We have a lot of coaches who are just starting out and wondering how they should structure their practices. A lot of this will depend on what ages of kids you are coaching and the following outline is one that should be used for teams where practices are over an hour each time. That would usually be Junior High aged kids or teams that are competing at a higher level at an even younger age.

Use this set the first week of practice so that the kids get an idea of what is expected. Don’t worry about full court scrimmaging and I did leave some time off for conditioning.

15 minutes for Stretching/Warm Up Drills
15 Individual Defense Skills
20 Team Offense
10 Foul Shots
15 Set Plays/Inbound Plays or Situations
20 Offense vs Defense (HALF COURT)

2nd Week of Practice

15 Stretching
15 Individual Offense
20 Team Offense
10 Foul Shots
15 Rebounding
15 Full Court Scrimmages

Again, these are just guidelines and if you have more time I suggest you really focus on the defensive strategies as well as the offensive skills. At young ages the kids are like sponges and can take in so much. Don’t underestimate them and don’t be afraid to make them work.

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I spend a lot of time talking about offense because I love playing offense. Who doesn’t? There is nothing like scoring the ball in any sport whether it be a touchdown, a home run or a slam dunk. However, the older I get the more I realize how important defense is in the scheme of things. Let’s cover 3 practice strategies that coaches can use to teach sound defensive fundamentals.

1. JUMP TO THE BALL: This refers to jumping a half man to a full man over to the side the ball is passed to. By jumping to the ball you accomplish 3 basic things: a) the offensive player won’t be able to pass and cut to the basket with position on the defender. Basically it will stop the give and go. (B) The defender is able to play better help defense because you are officially between the ball and your man. (C) The defender is immediately more aware of the rest of the players on the court instead of just focusing on one player.

2. Cutters: Most offenses rely on cutters going to the basket. To effectively eliminate cutters make sure the defense is taught to always stay ball side half a man over. This won’t completely eliminate cutters and I’m not teaching to overplay the offense. Just understand that most offenses are taught to pass and cut to the basket. If you jump to the ball and bump the offensive player you will reduce the amount of succesful cuts done against your team. Practice this by running a basic defensive shell drill where players are only allowed to cut once they pass the ball.

3. Help and Recover: Simplify this by making it a 3 on 3 drill. Force the action to one side of the court with a point, wing and post player. This isn’t an offensive drill so make sure that defense is the sole focus. Once the goes to the wing, the point defender needs to jump ball side to avoid or stop the cut that is coming. Have the wing drive the ball any direction to see what type of help defense comes. The point defender should act as a deterrent should the wing player keep his drive alive. Work with the defense to make sure that no layups are allowed by someone driving all the way to the basket. Focus on the cutters to make sure they are not allowed. Make sure the defense plays to its strength and to it’s help.

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It’s time for another NBA season and we have a lot of question marks on players and a lot of sure things or so it seems:

1. Buy or Sell

The Lakers are the team to beat in the West.

The Celtics are the team to beat in the East.

2. Over/Under

Marcus Camby and Baron Davis will combine to play in 120 games this season

3. Who will overcome injuries to be a star again?

Al Jefferson?

Kevin Garnett?

Elton Brand?

Allen Iverson?

We have a ton of questions about this season and I came up with more when i started drafting my fantasy team the other night. We have so many sure things who are now question marks. Jason Kidd was drafted later than ever. Iverson was barely taken at all. Who is going to take their place in the league hierarchy?

I love the start of the season when everyone has high hopes and rookies play with a chip on their shoulders.

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I’m very excited today. I got a phone call from one of the most respected coaches in the history of basketball and I get to do an interview with him. I know that some of my audience hasn’t heard of Coach Wootten so I put together a bit of his resume.

•Enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Class of 2000
•Received Naismith Award as the outstanding male prep coach of the twentieth century
•With almost 1,300 wins and a winning percentage of 87%, he is considered to he the winningest coach in basketball history
•Has helped over 250 student-athletes receive a full college scholarship
•Teams have been selected national champs five times. won over 100 major titles, and been voted #1 in the Washing-ton. DC area 23 times
•National Coach of the Year four times and Coach of the Year in the Washington, DC area ten different years
•1991 recipient of the John W. Bunn Award presented by the. Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
•Initial recipient of the Disney Award as the top sports coach in all of the United States
•Chairman of the selection committee to pick the McDonald’s All-American team
•Heavily in demand as a clinician and teacher, he has spoken on five continents, in numerous foreign countries as well as most states in the USA.

Here’s a list of the ‘notable’ players he has coached:

John Austin
Keith Bogans
Adrian Branch
Mike Brey
James Brown
Kenny Carr
Sid Catlett
Perry Clark
Adrian Dantley
Ron Everhart
Danny Ferry
Joseph Forte
John Jones
Joe Kennedy
Sidney Lowe
Brendan McCarthy
Jerrod Mustaf
Heath Schroyer
Pete Strickland
Brian Westbrook
Charles “Hawkeye” Whitney
Dereck Whittenburg
Bernie Williams

Now you can see why I’m just a little excited to be interviewing Coach Wootten. When I was growing up and playing high school ball his teams were always the epitome of teamwork and winning. He has won 87% of every game he ever coached and nobody is going to reach that.

I’ll be conducting the interview next week sometime and it will be available at www.hoopskillsacademy.com

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I love analyzing coaches. I think most real arm chair fans enjoy thinking along with a coach and a strategy. It is so easy for us watching at home to yell stuff at the tv without taking into account practices, behaviors and other behind the scenes items. However, there are some behaviors that coaches have complete control over and we’ll cover those today.

1. Results without Practice: Just like in life you have to work for the victories that you get. Coaches have control over practices and what is covered there. Don’t expect a player who has never scored a basket in his life to all of a sudden put up 20 points. Practice is there to get your team ready and players ready to be effective when it comes time for the game. Don’t expect or hold your players to playing any different than they do every day when you see them.

2. Over Coaching: This is a big one. Let the kids play and trust what you have taught them. Over coached players play the game timid and looking over their shoulder. If you teach them correctly then let them play and turn into a game manager at that point. I’m not saying to not take opportunities when they are available but understand when you are doing more harm than good.

3. Under Teaching: How often do we see this? It goes along so well with over coaching because they are two different things. Take the time to teach, not coach, when the situation calls for it. Pull a player aside that has just learned by experience and reinforce the lesson. Stop a practice to teach and prove a point. Stop a practice to praise for things done right just as you stop practice for things done wrong. Kids have to understand the principle behind the teaching and give them a chance to figure it out.

4. People Pleasing: The best coaches aren’t people pleasers. I talked with Herb Welling out of Omaha the other day and I asked him his philosophy when parents come to him about playing time. He told me that he says “i’m sorry but your kid isn’t doing what is necessary to play right now” and he leaves it at that. Don’t ostracize yourself but don’t try to please everyone. Your job is to teach kids the game, to teach them to be responsible adults one day and then to win games. I know that not everyone feels this day but as the commercial says “99% of all athletes will go pro in something other than sports”.

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You hear a lot about the little things in basketball and how important they are. You’ve even heard it from me quite a bit. I mention Rick Majerus a lot when discussing these items because he pays such great attention to these details and it has earned him a lot of wins over his career. I’m serious when I say that if you watch a practice from Majerus he’ll compliment the screener or the cutter much more than anything to do with a made shot. Here’s my 3 keys that coaches can focus on that will naturally create a more successful season for your team.

1. Spacing
2. Cutting
3. Screening

Spacing is the key to a winning offense. It is the cause of more headaches for youth coaches then it gets credit for. Players have to understand how important it is to be properly spaced in the offense. Correct spacing leads to open shots and makes it hard to double teams to happen. If the double teams happen and correct spacing takes place then open shots follow. Coaches must always point out to players that one defender should never be in position to guard more than one offensive player. In a one on one situation the offense should win that battle most of the time so those are ok. How often though do we see games in youth basketball where 1 defender is effectively stopping 2 offensive players or an entire play because the offensive players are too far away. Some examples are not throwing a pass to a post when you are 3 feet away from him. There is just not enough space to make that play effective and you’ve put the post player in a bad spot. What about when a player goes to drive to the basket and another offensive player goes to the ball instead of drifting away from it to ensure the defense follows him. Just simple things that kids need to learn today.

