How to run a youth basketball practice

3 Basketball Practice Plans for All Age Groups (7

“Players win games. Coaches win practices”.

Practices are the time coaches have the biggest opportunity to impact the basketball skills of a player…

However, I constantly attend practices that are inefficiently run.

The coach spends half of practice trying to work out what drill to run next.

All coaches should be spending the majority of their time encouraging and providing feedback to their players… not working out what the next drill is going to be.

How do coaches fix this and make practices more efficient?

Create a basketball practice plan.

Two of the greatest coaches of all time knew how important a practice plan was…

“I always designed my practice plans the night before and then made tweaks a few hours before practice began” – Bobby Knight

“I would spend almost as much time planning a practice as conducting it. Everything was planned out each day” – John Wooden

Having a plan for each practice is absolutely essential.

Here is how to do it:

At Basketball For Coaches, we break down a typical practice into 5 sections…

1. Dynamic Warm-Up/Body Movement
2. Skill Work
3. Team Strategies
4. Scrimmage/Small Sided Games
5. Cool Down

First, let’s discuss each section in more detail.

Later on we’ll break down how long you should spend on each of the sections.

And then I’ll share 3 complete practice plans that you can print off and use with your team.

This section of practice cannot be skipped.

Most youth teams perform a 2-minute warm-up before moving immediately on to other sections of practice.

When I watch youth basketball games, it becomes quickly apparent that the best players have fantastic:

• Balance
• Coordination
• Change of Speed
• Change of Direction

The players who struggle haven’t learned how to control their bodies yet.

It’s extremely important to help players establish an athletic foundation. With this foundation in place, it becomes much easier to learn new basketball skills as they progress.

This section of practice will help your players with much more than their basketball skills. It will help prevent injuries and will help them in all sports and movements of life, because as we all know, players shouldn’t be specializing solely in basketball at a young age.

Here are a few examples of body movement and coordination movements you need to incorporate into your dynamic warm-up.

• Jogging
• Sprinting
• Backpedaling
• Sliding
• Change of Direction
• Change of Pace
• Jumping
• Landing
• Lunging
• Skipping

The bulk of a youth basketball practice should be skill work. The drills should be fun and interesting while still improving the skill of your players.

This includes drills that teach players how to perform the skill movement correctly, along with drills that assist them to learn when to use the skill.

Drills that allow the player to learn when to use the skill are commonly skipped over.

Referring to shooting, this is a great quote by Jeff Van Gundy…

“Shooting percentage is just as much about decision making as it is about technique” – Jeff Van Gundy

This rule goes for all skills, not just shooting…

We need to put players in positions that require them to make decisions and gain game-like experience.

A lot of coaches will show players exactly what they need to do… they’ll give fantastic instructions, and the players will eventually look brilliant at training.

Then, the players will get 
into the game and it’ll look like they’ve forgotten everything!

Why does this happen?

Because they haven’t learned to play against competition.

We need to include drills that will teach players the technique, and drills that will teach them when to do it in the game.

I recommend splitting these two types of drills up 50/50…

Dribbling Example:

5 minutes of stationary ball handling and then a game of 1v1 in the full-court. 


Shooting Example:

5 minutes of shooting form and then 1-on-1 partner close-outs with the offensive player deciding whether to shoot the ball or drive.

Passing Example:

5 minutes of form passing and then a 10 minute game of 5 vs 4 keep-away.

While I list small-sided games at the end of practice, I still use them in this section to improve individual skills while making decisions.

“Perform drills that force your players to think” – Bobby Knight

BFC TIP: At the youth level, drills should be no more than 10 minutes long. The players will start to become disinterested after that time. Keep them short and fun!

Team strategies are the least important component of a youth basketball practice.

And in my opinion, they are not necessary for players under the age of 10.

The team strategies section of training includes:

• Offense
• Defense
• Set Plays
• Special Situations

If you decide to use this section of practice with your team, dedicate only a small amount of time to it.

Too many coaches steal practice time from skill development and spend half of practice helping athletes memorize set plays.

Remember that we want to teach our players how to play basketball, not give them a couple of spots on the floor they have to run to each possession.

So, I’m not opposed to teaching team strategies… I’m just opposed to spending half of your valuable practice time on it.

Only practice team strategy for the recommended amount of time, or less.

Scrimmages and small-sided games are very important to include in every basketball practice plan.

What’s the point in your players learning how to do a crossover with great technique if they don’t understand when to use it in a game?

Technique is important, of course… but allowing kids to practice when to use it is just as important.

This doesn’t mean letting them loose in a 5-on-5 game every practice…

Most of the game-play in a youth practice should be “small-sided”.

Small-Sided Games (SSG’s) have fewer participants on each team than a normal game. (1v1, 2v1, 3v3, etc.)

There are many benefits to using small-sided games with your players:

• More Touches
• More Space to Practice Moves
• More Opportunities to Score Points
• and many more

Small-sided games result in the players developing quicker and having a lot more fun!

If you have more than one ring and basketball available, play multiple small-sided games!

Another thing I love to do in scrimmages or small-sided games is incorporate rules to work on different skills.

For example, one of my favorite rules is the “no dribble” rule, which forces kids to read the play and make cuts to get open.

Without this rule, you’ll find it’s common for a youth player to take 5 or 6 dribbles with their head down before throwing a wild hook shot at the ring while 3 of their teammates stand around wide open.

The cool down section of your training should consist of a couple of minutes of slow jogging and walking up and down the court and then a few minutes of static stretching.

This allows the body to decrease in temperature and begin to flush out the waste products (lactic acid), amongst other things.

The stretching part of the cool down is a great time to talk to the players. We might talk about an upcoming game/tournament or how we felt practice went.

Now that you understand each section of practice, let’s work out how much time during practice should be dedicated to each section.

The first thing you’ll need to decide is if you’ll be implementing any team concepts like offenses, defenses, or set plays. If so, I still recommend only spending the listed amount of time on it.

