Coach K: Practice Planning Process

I got these great notes on practice planning from Alan Stein at Stronger Team.

Ask yourself these questions yearly and most importantly, daily:

1. Who am I coaching?
2. How old are they?
3. How much experience do they have (Not just playing, but in your system)?
4. How many players do I have?
5. What do I coach? How do I coach my system?

How do I teach it?

1. Develop physical habits that fit your system
2. You need intelligent, intensive, persistent work
3. Drills should be intelligent
4. Drills should make sense

How much time do I have?

1. Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly

What resources do I have to help me teach? Facilities?

1. How many baskets
2. How many coaches
3. Use of managers is the key to the program
4. Some of the smartest

When do we practice?

1. Use time effectively
2. Make weekly practice schedule and adapt beginning and ending times accordingly based on events-personal or school
3. Do a weekly practice plan, but make a daily practice plan each day!!
4. Keep yourself current based on your teams needs on a daily basis
5. Be flexible within the practice sessions
6. Be organized, but…"Do Not Be A Slave to Your Practice Plan"

Pre-Practice Meeting with Coaching Staff

1. Practice plan is already written; Discuss who will do what

Pre & Post practice Work

1. Have organized pre-practice work
2. Ex. Practice might be at 3:00, but you have the facility from 2:30 to 5:00; You would have from 2:30 to 3:00 for pre-practice work
3. Pre & Post Practice work on individual or small group work that individuals might need to work on
4. Can get lots of shooting in
5. Can review a drill a player didn't understand
6. Have an organized stretching routine

Practice

1. Should be no longer than 2hrs (Not counting Pre & Post Practice)
2. Eliminate as much standing time as possible
3. Allocate all of your resources to get players as many reps as possible (Especially on individual drills Ex. 1 on 1 Denial Drill)
4. Good physical habits are not developed without reps
5. Match-up players for drills so they don't end up going with the same person every time
6. Throughout practice, let players sub for each other…If you want a definite group…then call for them
7. Make drills and practice situations…Game-Like (including instructions)
8. Don't walk and talk players through drill instructions (Not Game like)
9. Have a 10 minute period where you have a "Sprint Practice"
10. Change things a bunch
11. Continually alter what you are doing on the run (Like in a game)

Practice Game Situations

1. End of quarter, End of Game, All Game Situations

Simulate Halftime

1. Vary the places and times you talk to your team (limited attention span)

Videotape everything that is 4 on 4 and 5 on 5

1. You might focus on an individual player or specific drill
2. Remember: HEAR-SEE-DO

Do Pressure Free Throw Drills

Post-Practice Meeting with Staff - Critique Practice

1. "We did a good job with this"
2. "I think we need more work with this"
3. "Let's come back tomorrow with this"
4. "I was going to come back tomorrow with this, but I think it is better that we do this"
5. DO NOT BE A SLAVE TO THE PRACTICE PLAN

Larry Brown Practice Breakdown

Here is a portion of some Larry Brown clinic notes.  Below, Coach Brown is discussing his approach to practice organization. 

The daily practice schedule is designed to simulate the flow of a game, from the pregame meeting through overtime (total time – 2 hours)


Playing hard is the top priority – Intensity development is built into the daily practice schedule by making all drills competitive against the clock or an opponent

Warm up (:20)

– Focuses on ball-handling and shooting

Defense (:40)

– Defense is taught in a “part” fashion, utilizing three- and four-man breakdown drills to reinforce concepts

“Halftime” (:10)

– A series of shooting drills is utilized to give the players an active rest period

Offense (:40)

– Offense is taught in a “whole” fashion, utilizing 5-on-0 and 5-on-5 drills to develop spacing and seamless teamwork

“Overtime” (:10)

– Special situations (baseline out-of-bounds, sideline out-of-bounds, end-of quarter, and delay games that often make the difference between victory and defeat are rehearsed in situational scrimmages