None of us as coaches like the idea of stopping practice. We have probably all experienced the time that we were having a great practice with high energy, and as coach we stopped practice to give a 3-4 minute explanation or we stopped to shoot free throws for 10 minutes. When we got going again, the energy was gone.
I am not an advocate of doing a lot of stopping during practice, but as coaches we need to practice handling time outs, pre-game scout, and half-time messages. I have four ideas on how to get your teams ready to handle these game situations with a minimum of interruption.
Pre-Game Meeting
During pre-game, we are going to have information about the other team on the board. We are going to go over some basic things about our team. For practice, you can actually start out with a short 3-4 minute meeting or it can simply be putting things on the board for them to follow. You could pick out things you want them to focus on, for example:
1- Quote of the Day- this is common thing many coaches do. This is designed to just get them looking at the board.
2- Focus of the Day- maybe you pick out something like, “Run Wide in the Lanes.” At the beginning of the season you explain to the team that when you get to parts of practice that the Focus of the Day applies, you expect them to be verbally reminding and encouraging teammates about that focus. Then for games you have a list for your Focus for the Game. If it translates, they should in games verbally be reminding each other.
3- X/O- “We are going to press 1-2-1-1 on all made free throws,” “After all side ob’s, when we get it in, we are going to run Carolina,” or “On made threes we will go back in a 2-3 zone.” You put something to just help them mentally. You can decide if you want them to have to communicate or if you want to test them and have them just remember it without being told. It is simply an exercise in thinking on the floor.
30 Second Time Outs
The emphasis here is that it needs to be 30 seconds or less, so it is not slowing down practice. In these segments, whether the players are uncertain and want to get it right, or they want to stall time- they will ALWAYS ask question
1- Beginning of 5-5 Segment- The head coach huddles with one group, the assistant with the other group. In the huddle, each coach tells them exactly what they are doing- defense playing, offense running, whether full or half court. This is the basic info that the coach usually yells out at the beginning but this is simply getting them used to listening in a huddle situation.
2- Posey Board- Teams huddles with coach quickly drawing up, this is what we are going to run. Most likely the coach will be drawing up a play from their playbook, for example, “Carolina.” The coach does not use the name, but just draws it up. The players may say,”That’s Carolina.” That is fine but you want them to get used to looking at a diagram.
3- Reminders- If you are doing a controlled scrimmage where you are only going 3-4 trips, give the team in a 30 second an instruction- we press on scores, second time on offense run Cincinnati.
4- Player Gives Instruction- A player may be sitting out and will go in the next deadball. Tell them,”Quick huddle, tell them our defense will be 1-3-1.” This simulates in games when you call a player over during a free throw.
Situations
I did a horrible job as a coach of incorporating late game situations into my practice. My suggestion would be to have one defensive and one offensive late game situation your players get to practice each day. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate thing that slows practice down. If anything you want it to be quick and chaotic, kind of like how things are at the end of the game.
You, an assistant, or a manager needs to put the situation on the clock. So you don’t waste time having to explain to each team- get them used to the idea of just looking at the scoreboard. Have it all up on the scoreboard- score, time, fouls, time outs. As you practice these, whoever is white will always be home. The first time you do this, it may take 5 minutes to get organized, but as time goes on you should be able to have a 30 second time out, run thru the situation, and do a 30 second recap- all in two minutes.
Plug the late situations in spots in practice that make sense for you.
- Right before free throws
- Right before do guard / post breakdown
- Right after defensive breakdown
Pick out a spot to drop one situation and then a spot for the other. My point would be not to do 10-15 minutes of late situations or even do two in a row- just do one and get in it quick- then move on. The easiest way to get it going is to each day yell out- “Late Game- White Ball” or “Late Game- Black Ball.” (Whatever color your jerseys are.)
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