Brian McCormick says, "Avoid the three L's - laps, lines, lectures." Make practice fun and productive.
Here are some ideas for consideration. Some help inject a little extra fun into practice.
Warm up
Jumping rope... a great conditioner and helps build timing and coordination. In young boys, rope jumping increased VO2max (oxygen utilization, purest measure of aerobic fitness), leg strength and speed.
Dribble tag inside the arc. Add additional constraints such as forcing non-dominant hand dribbling, crossover or hesitation every three dribbles, or combinations. It's another form of 'random' practice and helps all players.
Capture the flag involves quickness, agility, and strategy.
It's another form of 'random' practice and helps all players.
Favorite drills with competition
Shooting (30 buckets). Allot 2 to 3 minutes depending on skill levels with teams of three shooters and three rebounders. For example, start a player at each wing and free throw line. Each team aims for 30 buckets within the allotted time and shooters rotate to a new spot with each make.
Frito-Lay
Spurs shooting has four groups of three, a shooter, rebounder, and passer. It goes quickly. Start the shooter wherever you like (e.g. an elbow) with a ball and the passer has a ball. After the shot, the passer reloads the shooter and the rebounder retrieves and passes to the shooter. A team 'wins' when each shooter has made five or a team makes eight in a row. (San Antonio Spurs drill).
Competitive free throws - many different ways to do this. Our HS team (1973) had four rounds of ten with tracking. Daily winner faced off against the coach, sometimes to prevent suicides. Winning usually took a minimum of 38/40.
Simulating and playing the game - conditioning with drills
Defeating pressure: "Ultimate."
The ball can never touch the floor. When it does, it's "live ball" to the opponent. It's a pass and cut, fast-paced competition, game to FIVE successful advances into the end zone.
Scrimmage...can vary the type, including 4-on-4-on-4. Offense starts in the backcourt and attacks. After the possession, the defense becomes offense and the third group at half court has to pick up an assignment and defend. The first offense group goes to the 'holding' area to become the next defensive group. Track score for each group.
O-D-O (offense-defense-offense). We spent 15 minutes per practice on three-position games which practiced offense-defense-decisions-conditioning, and competition. Game would start with an ATO, BOB, SLOB, or free throw (especially for free throw defense). Over the years we got many comments about our efficiency on special situations, plus the players loved the "Specials" practice.
Lagniappe. Multiple options out of horns.
horns back screen to hand-off pic.twitter.com/2Bd3wWuDQ8
— United Basketball + (@unitedbballplus) February 28, 2023