2. Cutting: I know I can be particular about some things and cutting is one of them. In my opinion no cutting should ever be done slowly. If you want to be easy to guard then cut slowly to the basket or away from the basket to get the pass. Defenders hate to guard players who go hard all the time and who are physical. When I watch games I watch the wing players to look at how hard they cut and how hard they want the ball when coming out of a cut. Coaches can’t allow players not to cut hard and it may seem like a little thing but when kids learn correct habits at young ages they stay with them. When I worked out with Majerus he drilled me and drilled me about coming out of my cuts hard and with my hands up. I’ll cover that topic another time.

3. Screening: Nothing worse than trying to get open and the player who is supposed to screen for you just kind of runs through it or doesn’t even set up. Also, nothing worse than trying to set a correct screen and the offensive player doesn’t use the screen correctly. Let’s cover these two.

To understand how to set a screen just watch footage of John Stockton when he played for the Jazz. He set some of the best picks in the league and was allowed some leeway of course, but he picked players that were 100 pounds heavier and did it fearlessly. To be a good screener is like being a good defender in that you have to really want to do it well. Set yourself with a good base and never lean in to the player being picked. Stay still and don’t chase. Make sure that communication is used because that is key. Not only in talking to the player using the pick but coaching him when the pick isn’t used correctly.

Coming off screens is a different story and topic and would probably be better used as a completely separate article with some video footage associated. I’ll be simple when I say to coaches just to make sure that the screen is ready to be used before the player comes off of it or it is a useless part of your offense.

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I watch a lot of basketball and I’m amazed when i watch games how much coaches worry about items that they have no control over. I’m guilty of it as a player. In fact when i was a sophomore in high school I got over 20 technical fouls mixed in to my sophomore/jv/varsity games. Not good and I probably shouldn’t have even admitted that but the point was that I was worried about things I couldn’t control like the refs instead of just playing the game. Here is my list of things that coaches can control and should focuse on during a game.

1. Preparation: I believe that everything starts with preparation for the game. The best example is one that was close to me and that was Rick Majerus while at Utah. To watch him prepare for a game was amazing. He studied the opposition inside and out and knew tendencies of every player. He even knew what they would run when they needed a basket. Prep is so much more than this though. It encompasses being in shape and playing fundamental basketball. It is about a game plan and execution. Never underestimate the importance of preparation

2. Effort: Every coach has control over the effort of his players and if you don’t think you do then you aren’t a very good coach. The best coaches demand and get effort from each of their kids. I lead with preparation because effort is part of that. Players need to learn effort in practice as far as being expected and coaches need to demand it.

3. Offense: Coaches have complete control over the offense that is run during a game. Preparation again is the key here because the players need to have a solid understanding of the plan and what is expected. When i was in Jr High I shot the ball a lot but it was dictated by the coach completely. He even told other kids not to shoot the ball. We lost a lot of games as a result because the correct mindset wasn’t created with the players and no confidence was given. Make sure the players know the system and what the goal is of every single possession and that should be to have the highest percentage shot taken.

4. Defense: Just like offense coaches have control over the defense and what is called there. Like offense it starts with preparation. In fact this is no different then offense at all in that coaches need to express in no uncertain terms what the plan is on defense and how much effort is needed to be successful.

5. Subs: Coaches have control over who comes in and out of the game. That’s about it.

The reason I keep these simple is because I get a lot of questions about things that aren’t in a coaches or players control. Subs are controlled so worry about them but don’t worry about the opposing coach or how the fans are yelling. Don’t waste time worrying about the opponent throwing cheap shots or how bad the refs are. Worry and work on the things you can control and the game will become easier to manage and coach.

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