway or commons area prior to the assigned start of practice to allow greater efficiency of valuable gym time.

What to include for a 5-10 minute basketball dynamic warm-up:

• Balance exercise
• Hopping with proper landing mechanics instruction (feedback from coach is key)
• Light jogging and side shuffling
• Dynamic eccentric hamstring strengthening
• Core stability exercise

After performance of a dynamic routine we recommend at the start of your practice plan performing non-live basketball specific drills at increasing intensity to further engage the basketball specific musculature and nervous system.  Such drills could include ball handling, pivoting/footwork, finishing at the rim, passing, shooting, or progressive transition work up and down the floor with no defense involved (on air).

Example of an evidenced based dynamic warm-up routine:

1. One leg stance: one time right and left sides with five passes per player with partner.  Each partner is balancing at the same time and throws five passes each on each leg.
2. Pick one of these three hopping examples.  Two to three minute jump rope, double leg light bounds 2x10 with proper landing mechanics (soft landing with knees bent and knee alignment is straight without caving in), or skating hop 2x10 (five on each leg) with proper landing mechanics.
3. Light jogging at progressive intensity from 25% effort to 75% effort followed by moderate intensity defensive slides in space available each way for 2x5-10 second intervals.
4. Single leg eccentric hamstring windmill touches 1x10 each leg.
5. Push up or plank position 3x15 seconds.

The most extensive and researched dynamic warm-up out there currently:

If you are a youth coach or organization that is looking for what is currently considered the best researched and evidence based practice for a dynamic warm-up routine then we recommend the FIFA 11+Kids (link to manual).  This program, performed two times per week, has been shown to significantly reduce injuries in football (soccer) players as well as improve physical performance.  One drawback is the program takes 20 minutes to perform and for basketball we recommend not doing exercise 7 (roll over) based on the hardness of a gym or hallway floor compared to a grass surface.

Written by Katie Larson, PT, SCS, CSCS

This is a good link for six different finishing drills that can be used in a group practice setting. Finishing games for 9-12 year olds.