If not, I recommend adding the extra minutes to skill work.

The following is how I generally divide up the minutes depending on the length of practice time you have.

60 Minutes
Dynamic Warm-Up/Body Movement – 10 minutes
Skill Work – 25 minutes
Team Strategy – 10 minutes
Scrimmage/SSG – 10 minutes
Cool Down – 5 minutes

90 Minutes
Dynamic Warm-Up/Body Movement – 10 minutes
Skill Work – 45 minutes
Team Strategy – 15 minutes
Scrimmage/SSG – 15 minutes
Cool Down – 5 minutes

120 Minutes
Dynamic Warm-Up/Body Movement – 10 minutes
Skill Work – 60 minutes
Team Strategy – 20 minutes
Scrimmage/SSG – 20 minutes
Cool Down – 5 minutes

This structure combines the technical learning of the skill with the practical application of the skill.

Too many practices overlook teaching players when to use skills.

3 Sample Basketball Practice Plans

7 – 10 Years Old (60 Minute Practice)

Disclaimer: This training session has been designed for a half-court, as most teams this young only have access to half the court to train on.

Practice Goal: Bringing the ball up the court against pressure.

Run each of the following to half-court and back:

1. High Knees – Bring knees to waist height while running.

2. Butt Flicks – Flick the rear with your heels as you run.

3. Grape Vine – Face side-on, step with the front leg, alternate stepping in front and behind with the rear leg.

4. High Jumps, Quiet Landing – Run forward, plant with two feet, jump as high as you can, land as quietly and softly as possible.

5. Zig Zag – Run to the right diagonal for a few steps, plant your outside foot, push off and cut to the left diagonal. Repeat.

Perform through to half-court, jog back to the baseline.

1. Lunges – Take a large step forward, keep the back upright and the hips straight, slowly drop down until your rear knee is just above the floor.

2. Squats – Take a few steps, stop with feet wider than shoulder-width apart. Keep the back straight, stick out the rear end, and squat down until the thighs are parallel with the ground.

3. In to Out – Take a few steps, lift right knee to waist height. Keep the hips pointing forward, and bring the knee from pointing forwards, to pointing sideways. Drop the foot back down, take a few steps, and repeat with the left knee.

4. Toe Grab – Take a few steps, put your right heel on the ground out in front of you, keeping your right leg straight. Bend down and grab onto your toe. Hold for two seconds, stand up, and repeat after a few steps with your left foot.

Run each to half court and back.

1. 50% Speed

2. 70% Speed

3. 80% Speed

4. 90% Speed

5. 95% Speed

Skill Work (10 to 35 minutes)

Setup:

Pair the players up (similar skill level). One basketball between two players. Spread out around the court.

Instructions:

1. Have the player with the ball jog and dribble in any direction. The other player acts as the defender.
2. At any moment, have the defensive player sprint and stand directly in front of the offensive player.
3. Upon this cue, the offensive player shall plant their front foot, push off it hard, and hop back to create space!
4. Have the offensive player change the direction they’re dribbling in.
5. The defensive player chases the offensive player, and steps in front of them again.
6. After 30-45 seconds, have the players switch jobs.

Coaching Points:

The defensive player isn’t trying to steal the ball, or truly pressure the offensive player! They are only there to help show the offensive player when they should be making this move. They are helping the offensive player learn.

Setup:

Pair each player with a similarly skilled teammate. Split the court into two playing with an imaginary line between the baskets (otherwise known as the split line, use cones to mark if you wish).

Instructions:

1. Starting on the baseline, the offensive player must dribble the ball across the half-court line.
2. If the defensive player steals the ball, they must give it back to the offensive player.
3. If the offensive player loses control of the ball or goes out of bounds, they must retrieve it and start again where they last had control of the ball.

Team Strategy (35 to 45 minutes)

Three Options:

• 1-4 Press Break
• Man-to-Man Defense
• 5-Out Motion

Scrimmage/SSG (45 to 55 minutes)

3-on-3 “Touchdown”

Setup:

The offense starts with the ball, out-of-bounds on the baseline. They must inbound the ball, and dribble and pass it to half court.

Instructions:

1. If the defense gets the ball, the game stops, and they become the offense.
2. The game begins again out-of-bounds on the baseline.
3. Once the offense get the ball to half court, they must place it on the ground, on the half-court line.
4. Another offensive player (who didn’t place the ball on the ground) must sprint to retrieve the ball. They then turn around and look to score on the basket.
5. Once the ball has been placed, the defensive team must all turn around and touch the baseline with their hand.

Coaching Points:

As coach, give limited feedback during the game! If you see a certain mistake three times in a row, give advice quickly, but spend most of your time observing. How they perform in this small-sided game should inform how you design your next training session!

Cool Down (55 to 60 minutes)

• Jog to the other end of the court and back.
• Walk to the other end of the court and back.
• Sit down, and do some static stretches.

The cooldown stretching gives the coach some time to have a conversation with the players about training, and potentially some quick information about the next opponent.

11 – 14 Years Old (90-Minute Practice)

Disclaimer: This training session has been designed for a full-court.

Pre-Training Talk (-15 to -10 minutes)

Before your time on the court begins, share a very clear goal for training with the players. Each training session should have a purpose. For a 90-minute training session, there is enough time to practice two “goals for training”.

Example goals:

• Passing Decision-Making
• Transition Defence

Foam Rolling (-10 to 0 minutes)

Once kids are 11 or older, I highly recommend that each player owns a foam roller for use before training.

Teenage years are renowned for growing pains, and as coaches, we can help our players by dedicating the last 10 minutes before entering the court to foam rolling.

They’re very cheap, and if a player forgets theirs, they can use their own basketball.

