Success in Games Follows Success in Practice
Preparing for practice is a key step toward having a successful season. The better you plan and conduct your practices, the better you will be on game day. The quality of your practices will eventually determine how many games you win or lose during the season. Practice time is limited and utilizing every minute in a productive manner is critical to having a successful practice. To insure every minute is used productively you must develop a practice plan before each practice begins. Some thoughts on practice planning from successful coaches are as follows:
“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
Keep yourself current based on your team’s needs on a daily basis and make a practice plan each day based on these needs. Be organized, but be flexible within the practice plans. “Do not be a slave to your Practice Plan” – Mike Krzyzewski
In developing you practice plans key steps to follow include:
- Keep your practice time to 2 hours of less
- The entire 2 hour period should be broken down into 5 or 10 minute blocks
- Areas to cover in each time block should include
- Warm-ups
- Individual Skills
- Team offense
- Team Defense
- Foul shooting
- 5 vs. 5 team play
To download an example practice plan, click here.