Practice is the time when coaches have the most opportunity to influence a player's basketball skills...

However, I am constantly involved in practices that are ineffectively managed.

The trainer spends half of the exercise deciding which exercise to run next.

All coaches should spend most of their time cheering and giving feedback to their players...not working on the next practice.

In Basketball for Coaches, we divide a typical exercise into 5 sections...

1. Dynamic Warm-up / Body Movement

This part of the exercise cannot be skipped.

Most youth teams immediately do a two-minute warm-up before moving on to other sections of training.

When I watch youth basketball, it quickly becomes clear that the best players are great:

balance
coordinate
change speed
change direction

Players who are suffering have not yet learned to control their bodies.

It is very important to help the players to set up a sports foundation. With this foundation, it becomes much easier to learn new basketball skills as they progress.

This section of training will help your players gain skills beyond their basketball skills. Basketball gifts to give across the different age categories. This will help prevent injuries and help them in all sports and life movements, because as we all know, players need to be expert in basketball not only at a young age.

2. Work Skills

The bulk of youth basketball practice should be skill work. Practice should be fun and interesting while improving the skills of your players.

This includes drills that teach players how to perform a skill movement correctly, as well as drills that help them learn how to use the skill.

Drills that tell the player when to use the skill are usually skipped.

In terms of photography, this is a great quote from Jeff Van Gundy...

"The pay-off ratio is as much about decision-making as it is about technology." - Jeff Van Gundy

3. Team Strategies

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

And in my opinion, they are not necessary for players under ten years old.

The Team Strategies section for training includes:

a crime
Defense
set the play
special cases

If you decide to use this part of training with your team, set aside some time for it.

Too many coaches steal training time from skill development and half of the training is by helping athletes remember set plays.

4. Brawl/Mini Games

Brawls and small-sided games are very important to include in every basketball training plan.

What's the point of your players learning how to make a great cross pass if they don't understand when to use it in the game?

Of course technology is important...but allowing kids to practice while using it is equally important.

That doesn't mean letting them lose 5 on 5 games every practice...

Most play in youth practice should be the "short side".

Small-sided games (SSG) have fewer participants per team than regular games. (1 vs 1, 2 vs 1, 3 vs 3, etc.)

5. Calm down

The cool-down section of your training should include two minutes of slow jogging and walking up and down the field, and then a few minutes of static stretching.

This allows the body to lower its temperature and eliminate waste (lactic acid), among other things.

The extended part of the cool down is a great time to talk to people. We can talk about the upcoming match/tournament or how we felt about the training.