Roll each area for 20 seconds each:

• Glutes
• Between the back and the outside of the upper leg.
• Outside of the upper leg.
• Between the front and the outside of the upper leg.
• Front of the upper leg.
• Inside of the upper leg.
• Calf (lower leg)

Warm-Up (0 to 10 minutes)

Run each of the following to half-court and back:

1. High Knees – Bring knees to waist height while running.

2. Butt Flicks – Flick the rear with your heels as you run.

3. Grape Vine – Face side-on, step with the front leg, alternate stepping in front and behind with the rear leg.

4. High Jumps, Quiet Landing – Run forward, plant with two feet, jump as high as you can, land as quietly and softly as possible.

5. Zig Zag – Run to the right diagonal for a few steps, plant your outside foot, push off and cut to the left diagonal. Repeat.

Perform through to half-court, jog back to the baseline.

1. Lunges – Take a large step forward, keep the back upright and the hips straight, slowly drop down until your rear knee is just above the floor.

2. Squats – Take a few steps, stop with feet wider than shoulder-width apart. Keep the back straight, stick out the rear end, and squat down until the thighs are parallel with the ground.

3. In to Out – Take a few steps, lift right knee to waist height. Keep the hips pointing forward, and bring the knee from pointing forwards, to pointing sideways. Drop the foot back down, take a few steps, and repeat with the left knee.

4. Toe Grab – Take a few steps, put your right heel on the ground out in front of you, keeping your right leg straight. Bend down and grab onto your toe. Hold for two seconds, stand up, and repeat after a few steps with your left foot.

Run each to half court and back.

1. 50% Speed

2. 70% Speed

3. 80% Speed

4. 90% Speed

5. 95% Speed

Skill Work (10 to 55 minutes)

3v2 Around the Key (10 to 20 minutes)

Setup:

One offensive player on each block (side of the keyway), one starts behind the FT line. One defensive player starts under the front of the basket, and the other starts two steps directly in front of him.

Instructions:

1. Coach passes the ball to any of the offensive players.
2. A game is played until the offense scores or the defense has the ball (or the ball goes out of bounds)
3. Everybody chooses a new place to start, and the game begins again when the coach passes the ball.

Coaching Points:

When you’re coaching this drill, make sure to focus upon the decision making of their passing. We have clearly told the players what the goals of training are, and we must coach to that. If you give all kinds of different advice to the players, it’ll be difficult for them to take it all in.

‘Call Names’ 3v3 (20 to 35 minutes)

Setup:

Depending on numbers and space, play a 3v3 game in the full court, or two 3v3 games in each half-court.

This is a normal 3v3 game, with an extra rule to force the players to make passing decisions while they’re dribbling, not after they’ve finished dribbling.

Rule:

The ball-handler must call the name of the teammate they’re passing the ball to either (a) before passing the ball, or (b) before they pick up their dribble.

If a player passes the ball or picks up their dribble before calling the name of a teammate to pass to, it is a turnover!

1v1 Chase Down (35 to 45 minutes)

Setup:

Pair the players up into similar speed levels. The offense starts a few steps onto the court, either on the left or right side of the court. The defense starts a step or two behind.

Depending on the speed of the defensive player and the speed dribbling ability of the offensive player, you’ll need to adjust where they begin.

Instructions:

1. The coach blows his whistle, and the offense begins speed dribbling towards the basket at the opposite end.
2. The defense has to sprint and get in front of the offensive player.
3. Play until either the offense scores or the defense has the ball (or the ball goes about of bounds).

Balance the Floor 3v3 (45 to 55 minutes)

Rules:

If you’re below the free-throw line when a shot is attempted, go for the rebound!

If you’re above the free-throw line when a shot is attempted, sprint back onto safety!

When either team has the ball, it is a normal game of 3v3.

Instructions:

Once a shot is taken, the offensive players must either:

(b) Sprint back towards the half-court line if they’re above the FT line

(a) Sprint to the basket and attempt to make a rebound if they’re below the FT line.

If the defense gets the ball, the drill stops, and everybody freezes. If the offense gets the ball, they may shoot it again and continue to play.

Once the defense gets the ball (and everybody freezes), the coach can observe how the offense (who have just become defense) have ‘balanced the floor’.

Team Strategy (55 to 70 minutes)

Three Options:

• 4-Out 1-In Motion
• Run and Jump Defense
• Princeton Offense

Scrimmage/SSG (70 to 85 minutes)

Play a full-court game, with as many players as you have!

Ideally 5v5, but 4v4 or 3v3 would work too.

To help the game express the goals of training that we have been working on (passing decision-making, transition defense), we will add an extra rule.

Rule: If you shoot the ball, you must touch the baseline before rejoining the play!

This rule puts more pressure on defensive transition than a normal game, and therefore they’ll have to do a better job to be able to prevent an easy fast-break basket for the opponent.

The momentary 5v4 advantage for the offense also allows more opportunities to display their passing decision-making.

Cool Down (85-90 minutes)

• Jog to the other end of the court and back.
• Walk to the other end of the court and back.
• Sit down, and do some static stretches.

The cooldown stretching gives the coach some time to have a conversation with the players about training, and potentially some quick information about the next opponent.

15 – 18 Years Old (120-Minute Practice)

Disclaimer: This training session has been designed for a full-court.

Pre-Training Talk (-15 to -10 minutes)

Before your time on the court begins, share a very clear goal for practice with the players. Each basketball practice should have a purpose. For a 120-minute session, there is enough time to practice three ‘goals for training’.

Example Goals:

• 1v1 Finishing
• Full Court Man to Man
• Defensive Rebounding

Foam Rolling (-10 to 0 minutes)

Once kids are 11 or older, I highly recommend that each player owns a foam roller for use before training.

Teenage years are renowned for growing pains, and as coaches, we can help our players by dedicating the last 10 minutes before entering the court to foam rolling.

They’re very cheap, and if a player forgets theirs, they can use their own basketball.

