Time is our precious resource. How can we use time better?
In John Maeda's The Laws of Simplicity he lists time as the third law, after reduction and organization. But reducing and organizing inform our ability to maximize time. Go hard. Have too much time at the end our life, not too much life at the end of our time.
Reduction demands that we purge time wasting. Plan every activity, drill, and lesson to use time wisely and respect others' time. Brian McCormick cautions us about the three L's - lines, laps, and lectures.
Within drills, emphasize not only proper technique but high tempo.
Examples:
Condition within drills to promote efficiency.
3 by 3 by 3 shooting promotes conditioning and competition (track percentage and makes over time). The shooter rebounds and passes (well) to the next group of approaching shooters. We can run the drill half court pre-game as well. I usually run this drill for 5 to 6 minutes. When we can make at most 40 percent during the drill, we know game conditions degrade accuracy.
"O-D-O" (offense-defense-offense) replaces scrimmaging. We start the initial possession with a free throw, BOB, or SLOB. This practices special situations within game-like situations. Regardless of a possessions outcome, the defense picks up full court and offense looks to run. Sometimes we extend the action to five possessions. Another alternative is having 3 groups of four, which gets more players touches. The "off group" can work on form shooting, dribbling drills, etc. until they're in within a minute or two.
Station work and small-sided games. We play some 4-on-4 without dribbling at one end and have remaining players play pick-and-roll at the other end. Other times we have two groups (one with each coach) play 3-on-3 on one side of the split (above).
Organize drills (by name) to help players enter an activity quickly. We often group by practice shirt color (blue, gold, white). That limits reorganizing time within the team.
I'm sure that you have more and better approaches to share. Use our resources as well as we can. Coaching is a sharing profession.
Lagniappe:
Coach Castellaw shares Spurs' (draw) gap-kick-swing actions.
Lagniappe 2:
Every day, build upon our process...adding, subtracting, refining, revising. Cut!