The 10 Commandments of Practice

There is a fine line between stubborn and stupid. I have straddled that line for most of my life. I am going to share with you some of my "stubborn" thoughts about practice. Even though I have been retired from active

coaching for some time now, when we enter the month of November my thoughts and memories focus on what I miss the most about coaching. Teaching the game was my passion and pleasure.

I have some very strong beliefs about how a basketball practice should be conducted. I may be stubborn but I am not naive. There are many ways to conduct a practice. The following are ten principles I tried to integrate in every practice I was in charge of. Some you may agree with and some you may not. All I ask is you keep an open mind and consider my reasoning:

1. Have a written practice plan in your hand. Follow it but use it as your guide not a contract.

2. Start practice on time and end on time. Extending practice will not make the pracrtice better.

3. Hold a "brief" team meeting to start practice. No longer than 5 minutes. Remember your player have just come out of 5-7 hours of class. Have your players form a half circle so all are facing you.

4. Use "echo yells". You shout the name of the drill and your players repeat the name out loud. For example the coach yells "3 Man 2 Ball Shooting". Your players respond by yelling "3 Man 2 Ball Shooting."

5. The coach should talk less and teach more. Try not to stop a drill to teach

6. All drills are 5-10 minutes long. Keep your practice moving. For example, if you want to spend 20 minutes shooting .... Use several different drills NOT one continuous 20 minute drill.

7. Start practice with what you want to be the emphasis. We started practice with a defensive footwork drill because our program emphasis was on defense.

8. Every shooting drill is a passing drill.

9. Condition by using full court drills. Suicide or sprints were seldom used.

10. "Stack it Up" at the end of practice. We rotated Seniors to lead the practice closing

    *The longer the season goes the shorter the length of practices. For example we practice 2 hours early in the season by late January we might be down to 90 minutes and sometime in february we

    might be down to 60 minutes.