Roll each area for 20 seconds each:

• Glutes
• Between the back and the outside of the upper leg.
• Outside of the upper leg.
• Between the front and the outside of the upper leg.
• Front of the upper leg.
• Inside of the upper leg.
• Calf (lower leg)

Warm-Up (0 to 10 minutes)

Run each of the following to half-court and back:

1. High Knees – Bring knees to waist height while running.

2. Butt Flicks – Flick the rear with your heels as you run.

3. Grape Vine – Face side-on, step with the front leg, alternate stepping in front and behind with the rear leg.

4. High Jumps, Quiet Landing – Run forward, plant with two feet, jump as high as you can, land as quietly and softly as possible.

5. Zig Zag – Run to the right diagonal for a few steps, plant your outside foot, push off and cut to the left diagonal. Repeat.

Perform through to half-court, jog back to the baseline.

1. Lunges – Take a large step forward, keep the back upright and the hips straight, slowly drop down until your rear knee is just above the floor.

2. Squats – Take a few steps, stop with feet wider than shoulder-width apart. Keep the back straight, stick out the rear end, and squat down until the thighs are parallel with the ground.

3. In to Out – Take a few steps, lift right knee to waist height. Keep the hips pointing forward, and bring the knee from pointing forwards, to pointing sideways. Drop the foot back down, take a few steps, and repeat with the left knee.

4. Toe Grab – Take a few steps, put your right heel on the ground out in front of you, keeping your right leg straight. Bend down and grab onto your toe. Hold for two seconds, stand up, and repeat after a few steps with your left foot.

Run each to half court and back.

1. 50% Speed

2. 70% Speed

3. 80% Speed

4. 90% Speed

5. 95% Speed

Skill Work (10 to 70 minutes)

‘Read the Help’ (10 to 20 minutes)

Setup:

Spread the offensive players out to both ends of the court. Each player should have a basketball. To work on right-handed finishing, line the offensive players up, outside the 3pt line, in line with the right-hand side of the key-way. One player begins on the left block.

Instructions:

1. The first player in line should stand in triple threat position. To quickly begin their dribble, they throw the ball down towards their right-hand side, and drive to the basket.
2. The extra player on the left block will give one of three different signals, to inform the driving player which finish they should attempt.
3. If the player on the left block runs and stands directly underneath the basket, the offensive player should make a powerful move, directly to the basket, and finish as high as possible.
4. If the player on the left block runs and stands between the driver and the basket, outside of the charge circle), the driver should shoot a short ‘floater’ over the top of the defender’s head, without running into them (if your court has no charge circle, have them stand a 4-5 feet in front of the basket).
5. If the player on the left block runs across the keyway to the right block, the driver should make a ‘change of direction’ move with their footwork, and finish on the left-hand side of the basket. An example of this type of move would be a ‘euro-step’ or a ‘pro-hop’.

1v1 ‘Ball on Back’ (20 to 30 minutes)

Setup:

The defender starts by standing on the 3pt line, facing the basket. The offensive player stands behind the defender and places the ball upon the defenders back.

Instructions:

1. The drill begins when the offensive player takes the ball off the defensive player’s back.
2. Play until either the offensive player scores or the defensive player gets the ball.
3. The defender facing away provides the offensive player an advantage, which they can take with a fast, decisive move to the basket!

2v2 ‘Rugby’ (30 to 45 minutes)

Setup:

The ball starts out of bounds on the baseline.

Instructions:

1. The offensive inbounder must pass the ball into the court to his teammate.
2. After this first pass, the offensive team may only pass backwards.
3. The goal is to get the ball into the key-way at the other end of the court.
4. The defensive team must work on having a player closely guarding the ball. His teammate should be behind the line of the ball, narrowing the space that the offensive player has to dribble.

3v3 ‘Hockey’ (45 to 60 minutes)

Setup:

This is a game of 3v3 in the full court, with one extra rule which allows the defense to apply more full-court pressure.

Rule:

Borrowing from Ice Hockey’s ‘off-side’ rule, the offensive ball-handler must be the first offensive player to cross the half-court line. Before the ball is dribbled across the half-court line, no other offensive player may be in the front half of the court.

This prevents offensive players from sprinting ahead for easy long passes, and allows the defense to practice their full-court defense more effectively.

Find, Hit, Get (60 to 70 minutes)

Setup:

Two players start on the top corners of the keyway (offence), and another two players start on the blocks (defence).

Instructions:

1. Coach shoots the ball from the foul-line.
2. Once the ball is shot, all 4 players can move to rebound.
3. Upon the shot, the two defensive players yell:
   “FIND!”, and run towards the offensive players.
   “HIT!”, and make contact with the offensive players.
   “GET!”, and attempt to rebound the ball.
4. Whichever team gets the ball becomes offence, and attempt to score on the basket the ball was just shot upon.
5. Players rotate positions after either team has scored.

Team Strategy (70 to 90 minutes)

By the time your players are 15 or older, they’ll need a couple of set plays to score with.

If you do not already have a few plays up your sleeve, check out this link below.

28 Basketball Plays to Dominate Any Defense

When practicing set plays, make sure to use all the players you have available!

5v0 might make your plays look great, but they won’t look great once you get to the game!

Practice your plays with defenders.

To begin with, have them not steal the ball or try and blow up your play, but make sure you build towards practicing your plays against a live defence!

If you only have 8 players at training, 3 defenders is better than 0 defenders!

Scrimmage/SSG (90 to 115 minutes)

With 3 different focuses for this training session, we can use small-sided games or 5v5 scrimmages to apply what we have learned to a game!

3v3 Small-Sided Game (90 to 100 minutes)

To emphasize finishing on the basket, we will change the scoring system!

Play either until a certain score, or for an amount of time.

Scoring System:

• Score inside the bottom half of the keyway= 3 points.
• Score inside the top half of the keyway= 2 points.
• Score inside the 3pt line, but outside of the keyway= 1 point.
• 3pt Basket = 0 points, but the opponent’s score goes back to 0.

Making mid-range baskets only worth 1 point will encourage players to keep driving, and not settle for pull-up jump-shots.

Creating a large consequence for the defense giving up a made 3pt shot will cause them to close out harder, creating more driving opportunities for the offense.

5v5 Scrimmage (100 to 115 minutes)

To focus on full-court defense and rebounding, we introduce two simple rules to influence how the game is played.

Rule 1:

Once the defense first gets the ball (on a made basket, a rebound, or a steal), the player who has the ball must place it upon the ground. Another teammate shall run across and pick up the ball, and the game shall resume. The new defense cannot defend the ball until it has been picked up by the other team. This gives the defense a chance to set up their full-court defense, on every change of possession.

Rule 2:

If the offensive team gets an offensive rebound, they get a “power-play”. They have a free chance to score, without any threat of losing the ball. Once the defense has the ball (on a rebound or a steal), the game stops, and the offense get the ball back.

Coaching Points:

We recommend that you play mini-games, and coach in between each game. Play until either team has scored two baskets. After the mini-game, bring the teams in, and coach them for 30-45 seconds. Make substitutions, and send them back out onto the court!

Coach in dot-points, not paragraphs.

Cool Down (115 – 120 Minutes)

• Jog to the other end of the court and back.
• Walk to the other end of the court and back.
• Sit down, and do some static stretches.

The cooldown stretching gives the coach some time to have a conversation with the players about training, and potentially some quick information about the next opponent.

The biggest thing I want you to take away from this article is that you need a basketball practice plan for every practice.

A planned practice is more efficient, your players will improve quicker, and you’ll be a far better coach.

Sample Youth Practice Schedule (Ages 11 to 14)

Home > Coaching > Coaching Youth Basketball > Sample Youth Practice Schedule (Ages 11 to 14)

Here is a sample structure of a practice schedule for a youth team. Of course, this is just a sample and things would be different every day, but this is a basic structure of how a practice may look.

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1. Dynamic Warm Up & Athletic Work - 10 to 15 minutes

   This is probably the #1 thing missing from most youth practices. It helps prevent injury, improves performance, and improve athletic ability. What good is a basketball player who is injured or is not athletic enough to utilize the basketball skills developed? The better the player moves, the better the player performs. Why not spend time on it?

   There are a lot of players who have tremendous SKILLS, but lacked the ATHLETIC ability to make it to the next level.

   Because it is the game of basketball, I do try to include a basketball in the warm up as much as possible. I am going to present two different dynamic warm ups. If you are fortunate enough to have enough basketballs for everybody, we have a basketball-related warm up. For those of you who do not have very many basketballs, we include a warm up that does not require a basketball.

2. Teaching Skills and Using Fun Drills to Improve Skills - 30 to 45 minutes

   The #1 reason kids quit sports is because it's not fun anymore. Youth coaches primary focus should be to teach skills and make it an enjoyable experience! This isn't high school, college, or even PRO basketball, so don't treat your practices like it.

   Try the skill-fun drill technique. This means that you teach a skill, then follow up that skill with a fun game or drill to work on the skill. It helps break up the monotony of practice.

3. Drills & Games to Practice Offense and Defense - 15 to 25 minutes
4. End of Game Drill - 10 to 20 minutes
5. Cool down with Light Stretching - 5 minutes

Sample Practice Schedule

Dynamic Warm Up & Athletic Work - 15 minutes

Teaching Skills and Using Fun Drills to Improve Skills - 40 minutes

• Two Ball Dribbling Drills - 5 minutes
• Form Shooting - 5 minutes
• Two Ball Shooting - 5 minutes
• Knock Out and Water Break - 5 minutes
• Teaching Motion Situations (Motion Drills - 2 on 2 & 3 on 3 work) - 10 minutes
• Wing - 1 on 1 - 4 minutes
• Defense Reaction & Conditioning Drill - 2 minutes
• Free Throws & Quick Water Break - 4 minutes

Drills & Games to Practice Offense and Defense - 25 minutes

• No Dribble Keep Away - 5 Minutes
• 4 on 3 - Overload Drill - 5 Minutes
• 4 on 4 - 5 minutes (Emphasize rules and teaching skills - after pass to wing, you must screen away. Similar to Situations Drill below.)
• 5 on 4 - Overload Drill - 5 minutes
• Situations Drill - 5 minutes

End of Game Drill - 10 minutes

Use the end of game drill to end practice in a fun fashion. It also gets players accustomed to end of game situations.

Cool down with Light Stretching - 5 minutes

Some teams do this after practice.

You can also reference Bob Bigelow's Middle School Drills & Coaching Videos, What to Teach 11 to 14 Year Olds, 57 Kids Basketball Drills and Skills & Fundamentals

Do you have any questions or suggestions? Let us know by leaving your comments...

How to create a children's training plan

Many times, visiting the training of children's teams in Ukraine and Portugal, I have seen and still see that most coaches do not have a pre-prepared training plan in their pocket. For some trainers, exercises last 20-25 minutes each. The coach thinks that this is how he achieves the successful completion of this exercise, not realizing that the players get bored doing the same action for a long time, and they lose interest and concentration. It was very rare that I saw a coach reach into his pocket and, having taken out a training plan, look at what was next in his training and what time was allocated for the next exercise. And it is very important whether this exercise is suitable for the age and technical preparedness of your players.
On this occasion, I would like to offer you an article by American basketball blogger Coach Mac - How to Create a Youth Basketball Practice Plan and a statement by leading coaches.

"Players win games. Coaches win practice." Practice is the time when coaches have the greatest opportunity to influence a player's basketball skills... However, I've attended practices so irrationally run that half of the coaching session is just trying to figure out which drill to do next.
All coaches should spend most of their time encouraging and providing feedback to your players. How can a coach fix this and make training more effective? We create a basketball practice plan.

Here are just a few quotes from great coaches that highlight the importance of having a plan to follow in a workout

"I always prepare my plan the night before a workout and then make adjustments a few hours before the workout starts" - Bobby Knight . "I spend almost as much time planning a workout as I do the workout itself. Everything is planned for every day" - John Wooden. Knowing how important it is to have a plan for every workout, let me show you the structure you should use to plan every workout.

Workout structure
We break down a typical workout into 5 sections ...
1. Dynamic warm-up / body movements
2. Mastery work
3. Team strategies
4. Small group games / games
5. Cool down
First, let's look at each section of the structure in more detail, and then later on, consider how much time you should spend on each of the sections.

Dynamic warm-up / body movements

Unfortunately, many of the children's basketball coaches are quickly released from this section. They have their team drills done in 2 minutes of dynamic warm up and immediately move on to other sections of the workout. When I watch children's games, it becomes obvious that the best players have fantastic balance, coordination and speed and change directions quickly accordingly. And there are those players who are struggling, trying, but who have not yet learned to control their body properly. It's extremely important that we help players build a sports base early on. With this foundation, it becomes much easier to learn new basketball skills as they progress. This workout section will help your players much more than their basketball skills. This will help them avoid injury and help in their movements in life. Here are some examples of body movements and coordination moves to include in your dynamic warm up.
- Jogging
- Sprinting
- Back Pedaling
- Side Stepping
- Changing Direction
- Changing Pace
- Jumping
- Landing
- Lunging
- High Knee Running
For more information on the best body movement exercises you must use Alan Stein's YouTube channel.

Skill work
Individual technique work should take up most of the training time at the level of the children's basketball team. Training should be fun and interesting, and at the same time improve the skills of your players. This includes drills that teach players how to properly perform skill skill moves, along with drills that help them learn when and how to use that skill. Drills that allow the player to learn when and how to use this skill are generally skipped.

As for throws, there's a little quote from Jeff Van Gundy ... Shooting hit percentage depends as much on the player's decision making as it does on his throwing technique - Jeff Van Gundy

This rule applies to all skills, not just throws. We need to put players in positions that require them to make decisions and learn from experience.
Here's a simple example to explain my point of view on the drill... Many trainers will practice the V-snatch to open up on the perimeter. They will show the players how to sprint, footwork to cover their defender and then rush in to get the ball. They will even show their players how to grab the ball and use 1- or 2-hit dribbles to complete a jump shot or double step shot. But when a player gets into a real game, and although he knows his rushing technique and footwork pretty well, he can't open up and get the ball. Why? Because they haven't learned when and how to use movement in competition. They didn't have enough experience with a defender to know when and how to rush behind the back and get the ball, etc. The bottom line is that we should include drills that teach the players' individual technique, and definitely drills that will allow them to gain experience on when and how to use it competitively. I recommend trying and splitting these two types of drills 50/50. Dribbling is an example: 5 minutes of steady ball handling and then a 1 on 1 game of hard tackling. Throws - example: 5 minutes of throwing technique and then 1 on 1 with a partner entering a defensive position where the thrower should decide whether to shoot or pass. Passing - example: 5 minutes of passing technique and then 10 minutes of 5 vs 4 play, so the attacking team has the advantage and will always have one player open. When I flip through games in small squads at the end of a workout, I still use them in this section to improve individual decision making skills. "Perform exercises that make your players think" - Bobby Knight.

TIP: At the youth basketball level, exercises should be no longer than 10 minutes. Players become uninterested in completing after this time. Keep the exercises short and fun!
Team strategy. Let me start by saying that "team strategy" is by far the least important part of kids' basketball training, and in my opinion not essential for players under the age of 10.

Training section *Team strategy* includes:

- Attack.

- Protection.

- Game schemes for attacking.

- Special situations.

If you decide to use this section of the training session with your team, please allow only a small amount of time for it. I see way too many coaches stealing practice time from skill development and spending half the practice helping players remember where they need to be for multiple play formations. Remember, we want to teach our players how to play basketball, not give them a couple of spots on the floor where they have to work every time they have the ball. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind teaching team strategy to players. - I include it in my basketball training. - I'm opposed to wasting half of your precious training time on this.

Team Wrestling and Small Team Games

These two sections are very important for every workout. What's the point of your players learning how to crossover with great technique if they don't understand when and how to use it in the game? The technical side of the performance is important, but it is also very important that allows children to use this technique in the game. This doesn't mean letting them loose in a 5-on-5 game in every practice though (even if this is indeed the case). One-sided games with a small composition include games 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, etc.

There are many benefits to using mini-games for your players including:

- Touching the ball more times.

- More space for movement training.

- More opportunities to hit the ball in the basket.

- And much more.

All of these benefits help players develop faster and have more fun! So if you have more than one hoop and enough balls, use them and play in small formations using all the baskets in your court. Another thing I like to do in 5v5 and small team games is to apply different rules to work on different skills. For example, one of my favorite rules is "no dribbling". It forces the kids to read the game and make tugs to open up. Without this rule, you will find a common youth habit of a player dribbling with 5 or 6 head down dribbles before throwing a wild hook into the basket while 3 of his teammates are standing wide open.

Cool Down

Cool Down - This part of your training should consist of a few minutes of slow jogging and walking up and down the gym, followed by a few minutes of static stretching. This allows the body to lower its temperature, and static stretching aids in flushing out waste products (lactic acid), among other things. I find stretching part of the cooldown important for communicating with the players. We could talk about the upcoming game/tournament or how we feel about our practice.

Structure of the Workout Plan

Now that you understand each section of the workout, let's talk about how much time during the workout should be dedicated to each section. Below is how I distribute minutes depending on the duration of the workout.

60 minutes

Dynamic Warm-up / Body Movement - 10 minutes
Skill Work - 25 minutes
Team Strategy - 10 minutes
Team Wrestling / SSG Small Squads - 10 minutes
Cool Down - 5 minutes

90 minutes

Dynamic Warm Up / Body Movement - 15 minutes
Skill Work - 45 minutes
Team Strategy - 10 minutes
SSG Team Wrestling and Small Squads - 15 minutes, Cool Down - 5 minutes

120 minutes

Dynamic Warm-up / Body Movement - 20 minutes
Skill Work - 60 minutes
Team Strategy - 15 minutes
SSG Team Wrestling and Small Squads - 20 minutes
Cooldown - 5 minutes
Using this structure, I believe that it combines the teaching of individual technical skills with the practical application of these skills.

A Final Word on the Workout Plan
The biggest thing I want you to take away from this article is that you need a workout plan always and for every workout.
By using your training more effectively, your players will learn to play technically and effectively faster and you will look much better as a coach.
I want to hear from you. What do you think is the biggest benefit of planning and writing a kids basketball practice plan?
V. Melnychuk translated 12/07/2016.

Schoolchildren in professional clubs. One step closer to the goal…

League News

October 10, 2019

2289

For many, school basketball is not just a hobby, it is the beginning of a great professional path for athletes. In the 2014-2015 season For the first time, the best players of the Superfinal of the IES-BASKET SBL Championship received tickets to the training camps of professional basketball clubs. Since then, awarding tickets to the best players of the Superfinal has become a good tradition of the IES-BASKET SBL Championship project. In the 2018-2019 seasongg. Both boys and girls received tickets.

Alexandra Pilyaeva (ShBK Kometa, Oryol Region), Daria Merzlaya (ShBK Fakel, Arkhangelsk Region) went to the sports club "MBA" (Moscow) and received a ticket to the sports club "Dynamo" (Novosibirsk region), Elizaveta Korshunkova (ShBC "Phoenix", Ivanovo region) trained with the players of BC "Samara" (Samara region), the best center of the Championship Ekaterina Ivanova (SHBC "Olga & K", Samara region) was invited to the BC "Academy" (Perm Territory).

Alexander Kuznetsov from the Oreshki Sports Club (Mari El Republic) was invited to try his hand at the Nizhny Novgorod Sports Club (Nizhny Novgorod), Artyom Starostin (Palestra, Tver Region) visited the PARMA Sports Club (Perm Territory) . Ivan Samoilenko (ShBK "Lyceum 5", Republic of Tatarstan) was chosen by representatives of the BC "Ural" (Yekaterinburg). The participant of the final match Georgy Drozdov (ShBK "Kuznetsk Owls", Kemerovo region) received a ticket to the BC "Tambov" (Tambov region). Saipudin Abdurakhmanov (SBC "Kaspiy", Astrakhan region) gained experience of working with professionals in the sports club "Samara" (Samara region).

After the training camp, the players and their mentors shared their impressions of working together.

Daria Merzlaya (ShBK Fakel):

- I was well received at the club. I was afraid that it would be difficult for me to join the team, but after the first training session, this fear disappeared.

Professional training is of course different from school team training. In the club we did a lot of new exercises for me, and the load there was much greater. In addition, I could not get used to the “working conversation” for a long time. At first I spoke softly, but over time I began to do it confidently and loudly.

Training in a professional club gave me the opportunity to think about many things and draw important conclusions. The most important of them is that there is always something to strive for and something to improve in your game.

Remembering myself at the beginning of my sports career, I would like to note that I didn't even think about basketball. My athletics coach suggested that I give it a try and I accepted. Started training and making progress. As a result, I said goodbye to athletics and went deep into basketball. After the district competition, I was offered to move to another school and play in the IES-BASKET School Basketball League Championship. I hadn't even heard of this at the time. After considering this offer, I made up my mind. She started playing in the Championship from the 7th grade. Since that moment we had both victories and defeats, and a year later we got to the Superfinal for the first time, which was held in Nizhny Novgorod. Unfortunately, we took only 5th place. It was very disappointing, but for my team it was a good incentive. We wanted to climb the step of the podium. The following year, at the Superfinal in Togliatti, we took 3rd place. An embarrassing defeat in the semi-finals and a worthy victory in the match for 3-4 places led us to the desired result. Emotions were indescribable, but you should always strive for more! This year we will try to surpass our last year's result, and for this we need to work hard and hard.
Thanks to the League, basketball became a part of my life, I met my current friends and people from other cities with whom I still keep in touch. Basketball is an integral part of me, thanks to this sport I have become who I am, I have found loyal friends, the support of relatives and, of course, the dream of playing a match in a big arena.

Head coach of the youth team of BC Dynamo (Novosibirsk region) Alexey Gulyaev:

- Dasha has good physical data, especially speed and stability. Unfortunately, it was not possible to see the girl in a game situation, since the pre-season training camp included mainly general physical training. I note the discipline and diligence of the player.

Dasha's height data are typical for the first issue. However, in order to play this position, her left hand is poorly developed. To date, the level of Dasha is the level of DUBL. She needs to practice a lot and get game experience. The girl has another year for this, so everything depends only on her.

I think it's important for players from the school league to try out for a professional club, especially if it's at the Superleague-2 level. Girls and boys will be able to learn a lot for themselves and draw conclusions on what they need to work on. In addition, in a team with stronger players, schoolchildren are drawn to the leaders. This contributes to their development.

Saipudin Abdurakhmanov (ShBC Kaspiy):

- Of course, in the training camp of the professional club there were many exercises that I did not do with my team. Also, the loads offered are much more than at school. But the hardest thing for me was to find a common language with partners on the site, since I had not played with these guys before. But gradually I started to get it. I am glad that I was able to try my hand, evaluate the possibilities and understand what I need to work on.

This trip taught me that no matter how good you are, there is always someone better and more experienced than you. Therefore, you need to give all the best to the maximum and not stop training.
I came to basketball after my older brother. For me, basketball is a game that you can enjoy. A game in which you can show your character and yourself. In the 2019-2020 season we will try to become the winners of the regional stage of the IES-BASKET SBL Championship. In addition, I play for Team Astrakhan State University (“Caspian Wolves”). I hope that this season we will be stronger than other teams of the ASB championship in the Astrakhan division and go to the qualification in the Sergei Belov league.

Ilya Loktionov, head coach of the men's team "Samara-DYuBL":

- Saipudin lacks a basketball school in many ways, but his desire, character and physical abilities allowed him to compete with other guys in training. I note that the basketball player has a good throw.

Saipudin came to the training camp for experience, he wanted to get the most out of training. He listened to every word and absorbed what the second coach and I tried to convey to the players in the exercises. For further development, I think he needs to find exercises to improve his gaming and technical skills, now everything is publicly available on the Internet, and, of course, go to the gym and work hard. In addition, Saipudin needs to develop those physical abilities that he already has.

Saipudin is a decent and well-mannered guy who has a great desire to develop in basketball. I hope he will make every effort and try to get into the team of the VTB United Youth League next year.

I would like to note that the activities of the IES-BASKET SBL are very important for Russian basketball. The league is growing, developing in the right direction and giving players from regular schools the opportunity to try their hand at training experience in professional basketball clubs. This is the next stage of player development. Perhaps, thanks to this particular project, someone will have a chance to get into a professional team.

Elizaveta Korshunkova (ShBK "Phoenix"):

- In Samara, I was met and received well. The coaches explained in detail what I should do, and the girls supported and prompted. I am glad for the new experience, the opportunity to visit a professional club and see my strengths and weaknesses. Of course, the camps in the club are more busy and stressful in training. But I think I got the job done.

This year I graduated from school and entered Moscow University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation named after V. Ya. Kikot . I would really like to continue to train and play, but, unfortunately, our university does not have a basketball team.
I have been playing basketball for 10 years. In the second grade, my coach Alexander Anatolyevich Mishurov came to my class and asked who wants to play basketball. I decided to give it a try and started going to workouts with my sister. Basketball and the team mean a lot to me because we've been through a lot together. I really fell in love with this sport, and now it’s very hard for me without it at the university, but I’m sure that I didn’t say goodbye to basketball forever.

Head coach of the women's team "Samara-Junior Junior" Olga Ovcharenko:

- Firstly, I want to say that the participation of children from the IES-BASKET League in the training process of professional clubs is a good idea. I support this project, as it gives children a chance to try their hand outside of school basketball. Moreover, I know cases when children from school and student sports got into professional teams.

Liza Korshunkova from the Ivanovo region came to our club. I note that the basic skills of the girl are very good. She is well prepared physically and technically - she knows how to drive and throw the ball. If she got into professional sports a year or two earlier, I would not doubt her sporting future. But now I’ll say that the competition in teams is very high, and if Lisa wants to connect her life with professional sports, she needs to find a team, train with girls stronger than herself and, of course, work extra individually. I wish Liza to strive for her goal and achieve high results!

Artyom Starostin ( Palestra ):

- I would like to note the professional approach of the club's coaches. After getting to know me, the coaches specified what I was doing now, what injuries I had and what period had passed since the recovery.
Club training is different, of course. First of all, the amount of load. This is professional basketball and the players face completely different tasks. After training at BC PARMA, I concluded that I need to devote much more time to working in the gym in order to become stronger and more resilient.
I love basketball and would like to try my hand at professional sports. Season 2019-2020 – this is my last season in the IES-BASKET SBL Championship. After graduation, I will try to break into a professional club.

Roman Dvinyaninov, head coach of the youth team of BC "PARMA":

- Unfortunately, Artyom got injured during training, after which he trained in an easy mode, so he could not show himself to the fullest.

In general, I want to note that Artyom's data is good. He may well join the ranks of some youth team or CYBL team, and then the main team of a professional club. To do this, he needs to work hard individually, improve his physical qualities and technical skills.

I would like to wish Artyom further development in the chosen direction and, of course, good luck not only on the basketball court, but also in life!

Alexandra Pilyaeva (ShBK "Kometa"):

– The main difference between training with professionals, of course, is the number of training hours and their intensity. But since I had a good coach at school, and we worked hard, I did not encounter any special difficulties.

I started playing basketball in the 4th grade. Thanks for this to my coach Mikhail Mikhailovich Altukhov, who invited me to the first training session. From the very first training, this sport interested me, and I realized that it was forever. This year I graduated from high school and entered the Russian State University of Physical Culture, Sports, Youth and Tourism, which is located in Moscow. I devote a lot of time and energy to training, so I really want to become a professional player and connect my future with basketball.

My goal for the 2019-2020 season. – get into a professional club and achieve the highest results with it.

General Director of PBC "MBA" Igor Kocharyan :

– Even at the Superfinal of the IES-BASKET SBL Championship, it was noticeable that Sasha stood out from her peers. Of course, in a professional club, she had to get used to the high intensity and competition. Here, the team almost always prevails over the individual, the defense is tougher, and any mistake is punished by the opponent's points scored.
I would like to note that Sasha almost immediately joined the team, became part of our team and went almost all the way to prepare for the season. The fact that she withstood it speaks, at least, of the excellent physical preparation of the basketball player.
We wish Sasha to develop and progress. This is what every player needs, especially the young ones. She only touched professional basketball. We are convinced that the athlete understood that nothing is impossible.

The practice of sending young players from the high school league to professional teams deserves special attention. Firstly, becoming a "pro" is the dream of every schoolboy playing basketball. And secondly, it is the motivation for further work. Young athletes have the opportunity to learn what is hidden from the eyes of ordinary fans. We have been cooperating with the IES-BASKET SBL Championship project for several years, it is a pleasure to be a friend of the League. We always have great respect for the path taken by the organizing team. Good luck in your chosen direction!

Alexander Kuznetsov ( Oreshki ShBK):

– A professional club creates excellent conditions for progress. Professionals are provided with a hall, meals, accommodation, a doctor and several coaches work with the players, who are responsible for various aspects of player development. While training at the Nizhny Novgorod sports club, I made a very important conclusion for myself - you need to devote time to working on concentration and spend even more time in the gym.

I started playing basketball in the 6th grade. At first I did not pay much attention to it, and then I realized that I would definitely connect my life with this sport, and began to work on myself. In the 2019-2020 season I will continue my performance for the Oreshki team in the IES-BASKET SBL Championship. I am sure that we will be able to show a result higher than last season. Roman Gorelovsky: